Wandering About: Germany (2006 FIFA World Cup)

Here I am again, talking about my journeys through places… I’m still in Europe and, remarkably, on the same year as Paris… 2006 was a good year for traveling!

Going to the 2006 FIFA World Cup was a totally unique and marvelous experience for me. My mom decided she would take all her 4 kids to Germany because Portugal was there, but more, so was Angola, and given that my mom lives in Angola, she could score some tickets there – Portugal and Angola landed on the same group 😉 !!!

So, I went with my mom and younger brother to Frankfurt, then my sister and older brother joined us. The four of us went to the Angola-Portugal in Cologne :D. The game was great, Angola was just happy to be at the final stage of such a competition, and all the stadium spoke Portuguese, it was a beautiful thing to behold. Portugal won!

After that first game, my sis went back to Portugal, and her husband came to join us – yeah, even the in-laws came for the fun. We even snuck in a visit to Portugal’s training site ;-).

Hannover was the next stop, and we went to see the Mexico-Angola game, which ended up a draw, but was super fun to watch.

Next day it was the Portugal-Iran (2-0) which was definitely the high point of the journey. As soon as the game ended, it was time for me, my brother and mom to go back home. My older brother stayed a few more days and watched the 3rd game.

Portugal ended up doing very well, and we placed 4th in the competition, losing our last game to Germany. This was a World Cup full of emotions, on the 1st of July 2006 in Gelsenkirchen, Portugal played with England, in that infamous game when we won during the penalties, and our goalkeeper defended without his gloves… EPIC, and then Ronaldo took us to the next step!

Netflix is coming to Portugal and Spain!!!

Oh Happy Day!!!

I was truly beginning to feel that this was not going to happen! But Netflix announced today their plan to expand to Italy, Spain and Portugal later this year. YAY!!! Such big wonderful news :D… reaction bellow…

Love/Hate Tag

Hi, Alicia at #LoveBooks nominated me to do this tag. It’s pretty simple, you have to share 10 things you love and 10 things you hate, and then nominate some blogs to do the same. You can check her answers here, and please, do go check out her blog ;-).

10 things I love:

1. Lazy days. My favorite kind of days are those where I can sleep ‘till 1pm, then spend the afternoon in my pj’s, watching tv, movies or reading a book.

 

2. Books. Books, books and more books.

3. London. It’s my favorite place, it’s where I feel most myself.

4. To fangirl. About whatever it is I’m fangirling about at a certain moment in time. That was why I originally created this blog, to vent about my favorite things.

5. Autumn. It’s my favorite season. When it starts getting cold and I can start to wear jumpers and sweaters and everything is orangey… I love it so much.

6. The Starbucks/walking around with your coffee culture. I come from a place where that is not that common, mostly because ours coffees are miniscule (which is good), but I do like walking around with a big hazelnut cappuccino in my hands (1 Hz pump, soy milk, kids temperature) ;-).

7. Baking. I miss it all the time…

8. Sunday lunches. When I’m in Portugal, that is, with my grandmother, brother and nieces, occasionally my other brother, sister, nephew, mom, and all the respective husbands/wives.

9. Travelling. Anywhere, really. As soon as I walk into a plane is like a weight is lifted off my shoulders.

10. TV shows. I became really addicted the first time I came to Barcelona for my Masters. Then, I watched all of Charmed, Ugly Betty, Smallville and others. Since then, I cannot go on without my weekly dose of Television goodies.

10 things I hate:

1. Hot days. Yep, hate them, can’t stand them. Not even if it’s a beach day. I like the beach at a comfortable temperature, I hate having to come to work when there’s 35ºC outside. It drives me nuts.

2. Deadlines. Who doesn’t, right?! I admit that I work a lot better when I have one, but I still hate it.

3. Overcomplication. We all have our tiny moments of overcomplicating things, but some people just over do it.

4. Wasps. I think everyone can understand this one 😉

5. Dubbed TV and movies. In Portugal we have everything in original version. The only stuff that is dubbed are the kid’s shows and kid’s movies. Not in Spain though, here they dub everything, EVERYTHING!!!! I hate it!

6. Kids who think they are all so grown up. There’s no need to explain that.

7. Strikes. Of any kind.

8. The genetically modified organisms debate. People, if you don’t want to eat corn that has been modified, you would have to settle for this (first on the left)?

9. Talking on the phone. It’s really an inconvenience when you live so far away from most people in your life, but I never liked it… never!

10. Public Speaking. I’m generally bad at talking to ANYONE, much less to a room full of people… yeah, I might have gotten to the wrong career, giving that I’ll have to give presentations and stuff – not to mention that in academia you will have to teach class, at one point or the other…

Nominations:

Feel free to do this one if you like, it is actually quite fun, but here we go…

Life and Other Disasters

Josies Book Corner

Life of this city girl

charlottebibliophile (It Does Not Do To Dwell On Dreams And Forget To Live)

Books Baking and Blogging

Things to do, so much things to do (and a lot of procrastination!)

Tomorrow I’ll be on a plane again. Yes, this has been a crazy year so far, I fell I spent more time in airports and inside airplanes that anywhere else… Either way, I’m going home for a few days because my grandmother is turning 87 (and at this point we’re not allowed to miss any birthdays) and then I’m off to Brazil for a week to visit friends with my mom (which hopefully will involve a lot of doing nothing, with caipirinhas and sun bathing by the pool with a good book).

As per usual, with an impending trip, my workload just tripled in this last week or so. Since Sunday, I have been getting to work pretty early and sometimes leaving quite late. Not today though, after leaving yesterday at 8p.m. and being hard at work today at 8a.m., I decided to come home a little early to finish a draft of a paper that I have to discuss with my advisor tomorrow at 8.30 a.m., I just could not work more at work today, I was so tired and needed the comfort of my pajamas.

Turns out, not the brightest move… There’s a party near the residence where I live and it implied very loud (and not very good) music… so, for the last few hours my concentration and ability to work has been at a solid zero! My brain kept busy though, I retrieved a couple of papers that I need, I watched the end of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (I just recently found them… I’m in LOVE!), I added a few more books to my shopping cart at amazon… so, I’ve been procrastinating a lot…

It has to stop now, for realsies! I need to finish this like now, I still have a bunch of other things to do, I have to align some sequences and more importantly, I NEED TO PACK! And I still have to figure out which of my new books I’ll be bringing on my trip.

To top it all off, because I still hadn’t enough going on, TAP (company of all my flights for the next 3 weeks) just announced that they’ll go on strike from May 1st to 10, considering that I’ll be coming back from Brazil to Portugal on the 3rd, and then from Lisbon to Barcelona on the 5th, I’m a little worried… ok, a LOT! Mainly because I have a very important appointment on the 4th, it involves going with my niece and her cousin to the 5 Seconds of Summer concert! I hope they solve stuff before I’m due back…

Rádio Comercial – “Parabéns Carlos do Carmo”

Today, portuguese fado singer Carlos do Carmo received the first ever Grammy to this country, a Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for his 50 plus years of singing career. Fado is a musical style typical of Portugal and you won’t find it anywhere else. To celebrate his achievement, Rádio Comercial (nº1 in Portugal), recorded one of his most famous songs with 35 different artists singing it to give a huge congratulations to Carlos do Carmo.

35 artists, as many as the phrases on the poem, and from various musical backgrounds, sing “Lisboa Menina e Moça”, a poem from José Carlos Ary dos Santos, Joaquim Pessoa and Fernando Tordo, with music from Paulo de Carvalho, extensively associated with the image of Lisbon and Carlos do Carmo career.

Check it out, it’s a gorgeous song and a very nice tribute.

FIFA World Cup 2014: Portugal out, Vampire on the loose and who am I gonna root for…

I promise this is my last post about football… unless something really excites me in the next couple of weeks :P! So last night, and although Portugal won against Ghana, its result was still not enough to make it through the next round. I was sad, obviously, I even shed one tear or two (or a lot more), but I was pleased that at least we played well (and way better than the two previous games). Our players tried their best, but the result we needed was way improbable – although, if Ronaldo’s aim was a little better, we could easily have scored the 5 goals we so desperately needed!

I’m still sad about the things I keep listening and reading online about our national team. People seem to forget the dimension and difficulties of our little country and expect always more, instead of being content about what we’re given. Until 2002 we hardly ever qualified for a World Cup before, and already then we had our “Golden Generation” and we did worse than we did now. Still, people talk, are stupid about the comments they made, think the players had the duty to the more, even if hurt, and that the fault is all on Paulo Bento, our coach. I know I don’t understand much about football, to be honest, 10 years ago I hardly knew what an offside was, but I think is stupid and close minded to judge a team and all the people involved in preparation in 2 games, and that’s what everyone did. Chill out people, we didn’t pass on to the round of 16, but it was hardly the end of the world… 16 national teams go home at this point, and it is known that European teams do not do so well below the equatorial line!

On a very different subject, after having bitten the italian player Chiellini, FIFA gave a close look to Suárez action and decided to pass on a harsh sentence: FIFA disciplinary committee decided that Luis Suárez is suspended for nine matches and banned for four months from any football-related activity!

The FIFA Disciplinary Committee has decided that:

· The player Luis Suárez is regarded as having breached art. 48 par. 1 lit. d of the FIFA Disciplinary Code (FDC) (assault), and art. 57 of the FDC (an act of unsporting behaviour towards another player).

· The player Luis Suárez is to be suspended for nine (9) official matches. The first match of this suspension is to be served in the upcoming FIFA World Cup™ fixture between Colombia and Uruguay on 28 June 2014. The remaining match suspensions shall be served in Uruguay’s next FIFA World Cup match(es), as long as the team qualifies, and/or in the representative team’s subsequent official matches in accordance with art. 38 par. 2a) of the FDC.

· The player Luis Suárez is banned from taking part in any kind of football-related activity (administrative, sports or any other) for a period of four (4) months in accordance with art. 22 of the FDC.

· A stadium ban is pronounced against the player Luis Suárez in accordance with art. 21 of the FDC as follows: the player Luis Suárez is prohibited from entering the confines of any stadium during the period of the ban (point 3). The player Luis Suárez is prohibited from entering the confines of any stadium in which the representative team of Uruguay is playing while he has to serve the nine-match suspension (point 2).

· The player Luis Suárez is ordered to pay a fine in the amount of CHF 100,000.

The decision was notified to the player and the Uruguayan FA today.

“Such behaviour cannot be tolerated on any football pitch, and in particular not at a FIFA World Cup when the eyes of millions of people are on the stars on the field. The Disciplinary Committee took into account all the factors of the case and the degree of Mr Suárez’s guilt in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Code. The decision comes into force as soon it is communicated,” said Claudio Sulser, chairman of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee.

Even though many people already came to his defense, including Diego Maradona, who called FIFA a mafia, I do agree with his punishment. Sure, there are much more serious attacks, players that do dangerous entries, or those who decide to step on some other player’s testicules, or stuff in those lines. Bitting, unlike kicking, elbowing or stepping is not (at least in my opinion) a reflective action, which means that there’s more intention behind it. If you saw it at the moment, we can clearly see Suárez coming straight to the other player and biting him. And it was not the first time either, he was already punished two previous times for the same kind of offence. So, this is strike 3, the guy clearly has a problem! You know Suárez, Vampires are coming out of fashion again… you should think about quitting! I do hope that Barcelona thinks long and hard before spending something like 80 millions euros on a player that won’t be able to play until the end of October (and who clearly has some issues!). I’m just sorry that he was not expelled during the game, because, although I wanted Uruguay to win against Italy, at the moment  that this scene takes place they were still tied, who’s to say if he had been expelled if the result would be the same?! I think it wouldn’t, and maybe it would be Italy now in the 16 round.

Now without Portugal in the competition, I find it hard to find a country to root for. My choice should fall on Brasil: they have the same language as us and a know a lot of people from there, but, I don’t necessarily think that winning the World Cup would be beneficial for the people. I think that a win would throw sand into everybody’s eyes, and most people would forget everything that went on this past few years in order for them to host the World Cup. The other obvious choice would be some of the european teams… so let’s just go game by game…

• Brasil x Chile – I’m going for Brasil because, well, it’s Brasil!
• Colombia x Uruguay – Colombia, because after what happened in their last game, no way I want Uruguay to win!
• Netherlands x Mexico – Here the rule of Europe and sympathy wins! Netherlands all the way!
• Costa Rica x Greece – Greece has a Portuguese coach, so, while he’s competing (and even though I have not forgotten the Euro 2004), I’ll be rooting for them.
• France x Nigeria – Nigeria is was of the few African teams still in play, so my support goes to them
• Germany x Argelia – Same as above… never liked the Germans.
• Argentina x Switzerland – I just seriously dislike Argentina… It might have something to do with Messi… =/ (sorry!)
• Belgium x USA – USA because I think they deserve it. Their national team has evolved so much, and even got their country interested in football, so good for them.

Football and Feelings (and why I’ll be planted in front of my tv tonight!)

Well, as you might have guesses by my last few posts, I love Word Cup season! That said, I was really mad when I wrote my last post, so much in fact, that I wrote it in Portuguese, which, in fact, is something that I hadn’t done so far, so, that should give a clue as to the level of my madness!

If you don’t read Portuguese (shame on you =P), it was basically about how disappointed I was (still am) with the people of my country. Contrary to what you may think, and although I was extremely sad about it, I’m not or ever will be disappointed with my national football team. I’m confident that they give their best anytime they’re representing their country, even when they don’t get the results we wished they would. People should stop criticizing everything and start supporting more! ‘Cause it’s not normal that a random, probably not portuguese Tumblr user is more supportive of our player than us!

That said, I’m happy to read that our coach doesn’t plan on quitting, regardless of the results achieved. I’m happy about it because I think blaming everything that goes wrong in a couple of weeks on the coach is a bunch of bullshit, and I would like to see him get our team classified for the Euro 2016.

And because Portugal plays today, and even though our chances are really slim, they still exist, and I believe in the “Selecção das Quinas”! GO PORTUGAL! #IBELIEVE #EUACREDITO #SOMOSSELECÇÃO #SOMOSPORTUGAL

Portugal: Bestiais a Bestas

Ontem Portugal empatou a duas bolas com os USA, e pela primeira vez desde que comecei a interessar-me pelo futebol, sinto-me envergonhada de ser portuguesa!

Mas calma, não é pela prestação da nossa selecão, mas sim pela infeliz mentalidade do meu povo!

Quem conhece a realidade portuguesa sabe como somos: somos pessimistas! Em Portugal passa-se de Bestial a Besta numa fracção de segundos. Gostamos de falar mal, é triste, mas é verdade. E não importa o mal que estamos, é sempre mais importante salientarmos como as coisas estão mal e de quem é a culpa, que tentar encontrar soluções e uma réstia de optimismo. Claro que se conhecem apenas os portugueses fora de Portugal, esta possivelmente não é a imagem que têm, mas basta abrir os nossos jornais, ver os nossos programas de comentários, ou seguir alguns portugueses no Facebook para perceberem o que digo.

Assim que o Mundial começou e perdemos o nosso primeiro jogo contra a Alemanha, esta onda começou. Não foi a primeira vez, é assim cada vez que não obtemos os resultados que as pessoas acham “aceitaveis”, mas desta vez incomodou-me. De repente toda a gente é um entendido de futebol! Todos os jogadores fazem asneiras! Todas as decisões do treinador são más! Todas as atitudes em campo são erradas! Todas as delarações são estupidas! E eu pergunto-me: SERÁ QUE A UNICA VEZ QUE PORTUGAL ESTEVE UNIDO PELA SELECÇÃO NACIONAL FOI QUANDO TIVEMOS UM TREINADOR ESTRANGEIRO?! QUAL É A NECESSIDADE DESTA MÁ LINGUA?!

No jogo contra a Alemanha, Paulo Bento foi criticado pelos jogadores convocados, devido às muitas lesões no final dos 90 minutos. Eu pergunto: TENDO EM CONTA QUE, POR EXEMPLO, RONALDO NÃO ESTAVA NA MELHOR CONDIÇÃO FÍSICA QUANDO COMEÇOU A PREPARAÇÃO, ISSO QUER DIZER QUE PAULO BENTO NÃO O DEVIA TER CONVOCADO? REALLY?! O MELHOR DO MUNDO?!

Outra grande critica feita foi ao Pepe, que ele não podia ter reagido assim. Ora, primeiro, tendo em conta a onda de comportamentos dos arbitros até ao momento que estavam mais numa de avisar que de caras prejudicar as equipas, achei a expulsão do Pepe injusta. Já sei, questões “comportamentais” têm que ser punidas… alguem devia ir dizer isso ao meninos dos USA que ontem deu uma cotovelada ao Meireles… Mas não sou a unica a achar que foi inapropiada a expulsão, os comentadores futbolisticos espanhois acham também que ele foi mal expulso… Mas voltando ao ponto, SIM, O PEPE DEVIA SABER MELHOR, NÃO SE DEVIA DEIXAR AFECTAR E BLA BLA BLA, MAS ATÉ ESTARMOS SOBRE O TIPO DE PRESSAO QUE ELE ESTAVA NAQUELE MOMENTO, PODEMOS MESMO CRITICAR UMA ATITUDE MAIS DO QUE HUMANA?! (Zidane, anyone?!)

Triste, é ver este tipo de declarações:

A minha paciencia chegou ao limite ontem durante o jogo com os USA. Portugal entrou bem no jogo. Podia ter feito mais? Claro! Mas é obvio que a selecção não está num bom momento. Tivemos outras duas lesões imprevistas durante o jogo, o que torna bastante complicado papel de Paulo Bento, que tem passado os ultimos jogos mais a gerir o plantel que propriamente a fazer decisões tacticas. Mas não jogamos mal. Como é que as pessoas podem dizer que estão “ENVERGONHADOS” com a prestação da selecção?! Que deviam “VIR PARA CASA E PARAR DE DAR VERGONHAS”?! Será que eu tenho uma definição diferente de “vergonha”?! Não foi assim há tantos anos que Portugal nem se apurava para os campeonatos do Mundo, apenas a partir de 2002 temos sido presença assidua. E agora eles têm obrigação de passar da fase de grupos?! Porquê?! Sabem que metade das selecções não passam, certo?! Qual é a vergonha de perder com uma Alemanha ou empatar com os Estados Unidos? Ou mesmo se perdermos contra o Gana?!

Vergonha é a falta de apoio que o nosso povo dá! E nem vou só falar da selecção, basta olhar para os nossos clubes. Durante metade do ano os estadios e futebol andam às moscas. As pessoas começam a ir ao futebol quando a sua equipa está numa posição “relativamente confortável”. E isto é o tipo de adeptos que temos e que somos. Falsos! Com a selecção também somos assim, mas piores, porque como temos o melhor jogador do Mundo, achamos que de alguma forma a selecção tem obrigação de também ser das melhores do Mundo.

Vergonha é as pessoas esconderem-se por detrás das redes sociais, para mandar bitates e fazeres declarações menos proprias, e chamarem nomes a jogadores, seleccionadores ou preparadores fisicos.

Vergonha é a falta de respeito que se observa de uma forma diária, em relação a um grupo de pessoas que está a dar o seu melhor, mesmo que o seu melhor neste momento não corresponda à nossa ideia do “seu melhor”.

Vergonha é numa altura em que deviamos estar unidos, apoiar os nossos jogadores, a nossa federação, a nossa selecção, só sabemos criticar e dizer mal.

Para terminar, não me interessa se passamos à proxima fase ou se voltamos para casa depois do proximo jogo, não me importa se nos qualificamos para o proximo Europeu ou Mundial. Cada vez que a nossa selecção jogar, eu acredito! #somosselecção #euacredito #Portugal

Portugal National Team: 2000-2012

I love the International Football tournaments! I’m a late bloomer in regards to football, I always watched the occasional game, rooted for my team (Sporting) or the National team, but it wasn’t until Portugal hosted the UEFA Euro 2004 that I really started to pay attention – me and most of my generation.

Four years before, however, is where the dream started. The UEFA Euro 2000, organized between Belgium and the Netherlands, saw the epitome of our “Golden Generation”. We won our three games from the group stage, winning with Romania and England, and given that we already had enough points to pass on, our coach rested some of our biggest players for the match against Germany, and we played with our so-called B-team, where Sergio Conceição, in a match that i still vividly remember, made an hat-trick, and we won 3-0!

That year we went to the semi-finals, where we played with France, and unfortunately lost, with a penalty converted by Zidane at the 117 minutes mark, due to a “hand” from Abel Xavier. To this day, this is probably still one of the most heated discussions you can have with a Portuguese supporter, because there’s no doubt that there was a touch, but what was in question was the intentionality of that touch, and the referee decided that Abel Xavier willingly put his hand in the trajectory of the ball, in order to stop its progress. And just like this, the Euro 2000 was over.

The 2002 FIFA World Cup is not even worth mentioning… it was that bad! And then came the UEFA Euro 2004, which was incredible, and most importantly, we had a kick ass national team!

Back then, Cristiano Ronaldo was just a 19 year old kid, playing in Manchester, that still wore the number 17 and didn’t have a permanent spot on the main team. The real stars were other names, such as Luis Figo, Rui Costa, Pauleta, Fernando Couto, Ricardo Carvalho, Rui Jorge or Ricardo. Just a year after he arrived to train the team, the brazilian coach Luiz Felipe Scolari encouraged the people to believe and for the very first time really, we did! And we did so well!!! We got to the Final, having lost only 2 games throughout the whole competition, the first one and the last, both against Greece. On the way, we won with Spain, England or the Netherlands.

 

Two years later, we managed to qualify to the FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany. Once again, Luiz Felipe Scolari managed what no one before him could: unify the country in front of the TV screens! Everywhere you went in Portugal, you would see the flags flying from the windows, scarfs in the cars and everyone supporting their players. This was going to be the goodbye to the last members of our “Golden Generation”, such as Luis Figo.

So, taking advantage of the fact that Angola also qualified and was on Portugal’s group, me and a big chunk of my family, flew to Germany, where we watched the first two games of Portugal and Angola.

We won all the games in our group stage and went to the round of 16, where we won with the Netherlands. Next was England in the Quarter Finals, and, as we were used to by now, we had to go to penalties. The country stopped! The man of the hour was our goal keeper, Ricardo, who not only kept 3 balls from coming in, he also did it without gloves! Unfortunately we lost with France in the Semi Finals, and then again with Germany and ended in 4th place.

In the UEFA Euro 2008 we stayed for the Quarter-finals, losing to Germany, and shortly after that we said goodbye to our coach, Luiz Filipe Scolari.

Four years ago, at the South Africa FIFA World Cup 2010, we stayed for the Round of 16, losing to Spain, who would become World Champion that year. The team, now over the direction of Carlos Queiroz, failed to reach the unity that had once had, and the coach had enough problems of his own with FIFA after the World Cup.

Soon after, Paulo Bento took over the team. The now coach is none other that number 17 in the first photo of this post! At the UEFA Euro 2012, in Poland and Ukraine, we reached the Semi-finals, losing again to Spain, who would become, again, European Champion.

Portugal? Is that near Brazil?!

I’ve been to the United States for three times now and there’re something that don’t cease to amaze me. I’ve been in several places, such as LA, Las Vegas, New York, Atlanta, Miami, Daytona Beach, Cape Corals, Orlando, Palm Springs, …, but it was in Florida that I’ve heard 2 of the most weird things…

So, after hearing a lot of Brazilian people in an outlet near Orlando, we got into a shop where the guy asks us what language do we speak – Portuguese – and “obviously” he asks “So, you guys live in Brazil?” – WHAT????!!! – “No, we live in Portugal, where the Portuguese language comes from” – so, to clarify: “Portuguese language comes from Portugal!”.

Then my mom and I set of for Cape Canaveral (for the Kennedy Space Center) and stopped in a gas station where the guy (once again) asks where we come from – “Portugal? Where’s that? Is that near Brazil?” – SAY WHAT?!!! – “No! Portugal is in EUROPE!”.

It wouldn’t be such a big deal, if it didn’t happen almost every time I say where I’m from in the US!