Departure imminent

Well, as I roll up to my last 24 hours in Portugal, I feel slightly down about the prospect of going home.

In retrospect, I would say that my year abroad has been far from what I had predicted. I am a new man after it, but I don't know if it's for the better or the worse. I now know my weaknesses, and what I can't live without.

I've been bored senseless in Frost-Trol, giggled with Carmen when I was in the Admin office of Frost-Trol, been lonely in Lisbon, felt like a tit on my nights out (all 4 of them), seen how my friends and family react to me not being there... the list is endless. I've been through severe bouts of depression, which I've kept from both family and friends. It's been worse than I've let on folks... but it's finally coming to an end.

If I were to have the chance of doing this again, I would have studied in Porto University, and done the 1st semester, not the 2nd. I would have worked still in Spain, but who knows where I would have ended up... it might have been Frost-Trol, then again it might have been Barcelona or even somwhere else.

I had fun with the Geordies when they come to visit me, I had a brilliant time with Carmen and Nacho in Gijón, and appreciated it so much when mum and dad or Mark came visiting me.

This has taught me that your future is uncertain. You can plan and predict all you want, but in the end, it's always different to what you expect. And what of my future? Well, I don't know. I think the next few months will be very hard with the lack of money and moving into a new flat. I think I'm gonna be so pleased to see my mates (even if they are less ecstatic!); for me it's a big thing, perhaps not for them, and they'll have to get used to me being mental about them for a few weeks! :-D

I would say my language has definately inproved, and I've grown more confident in both languages. I still don't think the Spanish is as good as it should be, and my Portuguese is good, but not up to my desired standard. I have done my best, and that's all I can do.

One thing I think will piss me off big style is when I get back to University in September. I don't think I will be able to cope with all the people gushing about how much of a fantastic time they had (subliminally saying, my RA is better than yours so fuck you) and ow they just couldn't imagine leaving their host city and they can't wait to get back. Well, in my experience, those people have been living with a bunch of English people getting pissed every day. As my very good friend Crystal put it, "if you haven't spent any time hating the country you're in, you've not had the full RA experience" (or something along those lines!

What of the blogs? Well, I might keep them up, who knows? I will have people to talk to, so bloggin will be a less essential part of my life. I shall have to make sure I e-mail people like Carmen and Nacho lol!

It's been a mental 10½ months, with many ups and downs. It's something I shall take away as being an important part of me. My experience of Ra has been one of failure, but one partly of my own doing, party due to circumstances out of my control.

This is me, over and out, going to go and meet Mark at the airport.

Ben xxx

Japanese tutorial video.

This is well funny and had me tittering away! Only in Japan, the land of the mad! lol

The final curtain

The end of the RA is coming, and it's coming up quite quickly! lol Only a few more days to go now.

Sort of got over my rant from the other day. I think I'm just pissed off 'cos I feel like I'm being left out of the loop on things, it's hard to explain, but I know what I mean to me, in myself, so it's all around goodness.

Shaz, the angel, text me today saying there were some part-time shifts available at RBS where she works. She said she'd pass my details on tomorrow. She's a total star! I know it's RBS callcentre, and Shaz is saying how it gets on her tats sometimes, but hey it's money and a job, so who cares?

In my times of boredom, I've been researching the family history. It's been spectacularly hard to find some information, like my great-granddad Doyle's history is being a pain. As is my grandad Ernest's, so i've ordered some certificates online, which were only a few quid each! I'm making it into something proper and I think I'm going to give it to my dad for Christmas, 'cos he loves family history and things like that, and I can use the certificates for decoration. Mark can help me with that! lol

If you're interested, here's as far as I've got:


I'm gonna watch a DVD, tra!

Ben xxx

Pissed off, fed up, wanna go home, got fuck all money...

The title says it all concisely.

I'm sick of having nothing to do. I'm not going to go out walking all on my own, 'cos I'm sick of being on my own and walking about.

I'm not sleeping properly, I'm getting an acute case of insomnia. I'm sick of having nothing interesting to say, and I'm pissed off that I've got no money.

When I get home, I'll have no money, fuck all to do, no job, I have to move house, the stress of getting home, and the fact that this summer, due to pennilessness, I'll be having no summer holiday, no drinking, no fun and no good times.

When will life stop taking a huge shit on me, and bestow me with good fortune? There's no point staying here longer than I have to, but equally I'm not too thrilled at having sod all to do all summer. Plus I'll have bills and rent to pay, all on £0 a week in earnings. Fooking fantastic.

I can't even look for a temp job 'cos they'll have all been taken up over summer by other students. For fuck's sake...

7½ days and counting!

Yay, very excited now. Mark has joined the 21st century and got a MySpace! Bless him!

Not dome much really. Been looking up the family history, which is quite interesting really!! Turns out my ancestry is very concentrated in Lancashire! In fact, with the surname Wallwork, my Nana Nora's maiden name, it turns out we're from nobility! Wallwork was created when two rich people got married and created a new surname, or sommat. Not looked into it 100% yet!

I need to pay the rent later! Bugger! Although she's cut it in half to €120 for me 'cos I'm only here half a month! Bless Dona Ana!

Ben xxx

Apparently...

You Are

A Robo Pumpkin Face You would make a good pumpkin cyborg.

What's Your Pumpkin Face?

Well, it tickled me! lol

BTW, anyone that can work out who Æþelstān is wins a special prize from Portugal! Yay!

Ben xxx

(Being random, having eaten the two oreos...)

A Tobbogan Slide into Home-10 days and counting

You Are 62% Indie

You're a very indie person, and admit it, you look down a little on people who strive to be normal. You'll indulge in a little mainstream pop culture every now and then. But for you, anything not indie is a guilty pleasure!

How Indie Are You?

Had a good day today! Went to Castelo de São Gorge in Lisbon with Natalie, which was nice. We ambled through the streets of Alfama, and then to Praça do Comércio and then we went to catch the train. We talked about Rui's boyfriend and me leaving Lisbon! T'was a good day out.

Cooked a HUGE trout when I got home, bit there wasn't enough space in the frying pan, as that's the only way of cooking I have. Anyway got it cooked (mostly - there was still a sushi-esque section near the top of the fish, but I cut that off) but could only eat half of it. The faff of the bones is annoying enough, but yeah, I'll finish it tomorrow.

11 days and counting! I'm well excited. Sad at the same time, but I know it'll be ace back home seeing everyone and catching up on the year! Mark's excited too, and I'll have a new home to get used to too. I think I'll miss Denning Place, as it's a nice flat, but one seeing Liz Lane's Luxury Living webpage, I'm compelled (by Jesus Christ Tonight on a Bike) to move away from them. I wish the landlord the best of luck in shifting flats with them - he'll bloody need it! lol

Eating Oreos, so must dash.

Excited Squeals,

Benjy xxx

Æþelstān

Hey everyone,

Well, the Portuguese have been pissing me off with their constant chanting and driving around screaming chants out of cars and beeping their horns! God, it's only football! I agree, it was a tense match, but at the be all and end all of it, the Portuguese couldn't even score a goal against us when we were down to 10 men and we played an extra half an hour, not to mention you won it on penalties. So why they're so proud I don't know... not that much skill involved in taking a penalty is there? Mind you we always lose on penalties - I said this to the housemates before the match.

Anyway, football comment over and done with. Had a few boring days really. I did my last exam on Wednesday, so now it's just a matter of waiting to go home forever. Mark looked at a new flat with furniture in it. It looks like it's got a smaller living room, but the bedrooms are bigger, so perhaps it's better. I dunno...

People have got their results from back home, and I'm pleased to say that they all did well! Well done guys!

12 days to go!! I can't wait!

Tra!

Cynders

Hi peeps,

17 days to go! I'm so excited!! It's gonna be proper bo'!

Everything seems to be going smoothish back home with the proposed move. Hopefully it'll be all sorted without problems. Dad is going to be my guarantor, as I've not been working in the past year! I hate not having a job!

Well, to be honest, it's been a productive day. I need to start my Residence Abroad report for my Portuguese stay, which I think I'll start on Thursday and spend plenty of time on it. I've got an exam tomorrow in Technical Translation. I think it'll be ok, the Economic Translation was the worst. Literary and Journalistic was easyish, barr the odd word and construction. But hey, it doesn't count towards anything so I'm not faffed. I need to see Plastic Face tomorrow about getting a transcript of marks sent to my home address. Bah! That'll be a barrell of laughs no doubt.

Had a big clean today. My room is all spick and span, and I've had a mega wash day and cleared all my clothes. I've just got the bed clothes to finish off. The duvet is in the dryer as we speak, here's hoping it doesn't spontaneously combust! lol

Well, I suppose I'd better be scooting off!

Love and hugs,

Ben xxxx

PS I downloaded a load of mint songs last night, and some music videos! I got Absolutely Fabulous by the Pet Shop Boys! I love it! And I got camp 80's tune It Feel Like I'm in Love by Kelly Marie! It's rockin' I tell thee that for nowt!

Disco Fever

Hey all,

It's been a gorge day here today. I didn't get to sleep until late though.

Well, Mark rang the other day to tell me that our landlord has decided to change over to a different estate agents. We're currently with Griffin Estates, and he wants to change to Luxury Living. The only dealings we've ever had with Luxury Living was with this fat bitch called Liz Lane who was totally rude and obnoxious with me when I bollocked her for constantly pressing the buzzer for our flat to be let into the block so she could show some clients around. She did it about 10 times in two weeks, and one week kept waking Matt up who was doing nights, so I told her to stop it.

Anyway, needless to say we don't want to stay with Luxury Living and are in the process of looking at a new flat under Griffin Estates. There're some flats about 5 mins walk up the road closer to the M60 which has three vacancies in it, so Mark went to see that today, and took some pictures for me. It looks nice, but I'm just concerned at the seemingly lack of space in the front room. Anyone who has seen our front room will know that we have a big shelving unit that takes up a lot of wall space, so we have to make sure that fits in. We will probably move to the flat on the 1st floor too, so it'll be a bit safer. Mark says that Matt's bedroom looks bigger too, so Matteus Rosé will have some extra space, which I hope will be ok for him.

It's such a faff having to move. We don't *have* to move, but I don't know anything about Luxury Living, and for all I know they are a load of charlatans. Indeed, given the last encounter with their ugsome representative, that woyuld seem to be the case: what estate agents doesn't have the front door key for the block of flats they're selling for?!

Ugsome - I've been trying to use that word for ages! It describes Liz Lane prefectly...

Anyway, that's all that gone on really. Janet Lloyd has told be that I can't do the Advanced Translation Module next year. So I think I'll try my hand at Spanish Interpreting, but if it's too hard and I won't do well on it, I'm going to do the dissertation. I've asked her the details for the dissertation, so hopefully that's all sorted. I can still do Portuguese Extended Translation, and I get the theory from Spanish Advanced Translation, so it's not all bad. I blame the limpets that are in my class who can't be arsed doing anything! Sorry, but it's true! Half the time they wouldn't have a clue what was going on if I didn't tell them! They are really nice guys, just totally lazy!!! lol

Well, I'm off to listen to more disco hits on my CD!

I was listening to a tape before too, from about 1997; I found it in my hi-fi at the top where the tape player is. I was thinking ow amazing it is in the 21st Century. If we like a song, we can dowload it at the touch of a button (well I can't with crappo internet connection, but you get my meaning) and 'bam' it's there on your music player. Beforehand, like on the 1997 tape, you had to record it off the radio with all the crappy DJ bits tagged at the start and finish! It was much more hard work to get songs for free, but strangely more rewarding. Waiting for ages to record the song you want (I remember listening to "The Rewind" on Key 103 for about 3 months waiting for Blondie - Heart of Glass) and then something mental would happen like the tape would run out! D'oh! Anyway, I still do that, but I use Mini Discs, as you can now flick through to your fave song rather than fastforwarding through the tape!

Anyway, on that random not (boom boom), I'm off to groove on down!

Ben xxxx

Poppets, Peter Kay and 23 days to go!

Hey Blanchettes!

Come back from my weekend home, which was fantastic! We had much food at Tai Wu, which was muito delicioso! Was brilliant to see Mark's friends, and Lins and Geordie Jo, Joe and Joanne all came too, which was fantastic!

Spent the time relaxing and going to places with Mark, but we got stuck in Sheffield, not a place to be stuck in! Ended up eating a Burger King on the platform sat next to a drunk who laughed manically every time I took a bite!

Set up a cleaning rota with Matt and Mark for when I'm back. Basically it'll make the cleaning of the flat much easier and fairer. It'll be good for us all when I'm back too, as the rent'll be £165 a month, thus splitting the rent 3 ways, so it'll be cheaper for us all! Joy! It'l be nice being back.

Journey home was bizarre. Eulália, who teaches me Portuguese at Salford Uni was on my flight from Liverpool to o Porto. when we were queueing, we chatted about stuff. Turns out she's pregnant, and will only be teaching in the 2nd semester. It was nice to see her, but odd at the same time! lol

Bought some mint poppets at the airport (which I love!!) and a Peter Kay tape of the Top of the Tower, and it's making me piss my sides!

Just dossing about today, I'm going to do something productive tomorrow I think. Next and last exam is on the 28th June. Looking forward to coming back in 23 days! I think I will miss Portugal, but it'll be nice to be back. I'll deffo be coming back to visit though!

Can't wait for my results back from the exams. I don't think I'll have done too badly, but not like 100% either. Doubt that ISLA will be organised enough to give me my results, but I have to ask for them for ERASMUS. A total bugger. I'll have to peck their heads over it, I'll go see Plastic Face on the 28th June. Not too confident about it though, but we'll see.

Well, I'll be off,

Love and hugs!

Ben xxxx

What *is* that rainbow sheen on ham?

I'm being studenty and eating random foods. I'm having a packet of ham for my dinner! Yum! Bit salty though!

Essay = Completed
Literary and Journalistic Translation Exam = Completed

And I think I've done well in both of them!! We had a manic thunder and lightning storm last night, so loud it rattled all the windows! Was pretty cool though!

On way back from uni it was having a Amazon Rainforest-esque downpour, so I had to run to the metro stop (literally 2 mins away) and by the time I got there I looked like I'd been through a shower with my clothes on! Ah well, came home ok, had a shower, washed up from last night, and put some washing.

Tomorrow = Home via Porto! Yay!!! And I'm already checked in! Bless RyanAir!!

*squiqqly hugs*

Ben xxx

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

Bloody Welsh place name. I thinking of putting it in Tourism essay just for a laugh to eat up some pages. I'm nearly done, but I just can't be arsed!!

Bloody Tourism!

First and foremost, 25 pages my ass! This is not going to happen! Bugger! I'm doing ok with the devil essay though. I'm now writing some bollocks about golf courses in the Algarve. What a bag of crap. Halfway done though. I need to hand it to Mike tomorrow so he can hand it in on Friday for me in the lesson. It's a pain in the arse 'cos I'm home too, and I don't want to have to faff with this, but I suppose I have to!

Best get on wi'it!

Ben xxxx