.... i am almost 27..

Ola!
Tomorrow I have a birthday - 27th. 73 years of life left.:) This is probably my last post this year, because I will be without computer till January. I am very lazy to go to school to the internet room...
I am going to spend Christmas in Bragança with Erasmus students - my friends: Stephanie, Kinga, Daniel, Alex and Cristina. We will make a nice dinner in my house and try to make a family ambient. We already made the Xmas tree - it is beautiful... I will put the photos fater New year.
This year was very good for me - did a lot of good things, wnet to a lot of places, seen so many faces... Meet some new friends. Perfect. There is still a lot to cme in my life - I know it will.
I would just like to wish everybody Merry Christmass and a Happy New Year. Wish you to stay healthy and happy and to be yourself!!!! Noting is more interesting than being you. Hope you will achive your goals you set and set new one - higher.
Ate proximo ano.

Bragança

WORKS, BLOODY WORKS...

This week I have a lot of works to do for the school. I have to finish everything till 20th of December, because in January I will not go to school - we are going to preparations to Algarve. I can not wait my friend from Slovenija to come on 27th of December. Most of the days I am training alone, there is no athletes here, who I could join. I am a bit dissapointed, but I stick to my training plan every day.
I think if you can not do it yourself, you can not do it at all.
We are having a Christmass party in my house with the Erasmus students who stay here. I am happy to host them, all my flatmates are going home, of course. We are going to have a dinner and after that we are probably going to church. How many people will be present, still do not know.
I am going back to my work for Contabilidade = accounting .
Ate amanhã.

European Cross Country Championship 2007 TORO

Zamora, Toro; ESPANHA
Yesterday we had a very nice trip to Spain with Arek - the photoman, Sebastian, Lech and Altino - the driver. We went to watch the EAA Cross Country Championship in Toro. We started our trip with a half hour delay, because the night before the trip was a bit long for most of us. They picked me up at 7:30 a.m. (portuguese time zone). The destionation is 130 km from Bragança, so it was not really a long trip, but it was very interesting one.
The weather was sunny, no clouds and the ambience in the car was a bit sleepy (Arek had to make it up for the last night). It took us some time to find the place of the event - we were lucky that Altino saw a very small sign with the direction of the competition.
We arrived to the "place of the crime" a bit later than we planned, so we missed the first two competitions of female and male juniors. I found my friends from Slovenija more or less immediately - I was so happy to meet someone from my country after two months. A big surprise happened when I wanted to speak with them in my language and I had to find the words to say... I did not speak in Slovenian language for 2 month to anyone live, so it took some time to switch my language.
We found our position for watching the race - and tried to enjoy our day as much as we could - anyone in his own way. Sebastian, Lech were giving atention to their Polish collegues, I was was cruising around the competition to see famous faces from the Track&Fields of the Europe, Arek was taking photos and Altino was observing his Portuguese athletes.
For me was very interesting to see their warm up, what kind type they do, the exercises... Everything I could see. In the audience I recognized Mayte Martinez of Spain and I could not resist to speak with her. I liked her English with a Spanish accent.:)
The most interesting races were of course the senior ones. In female Spanish native Marta DOMINGUES won in a very souvereign way - leaping apart from the opponents in the final 500m and coming home with her hands high in the air to celebrate her victory.
In the man race the sitiation was similar; Sergey LEBID from Ukraine outsprinted Mustafa from Sweden in the last 300m.
After the competition we took some photos together and I also took some photos with he female winner MArta, who was celebrating in some calm place behind some old house. We I spoke with her, she really impressed me - her handshake was very strong and her look was so determined one. She was really happy and I could feel her energy.
After we left Toro, we went to Zamora to hotel were Slovenian team stayed to spend some time with them. Nastja brought me my stuff, which my friends sent me from Slovenija and I gave her some stuff to take to Slovenija.
We also took a small tour through the city and we all found it very beautiful. The buildings were manly old and pretty good kept.
We wanted to go on some party they usually make after the competion but we found out that it colud be a problem to enter there, because we are not the participants of the competition. So we went home around 8 p.m. and we finished our trip in Bragança - Lech and Sebastian went home and Altino, Arek & me went to some small restaurant to have a dinner: françesinha for Altino, tourada for me and some steak for Arek.
I got home very tired, but veru satisfied with the day and trip we made.
Ate amanhã.

VILA REAL 2. 12. 07

VILA REAL

On Sunday we spent the day in Vila Real with Toze, his feeyonce Joana and his sister Isabela. It was a nice day full of happenings... In the shopping centre I met Trindado from Sao Tome e Principe and he explained me how to prepare manioca and how to cook the bananas. He was very nice man and explained me everything in details.
Check the photos...

Jantar at Marisa's parents house 1.12.07

Yesterday evening I was invited to dinner with Toze (my brother - we call each other that way, because we are like a family). to Marisa's parents at the village 20km out of Bragança. The dinner was perfect: we ate soup of vegetables, pork liver baked in the fireplace, quejio caseiro (cheese homemade) some specila saussage made of pork meat and bread and we drank some caseiro wine. There was David - Marisa's father, mother of Marisa, and two grandmother of Marisa - is 91 years old and she still works in the field and is still pretty healthy. After the dinner I watched how they prepare special kind of saussage - sweet one. Yes, that's right - sweet. They boil bread in the water, after they put pork meat, honey, nuts, canela and pork blood into it and mix alltogether. I took some photos, take a look. They invited me to spend Christmass eve with them... I will keep that in my mind... It was very nice evening for me to spend some time and take some insight of Portuguese people who live in a village. For the first time a saw a table were they put fire in the big plate below it and you can put your feet to warm them up. It is on the photo. Ate amanhã.

Dinner - multinacional

Jantar multinacional











Yesterday we had dinner in my house - I invited Daniel and Alex(his new nickname: Babyface) from Romania and Anna from Poland and Stephanie a.k.a. Rudolf from Belgium. We ate pasta with ham, chicken and pieces of saussages with milk cream. We had two deserts: cake with cottage cheese and manga - Toze's speciality. It was a great evening, we laughed a lot and had great time together. I went to bed at 3 a.m.; we started at 20h. We have to repeat this session - I beleive we all liked it very much.
Today I woke up at 7:30. I felt pretty tired but i get out of bed although. At 11 a.m. I had a test run 4km at the IPB track and I run pretty good - I was very satisfied with my time and feelings during the run. In the afternoon i had an easy run of 8km and now I feel tired but very satisfied - like floatng above the land. It is great. Sebastian and Altino helped me with the run - running some laps with me - thank you friends.
Tonight I am going to sleep like a baby. :)

Ate amanhã.

Test at the stadium of IPB

Today I did my 30m flying and 400m maximum speed at the track. The weather was perfect and the company also:professor Bragada, Altino and Sebastian. Altino filmed my 30m flying and Mr. Bragada clocked the time and took the drop of blood after the test for the lactate analysis. Times were good - due to running in usual running shoes. It was very strange for the students in school when they saw me in shorts in this period of the year...

Photos from INSTALADA

Finally i got the pictures from Instalada- - tha party I wrote in one of





the previous posts.... Take a look...

After the test....














I need a rest...

The Test...

My day at the IPB track... With my friends from Poland (Seb & Anna) ...

Today i did my Lactate treshold and VO2max test - I was tired after the test, but also very satisfied... I did my test in the morning and now is evening - 20:45 and I feel very good (special kind of satisfaction, so fulfilling...). Perfeito. I am satisfied in my heart. I realized today, that I miss racing and competitions and the nervousness that you feel before the start, the adrenaline...
Thanks God, I am alive and healthy.
It feels great to be a sportsman.
To be an athlete.
Peace out.
(Writen 22-11-2007)

It's raining man...

It is a beautiful rainy day today: it is raining for the second time, since I arrived to Bragança (10.10.07) and it feels like the temperatures went a bit up - it is not cold. I had a presentation today in school: it was almost perfect. Usually I am nervous when I have to do things like that. It seems I changed a bit since I came here. I am more open, I think. Today I have a rest and a massage (a frined from Poland - Ana is a masseur, so...). I beleive it will be better than two weeks ago, when I went to some beauty studio in the city and massage was very poor - the woman was to gentle (like she was afraid to squeeze my muscles and she was a bit too shy for the masseur) so I said to her: Can you do it a little bit harder. And I did not notice any big change... And I said to her: "You can kill me." But she couldn't. After that she was tired, but... I am lucky that I have other option - I am going to check today - but I beleive it can be worse. Next week I have the VO2max test, Lactate treshold test on a running treadmill and 30m max speed, 400m max speed, 4000m max speed on the track - with Lactate take away before and after. It will be interesting, what the tests will show. This week I have a plan 100km running total + flexibility: 2units + running technique: 2 units + hurdling technique: 1 unit + general strenght training: 2 units. I will just train and rest, like last week - I need a lot of rest for regeneration... I will go to school only tomorrow for 1 hour and on Thursday for 1 hour - exam.

Another week is behind me...

This week was very productive for me: I trained good, rest a lot (every day in the afternoon), did not go to school much - only Portuguese class. I feel great - I feel better every day I wake up. My plan is being fulfilled, my morning heart rate is going down: 37 yesterday morning - 10 days ago it was still 48. Good rest is very effective.
Run 91 kms, strenght, flexibility, technique, hurdling...
I am so happy, being myself again!!!!!!! I am so happy, that I am healthy, so I can do things I love to do.
Tomorrow I have a presentation at school - I am ready!!!!

Ate amanhã.

LIFE - I LOVE IT!!!!
TO ALL MY FRIENDS: I LOVE YOU!!!!!!

It is really good when you surrounded by people who see good things in you and what I find very important too, that those people tell you, what they see in you. I a lot of times do the same: I do not tell people: how much i appreciate them, how much they mean to me, that they have a good heart, that they look beautiful, that i am glad to know them.
Today i received an the email from a friend of mine, whom i met two weeks ago. It was really nice to read these words she wrote... Here is a copy - Juliana i beleive you do not mind I put it here:

Hello My Dear!!

I have always talking about you. I am still surprise about what I could see in you another day: Gandhi, religion, life, how see life...
I am very happy with my life, everything is perfect. Thanks God!
I just arrived on Wedsday in Brasil. I am happy to see my family and friends again, but I miss my boyfriend, my classes and some things in my European's life, as security public feelings.
I am waiting for you in MSN.
See you than,

This is one of the greatest compliments i received ever: To see Gandhi in me... Thanks Juliana.:)
Gandhi was really a man i admire very much - he is my idol. To live the life he lived...

Check his website: http://www.mkgandhi.org/

Ate amanhã.

My dream is to fly...

Like a hawk or an eagle...
Smoothly above the land, with no energy expenditure...
Free...
Free...

Photo from Mirandela meia maratona

I received the photos from the halfmarathon i run 2 weeks ago, so you can take some impresion about it.

I was really happy to run again the race, eventhough i was not prepared for running good results - but the picture tells everything about my feeling at the finish.

Sabado, 11. 11. 2007. - CATiA's birthday

At saturday i was invited to dinner at 21:30 - it was kind of a dinner with friends and expecting the midnight to come - to celebrate the birthday (yes, like expecting New year). CAtia and her twin sister invited their friends and we met at the restaurant. It was nice place to be and the company
also was perfeito. After to Barnabeu pub - very nice place also, where we waited for the midnight. Then it was a usual "happy birthday" song and after taht we told them the best wishes to them. I found it a bit different than in my country, where we usually take some time and we really tell the people what we wish for them, but in here it was like: just kisses and everybody said like happy birthday and that was it. It was funny, because I also did it that way, when i saw other people the way they did it. Nevermind - I said to myself, i like it more my way, so next time I will do it Slovenian way.:)
I went home early (0:30 - yes that is early for Bragança), because of the work we had to do nexy day in the forest. I was very pleased, that i was invited to their birthday party - I think they are really nice persons - one of the best i met so far here.

Due to circumstances beyond my control I am master of my fate and captain of my soul. — Ashleigh Brilliant

Are you really master of your fate and captain of your soul?

Take a look at this - very interesting:

http://www.wikihow.com/Be-Honest-With-Yourself

VINHAIS

Ola!

It is a hard working day behind me... I was all day in my forest with my flatmates Toze and Egas and his girlfriend Sandra. We had to pick the woods for the winter - because in Portugal houses usually do not have central heating system... We have been working all day very hard and we came home very tired and also satisfied because we did something good for us. Now the house will be warm all winter...
After 10 years I cut the trees to smaller pieces again with the axe... And i remembered when i used to do that with my father in Bosnia at my age 10. In taht moment I felt very grateful to my father (by the way today it is his day - St. Martin - his name is Martin), because he thaught me to do that, eventhough it is nothing special. Today it was kind of a rest, because i did not think of anything - no worries, just work and work... Like a meditation...
... in the mixture of all kind of colours that can be seen in the nature in the autumn.... I am going to sleep like a one year old baby...

SLOVENIAN BEAUTY....


Picture tells everything... (thanks to DPOP).

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL...

Today i woke up a bit tired because i went to bed late. I was like - i have a training to do and i am already tired... I spoke with my friend Jure about how i feel here and i said to him i somekind f a way do not feel the city... I am not on the same frequency... Here things seem so pasive and it does not fit with my personality - i am always in the move... I have to lead my life the way i know it is best for me and stay out of the things that are leading me to the wrong direction. In the first place i came here to train good and to rest as much as possible. Of course i want to meet new people, make new friends, party, go to school, visit new places, cities.... ... but somethings do not fit together and you have to make a choice.
I choose me - i am an athlete and a sportsman in the first place.
I complained today, that there is no company for running here... bla bla... I went out on my run and i saw two men running with respectable tempo - i joined them and we went together to the stadium. We introduced oureselves and they were policemen. I was like: i started thinking of running company and i immediately got some. LIFE IS BEautiFUL...
I did a good traing today and i decided not to go to school to gimnastics -i will take a rest this afternoon and stay home.

INSTALADA ShOWcaSe MULtiARTeS

Yesterday i was at Instalada party... My first one. It was a very nice party for me and i think for all the people there. The students of the School of Arts prepared the events in their houses - in the first house (Inaguraçao Incurtada - exibiçao de curtas, casa 51): there was a dinner (first vegetarian dinner for me in Bragança and i could not eat much because i ate in cantina with Daniel and Alex from Romania) and the house was really nice place - like a somekind of a gallery -some paintings in the living room are fantastic for my taste. In the second house(Presentir - Casa 100) was a party in a garage - girls made a really nice scene - we came into the dark place, there was calm music playing and you could feel the energy in the place... Perfect. After i do not know how much time, the girls light the candles and we went to the main part of a garage - we had some tea there and tallking to each other. In the third house (Instalaçao - Inside the Future, Casa 54) was tranformed into gallery - there were the arts of Romanian students: Cosma, Dan, Alex and Kristina. I went home early, because of my training, but i will maybe go check today again.
I will put some photos as soon as i get them - it is the best for you to see what i am writing about.

Ate amanhã

Ola!

Today I started with my training twice a day (10 traings per week). It feels really good, when you finish your training - it feels like floating in non-gravity , when you lie down after the shower. I am not going often to school - i have a lot of works to do at home, so i do not have to go so often. It is really good, because i can get a good rest.
I light some fire in Bragança already: one friend of mine also started running more regurarly and became more interested in do something good for himself: physical activity, healthy food... It really makes me happy, when i see people start moving... Keep it on like that Altino!!!
This week is the "Semana do calioro" - it means that Week of the freshmen. It is going to be party hole week, and on Saturday caloiros will became real students after they pass some test older students prepare for them.
The weather here is still warm - 18 degrees celsius during the day, no rain... perfeito. Eu falo um pouqo Portugues. Eu quero falar Portugues bom.

Ate amanhã...

Ola!

Esta e minha morada é Portuguesa:

Tomaz Plibersek

Rua Dr. Deocleciano de Carvalho 15

5300 - 455 BRAGANÇA

PORTUGAL EU

+351915271413

On Friday i was in Mirandela - the city 50 km away from Bragança. I met a a girl from Brasil and she showed me some placc in Mirandela... We have not been at many places, because i felt like i do not want be a tourist here and see all the... I like to know people better and that is more important to me. Every city has its castle, museum, park... More or less things are similar everywhere. She is a very nice person and i was very happy to meet her. We had great tme together and we discussed a lot of things about all sorts sights in life.

Yesterday, 3. 11. 2007 i had training in the evening on the course around IPB (Instituto Politecnico de Bragança). It is a nice course, alternating a bit abd it is around 3050m long. It is nice for me to do my long intervals in next months.

In the evening we went for a drink with my flatmate Egas, his girlfriend Sandra, Katja and her twin sister to some bar - it was a nice a place. After that Katja and her sister went home and we went to Biblioteca cafe, where we met Ricardo( he is on Erasmus exchange in Slovenija right now) and Ana. I was really surprised and so was Ricardo to meet someone on Erasmus exchange in his city form the country where he is staying. :) We had a nice conversation and i hope we will meet again, before he goes to Ljubljana.


Ate amanhã.

Bragança, Helloween...

It was a great party here in Bragança: went out with the Stephanie, Kinga, we had been waiting for Kristina and Nina to come. They did not show up, so i went home and when i was walking i called Tozé and ask him if he wants to have a drink with me. He asid i am going to meet my friends in a village and we can go there. We went there: it was a Helloween party in village bar, which also had a place for dancing in the back. It was really good athmosphere there - people were laughing and dancing with a special energy. Some woman invited me for a dance i she taught me some portuguese dance. After village party Tozé and i went to Bragança - Victoria bar, where Rasmus students usually gather. There we met Stephanie, Kinga, Kristina, Nina, Vitor.... a mass of students. You where supposed to be sleeping!!!! - they said to me. :) It was Kristina s 20th birthday and she was really having great time - hugging everybody, laughing, dancing... We then went to Zona mais and then to Mercado, where we danced till 6 a.m. It was really good night.
1. 11. 2007: I woke up at 10 a.m. and went running at 11. Eventhough i was up all night i had good feeling during running through Zona Turistica lap. After traing had lunch and went to sleep for 2 hours...
Portugal i love you...

PORTUGAL, Bragança

Right now am in Bragança, on my Eramus students exchange and i will stay here till March. Bragança is a very beautiful city in district Tras-o-Montes in the EastNorth of Portugal, near the spanish border. There are a lot of students in the city, which makes life in here so special. Nightlife here is always fun - all the bars all full during the week...