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Deadlines and Holidays

So I’m really busy at the moment. Got deadlines all over the place and I think I miss at least half of them. I hope all will be fine when I’m back in Holland One of the deadlines is designing a restaurant in an existing empty (and ruined) building. I made a maquette of my plans and now I need to make a bigger one for the diningroom to allow more detail. Here are some pictures of the progress of the small one. Don’t have good pictures of the final yet but it’s not much more then you see there.

In the meanwhile I’m planning a tour through Portugal, more specific, a tour on a bicycle. I really want to see more of Portugal, especially Porto (city in the north), and I don’t feel a lot like sticking to public transport like bus or train. I want to set my own road, also to see what’s in between. So now I’m planning this crazy two-week trip. I still feel insecure about it, haven’t ride a bike in half a year.

Tomorrow (wednesday) I will go to test my ability and go for a day-trip west of Portugal. Here’s a map of the route I’ll take. I take the train to Sintra. Sintra is an old town with castles and lots of authentic touristic attractions. Everyone is surprised when I tell I haven’t been there yet. From there I’ll go up the mountains, maybe pausing at one of the castles and then for a trip through the forest towards the coast. My next stop will be Cabo da Roca, the most western point of europe. It’s said to be beautiful, and if I see the pictures, it is. It’s a cliff rising 140m above the sea, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. I’ll go on cycling and following the coast I’ll end up cycling along the beach (got swimming cloths with me). I finish the tour in Cascais, a village with one of the closest beaches to Lisbon. Gonna take a dive in the sea there to cool down and then take the train back to Lisbon.

I’m not sure about the weather. It hasn’t rained for weeks and last days the temperature went over 40ºC. Luckily it’s quite dry air, so sweating works (you don’t wanna know). However people are saying it’ll rain soon and looking at the forecast now there’s even a chance for rain tomorrow… We’ll see how that goes!

In Portugal | No Comments

Mora and the Sun

View this set of photos on Flickr.

Last sunday (25th of April) there was a celebration in Lisbon. They celebrate the Carnation Revolution, that started on the 25th of April, 1974, in Lisbon. The revolution changed Portugal from a dictatorship to a democracy. The army occupied Lisbon and people went onto the street. People started putting flowers (Carnations) into gun barrels, giving the revolution her name. Every year people celebrate this revolution, with concerts and other happenings.

This is all fun and games, but we didn’t go. We went to Mora instead, which is like 100 km east of Lisbon. Our photography teacher promised us an interesting event about photos that has some links to world press photos. It was indeed about photography, with some great (and some bad) photos. However, they only spoke Portuguese and Spanish (those languages are really close to each other btw, Portuguese is more, hmm, dirty). We slept for an hour in the congress room and then decided to go outside, where the sun was waiting for us with at least 35º+. Mora is a small village and looks really authentic, with some great looking buildings next to the congress-room. So I took off my shoes (they’re way too hot) and went exploring with my camera. The results are above and here on flickr. We decided to just leave and go to the beach. We left the teacher, who went with us, behind in Mora (she found someone else with a car) and went back to Lisbon. On the way back we made some stops and enjoyed the countryside of Portugal, which I love!

Back in Lisbon we changed cloths and packed swimwear. After eating an ice-cream we went to Costa da Caparica, where Alex lives. And we swum. In the ocean. It was great! The still quite cold water was the perfect way to cool down from the hot sun. The next day we went again and I think we’ll go there a lot more times.

Tomorrow (1st of May), there will be another (inter)national celebration, Labour Day. This time I will be present! And I will take photos, as required for a school assignment. Let’s see how that works out, Nathan the photojournalist. I don’t see it yet, but who cares =)

Ps: I do regret missing Queensday =(

In Portugal | No Comments

It feels like home

Busy, really busy. Yes yes. Don’t look at me like that! Ok I actually have all the time of the world and could have written something earlier, I’m sorry! Everything’s just going so smooth and nice and I’m just enjoying my stay here a lot. Makes me simply not think about writing it down. I’ve done a lot, been to Fatíma which has a famous catholic church named Church of the Most Holy Trinity. It’s a light gray concrete contemporary building designed by a Greek architect Alexandros Tombazis, as told by my greek friends that study architecture.

Other then Fatíma I mainly stayed in Lisboa. Been already like 3 times to the castle on top of the hill and I’m falling in love with all the beauty you can find in the small alleys. There’s for example a square at Beiro-alto that gives a brilliant view over the river and the buildings near the river. At this square there are all kinds of young people, alternative people and also tourists go there. It’s awesome to go there and be the hippie student sitting on the grass getting sunburned

Alfama is also beautiful. This is the Mediterranean part of Lisbon with lots of alleys and stairs. The castle is also near. I will post pictures later on my Flickr. If you want to see this names on the map, it’s here (“A” is where I life and my school is near Cais do Sodré).

The school is ok. The education is not great, but that actually makes it easy. Some teachers want us to do too much homework though (I was surprised it still exists after what I study in Holand). The bachelor often feels like high school. I’m joining some master classes to higher the level a bit and that seems more suited. Though that’s still lower then what I’m used to (good job CMD! )

My subjects

With equipment design we have a project to design a kiosk for a square in Lisbon. This wont be real but it needs to fit into the real conditions of Lisbon (like weather, government rules, practical things). The bachelor class Ambient design asked us to analyse a 19th century market that has been build over many years because it grew larger and at one time there was a fire that asked for a renovation. This makes that the building has a lot of different styles.

Industrial design was the first weeks merged with Ambient Design for master, but last lesson we were separated. I’m not sure yes what we’re gonna do, I think we have to make a product that uses Portuguese materials. With Modeling and Prototyping I will make models and/or prototypes (duh ). I plan on making white creatures that have a light inside them. I’ve put some ideas and inspiration here. Técnicas de Modelo (Modeling Techniques) is used simply to get 3 more points, because I thought 4 points for such a project is a bit too little (the teacher suggested this solution, which is really nice).

Last but not least is the Photography class. It’s about photography used in media, as a form of news, documentary or reportage. We have a project where we make a documentary about a subject we choose ourself. I chose to photograph the contrast between old and new here in Lisbon, with the main focus on the old. Also once in a while we have to do a reportage about an event here in Lisbon. In total we should have around 4 sets of photos at the end of the semester.

Portuguese

Eu não falo português. Still not! But this morning I went with some others to a class to learn Portuguese. It only costs 1 euro for 1,5 – 2 hours of lessons and it actually seems good. We certainly go again next week! Only the time is a bit annoying, it’s at 10am. I should be used to that though as I used to swim in the morning at saturday (miss you guys). I also got a beautiful book that was left behind by the previous people living at my apartment that promises to teach you the basics of Portuguese in 6 weeks. I still have to read beyond page 12 though…

To conclude it all: I’m doing great and this whole erasmus thing is one brilliant possibility. If you have the chance, make use of it! If you don’t have the chance, create that chance . It’s worth it!

Adeus!

In Portugal | 5 Comments

A bit more sun in here =)

In Portugal | 2 Comments

About the weather…

It’s rainy.

In Portugal | 1 Comment

Arrival

Time for an update! I’ve been here for nearly a week and haven’t posted anything yet at all! I can’t say I didn’t have time, as I haven’t done a lot at all. This all because of the shitty weather. Yesterday and today the weather seems a lot better though, luckily. But let’s start at the beginning.

My flight was great. I traveled in the evening so after takeoff I could see all dutch cities with their lights. It gave a magical view. It was a relaxed flight, we only got a bit of shaking when landing as soon as we broke through the clouds. When landed we got out of the plain using stairs and had to travel to the buildings by bus. There was a nice temperature, not hot but not cold as well. They said it was around 16ºC and it stayed that way for the whole week. Only difference is the rain and the wind.

I’ve been to IADE, the university I’ll be studying and met the woman that’ll be my contact person in IADE. I also met Alexander, another exchange student from Dortmund. He’s a student Photography and will also study at IADE. I think he’ll focus more on photography while my focus will be on design. But all can change! Schooldays will start tomorrow. We get like 2 weeks where we can attend all subjects and courses we want, after that we’ll chose what to learn. I still don’t know if they’ll talk English or Portuguese.

My apartment is great. I got plenty of room and there are shops selling fresh food on the other side of the street. This apartment has room for 4 to 6 persons (2 double rooms and 1 twin bed room (with 2 separate beds)). But at this moment I’m alone. This gives a lot of room and peace for me, but also feels a bit lonely without others to talk to. Luckily there’s internet and a big city

I haven’t seen Lisbons nightlife yet, I think that’ll come in time. Yesterday however I’ve been to the Jesus statue and the beach together with Alexander, as he has a car. The statue is placed on a hill on the other side of the river and it’s just like the one in Brazil. You can view it on a map here. It was great to see Portugal outside Lisbon and especially the cliffs in the distance where mountains meet see.

Today I’ll go to the university and I also finally want to go to the more touristic section of the city. I totally don’t feel like a tourist at all, which makes it all quite strange. This city already simply feels like the next place I’ll live for half a year and I feel at home already.

Greetings from Portugal!

Ps: I’ve uploaded some photo’s on Flickr which are also shown on the right. You can view them all here.

In Portugal | 3 Comments

A Warming-up

Some stuff to feel Portugal.

Slideshow of photos on Flickr tagged with Portugal

A lovely video selling Portugal.

Portugal from Filipe on Vimeo.

In Holland | 1 Comment

Preparation

So next week I’m leaving. It’s strange, till yesterday I would’ve said I don’t realize it yet, I don’t seem to care yet. But now I do feel exited. I will fly in the evening, at wednesday the 24th. When I get there I’ll take the taxi to my apartment. I got an apartment students that have been in Lisbon past half year. They told me it’s great, with a really friendly and helpful owner. So I’ve called the owner, Maria, and she was enthusiast so I got the room, a lot easier then I expected. Later Maria mailed me this website where she quickly put up a small map and some info about the room. I’ll have room 1, the most down on the map.

What do I plan to do in Portugal?

Honestly I have no clue what exactly. I know for sure it will be great and I’ll learn a lot and meet a lot of new people. I’ll be going to the creative university IADE, and I’ve chosen for design. I want to work more with my hands as currently I’m almost doing nothing else then create on my laptop. I also want to learn a lot more about photography. Lisbon must be a great city to take photos, and I think the rest of Portugal is no difference. I also want to learn wave surfing. I might even do it weekly if I can afford it and if it’s enough fun (no doubt).

I will keep you updated via this blog. You can subscribe on the right side by entering your email, so you’ll get emailed every time I have a new blogpost.

Wish me luck!
Nathan

Oh, and if you wonder why I’m writing in English, I actually don’t know. Hope this blog might be of use for later exchange students wanting to go to Lisbon, from different countries. And of course for the people I meet over there. And I just like practicing my English

In Holland | 7 Comments

I’m going to Portugal

I’m very excited! Let’s get this blog ready

In Holland | 2 Comments