Classes are over

Yesterday I felt something really strange that showed me how close I am to finishing my studies. I was reading some posts or something of the kind and found someone who said that their classes had finished and they were getting ready for their exams... When I read that, it struck me that for the first time in many years I was no longer even remotely aware of the school calendar...

Ever since I first went to school for the first time until last January, I always kept track of the date when classes would finish. Until my 11th grade that meant vacations (from the 8th or the 9th grade until the 11th grade we had something called global test but I think those tests were still during classes period). In the 12th grade our classes finished sometime before taking the national exams that gave us the grades to access college. And, in college, classes finished a week before the exams both in the first and the second semester. Although the last day of classes in college didn't mean vacations yet, it still brought me closer to them and that was something of an event., Most times that brought in a somewhat relaxing feeling... of course, studying for the exams is not relaxing, but at least one can choose at what times one studies. Obviously this doesn't mean that I hated my classes in college, but that the end of classes was a very nice moment. =)

This semester it arrived without me expecting it and then it struck me that it no longer had any impact on my life. I'm still doing my internship and I'm writing my report... so nothing changed. But I felt like an emptiness in my heart for not being able to celebrate the last day of classes...

It will be like this from now on, I know that... (well, at least I'm 90% sure it will be, unless I become a teacher or I take another degree (but I haven't won the €uromillion yet, so I can't go and take the history degree or the Toponymy degree that I would love to take :P)) so I should get used to school calendar becoming irrelevant for me. And I know I will, but it made me feel sad for a moment.

But hey, that's life!=)

25th of April 1974

Yesterday was the celebration of the 35th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution in Portugal. For me it is one of the most important and meaningful public holidays of Portugal.

This was the second time I wasn't in Portugal in the 25th of April.

This year I was not only in The Netherlands but also in Luxembourg and even passed through Belgium. I went on a quick visit to the Luxembourg with some friends.

But I didn't forget what day it was so to make my own small celebration I listened to José Afonso, a Portuguese singer whose political songs were a way of fighting against the dictatorship that ended in the 25th of April of 1974.

As we say in Portugal "25th of April forever, fascism never more! Long live Liberty!".

As suggested in the comments box here is a link to some videos of José Afonso's songs.

Something in the air tonight

I've talked in a previous post about sound based memories, and tonight I experienced the smell based memories.

When i was cycling back to my place the night in Delft smelled like Spring. And so I spent most of the time sniffing the air and trying to get some memories out of this mixture of fauna, flora and city smells. I didn't get any specific memories but it filled my mind with thoughts of Portugal, and some warmer nights.

It's really nice the power of the human brain and it's capacity to remember stuff and make associations between such things as smells and sounds.

Anyway, the most important thing was that it made me feel good. Even though a little sadness crawled with this good feeling, but it was just "saudade" (a very meaningful Portuguese word for "missing" things), so I welcomed it also.

And here I am again, talking about memories... If I continue like this, my blog will have it's own pool of so much crying text... sorry folks!:P

Sound Based Memories

It's really funny how powerful our brain is and how many types of memories can it store. I must say that mine is not the most organized brain and so I end up loosing a lot of memories every now and then, without knowing why. Maybe he is just lazy to remember some stuff. Who knows?

Anyway yesterday and today I started my working day listening to OffSpring's album "Ixnay in the Hombre" and it's really funny how this music takes me back to my ninth grade. And it's also nice how I jump inside of my head with this music. Amazing. I feel nostalgic, but I feel really good. Time moves forward, but fortunately memories are here to reminds who we were, where we were and what we did. It's really strange I always heard "enjoy this time, because is the best that you'll get". I don't know if those were the best times but they sure were the calmest and most relaxed days that I had. Just some classes during the day and then play football in the afternoon. I don't like to live stuck to the past but I like to travel back to it and remember. And then I miss some of the people that I knew and that I haven't seen in ages...

And when I'm walking down the memory lane I remember that I also miss my friends and family with whom I haven't been for almost a month now (well, some I haven't seen for ages). But that's the way it is. I knew that before I came to Delft, I don't regret I just miss you. =) Hope that some of you have the chance of coming to visit me, otherwise I hope to see you all in May.

But enough of being a crying baby.

The weekend is close. I just need to work seven more hours and I'll change to "do-nothing-productive" mode.

This time I'm going to Dronten, in the north, to visit a friend of mine that is there in Erasmus, Gustavo. I think it will be a nice trip even though the city is not even a city, I think it's a village, and there's not much to see. But it can't be always about monuments and museums!

Since I arrived to Delft I've already visited Roterdam, Amsterdam and Utrecht. I haven't write about any of those, but I think I will... maybe today in the train I write something and then just upload it!

Now it's time to work! And you too, lazy. Reading blogs in work time...