6monthsinparis

This weekend I went to my first Tunisian wedding. Two years ago, when I came to Paris for work for the first time, I met a Tunisian (now former) co-worker and he was awesome! We walked around the gardens of Paris taking pictures, we watched the Avengers in a pre-premier in the cinema and he introduced me to most of our colleagues. Basically, he made me feel super comfortable here in Paris and I can only be thankful for this. After hearing about this girlfriend of his for quite some time, last year they came to Lisbon in August and it was my turn to show them around my lovely city. At the time they were already talking about getting married in 2017 and how it would be awesome if we (me and some other Portuguese friends) could make it to Tunis for the wedding. Tunisia... I'd never been there and I was of course extremely curious. The only Arabic country I had ever visited in my life was Turkey, also to attend two weddings at the time. Side note: my friends' ...

On Thursday 20th of April blood was shed again in the streets of Paris. Yes, I am sure blood is shed quite often around here, but this time it was different. There was a shooting in Champs-Elysées. I'll take the words of the Guardian : " (...) drove up to a police van on the Champs Elysées at about 9pm on Thursday, got out and shot dead the driver with two bullets to the head, then opened fire at police on the pavement, seriously wounding two[...]. He was shot dead by police while trying to flee on foot after the attack(...)." People opening fire in the middle of the street... How do we feel about this? How are we supposed to feel about it? In a selfish way, we feel relieved and lucky that we weren't there, that it wasn't us. We feel sad about what happened, about people dying like this - yes, we all have to die, but like this?... But what about when we try to distance ourselves from it, when we are cold and try to remain untouched? Does it mean...

This has been a very colourful week. I just got back from Tunis from my friends' wedding, but I will leave that for a separate post. On this one I will talk about Wednesday and football. Honestly, I don't really watch much football. I don't care about the Portuguese league or whether Benfica, Sporting, Porto or even Académica are winning or losing, and sometimes I even forget to watch our National team. I did watch the European Cup last year (we won, just in case you don't know / remember / are trying to forget about it)!!! But when I do watch a game, I try to cheer for the team that is playing the best game (and occasionally try not to piss off my friends because of it). So, on Wednesday I met some friends after work in a pub where they would show Champions League on TV. One of these friends is an Italian co-worker (with whom I can speak Portuguese!) and the others are a couple who was getting (got!) married this weekend - I definitely wanted to spend some t...

A few years ago I created a blog entitled 5monthsinbrussels . When I look back on it, I'm happy that I wrote it, because it really takes me back. Those 5 months meant the world to me and those friends, well, they became family. We are still in touch, I visit them, they come visit me, we go to each others weddings and break up drinks -  we've shared so much. At the time I was doing an internship and my life has really taken me to different places since. The major change was that I left Hannover and Germany and moved back to Portugal. It will be 7 years this year. I've been working for the same company for almost 6 years and, what can I say, it is not in a field that I had ever considered working in before, but it has definitely been challenging. And, most importantly, it has brought me here: to Paris! These last couple of years I came to Paris for work for some days or even 3 weeks, but this time I'm here on a mission and this stay will be longer: 6 months. Pract...