Reading...and trying to understand...

I see my friend Maria about once a month. She is Portuguese and speaks perfect English. It's hard for me to try my Portuguese with her. I feel very shy about it for some reason. So, we speak in English. Last week, we met for dinner. We stopped in a bookstore, (Lisbon is full of bookstores - the Portuguese seem to really value books ), and she bought me her favorite children's book. The name of the book is : A Menina Do Mar, which means something like "The Girl of the Sea". The author of this book, Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, is a very famous writer and poet. My Portuguese teacher Rui brought our class some books by Portuguese authors and he was kind enough to lend me one of her poetry books. Her son is also a writer (Miguel Tavares). My friend Shelly lent me his novel Equator, about the cocoa plantations in São Tomé and Príncipe , which was very interesting. Anyway, Maria had mentioned this children's book before and I was surprised to see who the author was. She is so famous here in Portugal, people just call her "Sophia". Here is some information about her:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_de_Mello_Breyner_Andresen 

http://storberose.blogspot.pt/2012/06/pursuit-of-real-poetry-of-sophia-de.html

So, now I am reading A Menina do Mar, and trying to understand it. It's not easy reading for me. In fact, I haven't even finished the first page. There is a lot of new vocabulary, and grammar. It's so different to read a long text in authentic language rather than something in a textbook. But, I'm trying, slowly, to read and understand some of it. Now I know how it feels for my students to read in English. You have to have a lot of perseverance ! (Meaning: keep trying...) Thank you Maria !

Volunteering with CASA

I met a new friend here in Lisbon who volunteers every week to help prepare and distribute free food to people who need it. She works at CASA, which stands for Centro de Apoio ao Sem Abrigo. The basic meaning of that is: Center of Help for People Without Houses...in the US, we usually say "homeless people". At CASA, different volunteers come every day, seven days a week, cook, package, and drive to distribute food directly to people who come to specific locations to pick it up. Instead of people going to a church or building to eat, the volunteers at CASA bring the food to people on the streets. It was really interesting to see how this program works. I got to see a different side of Lisbon and it felt good to do something useful for people who really need it.


Every night in addition to the people who volunteer to prepare food, 5 or 6 volunteers show up with cars and drive around to distribute food. Usually three people go together in one car for each location. They deliver to about 7 or 8 different neighborhoods in Lisbon.


Here are some photos:

One really interesting thing about this experience was getting to meet and work with the volunteers. Some are Portuguese, but several were from other countries ( Poland, Czech Republic, Germany) and spoke Portuguese fluently. They had all come to live in Portugal to study or work and liked it so much they stayed. I listened to everyone speak Portuguese and couldn't understand a lot, but it was good for me to be in an environment where everyone, even second language learners, was using the target language. They could also speak English with me and told me about their experiences learning Portuguese and how hard it was in the beginning. It was good to see foreigners who have really assimilated the language successfully and are accepted/welcomed into the culture here.

It was kind of a long night. We arrived at around 6:00 and left to deliver food around 9:30 pm. I didn't get home until after 11:00 that night.

Here is an example of one of the shelters some people live in:

One thing that was pretty shocking for me was seeing where some people lived. At the first few stops, we pulled into a parking lot and people would come up to the car and we would hand each person an entree, a fruit salad, bread, cake and offer them a drink. If people wanted several meals, that was fine too. But, there were some locations where our driver walked over to some very makeshift shelters (see the photo above with the wooden boxes) and handed meals to people who were living inside boxes, or shelters made of cardboard or plastic tarps...some people were lying on the ground under blankets or sleeping bags. I've never been up that close to that kind of poverty. It's amazing that CASA volunteers do that 7 nights a week. 

At our last stop, we parked near the Ribeira market and suddenly about 30 people lined up. We had to work fast to serve everyone. I was in charge of pouring drinks and a lot of people needed to get refills for their drink two or three or four times. I could really see that they were in need of hydration. Some of the people were elderly people who are having a hard time living on their pension. They might have a place to live but not enough money to buy all the food they need.

My job that night was also to write down the name of each stop we went to in our particular neighborhood (Cais de Sodre) and what time we stopped there and how many meals we gave away. It was a very very interesting experience and I'm really grateful that my friend allowed me to come and work with her. I learned a lot !

Portuguese Students and Praxe and....Harry Potter ?

So sorry I haven't posted for a while...life has been busy because of school and lots of social activities. Lucky me for meeting such good people in Portugal ! Today I'm going to write about my fascination with the Portuguese university students in capes. What is this all about and...what's the connection with Harry Potter ?

The second week of our Portuguese class was the first week for the regular university students and all these people started showing up every day dressed in black and white and wearing these dramatic capes.

In Portugal, there is a very old tradition at universities called "praxe" (prash) where second, third, and fourth-year students (the ones wearing the capes) initiate new or freshman students. It's similar to American  "fraternities" (for males) and "sororities" (for females) and how they initiate or accept new members. Except in Portugal, males and females are not in different groups. And, usually, the groups are organized according to their major (engineering, medicine, etc.) . The main reason why they do this ? I guess to help students form social connections and make friends. Not every student who wears the cape or suit ("batina" or "traje") does praxe....I think. I had to ask a lot of questions to try and understand what this is about ...if you know about this and want to comment or correct any of my info here, I'd love that !

Here is some info about praxe:


http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praxe 

http://adianetcorrea.hubpages.com/hub/How-Portuguese-Students-of-ISCTE-Initiate-Their-Freshmen-Into-the-New-Academic-Year




So, it has been very interesting to see these students because of how they dress and the noisy activities that go on.....suddenly we will be in class and we will hear a group of students marching around and chanting or playing instruments or doing something else that is a little crazy and disruptive. As an outsider to this culture, I'm pretty fascinated by it. I asked a few students if I could take some photos - they have a practice of collecting emblems or patches which they sew into the inside of their capes. I hear that the emblems reflect where they are from, their city, their parents' city, a favorite football team or other things that identify their interests. Here are some photos that show the patches:

Someone told me, I think my friend Maria, that JK Rowling, the woman who wrote the Harry Potter books, lived in Porto, Portugal and based Harry's costume partly on what Portuguese university students wear. Whenever I tell the Portuguese students here that, their eyes light up and they get excited because most of them are not aware of that.

Anyway, I know that "praxe" is an old tradition that today, people have mixed feelings about. Often the rituals that students do for praxe involve humiliating or embarrassing the new students being initiated. It can be very innocent, like painting someone's face to show something or it can involve something much more harmful. Some students support it and some students don't. Last year, six students died while doing praxe. They were at a beach and were probably drunk and were supposed to answer questions while standing in the waves, and if they didn't answer correctly, they were told to 

take a step back, deeper into the water. This case or story is in the news now because there is a court case and trial with those involved, I think. So, I was walking in my neighborhood last week and saw a group of students and...took some more photos...and they told me that three people had passed by them and screamed at them that they are murderers. They seemed like pretty nice and harmless guys to me and offered to have their photo taken with me in it !

Suddenly while I was talking to these guys, a group of "caloiros" or new freshman being initiated appeared in the middle of the street and started a call and response chant with their leader. They are holding a flag that shows their school and major.

Finally, there is some graffiti on the wall at school that caught my attention because of the word "autoclismo", which I had learned as the word for the thing you push to flush the toilet. (We were studying rooms of the house and furniture .) So, I'll end by posting that photo, which basically says that the practice of praxe should be flushed down the toilet. I don't know and I'm not taking sides. What do you think ?

My new Portuguese class !

I started taking a Portuguese class last Wednesday at the University of Lisbon. So, I can say, in Portuguese, sou estudante de português na Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa ! I feel very lucky to be in this class. It's an intensive class so that means it meets from 9 to 1 Monday to Friday for 4 weeks. My teacher is really great. He prepares a lot of good exercises for us and loves to answer questions. He is also funny and interesting to listen to. And, he has created a blog for our class and sends all the materials he gives us in class as dropbox files with audio so we can listen and review at home. Thanks Rui !!! I also really like all of my classmates. There are about 8 of us from Holland, Germany, Venezuela, and the US. We also have classmates from Egypt, Austria, Libya and other countries in the higher-level classes. I'm in the beginning level class. It is interesting to see my teacher do many of the same kinds of exercises I do with my students in SF. For example, on Friday, he taught us parts of the body by showing a diagram and having us fill in the vocabulary on blank lines. I learned that "o joelho" is knee and "o cotovelo" is elbow. Hmmm....it all seems hard because it is all new. We also learned words for clothing, hair, and physical description. My homework for tomorrow is to bring in a photo of a person and describe them for the class. I found  a nice color photo of Robyn Hitchcock in Uncut (music magazine) that I'm going to use. He's wearing a blue shirt with white polka dots so that will be perfect since we learned how to say that. Ele esta a usar uma camisa azul as bolas brancas. Hope I can say that tomorrow. And, you can buy WINE in the school cafeteria ! Did I say how much I like this school ?

Lisboa Na Rua.....watching Fado movies outside

I got to do something really fun and interesting last Saturday night. My new friend Shelly invited me to go watch some films outside. Both films were about "fado" music. The first movie was an old silent film and two fado guitarists played live during the movie as a soundtrack. That was really fantastic. They were such good musicians and what they played really complemented the film well. The second movie was a documentary about Amalia Rodrigues, probably the most famous fado singer in the world. Fado means "fate" and is a kind of Portuguese music that expresses sadness and longing or "saudade". This word is hard to translate in English but many people compare it to the word "nostalgia". My friend Bozena found this link about fado if you want to learn more:

Fado: The Soul of Portugal

It was a really exciting evening in many ways. First, it was a very good program with live music. Shelly made the point that in Portugal, even in times of "austerity" or a bad economy, the government still funds lots of arts-related events that are free. Pretty cool. And, for me, I got to watch a film, listen and read subtitles in the language I am trying to learn - what a fun way to learn, right ? Also, the place that this event was held is in a neighborhood called Mouraria. This is a really interesting part of Lisbon or Lisboa, in Portuguese, that has a history of Fado so it was a perfect place to show these films. And, before the first film started, there was a slide show of photographs of people who live in the neighborhood. This was very interesting and everyone clapped afterwards. One of the photos of people was Helder Moutinho, a wonderful fado singer I had seen at the restaurant behind where they screened the films. So cool to see his photo and know that he is an important part of this neighborhood ! See below if you want more info about Mouraria:

Mouraria Neighborhood Guide

The feeling in the air that night seemed special. It seemed like it was a real celebration of the neighborhood and the culture of Lisboa and the people. It was like a party and took place in a little courtyard - a place called "Largo de Severa" which is where a wonderful restaurant and fado club. Here is more info about this restaurant and club called Maria de Mouraria.

Maria de Mouraria

Well, I know this is getting to be a long blog entry so I'll try to wrap it up. It was a great night for me. I didn't know anything about Amalia Rodrigues and she led quite an interesting life. David Byrne introduced the film and said she sang not just about the sadness of people but the sadness of the universe. What an amazing way to get to know more about Lisboa and fado ! Here are my photos from that evening. I wish I could have gotten photos of the two guitarists but they were in darkness on a stage below the screen.

Working out in Portuguese...

I started going to a really fancy gym here...because they have a great pool. It's like being at an expensive spa...and I couldn't resist joining. It costs about 80 euros a month ($105.00) - which is a little expensive for me. But, the good thing is, you can go as often as you want and take as many classes as you want. This makes it a good deal. And, I would never be able to afford this type of gym in the US. It's called Virgin Active and is in a hotel here in Lisbon. I usually go there to swim and use the jacuzzi and saunas (I know, pretty fancy...) but since the pool has been closed for two weeks, I decided to take some exercise classes. They have all kinds of classes all day every day. So far I've taken pilates, yoga, zumba, body balance (cardio workout with weights) and V-Core (stomach/abdominal exercises). When I go to a class for the first time, I introduce myself to the teacher and tell them I don't speak Portuguese. They are all really nice and they can speak English but they do the classes in Portuguese. So, I have to look at them and everybody else and try to copy their movements and once in a while the teacher will look at me and say something in English if they think I really need it, like 'breathe in and breathe out" because I might not be able to notice that from just looking at everyone. It's cool having to just immerse in a different language. I get to hear a lot of "mais", which means "more" and I can understand the numbers, um, dois, tres, etc. when they are counting how many times we do stuff...but a lot of it just washes over me. People usually clap when the class is over and then the teacher stands by the door and says bye to everyone one by one. I don't remember if they say "tchau" (bye) or something else so I'll pay attention next time and see.

The other cool thing about this gym is that the first day you go there, after you sign up, they have you stand on this machine and hold two sensors in your hands and it takes a reading about your body. It shows weight and fat and muscle percentage in your body and a lot of other statistics I don't really understand yet. Anyway, just wanted to share that experience of listening to a class in a language you don't really understand much of. It's very interesting.

Sunglasses and São Vicente de Fora Monastery...

My language exercise for yesterday was...to walk into a store near my apartment that sells glasses and sunglasses and ask someone to "tighten" the screws on my sunglasses so they would stay on better. So, I looked up the word "tighten" and in Portuguese, it is "apertar"...(which I have already forgotten and just had to go look up again...). So, I went in and asked the woman optometrist there: Se faz favor, pode aperta meus óculos de sol ? Actually, I probably got as far as "pode aperta" and then said "estes" or just gestured, and she got it and took my glasses and went to tighten them. So, I started to look at sunglasses in the shop and saw some I liked and when she came back, I asked her, in Portuguese, if she had a certain style in black. Something like, "voce tem em preto" ? And, here is where things always get difficult...people will often answer my question with a long answer (or even a short answer) which I don't understand. But, this time, she used the word "crianças" which means children and I was able to understand that one word and the idea that they don't make children's sunglasses in black which we both laughed about. So, I thanked her and left and felt very proud of being able to understand the response to my question. Of course, the next person I spoke to in the wine shop and asked if they had "espumante" or sparkling wine, said no and gave me a long explanation why...of which I understood nothing. So, I just said "thanks and see you next time"...and left quickly. I need to go back and have that conversation again...and learn to be more honest about saying, I don't understand.


After those two stops, I decided to be a tourist and visit the castle and a famous and a very beautiful monastery here. A "monastery" is place where a group of religious people live (the men are called "monks" and the women are called "nuns"). Usually, there are "cloisters", a type of building where the monks or nuns live, attached to a church. The word "cloister" means to separate and live separately from other non-religious people within enclosed walls.The monastery I visited in Lisbon is called Sao Vicente de Fora. It is famous for its cloisters which have a lot of beautiful blue and white tiles that decorate it and show pictures of its history.

Here are some photos of the monastery and the wonderful views from the roof or bell tower.

Looking down into the cloisters:

A very nice view of Lisboa - you can see part of the castle to the right among the trees on the hill:

Here is the bell tower - I got to hear the 3:00 bells !

Here is an example of the tile work there:

Here is one more pic to show a better view of the cloisters: