An update on Life, the Universe and Everything

Hello all! After a 4 days stay in the south, with no computer and limited internet access, I'm back to blogging.

And I finally know where I'll be in the next 6 to 9 months. Well, kind of. So far I know the country and the company.

These past 4 days were a mix of fun and stress. The Course in International Practises that I was forced to attend was tiring, starting at 8:30 am and only finishing at 6:30 or 7:00 pm. With little time for lunch and coffee breaks. And we had homework on the first day that kept us all awake till 2:30 am.

But I've met a lot of new people, from different places of the country, which was fun. I also re-encountered some people that I hadn't seen in years!

Some of the talks were really good - mostly the ones dealing with adapting to different countries and people telling their stories - others were completely dull and mind-numbing - the ones dealing with management of international corporation and globalization and imports and exports and *snore*.... But all the talks were just keeping us all (us 563 interns that didn't know where we would go) in a severe state of anxiety. Some talks made us want to go to that country (China! USA! Japan!), others made us dread it (China, Angola.). And the time for the big reveal seemed to never come.

But when it did come, we where all on our toes, keeping silent and praying, wishing for some places and dreading others. And they revealed the destinations alphabetically. By the name of the country.

So we started with Germany (Alemanha in Portuguese), Angola, Austria, Brazil... and my name never appeared. Each new country that showed on screen made me instantly think whether I would like to go there or not.

My destination was a country that I was both wishing and dreading. On one hand it was close to home, I could come here any time I wanted to, and I knew what it would be like. On the other hand it was close to home and I knew what it would be like, so no surprise there. As you might have guessed, the destination is Spain.

I don't know yet where in Spain I'll be, but it all points to Madrid. I'll need to train my Spanish, because right now I can understand it most of the times, but I am crap at speaking - I foresee that I'll be reading a lot of Spanish books, in Spanish.

The company is Sierra, which is part of a big Portuguese group. It is responsible for shopping centres, so I'm a bit of a loss on what I'll be doing.

I'll try to keep on posting book reviews (and maybe some recipes) in the next year.

And this is also a good time to wish everyone:

Happy Holidays!