Different personalities in different cultures

It is actually true. I was not sure whether to define it as, language-personality or culture-personality change. Language is part of culture and therefore I thought it was proper to define it as culture personality.

I noticed this personality change when I was living in Spain. First I thought it was the Alicante people and sun which had the impression on me, but moving to Lisbon and integrating myself to the culture proved my speculations right. I have several personalities (I am not schizophrenic), my personality changes with the culture.

The best part of all. I am Finnish-Swedish but do not feel comfortable with my Finnish-Swedish personality. I have always avoided being Finnish-Swedish. I always tell everybody what I am (now I sound like an animal..), but having to be among others alike and being in my respective personality feels awkward, like clothes that do not fit. However, being Finnish has always been the thing. I feel super comfortable in my personality. My way of being, speaking and acting suits my inner personality like a glove. I have other friends and also my sister, who are very much alike in this matter. Proud of their mother tongue and heritage, but not fitting into their Finnish-Swedish clothes.

American me 19 years old xD

My English personality was established way back when I was a teen. I had an Amercian boyfriend who thought me to speak English - in his way and manners. I learned how to be American, I imitated the way of talking, behavior and the girls in general. All did not suit me, but I created a personality. And there I was, my third personality established and I really liked it. Of course growing older and more mature made my personality less black and white, and Lil Wayne is not the God anymore.

Enjoying a morning hike at the beach in Spain

Moving to Spain thought the Spanish me to love life and myself. Having a wine here and there did not make a difference to my overly healthy lifestyle. Speaking in an easy sloppy manner, joder and all those other colorful expressions in Spanish I do not want to reveal here. The nicest thing is to escape to Spain to fulfill the role and personalty I have there. The more laid back me. It is like having a vacation from your other self as well, not only the 'normal life'.

Finally, who am I in Portuguese? In the beginning it seemed like I was going to be the Grumpy Cat of all times. I had a sarcastic comeback to everything and
nothing seemed to suit. It might have been also the pain of growing into a new personality. The last months have showed me that I might have almost grown into my new personality. Having moments to laugh from the bottom of your stomach, a real joy and having the possibility to understand and joke around with people in Portuguese. I think I am on the brink of establishing the Portuguese me and it seems to suit me just fine.

Desejo-lhe um bom fim de semana! :)

-Heidi

Visit to the emergency - Portuguese style

We were supposed to have a nice sunny Saturday, slow brekkie, thesis (uff), lunch and then off to the park to read our books (in Portuguese!!). However, Nik slit his finger with a knife. Fiskars knives are efficient - we know now.

So off we went to the nearest hospital. Literally 200 meters from our house. It is not actually a hospital, referring to a building, but a massive complex. We figured that when we entered. It must have looked kind of funny, us running back and forth. Nik with his finger in the air. (It was plastered alright but bleeding heavily). After 10 minutes of searching we found the emergency.

The receptionist asked where were from. Then they started listing up countries they have agreements with; Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Russia... apparently everything around Finland but not us. 168euro -said the lady. WHAAAAT!? We would have had this fixed for 70e in the private hospital. Not cool. Then we figured to show the European emergency card. That was cool, since the price of treatment suddenly dropped to 18e and an agreement with Finland was established.

We were rapidly redirected to the small surgeries area. There we had to wait almost two hours for treatment. Finger tingling and still bleeding. But this is Portugal. Wonder if it would have been faster if the finger would have been completely off?...

It was an interesting place, the Portuguese emergency. Casually sitting beside me was a lady who was keeping it calm and bleeding directly to the floor. Every 15 min a cleaning lady came and cleaned the mess up.. On my other side was a very friendly drug addict who seemed to have lost half of his nose and front teeth. He did not remember when this happened, but it might had been this week, he said. A nurse also casually asked him if he had taken drugs. Obviously he had. 67 mg of heroin, he declared. And still standing, asked the nurse. Well, you know me, he said. Another nurse pointed out to us that if I were to speak Finnish to him now he would understand it better than what the drug addict was trying to say. Lovely. We got in and out from the hospital in 4 hours. Fast in my opinion after hearing the horror stories of friends being wrongly treated and in the emergency room with an actual emergency for 6-12 hours.

We survived with three stitches and an adventure.
It's time to celebrate with sushi.

Bom fim de semana

-H

Ericeira state of mind

We escaped Lisbon this weekend. Its funny how we have been in Portugal for almost 1,5 years and we have literally been nowhere... There's no time, no resources, too expensive, too lazy etcetera. Its easy to come up with reasons.

However, this particular weekend some Finnish friends were at Ericeira. And we took a crazy leap of faith. Omg the risks associated with a change in normal routine.. going to Ericeira... A true jump in the unknown. Not. Just a bunch of reasons. 


We travelled by bus (and through every single village on the way sighh) to Ericeira. It took us two hours, and the roads were small. I tried to enjoy the scenery, but had this nice cold sweat feeling and felt the blood escape my face.. I haven't been car sick since I was a child. Nevertheless, the air conditioning was state of art. Can you sense the sarcasm? It was raining outside, and the air inside the bus was extremely humid... and the windows were so dim it was impossible to see outside. I felt like a dying fly, or at least could relate to one.




I loved my girlfriend duty this weekend. Be supportive. The guys went surfing, although the weather was not optimal. According to our two pro surfers. (Who had surfed as many times as you can count with two hands) As girlfriends, we had to be close by, so we took chairs to the beach front and sat in the sun. Occasionally you would have to wave from the chair or do a thumbs-up to show that you were watching. Otherwise it was great time spent gossiping and speaking about life and realities. Optimal. Something I have been missing. On surfing round two (guys new attempt to go in the water) we moved up to the beach restaurant. The sun was better there. Wine time.

At night there was laughter, telling of crazy stories and eating good food. And the wine. Wine time.

Ericeira is a good place for surfers, and supportive girlfriends (in case they don't surf). It is small, cozy, friendly, there's nature, good food.. I wish to return. The relaxation was maximum. The feeling of sitting and just being there, having fresh air. It is irreplaceable. Namaste.

Sometimes you can have a full week of holiday in less than 24 hours. Enjoy the Sunday folks!

Brunch Electronik in the park

Sunday went by trying out a recipe from Fitmencook, writing thesis (not true at all.. the wall becomes extremely interesting when its time for studying) and stomping to really good deep house with some cool peeps..

Sunday was a fun day. 

Clumsy as I am, I fell in the stairs some days ago and hurt my ankle. It literally looked like I had an egg underneath the skin.. and then I had to be representative at work.. which I did, minus the part that I was wearing a compression sock with a dress. "Finnish fashion" -I told everyone. 

Tomorrow I am going on a contemporary class. I am either going to look like a wounded scarecrow or something similar to a-OK. Time and ankle shows. 

Back to Sunday. (Fun day!) Brunch Electronik is the coolest Sunday event I have experienced so far! It's at the Agricultural University in the middle of nowhere, but in the city centre. The ground at the event had hay for horses and there was powdered sand in the air. The atmosphere was chilled and the music was oh so deeeeeeep, umptsumptsumpts. 

I had a wine, which after I had to pee. Logically. So I skipped happily downhill to the outhouse thingy you have at festivals. All good so far. Fancy lady, as I am, I managed to be clean in a dirty environment until my hand touched wet PEEEEEEEE. Eeeeewwwwww. No disinfecting gel around, nothing!? I walked with my hand stretched out like I had the  plague until I met a kind spirit who understood my concern and gave me some clean wipes. That hand was obviously not going to be anywhere near my face again for the rest of the night. Pee-hand. 

Back to the group of cool UG (under ground) peeps. All of them German, which of half I have not met before. Well, my name is technically German. So everybody naturally thinks I am German. And speak German to me and around me, if in a circle. Because I seem German. Tactic: smile and wave, smile and wave. 

That's it for now. Pee-hand is thoroughly disinfected and belly is full of extremely good chicken-quinoa. 

Obrigada e boa noite! 

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Life of a sloth

My weekend has passed by in a blink of an eye. I am still as tired as FriYEY when I came home from work.. ahhh had a cold beer on the balcony enjoying the fresh evening air, and well... then I passed out. Of sleep, not alcohol, duh.

I do not want to wake up tomorrow at 6am. Nope, not ready to be an adult again after pretending to be a sloth all weekend. Chillen' around, drinking some Somersby and enjoying explicit company over an organic pizza and miradouro.. A miradouro is a view point. We have several in Lisbon, and they are just lovely.

The blonde is back. This weekend I managed to download 4 apps, all paid. Not learning from my previous mistake, I repeated it (as said before: blonde).. I think it is misleading though that Appstore does not show prices on products when you are using your mobile.. Then I think its free, and oh well.. you know the rest. So I downloaded: 1.Fit Men Cook 2.Deliciously Ella 3.Omvana 4.Moldiv

1. FitMenCook: My nutritionist (yes, I have one) told me its good for nutritious food. My IBS cuts back what I can eat, so I am trying to learn new combos. And also force mister SwagN to try to eat something else than caveman food every day. He is not happy about my attempt. Meat is the salad of the man. 

2.Deliciously Ella: She makes lovely food. Again, the IBS. I can't eat gluten or lactose, nor many other random things. If you want to learn to make carrot soup in a new way, check her out. Myself, cooked Pea, Broccoli and Almond soup. Ok, it looks like a witches poison, but anyway.. u got the idea.

3.omvana: I am a nervous person. That is also related to my IBS condition. Stress makes me overreact... So I downloaded a meditation app. I tried to meditate. But I ended up screaming with laughter when I was thinking of what I look like. Bit hungover, sitting crosslegged on the living room rug, swaying, hair like Einstein and my green soup splashed over my shirt.. trying to fokus.. a sight for sore eyes.

4. Moldiv: !? I wanted to edit a picture and Jesus Christ, I had to pay for it too... -.-

PS. I linked some apps, so that you are not falling for the same blonde trap as I did.

Here's a picture from the weekend though, life of a sloth

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Cascais

The beach city of the wealthy (and tourists).

This weekend we celebrated my birthday in Cascais. Mister SwagN had booked a hotel night at a four star hotel to celebrate ME! We enjoyed our day at the hotel pool (no sand, thank lord). Would you believe that a Finn is bored of sand and beach and sun? Well not the sun, except the fact that you are sweating like a pig most of the day.

Most weekends this Summer I've been on the beach. Estoril beach to be precise. Its nice, packed. You are lucky if you are not partly under someones shade or touching someones beach towel. And then the sunscreen. Oh lord, all the sand sticks to your body, and you end up feeling like a stranded whale covered in sand and sweating on top of that.. Not this time, nope, not this time.

At night we had dinner at a local (not tourist) petiscos restaurant, Páteo de petiscos. Yummy,yummy in my tummy. Choco frito, carne maturada and atúm (cuttle fish, aged meat and tuna). Later we took a swing at the Cascais city centre, which was packed since the Cascais music festivals grande finale. It was fun, music and hot chocolate (due to cold wind), ahh life. I even managed to show my behind to half of the tourists on Cascais busiest street. And that was due to the wind, of course. My pretty little white dress above my ears and yes, my sun burned butt. Lovely.

Cascais is situated about 20km outside of Lisbon. The coastline to Cascais is full of beaches, which are packed during the Summer months. The fisher town is also known for its wealthy population. Not much to say; visit during the day, eat good fresh fish (not bacalao!! its from Norway.. or Iceland) and enjoy the nightlife which is more quiet then in Lisbon. Good for families and a romantic get away.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin