Hello from Portugal

Glad to see us coming together again through this series of «hello» posts. And it seems we're going somewhere in our countries, even if slowly.

As for me, I had a preliminary interview with a college professor in Lisbon last Tuesday. Presented my CV, an idea for an article on king Sigurd Jorsalfare's raids in Portugal and also a general outline of the phd proposal. He took extensive notes and will present everything to the other members of the board of the Institute of Medieval Studies next month. I'll just have to wait and see what happens. Just in case, I sent him the essay I wrote for the expansion course so they can get a better idea of what I'm proposing.

In the meantime, I'm still working on the presentation for the congress on Identity and Citizenship in about three weeks from now. I have 15 minutes to talk about Icelandic sense of identity as a free people as opposed to those under the rule of centralized kingship in Norway. Will use maps and present quotes from some sagas and Landnámabók.

Other than that, there's not much more to say. Summer has clearly left these parts, which means less beach and bike rides for me. I miss my Lisbon's routine like hell, but there's not much I can do without a house of my own there - rented or otherwise - so I've been spending most of my time in my home town. Last Sunday I went northwards to spend some days in Coimbra, the Portuguese equivalent of Uppsala, but my interview ended up being scheduled for Tuesday, so I had to go back home and then to Lisbon in a bit of a rush. Didn't even had the chance to take pictures (sorry, Aylin!).

And that's about it... After studying during one year in Sweden, life here feels too slow and too boring. Better days lie ahead, I hope! I'll post some photos next time.

Cheers!