Winter time...

O Mahmut já viu neve hoje de manhã (eu ainda tinha os olhos fechados por essa altura :P).

Apesar de ainda me lembrar (e bem) da saturação de neve do Inverno passado: comboios super-atrasados, aviões cancelados mesmo antes do Natal e a lama gelada que cobria a ruas depois das primeiras semanas; tenho também memórias muito boas: passear pelas ruas enquanto a neve cai, ver os canais todos branquinhos e as batalhas de bolhas de neve que se criam espontaneamente no meio da rua...

E o melhor é que este ano já tenho o equipamento necessário ;)

Uma pessoa tem sempre uma tendencia a fazer amigos com as pessoas com quem se identifica, com quem tem coisas ou vivencias comuns.

A cena de se viver um país que não o de origem, um pais "estranho", é que as pessoas que aqui se encontram com mais pontos em comuns não são os nativos (esses estão na sua zona de conforto, no seu país, a falar a sua lingua, com os seus hábitos e tradições de sempre, rodeados dos seus amigos de infancia, a planear o resto das suas vidas no mesmo sitio). É com os estrangeiros que há mais pontos em comum, aqueles que se meteram um dia numa aventura e decidiram viver longe da familia e amigos e conforto do lar e mudaram-se para um país onde não conhecem muita gente, provavelmente não falam bem a lingua e acham estranhos muitos dos costumes da terra onde agora vivem.

Isto tem a óbvia vantagem de se conhecerem pessoas de diversos países e dos mais variados backgrounds, de se misturar com pessoas diferentes que partilham contigo experiencias e pontos de vista diferentes. Tem também a não tão óbvia desvantagem de em raras ocasiões se conhecer realmente alguém: conhece-se muita gente, começam-se as conversas sempre da mesma maneira e troca-se o mesmo tipo de informação: quando vieste, porquê, até quando, onde, como? Mas essa coisa da amizade não é algo que se consiga com 2 conversas banais enquanto se bebe um café. O café é um começo, mas só isso. E posso dizer que pela minha experiencia aqui as conversas que depois continuaram e evoluiram foram num número muito inferior às que foram iniciadas. Mas existem, e com esforço/tempo/paciencia é possivel fazer bons amigos.

Outra cena de se viver num país "estranho", é que a maior parte das pessoas que chega perto está de passagem. Essa passagem pode ser de alguns meses a vários anos mas conheci poucos expats que admitem querer ficar aqui para sempre (o que quer que sempre seja!). Depois de uns anos "habituei-me" a (ou aprendi a reconhecer) um certo flow de pessoal: há sempre pessoas a chegar e a partir.

Mas a pior cena neste momento é que antes do final do ano vão-se mais duas amigas embora. Duas pessoas com as quais as conversas foram além dos primeiro café e com quem se partilharam saídas, jantares, cerveja, viagens, frustaçoes, desalentos e não só. Mais duas das poucas pessoas que estavam no circulo interior...

Hoje tive de dizer adeus a uma amiga querida. Alguém com quem convivi diariamente durante muito tempo, que ajudava os meus dias, me fazia rir e realçava o melhor de mim, que me mostrou que "it's not all business"e que alguns colegas também podem ser amigos. E enquanto dizia adeus na estação de comboio tentava mentalisar-me que ainda a irei ver muitas mais vezes, ainda há muitos planos para serem feitos... mas segunda-feira, segunda-feira vai ser um dia muito mais dificil...

Monday morning mood

Há dias em que não há paciencia para nada... hoje é um deles!

E motivação?! Ui!!! Motivação, onde isso já vai!!

Faltam 4 semanas e meia para o Natal...

How To Deal With Dutch People

"1) Many foreigners call everything Dutch…well…'Dutch'. Don't! The word Dutch reminds Dutch people of the word Duits which is used for Germans and other things he dislikes. A Dutch person is a Hollander or a Nederlander.
(2) As a foreigner, don't ever try to speak Dutch. Not only will you get an enormous headache but the Hollanders will not understand what you mean. Foreigners are supposed to speak English or Gibberish. In the latter case they will be an easy target for pickpockets since they will not be able to talk to the police.
(3) Don't ever try to eat 'drop'. (Dutch Licorice) Drop is a sort of candy that can only be eaten by Hollanders. It can be recognized by the colour: black. The taste is a blend between earwax and paint (black). Hollanders absolutely adore the stuff and eat many kilo's of it. There is a nationwide conspiracy to look at the faces of foreigners that were made to believe the stuff is actually edible.
(4) Don't buy wooden shoes. They will look completely ridiculous. Which is the reason they will try to sell them to you. A Hollander himself would not want to be found dead wearing them.(Preferably a Hollander doesn't want to be found dead at all).
(5) Don't make holes in the dikes. Such behaviour is commonly disapproved and in extreme cases it can get you stoned by wooden shoes. But feel free to put your finger in the dike if you feel the urge. It will at least get you a few laughs from the natives.
(6) A Hollander is always right and he knows it. With this in mind it is very easy to cope with most Hollanders. If you ever get in an argument with a Hollander, tell him he was absolutely right and that you now realize how wrong you were. Now he will go crazy: Since you're a foreigner, you can never be right. You agree with him, therefore he couldn't be right. Impossible. He's a Hollander. But…then…he…Now is the time to take a step back and observe how the Hollander will try to strangle himself with a tulip.
(7) Mills are inevitable.
(8) It is not necessary to fake interest for tulips, mills, wooden shoes or cheese. Every Hollander knows you came for the soft drugs and the Amsterdam red-light district. Both are widely spread and easy to find. Just ask any Hollander over age 6 or a French tourist.

11)Hollanders do not like spending money. They would rather cut of an ear. A Hollander will be your friend for life if you give him something for free. This might explain the great success of McDonalds in Holland. The story that copper wire is an invention of two Hollanders fighting over a found cent is absolutely true.
(12)Holland is small. It is sometimes rumoured that Holland is so small they take it inside when it's raining. This is not true because it rains 365 days a year. This also explains the wooden shoes: they float. Yes…Holland is small and Hollanders are very proud of it. They will use any opportunity to say that Holland accomplished such great things for such a small country. A fitting answer would be to refer to it's colonial past. Which brings us to point 13.
(13)If you want to insult a Hollander - and sooner or later you will want to - tell him you don't think he's a pacifist. Now start running for your life. He will not stop trying to prove he's the most peace-loving person in the world until your intestines are on the street. As mentioned earlier, mentioning the so-called colonial past in Suriname or Indonesia, will instantly reduce the Hollander to a sniffling child, begging for forgiveness.
(14)Hollanders are supposed to be tolerant. Nonsense. They just make too much money selling drugs and Malaysian women, to miss the opportunity to make so much profit.
(15)The most important way of public transportation in Holland is the bicycle. Feel free to take any bike of which you can pick the lock. Just don't expect your own bike to be in the same spot where you parked it 3 minutes earlier. Hunting season for bikes is open 365 days a year. Good luck!
(16)At almost every bread meal in Holland you will find a mean looking big knife with a sharp slide in it. It is called a 'kaasschaaf' and is used to cut very thin slices of cheese (Yes, it's a Dutch invention). Never cut cheese with a regular knife, you will make yourself completely ridiculous. Another typical eating tool is the so-called bottlescraper. Beware, don't use it for that annoying itch on your back. It's designed to scrape the last bits of yoghurt or mayonnaise out of the bottle. A Hollander will use every millimeter of the product he bought. He paid for it, he'll eat it, no matter what.
(17)At the time this was written, the Dutch economy was doing pretty good. Hollanders maintain the idea that this is the result of intensive negotiations between different parties like unions, employers and politicians. They even have a name for it: the poldermodel. One likes to convince foreigners this poldermodel is the key to a successful economy and if those same foreigners would be smart enough to follow their example, their economy would be flourishing as well. This is a load of crap. Hollanders just like to talk, talk, talk. By calling all this chattering negotiating they give themselves the impression they're doing something useful. Talk is never cheap in Holland.
(18)Hollanders drown fried patato-sticks (Chips) in litres of mayonnaise and put it in a pointed paper bag. This is called : Een patatje met. One such bag is able to keep you alive for an unlimited period of time. It is only uncertain if this is a life worth living. But there have been sightings of tourists actually enjoying a patatje met.
(19)Holland has a unique service for -mainly- France tourist. At the moment they pass the border, they are enthusiastically welcomed by youngsters in fast cars. These youngsters have the explicit wish to show these tourists the way to the many interesting tourist-attractions Holland has to offer. Strangly, they always end up in a coffee-shop or drug house though. (see point 20) Weird people, the French."

Roubado daqui

E o Inverno está a chegar...

Ele anda acima dos 38 graus desde sábado: maços de lenços de papel atrás, dores de garganta e de ouvidos incluidas, e a ressonar durante a noite toda :P ...

Eu faço-lhe as vontades todas: miminhos, bolinhos, chás, letras de chocolate e stampot (the ultimate dutch comfort food) e cruzo os dedos para que se isto tiver de me apanhar (talvez as minhas resistencias estejam no auge !?) que seja já de uma vez e me deixe o domingo à noite em paz que eu já comprei os bilhetes há uns 4 meses...
Com a minha sorte...

Há anos que queria um destes :)

My boyfriend is the coolest!