Anda cá!

Or, a small child talking to animals

I've had another fun week and a half since last updating the blog with my normal diary-type entries. So, if you're interested in the round-up, here goes!

I still love this view

Things have kept to their pattern of weekdays at work, and evenings and the weekend for fun things. To summarise the former: work has carried on being work-y. I'm coming to the end of my business-planning project, so it's satisfying to feel like I'm completing something useful. The Christmas lights have also been put up and turned on outside the office windows, which is fun, and good compensation for staying at my desk until after dark most days.

Rua da Escola Politécnica at dusk, with lights. A bit hard to photograph...

Aside from that, interesting things have occurred. I've had a few rowing sessions, some on the water and some inside, either tank or erg. One reason we haven't been able to get out on the river as much as we'd like is that the bridge down to the club's pontoon somehow broke, probably in high winds. Getting boats on the water is a bit of a logistical challenge, albeit one we overcame yesterday with a daring descent down a very slippery slipway. 

It's a bit hard to tell what's going on here. Suffice it to say, it shouldn't look like this.

The weekend brought sunshine, and I spent a fair amount of Saturday (post-rowing) wandering through the city streets. I enjoyed sitting in a small garden near the Ancient Arts Museum, doing a bit of people-watching (and listening... always good for the language skills!). I watched a small boy encouraging first a cat, then a little fly to play with him - 'Anda cá! Anda cá, bichinho! Anda cá!' (Come here, little animal!) Another high point of this walk was discovering a second hand bookshop that prominently advertised the fact that its prices were in euros - but even that thirteen-year-old sign seemed to be more modern than most of the rest of the shop.

I also finally managed to eat Pão de Deus, a deliciously sweet confection of bread and coconut that various people had recommended me. It completely lived up to high expectations, and I remembered to photograph it (or rather, the remaining half of it).

What's that you say? Half-eaten food makes bad photos?

Later in the day I met Carly in the Parque Eduardo and we ended up wandering down to Rossio for a while too, before heading our separate ways for the evening. We spent most of Sunday together anyhow. Church was a little chaotic - three baptisms and a burial, as well as it being Advent Sunday and the last service with the lovely locums, Ian and Caroline. There was lunch in the hall afterwards, which was a treat, as always. Carly and I then went out aiming to do some shopping, an aim that wasn't really fulfilled. We walked down to the Baixa, and met Carly's friend Lauren there briefly, before getting the metro up to Columbo, the biggest shopping centre in Europe. It was pretty impressive, in an overwhelming way - full of people, slightly too warm, and noisy. I don't think I'll be heading back too frequently. Fortunately Carly's presence made it all bearable! In any case, a relaxing evening at home worked wonders before the start of the next week, especially skyping my family. 

Carly in Christmas-y Columbo

Monday evening brought another trip to the boat club, as did Wednesday (yesterday). But yesterday evening was particularly exciting for another reason - Laura, the rowing researcher, invited me to her flat for dinner, and then to a dance performance at her faculty, the Faculdade de Motricidade Humana. Her friend's girlfriend was in the show, which was being given by the second-year students from the dance degree programme. It was really impressive - contemporary style, with lots of solo pieces - and it was great to see a small glimpse of Portuguese university life.

Today was another normal work day, but in the evening I had another adventure, going to a book club at a wonderful bookshop in Campo de Ourique, the Livraria Ler. I hadn't actually read the book being discussed (long story: I had been reading the wrong one, because they'd changed their minds about which it was going to be), which was Eça de Queirós' Contos (short stories), but everyone made me very welcome even so. I also managed to purchase some set texts for next year's work, which can't be a bad thing. So I now have a nice stack of books to squeeze into my suitcase next week.

Bonus photo for getting to the end

Thank you for reading, everyone! Until next time.