DAY 6 (27/12/2004):
The hard work goes on and on. First planning problems occur. It came out that brothers Steven and Bart had thought of plenty of big important things, but forgot about a lot of smaller but not least important stuff. Everything got quite chaotic and busy and since brother Bart didn’t have a lot of time himself, he entrusted me with navigating a crane. So I spent half of the day hanging under the sealing, putting tissue up using hundreds of safety pins and feeling seasick (did I mention I’m kind of afraid of heights?).
At lunch I met Matthias again and found out that my dear, crazy and beautiful Lithuanian girls have arrived. It was just too great seeing them again!
A long hard day like that just calls for a beer… or two. This time we didn’t bother to go too far and stayed right behind the halls in a small pub where the guys can enjoy German beer.
DAY 7 (28/12/2004):
Here we go! The meeting has officially started. I woke up at 5 AM to run off looking for the Estonians’ welcome place. I had to get there before the others and get an accommodation. This year was special because everyone were accommodated in families. I nearly made it there and suddenly found my Latvian friend Ivars whom I’d met in Macôn. After spending some quality time chatting with Ivars I ran off again to find my parish. Coming out of the metro station I discovered myself in the middle of a Lasnamäe-ghetto. The parish church was a “modern” building of red bricks. The people there were really nice and showed me the way to my family. The door was opened by an elderly lady who started right away speaking Portuguese with me. As I stepped inside I saw another woman and a man in a bathrobe discussing something in the kitchen. No one seemed to care about my presence. They showed me “my room” – a tiny thing with a two-story bed, which I was supposed to share with who-knows-who. I left quickly saying nothing and thanking God for the military base where I still had a bed and the German girls and that I never had to go back to that horrible smelly apartment again.
By the time I got to the halls I was already pretty tired, but there’s still a lot of work to do. Plus, no one but me knew how to drive the crane-thing, so I was forced to hang 6-8 meters from the floor again. By the time we were done (well, my supermotivated colleague Eva did the finishing part) I was absolutely tired to death. I tried to sleep for a while on the podium of the brothers while the choir was having their last repetition, but it was soon dinnertime and I still needed to find everyone to fix the meeting place and –time.
I sat for a while in front of the gate to the food halls, enjoying the masses flowing by. Some guys were playing drums, guitars, a bagpipe and who knows what else and also dancing, I guess what you can call a pre-dinner dance. I remembered from the last year that the circulation team never let anyone stop in the distribution way, so in order to be able to talk to Matthias I stopped at the end of one distribution line and helped a confused girl to distribute the good-old wet napkins. He was of course laughing at me (I don’t blame him) and finally it occurred that my little trick was not at all necessary – this years circulation team wasn’t too organised at that point.
After the first huge evening prayer our group met again to go to Bairro Alto and find a cool place to sit in. At about midnight someone called me. It was a person from the parish saying that the woman I was supposed to stay with had called in sick and wasn’t able to take any people to her place. The poor guy was probably shocked when I told him it was perfect and thanked him :)
DAY 8 (29/12/2004):
I have no more work, no responsibilities and no parish in which I could participate in a discussion group. What a pity, I guess I have to sleep longer… I dragged myself to the halls by lunchtime and after that had a nice walk along the river and in the park. The grass was green and the sun was shining. Nice.
But as you all know me – I can’t live without working (^^), so I had promised to a cool Swedish permanent guy Fredrik that I would help him out in the circulation team. Ok, I actually just wanted to get the orange strip for better access to forbidden areas :D. But I still enjoyed it very much (how could I not) – telling people where to go and where to sit and when to leave. Great. Reminded me of “welcome on the field”.
After work we went again behind the halls to an Irish pub, but since it’s expensive and everyone is tired we left quite early.
DAY 9 (30/12/2004):
I continue working for boss Fredrik, for which he is quite thankful because our team always seems to forget to show up. After work we go sightseeing with Matthias and Tobias (the two permanents). We were offered to buy some hash about 5 times while walking on the streets of the old town (Baixa). We politely refused. When it is time to get back to the halls it came out that the metro was out of order, so we had to search for a bus and were late for work. In the evening we go downtown and find a nice cabaré-type place with red drapes and a piano.
DAY 10 (31/12/2004):
The last day of the year. I’m still working in the circulation (man I love my work!), in fact I was doing such a good job that Fredrik considered giving me his walky-talky.
My free time I spend talking to some people. One Portuguese guy seems to know half of VHK (including Tom and Haiko etc)…
After the evening prayer my new old work begins again. It is time to start taking off the decorations. It really sucked because all the others were able to leave earlier for the mass in the cathedral and we had to do those pointless things until eleven o’clock (which means it was already new year in Estonia). Finally we got away and I ran with Liina to the metro and got to the cathedral all tired and sweaty right by the end of the mass – of course – and about 10 minutes before the New Year. All the people (permanents plus some sisters and other people involved) came out of the church and sang “Cantarei o Senhor” waiting for the fireworks and the new 2005. It was incredibly nice and so touching! Everyone were happy and hugging and all that stuff. Sweet. Then we all went to a parish nearby to have a “little” snack and some juice. (Juice! Can you imagine that! My first champagne-free new year!) Finally the guys decided to have a huge beer in order not to have an alcohol-free new year.
We took a taxi home and there I found someone’s wallet. He wasn’t rich, but at least he paid for my taxi ride. Happy hew year!
DAY 11 (1/1/2005):
Work starts again at 8 AM. Everyone was really tired, but happily we got all the things done in time. It finally got to me that soon all the dear guys would leave so I was feeling very sad. I discussed some extentialistic problems with Fredrik and then we all went behind the halls again to some cool pub.
DAY 12 (2/1/2005):
The last day my dear permanents are in town. I got up early again to drag myself to the other part of the town to see a live broadcasted mass in a monastery. After that the guys had loads of sightseeing plans: first we went to see the tower of Bélem, then we split up (I ended up hanging with Philipp, Daniel and Matthias). They all wanted to go across the river to Aveiro – to see the Jesus. So we got on the boat. As soon as we got on the other side, the bus that was supposed to take us to the right place, took off (not waiting for any passengers). The next one was coming in an hour. The guys decided to walk cause “it can’t be that far”. So we walked in the heat of the sun between the typically Portuguese little houses up the hill for about 1,5 hours. Of course I also tried to hitchhike, but being with three guys it didn’t work too well… Finally we found our way to Jesus, but then discovered that the elevator that takes up to him costs three euros. Instead of that we bought ourselves some beer and drank it sitting in front of the Jesus, looking at Lisbon over the river. Then we took some stones, wrote our names on them and built our own little shrine. The guys stood next to it and even sang a song in Portuguese, trying to get people to give us three euros. No luck.
Back in Lisbon we had a lunch and I went back to the halls wondering what to do that evening. While I was having a beer in the park by the river, the Lithuanian girls called and proposed to do something fun together. So we all went bowling, then played pool with the guys and in the end we headed towards the bars. Finally it was time to say goodbye. Everyone was leaving the next morning to return to Taizé. That made me feel really sad and empty, but then again so happy about how great it all was…
DAY 13 (3/1/2005):
I woke up with the knowledge that everyone was gone. It was scary. I suddenly felt really homesick, wishing to go back to my dear Tallinn, to my friends. In order to get rid of that feeling I went shopping. The feeling stayed, but the next day I was also leaving Lisbon, to hopefully come back again some day. Adeus e obrigada!!!
The hard work goes on and on. First planning problems occur. It came out that brothers Steven and Bart had thought of plenty of big important things, but forgot about a lot of smaller but not least important stuff. Everything got quite chaotic and busy and since brother Bart didn’t have a lot of time himself, he entrusted me with navigating a crane. So I spent half of the day hanging under the sealing, putting tissue up using hundreds of safety pins and feeling seasick (did I mention I’m kind of afraid of heights?).
At lunch I met Matthias again and found out that my dear, crazy and beautiful Lithuanian girls have arrived. It was just too great seeing them again!
A long hard day like that just calls for a beer… or two. This time we didn’t bother to go too far and stayed right behind the halls in a small pub where the guys can enjoy German beer.
DAY 7 (28/12/2004):
Here we go! The meeting has officially started. I woke up at 5 AM to run off looking for the Estonians’ welcome place. I had to get there before the others and get an accommodation. This year was special because everyone were accommodated in families. I nearly made it there and suddenly found my Latvian friend Ivars whom I’d met in Macôn. After spending some quality time chatting with Ivars I ran off again to find my parish. Coming out of the metro station I discovered myself in the middle of a Lasnamäe-ghetto. The parish church was a “modern” building of red bricks. The people there were really nice and showed me the way to my family. The door was opened by an elderly lady who started right away speaking Portuguese with me. As I stepped inside I saw another woman and a man in a bathrobe discussing something in the kitchen. No one seemed to care about my presence. They showed me “my room” – a tiny thing with a two-story bed, which I was supposed to share with who-knows-who. I left quickly saying nothing and thanking God for the military base where I still had a bed and the German girls and that I never had to go back to that horrible smelly apartment again.
By the time I got to the halls I was already pretty tired, but there’s still a lot of work to do. Plus, no one but me knew how to drive the crane-thing, so I was forced to hang 6-8 meters from the floor again. By the time we were done (well, my supermotivated colleague Eva did the finishing part) I was absolutely tired to death. I tried to sleep for a while on the podium of the brothers while the choir was having their last repetition, but it was soon dinnertime and I still needed to find everyone to fix the meeting place and –time.
I sat for a while in front of the gate to the food halls, enjoying the masses flowing by. Some guys were playing drums, guitars, a bagpipe and who knows what else and also dancing, I guess what you can call a pre-dinner dance. I remembered from the last year that the circulation team never let anyone stop in the distribution way, so in order to be able to talk to Matthias I stopped at the end of one distribution line and helped a confused girl to distribute the good-old wet napkins. He was of course laughing at me (I don’t blame him) and finally it occurred that my little trick was not at all necessary – this years circulation team wasn’t too organised at that point.
After the first huge evening prayer our group met again to go to Bairro Alto and find a cool place to sit in. At about midnight someone called me. It was a person from the parish saying that the woman I was supposed to stay with had called in sick and wasn’t able to take any people to her place. The poor guy was probably shocked when I told him it was perfect and thanked him :)
DAY 8 (29/12/2004):
I have no more work, no responsibilities and no parish in which I could participate in a discussion group. What a pity, I guess I have to sleep longer… I dragged myself to the halls by lunchtime and after that had a nice walk along the river and in the park. The grass was green and the sun was shining. Nice.
But as you all know me – I can’t live without working (^^), so I had promised to a cool Swedish permanent guy Fredrik that I would help him out in the circulation team. Ok, I actually just wanted to get the orange strip for better access to forbidden areas :D. But I still enjoyed it very much (how could I not) – telling people where to go and where to sit and when to leave. Great. Reminded me of “welcome on the field”.
After work we went again behind the halls to an Irish pub, but since it’s expensive and everyone is tired we left quite early.
DAY 9 (30/12/2004):
I continue working for boss Fredrik, for which he is quite thankful because our team always seems to forget to show up. After work we go sightseeing with Matthias and Tobias (the two permanents). We were offered to buy some hash about 5 times while walking on the streets of the old town (Baixa). We politely refused. When it is time to get back to the halls it came out that the metro was out of order, so we had to search for a bus and were late for work. In the evening we go downtown and find a nice cabaré-type place with red drapes and a piano.
DAY 10 (31/12/2004):
The last day of the year. I’m still working in the circulation (man I love my work!), in fact I was doing such a good job that Fredrik considered giving me his walky-talky.
My free time I spend talking to some people. One Portuguese guy seems to know half of VHK (including Tom and Haiko etc)…
After the evening prayer my new old work begins again. It is time to start taking off the decorations. It really sucked because all the others were able to leave earlier for the mass in the cathedral and we had to do those pointless things until eleven o’clock (which means it was already new year in Estonia). Finally we got away and I ran with Liina to the metro and got to the cathedral all tired and sweaty right by the end of the mass – of course – and about 10 minutes before the New Year. All the people (permanents plus some sisters and other people involved) came out of the church and sang “Cantarei o Senhor” waiting for the fireworks and the new 2005. It was incredibly nice and so touching! Everyone were happy and hugging and all that stuff. Sweet. Then we all went to a parish nearby to have a “little” snack and some juice. (Juice! Can you imagine that! My first champagne-free new year!) Finally the guys decided to have a huge beer in order not to have an alcohol-free new year.
We took a taxi home and there I found someone’s wallet. He wasn’t rich, but at least he paid for my taxi ride. Happy hew year!
DAY 11 (1/1/2005):
Work starts again at 8 AM. Everyone was really tired, but happily we got all the things done in time. It finally got to me that soon all the dear guys would leave so I was feeling very sad. I discussed some extentialistic problems with Fredrik and then we all went behind the halls again to some cool pub.
DAY 12 (2/1/2005):
The last day my dear permanents are in town. I got up early again to drag myself to the other part of the town to see a live broadcasted mass in a monastery. After that the guys had loads of sightseeing plans: first we went to see the tower of Bélem, then we split up (I ended up hanging with Philipp, Daniel and Matthias). They all wanted to go across the river to Aveiro – to see the Jesus. So we got on the boat. As soon as we got on the other side, the bus that was supposed to take us to the right place, took off (not waiting for any passengers). The next one was coming in an hour. The guys decided to walk cause “it can’t be that far”. So we walked in the heat of the sun between the typically Portuguese little houses up the hill for about 1,5 hours. Of course I also tried to hitchhike, but being with three guys it didn’t work too well… Finally we found our way to Jesus, but then discovered that the elevator that takes up to him costs three euros. Instead of that we bought ourselves some beer and drank it sitting in front of the Jesus, looking at Lisbon over the river. Then we took some stones, wrote our names on them and built our own little shrine. The guys stood next to it and even sang a song in Portuguese, trying to get people to give us three euros. No luck.
Back in Lisbon we had a lunch and I went back to the halls wondering what to do that evening. While I was having a beer in the park by the river, the Lithuanian girls called and proposed to do something fun together. So we all went bowling, then played pool with the guys and in the end we headed towards the bars. Finally it was time to say goodbye. Everyone was leaving the next morning to return to Taizé. That made me feel really sad and empty, but then again so happy about how great it all was…
DAY 13 (3/1/2005):
I woke up with the knowledge that everyone was gone. It was scary. I suddenly felt really homesick, wishing to go back to my dear Tallinn, to my friends. In order to get rid of that feeling I went shopping. The feeling stayed, but the next day I was also leaving Lisbon, to hopefully come back again some day. Adeus e obrigada!!!
3 comments:
ma olen kõrvuni sees ...
:)
kuidas su portugali keel siis on?
espero que pode falar fluentamente agora;)
não falo portuges. desculpa :)
kõik asjaajamine käis nagu Taizéle kohane ikka inglise keeles. ja kui oligi vaja teed kysida ("excuse me, where is the next pub?"), siis sai aru kyll, et kuhupoole on à esquerda või à dereita (kirjapildi osas pead ei anna :p)...
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