Reset

I'm back. I was never away. Ok, I AM away. But that hasn't changed. I'm still away.Not being in Portugal still feels like being away. Even if the relationships I am buliding here make it kind of a homelike place. Friendships, romance and also some definite "stay away from" make this Americana experience more palpable than all the stuff you can ever buy. And there is a LOT of stuff to buy around here.
In the meanwhile? Found a fun (!) travel buddy (and more...) and went to Montreal (Canada), Providence (Rhode Island), Cape Cod (Massachussets). Also went back to NY and Boston in my summer vacations. And bought the car. Subaru Legacy, 1997. It runs.
Now working at the Theater of the Performing Arts and facing a very heavy schedule of performances... Have some days off here and there to recup.
Next week is Thanksgiving (the 26th) and I am off to Boston (first time driving my car) with my new GPS. Wish me luck!
See you soon!

Here comes the Depression... Shoooo!!!

So, I know. The silence. There. It's out. Yes, it's been a while. A time span of life. Of usual, unsual, strange, comforting, uncomfortable, akward, hilarous moments. Amongst them some were retained and deserve being mentioned (like the Cannes Film Festival selection of yearly winners, some of my awardees are not clear to the eye/mind/reason but will... one day. Just don't hold your breath for it. One day it just will... For some of Cannes choices I've already given up...). What? I should step away from parentesis, really. Seriously (Grey's quote... here I go again...).

OK! OK!

Started a dance (modern) dance class. I was warmly welcomed into Olivia's dance family (they call her MOM). A former sinagogue now performance stage is our humbling inspiring practice room. The dancers are amazing. I struggled while learning the first letters of this never spoken language. But exhilirated while doing so...

My US experience is being a real one. A while ago I started feeling the consequences of what the guys at Wall Street did/helped doing/allowed to happen - whatever version suits you better. I am to start a new position at the Theater for the Performing Arts (Greater Academy of the Arts) as a Service Coordinator at the Box Office. It was a true venezuelan telenovela to get there and I'll spare you the bloody/dramatically charged details. It's enough that I had to go though that. Anyways. Survived. Again.And am going to update myself on Publisher and other programs they use there. Wish me luck!... Seriously (I know, I know...) Oh, left the best for last: the job pays 35 per cent less than what I am making now. But who wants to be unemployed in 2009???!!! Exactly. Me neither.

About the fact that I am not "allowed" to do CCY this year anymore I won't even start... I just have to believe that what comes around goes around. Enough said.

AND, guess what? Exactly when I am looking at my expenses and going: cancel gym membership, budget weekend, cut on grocery bill, cut cell phone bill... Just then I learn I will need to buy a car because I am going to start working at night (makes sense, as that's when the shows happen)... So I am to be a proud owner of a second hand Subaru...(foreign lady, foreign car... all is not lost. Now I am quoting John Mayer, my new companion...lol).

Had enough of news from me?

Lexico: Corta Vena

Corta Vena e como os hispanicos chamam aquela musica a puxar a lagrimazinha facil... Tipo Marc Anthony sentimentaloide mas uns niveis ainda mais chunga... Ao nivel da melhor musica pimba produzida em Portugal! Literalmente signica Musica de Cortar a Veia - corta e deixa jorrar!!!....LOL

The small things

Post-Office opens Saturday mornings. Banks too. (Neit!)

• 15% per cent tip is mandatory. Always. (Check your cell-phone, it has a tip calculator... Didn't you know?)


• Sender and receiver both pay for text messages.


• Cell phone plans? Most plans include contracts (monthy payments).


• Price tags (anywhere) don't include tax (6 per cent in Connecticut)... Had some weird situations at the cash register because of this...


• Bucket List are the list of things you want to do before you die. Jonh Mayer wrote the most beatiful song for a film with that title in 2007/2008... I guess (It's called Say)


• It will take you a whole week-end to finish reading the Saturday edition of the New York Times (just like Expresso in Portugal...lol)


• Whenever you slip on an icy area, don't think exercising your injured arm will make it heal faster... it won't (believe me)...


• Just because you decided to take french lessons at the local Alliance Francaise doesn't mean your teacher will have original french accent... She most likely will have american speaking french accent (AAAArrrrggghhhh!)

Have a good week!

PS- Yes, the photo. Saint Joseph's cathedral in Hartford. It's overwhelmingly huge. Went there this Sunday. Enough said.

Black History Month

I have been living in the US of A for a year now. Feb. 9th marked the date. Hot Tomato's in Hartford witnessed the celebration. At a very international table where Portugal, Poland, the Philippines and the USA congregated; my good friend Steve asked me about my comments on the accomplishment. I answered with th pseudo-burgoise attitude I am perceived with everytime I compare cultures - especially when those are european and north american. The different ways in which we satisfy our (spiritual/philosophical) insatisfactions. Here the ownership of things, the achievement of professional or social goals is in itself rewarding/fullfiling. There that is also true, but brings a bagage of new interrogations on their real meaning, the actual process of becoming owner and no longer aspiring, dreaming, longing for the thing and the analysis of what in fact has changed (if it did) are the new tormented torments. Left yet to mention are the lost of the person, the one who now is and is to become and what of him was lost and therefore cannot be salvaged. Was it worth we question? Who is this new me supposed to feel contempt and satisfied and still frustrated, lost and questioning. But in better clothes. Wearing better shoes. Looking better. Opening the door to a more admirable home than yours (now you are the new aspirer). Only to close the (very fashionable) new door and find myself still tormented.



Deb Goffe danced Infinite Space summoning Cesaria, Manu, rain. She contaminated other bodies. Dancer's I mean. So interesting to see a culture you know from the inside being introduced to you from the inside out.



By the way February is Black History Month, Valentine's Month and Carnaval's Month (not very hip in this neighbourhood, unless I move to New Orleans). Today was President's day.

Honestly? I feel overwheamed. Wouldn't you?



"The Seamstress" by Frances de Pontes Peebles. This is a literary recommendation for Marco, only. If your name is not Marco don't bother. Unless you are unsatisfied with your own and are considering changing. And if so... May I ask?... In which side of the Ocean are you?

Reiki

(I do work with schools... Photo by haitian (amazing) photographer Marc-Yves Regis.


Eu nao disse... Este fim-de-semana participei num workshop de Reiki - filosofia de transmissao de energia descoberta por um... Guess what? Japones. Ah... pois. Adorei o workshop e a minha instrutora, tambem artista/escultora (Thank you Marcy!) foi excelente. No final todas (7 mulheres... homens de pouca fe) fizemos uma sessao de Reiki. Fiquei esgotada. Ontem fiz a minha primeira sessao (sozinha) ao meu roomate polaco... Reticente, quase se desfez em gargalhadas mas no final estava tao relaxado que quase nao conseguia manter os olhos abertos. E eu tambem senti uma diferenca. Mas pronto nao vou falar mais disto porque ja estou a imaginar as sobrancelhas irrequietas e o (so)riso a rebelar-se ao canto da boca. Ai me esperam e depois digam. Outra coisa, vitaminas isotonicas. Outro workshop ensinou-me que sao a melhor forma do corpo absorver vitaminas, calcio, etc, etc. Mania da saude, ah pois. Nunca e demais. Tomem nota: isotonicas. Pode ajudar. Mais? Esta semana que passou? Mulher com 6 filhos teve mais 8. Comentarios? Assim que conseguir fechar a boca de espanto (e/ou pena). Ou o pai de familia que matou os 5 filhos e a mulher. Ambos perderam o emprego, iam perder a casa que tinham construido e nao queriam que os filhos fossem criados por mais ninguem. Faz-me pensar que gosto mais dos islandeses que dos americanos. Que mais? Apresentei o meu projecto perante um painel de especialistas em empreendimento. De 50 pontos possiveis a melhor pontuacao foi um 35. A parte da argumentacao, defesa da ideia, pontos fortes e fracos, competicao directa e indirecta: 100 por cento. Quando chegou a parte dos numeros foi tudo por agua abaixo. Decidi ir ao second round. Em Abril. Agora ninguem me para. E orgulho ferido!! Querem mais? Tomorrow comeco aulas de frances na Alliance Francaise aqui do sitio. Ah, pois, ainda vou viver uns meses em Franca... O que e que pensam?! (No fundo o que eu precisava mesmo era de melhorar o espanhol... porto-riquenho falado aqui nesta terra, but...).





E dai? So se fala do Socrates e do Freeport. No pasa nada? Mais nada?





PS - Esqueci-me (!) que tambem estou a trabalhar para recuperar a minha memoria de curta duracao que esta uma lastima... Lembras-te Marco?... Bombeiros... Nao, nao tem piada. Nao tem piadinha nenhuma (lol... baixinho)

Of Obama and butt warmers...

Allthough I did not write it I often thought it. I've been playing this post in my head for more than a week now. It started with another entry for my journey of understanding of the States' very particular culture.

It referred to this amazing need of excelling the comfort levels of this population. So, no longer happy with the fact that ALL buildings+public transportation+etc, etc... have central heating, any respectable car (at least the ones in which I am transported whenever I am blissed with a ride home, that is) is equiped with seat warmers. YES, you heard me! SEAT WARMERS. As you can antecipate by the thing's name, it makes sure that, whatever freezing winds have "attacked" you bottom, IT will prevail thanks to a heating system that, in a matter of minutes, restores your but to its ideal temperathure (a bit too hot for me as I call them burning butt warmers...lol). Trying to think this thing through I realized maybe this is a comodity common to chilli countries such as Russia, Polony, Germany and others and that the reason I had never been introduced to this kind of "technology" is that I am from 1st - a south European yearlong temperate (not so...) country and 2nd an african all yearlong summer country. So there it is. More research on this to follow.

Of course I could not but comment of the commotion around the presidential inauguration last Tuesday. I have to confess I wished I was there in Washington while watching Obama becoming the first black american president. However, everytime I saw the images of the freezing crowd and the enormous lines to get anywhere I was quite contempt to be sitting at the conference room with all my CREC colleagues watching a big screen in a heated, safe room. And if this sounds not very ambitious of me let me just add that I am not an american citizen in this ciuntry which means I do not have the same rights as others do... and I sometimes have to act accordingly and protect myself from risky situations (or at least that's what I'll be telling myself in years to come)...

AND almost two weeks ago, Detroit automakers (still in big trouble) took part in their annual international car showcase. Good surprise: some electrict wonders like the Chevy Volt. Check it out. ALSO italian automaker Fiat is starting an alliance with Chevrolet. The european company will share vehicle platforms, powertrains and components to be built in Chrysler’s U.S. manufacturing facilities in exchange for a 35-percent share in the American automaker...maybe I can have the stylish new Fiat 500 soon...

FINALLY, some reading suggestions:

Mark Bittman, Food Matters (stop eating meat... or at leat reduce it and help save the planet)

Robert Burns poetry, most important scottish poet 250th anniversary celebration (to read eating haggis)

Roberto Bolano, chilean writer (check 2666... I know I will)

Clarissa Dickson Wright, autobiography (the living half of the Two Fat Ladies).

My newest discovery: I finally found a place to listen to the news of the world.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: BBCNews online!!!