The (real) end

"Felizes em Casa

Não há muitas definições convincentes de felicidade. É mais fácil procurar pela palavra sorte. Sorte é aquilo que achamos querer ou, quando temos mesmo sorte, achamos ter. É feliz quem prefere ficar em casa. É feliz quem tem uma casa onde prefere ficar. É mais feliz ainda quem tem alguém com quem prefira ficar em casa. A casa até nem pode parecer grande coisa - mas é. Como pode deixar de ser grande o sítio no mundo aonde nunca queremos ir só para visitar ou conhecer: o único sítio do mundo para onde queremos sempre voltar e ficar?

«Estou aqui tão bem...» é a frase de quem é feliz, quando se aproxima a hora de se afastar, por muito necessária e temporariamente que seja. A inércia é sempre amiga do comodismo. Mas, quando a preferência arrasta os pés, como as sábias das crianças, a inércia apaixona-se por ele e nunca mais o larga, confundido, com infinda razão, o amor com o conforto.

Se há uma canção que fala dessa preferência é «Se Acaso Você Chegasse», uma das obras-primas de Lupicínio Rodrigues. Todas as versões são muito boas, mas as minhas preferidas são as de Arrigo Bernabé e de Lúcio Alves, por mais se aproximarem da interpretação do autor. As versões da Simone, ao longo dos anos, são melhores ainda. A letra fala do «meu chatêau», que é um «barraco/À beira de um regato/E um bosque em flor». Só à superfície parece uma questão de amigos apaixonados pela mesma mulher.

O que canta é o preferir ficar em casa, na nossa casa, com o nosso amor."

Miguel Esteves Cardoso, in 'Jornal Público' (5 Jul 2013)

It took me a while to write a final post on my blog.  This weekend, when I read this amazing text by Miguel Esteves Cardoso, I realized that it included most of what I wanted to say.  I have to admit I was a bit concerned about how I was going to feel after I came back to Portugal.  I was worried that I would get bored, nostalgic and sad about everything being over.  However, when I got here, I realized how much I missed home, my family and my country.  No matter how much fun we have elsewhere, there's no place like home.  It feels great to be back home.

Thanks Mom and Dad for this amazing opportunity, thanks Villas Boas family for having me over for the last month, thanks Pedro and the dozens of friends that made this year the best of my life so far.

A new chapter is about to start and am very excited about it.

Love,

Marta

LA one last time

My last days in California were different from the previous ones.  They didn't involve much research work or much workout, and, although they were spent in LA, they didn't include much dating either.  In no more than one week, Pedro had to do two final exams to finish his Econ degree, to celebrate his birthday and graduation, to show his family around, to sell his car and furniture, to pack four years of his life, and to say goodbye to all the great friends he made throughout his Californian experience.

I didn't get as much attention as I usually do in LA and I slept on the floor for four nights instead of sharing a kind size bed with him, but he was so, so happy that I was really happy for him too.  Congrats on graduating from a great school while doing so well in your athletic career.  And many congrats on making so many real friends and leaving so many fans in California.  It made me and his family very proud to see, once again, how everyone loves and respects him.

After four years of trips to LA, that city became one of my favorite places to visit.  Despite all the criticism that revolves around LA - such as its traffic, broadness and fake people -, to me, there's nowhere else where you can have such good time going out to eat, hike, drink, sunbathe and be entertained.  Also, that's where Pedro and I made so many good friends, that we hope to see in Portugal sometime in the near future.

Beijinhos to Malin, Pontus, Kezia, Bobby, Alex, Matt, Jonathan, Manav, Preston, Anton, Gemma, Tom, the guys and girls in the golf team that I didn't mention, Leonor and Zé.  Most of these guys call me Gorda and send me beijinhos when they say goodbye to me.

See you LA.  Either in 2, 5, 10 or 20 years, I know I will be back to visit.

Saying goodbye

Today was my last walk to campus.  Today was my last early morning in the office to use Ahmet's computer before he arrives.  Today was my last lunch on Euclid Ave.  Today was my last day at Davis Hall.  Today I closed my American bank account.  Today was my last workout class taught by Delency.  (He even gave me a goodbye hug.  How much of a frequent user of the gym do you think I was?)  Today was the last time I went to RSF to workout too.  Today was my last walk from the gym to home.  (Actually Ahmed gave me a ride on the second half of the way, but you get what I mean.)  Today was my last dinner with the Villas-Boas.  Today I said goodbye to great friends as Ludo and Rob.  Today I packed and gave away some stuff I don't want to take home.  It's been such a confusing/busy day that, from lunch time on, I didn't even have much work done.

I'm leaving to LA tomorrow for Pedro's birthday and graduation and then to Portugal on Monday.  I have exciting times ahead but, still, it feels weird to realize that my year abroad is actually coming to an end.  It's been the best year of my life so far.  Hopefully even better years will come ahead.  Pedro, and then Mom, Dad, Mico, family and friends, here I come!

Chopra

Try googling "Anil Chopra".  The first links that will appear are related to one of the most famous living Structural Engineering professors in the world, who also happened to be my graduate advisor this past year.  Professor Chopra wrote a book that is used literally all over the world on structural dynamics and, although he is over 70 years old, he is probably the clearest professor I have ever had.

He's been sporadically working with Mom for a few years, as a consultant in one of her projects, and, when he saw my name in the applicants list to the SEMM program, he picked me as his advisee.  Not only did he help me choosing the classes I was taking every semester, but he kept telling me and Mom that, anytime I needed anything, I should go talk to him.

Today, he organized a party at his place for some of his students and I went too.  He has a really nice house in Orinda, on the other side of the hills, and very friendly wife and daughter.  It's so interesting to get to know people's homes and families.  It explains so much about their personality...  This party was specially nice because Professor Chopra took some time to introduce every single person that was there to all the others, and also because we had the chance to hear to some of the most interesting stories of his life.

Listen to this one:  when Professor Chopra decided to write his book, after his wife and daughter pushed him to do it, he decided to through away all the class notes he had for the structural dynamics class he had been teaching for years and years.  He literally threw them away a few hours before the garbage truck usually passed by his house.  Why's that?  Because he thought the book would never be intellectually outstanding if he was basing it on written information he had already ready.  How daring was that?

How lucky am I to have so closely dealt with people as brilliant as Professor Chopra this year?  Sooooo lucky!

Another weekend in SoCal

No one really knows what happened but the truth is that third ranked UCLA, after 54 holes, were 26th in the NCAA Championship.  In a tournament were only the 8 best teams could advance to the match play phase, the bruins had to go back home earlier than expected.  What would be the best way to comfort them (specially my favorite senior in the team) for the bad result?  Probably going down to LA for the weekend...

I flew down on Friday, and arrived there at lunch time to have a great weekend.  Friday was Jonathan's birthday and we celebrated by having the best sandwiches in town for lunch in Bay Cities Deli, mexican food and margaritas for dinner at Pink Taco, and some more drinks at Matt's, Preston's, Manav's and Anton's place in Westwood.  Saturday was study/work out day for me and study/practice day for Pedro.  To make the day less boring, we went out for dinner with Bob and Kez - sushi happy hour in a Japanese restaurant in Westwood.

On Sunday, it was time to go down to Newport Beach, where Pedro would play the sectional qualifying for the US Open, one of the four golf majors in professional golf, the following day.  I spent the day studying, first at home and then in a Starbucks next to the golf course where he played the practice round.  Later in the afternoon, we did some shopping with Jonathan, and had an amaaaaazing dinner at Fleming's, sponsored by Jon's and Jake's parents.  Jonathan and Jake were playing the qualifying too and, since their parents were in town to caddie for them and watch them play, they invited Pedro and me for a fancy dinner.  One cannot believe how exciting it is for me to have fish here in the US...

Jake invited us to stay at his place so that we didn't have to pay for a hotel room.  Actually, we decided not to look for a hotel before dinner exactly because we were expecting him to invite us to stay over.    #lifeofacollegestudent.  Haha.

On Monday, we woke up at 4:45 am.  At 5 am, we were the only ones at iHop, where Pedro had an omelet and an orange juice for breakfast.  I decided to eat just before his first round started, at 7 am.  Pedro played pretty well, made very few mistakes, but did not qualify for the US Open by two strokes.    It is the second year in a row that he is that close to qualify for that tournament.  Maybe next year!  (À terceira é de vez.)  I was proud of him anyways.  People keep complimenting him while he plays, because he is such a gentleman.  The day was very nice, I got to walk many, many miles, as I like, and we got to spend the day together.  Can't complain

Everytime I go down to the Newport Beach area I think of my parents and how they would like to go there.  It's a golf and beach paradise in a still quite urban and very wealthy area.  One day, I will take them there for some nice vacations.

Monday evening, we arrived in Westwood pretty late, packed and went straight to bed.  Walking 36 holes is not a joke and we had to wake up at 4:15 am the next day to go to the airport.

A week from now, I will be back in LA for Pedro's birthday and graduation.  Two weeks from now, I will be back home, celebrating Mom's 50th anniversary!

Look at me, kind of living by myself

Go to 2719 Stuart, Berkeley.  Instead of walking up the four steps that take you to the front door of the main house, turn right, walk past the Honda SUV that is parked there and turn left.  As soon as you pass through the wooden gate, you can see a little cottage in the right corner of the backyard.  That's were I live now.  It is a tiny two-floors wooden house, very cute.  Downstairs, it has a small toilet with shower, a kitchen with a table and two chairs where I have breakfast everyday, and a small individual couch that I don't think I will ever use.  Upstairs, there is a cute, cute, cute big bedroom, with a queen size bed, a closet, a wardrobe, a couch and a desk.  There are windows all around and the furniture is very feminine.  All in all, I live in a little dolls house at the moment.

How did this happen?  How did I get this lucky?  As I told you before, a few weeks after arriving in Berkeley, I decided to go introduce myself to Professor Miguel Villas-Boas, as my uncle Tó suggested. I found him at his office in Haas Business School, introduced myself and he invited me to have dinner with his family at their place right away.  From then on, Sofia - his lovely and energetic wife - kept inviting me to have dinner with them every once in a while.  They even met Pedro, Mom and Dad, whenever they came visit me in Berkeley.  They have been super nice to me.  Do you know that feeling of friendship and confidence you feel with people with your nationality when you are living abroad?  As soon as I got to know them, it seemed that we had known each other for a long time.

Miguel and Sofia have three kids, Vasco, Diogo and Zé Maria, who are now kind of young siblings to me.  They are all very different but all great kids.  Vasco is a mature and responsible kid, quite shy, just like his dad.  He's the perfect son.  Diogo and Zé Maria are the funniest kids on earth.  I once took Diogo to have an ice cream after dinner.  When I took Pedro to their place for dinner for the first time, Diogo said to Pedro "Marta took me to have an ice cream the other day but don't worry, nothing happened!"  He is 12 or 13 years old!!!!!  Hahaha.

Going back to how I got so lucky and ended up having an entire little house for me...  Every time I went to their place to have dinner with them, Sofia told me that I could sleep over anytime I was feeling homesick and that any friend or family member visiting me could stay there too.  As soon as I realized I would be kicked out of ihouse on May 22nd, I asked her if they would mind that I spent four weeks with them before going back home.  She said that I would be more than welcome.  I thought I would be sleeping in an extra room they have downstairs but, since they are not renting the cottage to anyone in May and June, they let me stay there.

I don't live with 589 international people anymore, but now I have family meals, I receive good morning and good night kisses everyday and I can speak Portuguese all the time.  Not bad, uh?  It is actually very good.  Mom, Dad and me are going to be eternally thankful to the great Villas-Boas family.

Memorial Day Weekend

Did I mention on the last post (Bipolar Sunday) that the following post would be about my new house and my new host family?  I lied!  This post is actually going to be about the nice busy three-day weekend that is about to finish.

There were some special things about this weekend.  First and most importantly, I had my first Portuguese friend visiting me here in Berkeley: Ed, of course.  And he brought another friend of ours with him: Inês da Cunha.  After a few years with no (or very little) vacations, Ed decided that my year abroad in California was a good excuse to take a few days off work.  He planned a very exciting trip throughout the state, in which I cannot go since I am stuck in Berkeley working on my thesis.  Inês was going to do that trip in the same period so they decided to do it together, stoping here and there to see some friends.  Knowing them, it is not a surprise that they decided to do the trip in style, driving a convertible mustang.

These three days that they spent in San Francisco, we did some sightseeing in the city; we drove Lombard Street; we saw Pier 39's sea lions; we had some American meals, such as Saturday brunch in the Mission District and dinner at a sports bar on Sunday; we went to a Giants game in AT&T Park; we drove to Sausalito through Golden Gate in a very cloudy day and had a nice lunch there; we listened to really loud music in our convertible car; and more, much more.  Meanwhile, Ed had a meeting in Silicon Valley that might have changed his life and the life of his company.  Way to go Ed!

It was great to spend some time with some friends from back home, especially now that most of my Berkeley friends are gone.  Talking about friends being gone, Saturday night was Nico's goodbye party.  All of our friends who are still around showed up at Ludo's and Alex's apartment in San Francisco to have a drink with him, probably the most friendly guy who lived in ihouse these two semesters.  It was not very tough to say goodbye to him for three reasons.  1) If there's someone who I will be easily able to see, that's my Madrileño friend Nico.  2) There's the possibility of a reunion with Luisa in Madrid in late July this summer, and that would mean all of us staying at his place there.  3) If he was one of my best friends during an entire year, he is not going to disappear from my life very easily.

Last but not least, there's another great thing that happened this weekend.  My model is finally spiting reasonable results.  The hard work of the last weeks has been worthwhile.  I'm quite sad I decided not to go to Yosemite with Ed and Inês but, believe it or not, I only have three weeks left in Berkeley and I need to use them to do as much research as possible.

Thanks Eddie for coming.

See you soon Nico.

Love,

Marta

P.S.  Oh, maybe I should also explain that the reason why this weekend was a three-day weekend is because today is Memorial Day.  That's a national holiday in the US, in which everyone who died in the American army is remembered.  I didn't experience the day very much but, from what I heard, it is considered the beginning of summer, and it is marked by many barbecues all over the place.