Northern lights have an 11-year cycle like a sine curve with a maximum and minimum. The last maximum was in 2014, and the next maximum will be in 2025. The minimum was in 2019. In 2021/2022, we are still slightly closer to the minimum than the maximum. When it is at the maximum, the displays will be stronger. But then there is also a 27-day cycle of repeating patterns, showing displays from September to March in the northern hemisphere. Other days of the year will be too bright with the late-night sun for the lights to be visible. The 27-day forecast, with updates every Monday at 7 am Eastern Time, comes in handy.
Aurora views until NYE Fireworks
Although the common wisdom is, further north gives better views, that is not always true. The magnetic pole is slightly tilted from the north pole. Consequently, you see the lights more in the south in Canada compared to Alaska. Also, it is a ring known as Auroral Oval. A few places such as Iqaluit, the rest of the northern Nunavut, and north Greenland are too far north to be ideal. However, the darkness of Iqaluit and the rest of Nunavut is an advantage. But heading way too north such as Grise Fiord or Alert in Nunavut will hurt and ruin your chances of seeing those lights. Yellowknife would be better. Even Iqaluit will be okay. Every city will of course try to advertise itself as the best place to view the northern lights, due to the tourist potential. Utqiaġvik (formerly known as Barrow. The northernmost town of the USA in Alaska. Utqiaġvik also has the northernmost point of the USA, known as Nuvuk or Point Barrow) is not particularly touristic for northern lights, although summer gets more visitors for the 24 hours Sun and an Arctic plunge in Barrow Point, the literal northernmost point of the USA.
With the city view, some light pollution
For the same reason, I heard that Fairbanks and slightly north of Fairbanks is better than Utqiagvik for the displays as Utqiagvik is almost at the northern end of the ring whereas slightly north of Fairbanks is right under the oval. However, a dark sky with less light pollution (far from city centers) and clear cloudless skies are even more critical. I stayed in a hotel in College, AK, right next to the frozen Chena River. It is supposed to be better than staying in central downtown Fairbanks. It is also more convenient than heading towards a destination for the view - although having a dedicated viewpoint makes the views more pleasant. But, we could cross the frozen river by walking on it and going to the Love Alaska sign on the opposite side. Having such access helps with the potential to sleep in your room until an alarm sounds from your Aurora app or the hotel reception (the hotel reception can wake you up for sightings - but do not rely on them entirely).
Stars were visible too.
Unfortunately, the eight nights I spent in Fairbanks had 100% cloud coverage due to continuous blizzards. But luckily enough, when I landed in Utqiagvik, it had a fully clear sky. Then I saw the northern lights on both nights (new year's eve night and the night after new year) I stayed there. The temperature was dropping to -34C at the two nights, and that was enough to kill my iPhone within a couple of seconds when I took it out and drained my camera battery in 5 minutes. I also kept a spare battery in my winter parka's inner pocket. That gave me a total of 10 minutes and a need to rush with photos rather than carefully focus. Also, it was a solo self-managed trip, and I was taking photos from the street rather than in a campsite with some fire to warm up. Although my photos do not give the show the justice it deserves, it was a magnificent display.
YouTube algorithm and the English-speaking media have biased us to watch more American (primarily white) content. Even when we travel to a remote location, a simple YouTube search yields mainly videos by travel influencers rather than locals and natives. That steals the locals the opportunity to showcase and monetize their content. These days, whenever and wherever I travel, I make it a point to search and find content made by locals rather than western/white/American tourists.
Everyone has a certain level of randomness in spending their free time. On any weekday, 8 hours of work, 8 hours of sleep, and two additional hours for basic tasks, leave us with free 6 hours. This is assuming a 40 hours work week, with weekends off. That means we also have the weekends, long weekends, and vacations, all for us. I like traveling during my long weekends, doing random walks on the weekends, and spending my free time on workdays with music videos. I get my inspiration from those random cities. I have been to the USA's northernmost point in Alaska and the southernmost point of the USA in Florida. I see patterns in my trips. But I also see differences. 2021 is the first year since 2010 I did not leave the country. Since 2013, I have been to at least two new countries every year. The pandemic has put things in a different dimension. But we are hopeful. We are flying on faith~
ASUS has been offering some too-good-to-be-true storage offers such as 16.99$ for 1 TB of storage for a year, a discounted rate. Since it is really cheap, I decided to purchase it. It is my bad that I bought it without checking the reviews. Turned out, this service is a scam. You must never purchase it. It simply does not work. They are probably in their alpha-testing stage. In this stage, the service is unlikely to sustain and they must pay you to use their crappy product.
It literally took 24 hours to upload 8 GB of data and it got stuck there. The service indexes all the files that must be uploaded first. This indexing takes quite several hours. Then it starts uploading - at literally a speed of 800 kbps. Yay, welcome the days of late 1990s and the slow Internet. (To clarify, my Internet is quite strong - with upload speeds of at least 20 Mbps always, as per Speedtest.net). Then, it decides to randomly fail some files here and there without a reason. They were just like 5 MB files. You could ask their interface to retry. It will retry. And some files would still fail even after several tries. You have to literally babysit the app - and it would still fail for no reason. I guess, it caches some local failed version somewhere in their site and hence failing subsequent attempts.
Bot says I could get a refund
I asked for a refund in a day
Now, this is a simple browser-based upload of files. The binary they provide for Linux drops a segmentation fault and does not work at all. However, if just a simple upload is failing, how can you trust their app to auto-sync the files? Interestingly though, they were aiming high. They were asking you all to ditch Google and move your files to their service.
ASUS WebStorage performs poorer than the MSc projects we did in performance and usability. I cannot believe a professional company thought it is okay to release this as a public software. I have asked for a refund since their chatbot said they will refund if it was applied within 7 days since purchase. I asked for the refund in a day after purchasing this shitty service. But I am yet to hear from them.
Trying to submit a customer complaint leaves me with this page:
Their web chat help is even more awful.
"there is nothing that can be done on our end."
The reply I received was, "My apologies, there is nothing that can be done on our end." This getting more and more interesting, day by day. From not providing the refund - to help departments being completely dismissive - asking everyone to contact using that unresponsive contact@asuswebstorage.com instead!
IsASUS WebStorage a scam?
Verdict: Yes. ASUS WebStorage is a total scam.
Update as of December 1st: I eventually received the refund, after several communications back-and-forth. It was a bizarre experience, to put mildly.
Lisboa's winters were cold indoors. We did not have proper heating in most of the apartments and hostels that we stayed. The hot water was okay - but not too stable. It got cold when we opened the kitchen water simultaneously. On the other hand, Stockholm and Louvain-la-Neuve had a better but central heating. That means, it was cold in autumn until they turned the heating on. Once they turned it on, it was warm enough always, as in the summer - quite comfortable. In Atlanta, we have a better personal heating. So we have a better control of the heating. Hot water in Stockholm, Louvain-la-Neuve, and Atlanta are quite stable too.
We never had to worry about heating in Colombo. It was always hot. Whenever it got "cold," it was a pleasant surprise that was to be cherished - not something we needed heater. But still, taking a cold shower was fun. Most apartments did not have proper water heating. We used to boil water in pans to fill a huge containers for warm showers. Not as convenient - but it worked.
I did not enjoy the Lisboa winters as much as I enjoy Lisboa summers. Indoors got colder than the outdoors in winters. But still, the foggy days of winters were a magical feeling. Nothing to complain about.
Although I have had sleepless nights during my mid-PhD for paper submission deadlines, by 2018, I had developed better time management for deadlines and never had a sleepless night in 2018 - 2020. But the WFH messed up my rhythm, and I had a sleepless Thursday night for a Friday 8 p.m deadline. Luckily, the next one is a Friday night. I had a long sleep last night. Now, everything is okay. I am relaxed and also successfully submitted my paper (codenamed, "Niffler") by the deadline.
Change of Perspectives
When the pandemic started to ruin my regular life of traveling, going out, and meeting people, it was stressful. I am an extrovert. I love people. I love seeing new places and interacting with humans in the real world. January was concerning, February was saddening, and March was an outright disaster. April is probably going to be worse. But I have a better perspective now. Things are going to be worsening. But we are privileged that we can work from home, and live in beautiful apartments. People are risking their lives due to this virus. I am thankful for what I have. I have also well-adjusted to the indoor home-alone (a.k.a., boring) life. Not to say that I don't have sad or feeling down days. But I am also not complaining too much, at least not this week.
Life is an Indian movie
Wild Kopi Luwak
In Indian movies, when the plot gets sad, they throw a flashback of the past when everyone was safe and happy. Sometimes, they do a dream scene of a happy future, often with a song in a random country. Or some random comedy scene to cheer you up in the middle of all the movie sadness. When you are stuck home in a never-ending pandemic, you cannot clearly think of the fun activities you want to do in the future (whichfuture?). You definitely cannot escape reality by running to a random country. You can, of course, think of the past - the times before the pandemic hit hard. I see many people are doing that, including myself. We share our old photos on social media. We now appreciate all the good times we had while life was normal -- which is merely 2 months ago.
Life changes with a pandemic
Going abroad and coming to Portugal changed me drastically. I was an introvert in Sri Lanka, and Portugal converted me into an extrovert really quick. I also became more people-oriented and love going out more. I still remember my first day and the first week in Lisboa vividly. I arrived at my apartment. It was still empty as my then-unknown-stranger apartment-mates hadn't arrived yet. I had to go to buy something to eat. By then, I didn't know how to cook. So I went out to buy something to eat quick. I was lazy. I was not that comfortable finding my way to the supermarket - although the landlord showed it to me on my way to the apartment from the airport. Luckily, there was a small shop right next to my apartment. I bought bread, butter, and milk. I handed the shopkeeper, who introduced himself to me instantly as a Brazilian, a 50 Euro note. He said he doesn't have change. Luckily, I also had some coins. I gave him the exact amount of coins (around 2 Euro). He spoke English, sufficient for the transaction.
Eventually, and quickly, I fell in love with the city. The city changed me completely. Now, we are stuck at home. Moving to Portugal was a choice and a personal life event for me. But a pandemic is global. Everyone (with exceptions) is forced to stay home for the betterment of humanity. I cannot stop imagining how we all will change when the pandemic eventually comes to an end. Will we have different priorities? Will we become more introverts (again)? Will we start to change our lifestyles? How long will this last, and what will be the long-term consequences? So many questions. Since I always kept moving between countries, even a little period seem like a long one. With this pandemic, my trip to Panama in January feels like a distant past.I am here like, "Oh, I miss those good old days!" apparently referring to the mid-January when no one was concerned about a "small SARS-like outbreak" in Wuhan. I hope we all will recover soon.
Perception of time
Overdosing on flower tea
Looking back, time looks weird and non-linear. Sometimes I feel like the years since I left Sri Lanka have been quick. Other times, I think the exact opposite. 2012 seems like a distant past and a yesterday - both at the same time. Staying home alone alters the perceptions of time as well. Especially a deadly pandemic. The last 2 months felt like a decade. Not to say that I had a dull 2020. My January and February were quite impressive, despite the growing concerns and sadness of the pandemic and my ruined plans to reunite with my family. But March was when things got ugly, as the virus became global and a pandemic was announced.
This Sunday, I was happily cooking, humming an Indian song. Suddenly, I mistakenly stepped onto a long piece of glass, and my foot started to bleed. I carefully and quickly removed the glass off my foot, thinking, "who the fuck put a glass here?" Realization kicked in that I was home alone for 4 months, and that must be the glass I broke a few weeks ago. I had cleaned the floor then, but somehow a piece of glass escaped to hunt me down later. I slowly jogged to my bed, not to ruin the carpet with all the blood thinking to myself, "where is my wife to protect me?"
Recently we visited Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur and Batu Caves, to be precise. Batu Caves temple reminded our visit to Kathirgamam in Sri Lanka.
However, my memories of Kathirgamam are vague and fading, since I was
only 5 - 6 years old when we visited Kathirgamam twice.
Since Atlanta is far from Kuala Lumpur, I also had a long return flight to Kuala Lumpur via Doha. Usually, I watch a lot of movies on the flights. But this time, I decided to watch just 2 movies during the entire journey (to and from).
In any economy class, there are 3 (or 4, if you sit in a middle seat) people who can ruin your flight. First, the person who sits in the seat behind you unless you sit in the last row. Second, the person who sits in front of you, unless you sit in the exit row or the first row in the block. Finally, the person(s) who sit(s) next to you.
The person who sits behind you has the potential to ruin your journey entirely. They can kick your seat non-stop. Some people do not realize how weak the economy class seat is. If you put your feet on the seat tray, or if you just constantly jerk it, the movements entirely affect the seat in front of you. It gives headaches. Please don't do that. Infants have the habit of kicking. If possible, make sure their feet are not directed towards the seat in front of them.
Second, the person who sits in front of you. They may recline their seat any time, giving your knee a sudden jerk. Some idiots choose to do that while the meals are served, making you spill your food or drink on you. I usually avoid reclining my seat (except maybe by a negligible degree). One exception: if you are in the seat behind me and continue to kick or jerk my seat, I WILL recline my seat to the fullest.
Finally, the person who sits next to you. They may occupy your seat area, lean on you and sleep, or cross their leg and touch you with their shoe or smelly socks. There was a time I was sandwiched in a middle seat with people on either side (window and aisle seats) occupying both hand rests. People, please give that armrest to the middleseater! On the other hand, once in a flight, as always, I let the middle-seat person use the entire armrest. But after a few minutes, I noticed I was being pushed to a corner. Then I found that that person has folded the armrest so that they can invade my space! Of course, I agree that they are a big person. However, it is NOT okay. I instantly put the armrest down back in its place, effectively cutting the huge person's belly which was invading my space by 25%. The person realized their mistake and retracted.
I wish everyone tries to be mindful of the surroundings and the neighbors. This will make our economy class flight experience much better.
My Ph.D. started 19 days before my MSc. defense. :) I got the happy news that I had received the Category "A" EMJD-DC Erasmus Mundus Scholarship, while I was attending the EMDC Winter Event in Evora. I started with IST, ULisboa, Portugal, as my first university. I continued with my MSc supervisor as my Ph.D. advisor also, as he is really a great supervisor and mentor.
I did 2 Google Summer of Code (GSoC) from Portugal. Once during my MSc (2014) and the other during my Ph.D. (2015). I also did an OpenDaylight internship. Then I moved to Atlanta for 7 months for an extended internship at Emory University, as a continuation of my GSoCs. When I returned from Atlanta to Lisbon, I had to apply for the Belgium visa quick since I was already in my third year and I must move to my second university (UCLouvain) in Belgium. After a short period of 4 months in Lisboa, we moved to Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium in February 2017. Later in 2017, I also spent 2 months in KAUST, Saudi Arabia, the 5th university of my Ph.D. Finally, I returned to Portugal for my 4th-year 2nd semester, December 2017. In the next 6 months, I made sure to satisfy all the thesis requirements of IST and UCLouvain, including the UCLouvain Thesis Confirmation and IST CAT. I also finished the thesis draft and moved to Emory University again before the defense.
Évora, Portugal
I should have finished my Ph.D. before leaving Portugal last year.
However, it dragged a bit longer than what I anticipated due to
administrative tasks and journal acceptances that were arriving at the
last minute. Consequently, in early 2019 I submitted the CRC of the
last journal of my Ph.D. and also submitted the final-final version of my
thesis to both universities to print.
I came back to Portugal to defend my thesis. My defense went very well, and I passed with a distinction! With the successful defense of my PhD in IST, I was already a Ph.D. (Dr.
Pradeeban Kathiravelu ;) ). But as far as UCLouvain is concerned, I
still had to do my public defense in Belgium. That intermittent period
of almost 2 months (July - August 2019): it was complex to explain
people where I stand in my Ph.D. - as both a Ph.D. student (as far as
UCLouvain/Belgium is concerned) as well as a Postdoc (elsewhere).
Especially an interesting conversation to those outside the EU who were
not familiar with double degree programs such as Erasmus Mundus.
Brussels: Fiesta Latina with friends
Yes, EMJD-DC is a double degree. I had to defend my thesis in Portugal and Belgium.
This year, I visited Belgium twice, for my Ph.D. defenses.
For my IST/ULisboa defense, I visited Belgium first before flying to
Portugal (June - July). Then, of course, I visited Belgium for my
UCLouvain defense (August). My time in Belgium was like time-traveling
to 2017 - meeting the familiar faces after quite some time and visiting the same places all over again. My 2nd defense (i.e., the UCLouvain public defense) was on the 23rd of
August 2019, exactly 7 years since my arrival to Lisbon on the 23rd of
August 2012 for my MSc. A pleasant coincidence.
Since
I already had the Ph.D. degree from IST, I was more relaxed during this second one. I also had ordered to print the thesis book, as per
UCLouvain requirements, prior to my arrival in Belgium. I had to go and collect the printed books from the printing shop, in an extreme corner of the Louvain-la-Neuve village. A neighborhood that I had never visited before. In fact, I wasn't even aware of the existence of those neighborhoods. My UCLouvain public defense also marked the end of my life as an Erasmus Mundus student. An interesting coincidence was, I
first arrived in Portugal on August 23rd, 2012 as an EMDC Erasmus Mundus masters student. I defended my thesis at UCLouvain on the very same day, after 7 years. Is the universe sending me signals already? :D
Lullwater Park, Atlanta, GA, USA
There are a few things I could have done better. For instance, looking back, I feel I should have defended the thesis before moving out of the EU. It was just defense pending, and moving away from the EU made the process much longer. Similarly, I also think I should have started writing the thesis early on, making sure the LaTex variables across my various papers do not have naming conflicts. That would have helped me when I consolidated the content from my various papers to the thesis document. But I am still happy with how everything went. During my two trips to the EU for my defenses, I also had to practice my presentation. I still managed to explore the cities a bit.
It was a happy moment. But that also made me miss the EU, as my student life attached to the EU came to an end with my Ph.D. defense. Somewhat bittersweet indeed.
I spent most of my 2017 in Belgium, specifically a university town named Louvain-la-Neuve in Wallonia, the French region of Belgium. We had a 2-floor 2-room apartment all for ourselves, for just 750 Euro with water bill included. Until this date, that is the best apartment I have lived. Thanks to UCLouvain for the accommodation. Initially, I was worried that living in Belgium with the same amount of money I received in Portugal would be challenging. But it turned out quite ok. We, of course, were a bit more careful with money while in Louvain-la-Neuve. We witnessed snowfall in Louvain-la-Nueve in early March. Feeding the ducks and geese across the lake was also quite fun.
Thanks to the central location of Belgium and its competitive coverage by different airlines, flights from Brussels were quite cheap, throughout Europe. During the long weekends, we flew to different cities and countries. This made 2017 to be the year with most countries visited ever for me, so far. We left very early in the morning to catch the train to the nearby countries (Luxembourg and the Netherlands) or to the Brussels airport (Romania and Hungary). A long walk with a suitcase to enjoy yet another country or a city (Ghent, Bruges, and Ostende). I also attended my one and only Erasmus Mundus Association General Assembly (EMA GA), while I have been an EMA program representative for EMDC and EMJD-DC a few times.
View from our apartment
My apartment was quite far from the lab. Nearly a 30 minutes walk. But it was fun. Also, the roads were entirely for pedestrians as the vehicles always go underground. We had a shopping mall called L'Esplanade with a Delhaize supermarket. We always visited there to buy our groceries. Vegetables and fruits were very expensive there. But it was convenient. Once we went to ALDI but figured that it is quite too far for walking. We still loved walking around the lake in the summer. It was pleasant. Belgium chocolates, Belgium beers, and Belgium desserts - all were the best! We often bought fresh sashimi and sushi from the Delhaize.
My new suitcase in my lab
When we left Belgium to return to Portugal in 2017 August, I did not realize that I would return soon. But I had to, as my funding for the last 4 months of 2017 was from Belgium. I had back-and-forth2 return trips from Belgium to Portugal. Eventually, I moved to Saudi Arabia for 2 months from Belgium. The Saudi visa did not take much time. During these days of back-and-forth travels between Portuguese airports (Lisboa and Faro) and Belgium airports (BRU and CRL), I stayed overnights in the 2 airports of Belgium, in my lab, in friends' homes, and also slept on a cat bed for 2 nights in an Airbnb-gone-wrong! Then I came back to Belgium and returned to Portugal in 4 days in December.
I also had 2 remarkable return trips to Belgium from Atlanta in 2019. First, was to fly to Portugal via Belgium, for my first defense in Portugal. I stayed in Leuven first, to meet my supervisor in Louvain-la-Neuve. Then, stayed in Antwerp before returning to Atlanta. I loved my stay in Antwerp. It was very pleasant. Then, I came back from Atlanta to defend my thesis once more (for the second and the last time!) at UCLouvain. This time, I stayed in Charleroi and Leuven. On the 23rd of August, after 7 years since my arrival to Lisboa, I completed my Ph.D. with my final Ph.D. defense. It was a remarkable journey of 7 years. Thanks Portugal and EU.
While I did not spend as much as time in Belgium, compared to I did in Portugal, Belgium still left me with very positive memories. I leave with positive memories of EU. I loved every bit of my stay in Europe. And goodbye, Belgium too.
Memories of Portugalis a series of blog posts, attempting to recall my vivid memories of Portugal for the past several years. I have been writing these posts for quite some time at intervals. It has been after all a long journey. When I look back, even the boring routine stuff I did in Portugal makes exciting memories.
My 6-year long stay in Portugal (2012 August - 2018 June) had 4 segments, with some interval between each segment as I had to migrate to another country in between due to the Erasmus Mundus mobility requirements. Given below are 4 episodes of my life in Portugal, each describing one such segment of my stay. My trip to Portugal for my Ph.D. defense would qualify as the Episode 5, and I have no idea when will I travel again after that to write an Episode 6. But I have a feeling we will, some day in the far future.
When I arrived at Lisboa airport on the 23rd August 2012, I did not know that Portugal and specifically Lisboa would become the one-word summary of my 2010s. I also did not realize Lisboa airport will become my most frequented airport, even more than the Colombo airport, the airport of my home country. Within the years, Lisboa airport had also become a second home to me - making me feel relaxed and comfortable while I wait for my next flight.
View from our apartment
My landlord was waiting for me at the airport with my name on his iPad. He showed me around the neighborhood - the supermarkets, my university, bank, university admissions office, and other closeby places of interest such as Campo Pequeno. Shopping in Lisboa - both for groceries and other fun shopping - was quite fun. It has many shopping malls and supermarket chains. There were 3 major supermarket chains - Pingo Doce - the one I would always visit, Minipreco - a smaller but cheaper one, and Continente - bigger but a bit more expensive one.
Unwrapping and first meal
I had to share the 4-room apartment with 3 others. However, I had arrived before everyone else. Therefore, I had the whole apartment for me for a few days. We also had a portion of an open-air balcony that belongs to us, that we later used for barbecues and parties. Our apartment was surrounded by 3 metro stations - Saldanha, Alameda, and Arroios. Alameda neighborhood has a beautiful park with a water fountain. For the first few days when I was still alone in Lisboa, my life was mostly limited to this triangle where I was walking around. I realized how much time I had saved while living in Sri Lanka, thanks to my parents who were doing many things for me - such as cooking, grocery shopping, and taking care of managing everything that does not need me personally. Now I am on my own, and I had to spend time doing a considerable amount of 'boring' things such as cleaning and grocery shopping. However, since the environment is new, I was still excited. I did feel like a fish out of water at times. My mom had gifted me a God Ganesh statue before I left Sri Lanka, which I had taken with me to Lisboa. The God Ganesh always secured a spot in all my apartments in Lisboa and elsewhere afterward.
1.2: Feeling young 2012 September - 2012 December
Campo Pequeno
Eventually, my three apartment mates arrived, and we lived like a team during our stay. Our landlord also made sure to help every one of us settle in, with the bank accounts, school administration, and initial shopping. He went above and beyond, showing us the spirit of Portuguese hospitality. We all went to the same university, and our university was at a walking distance. My classmates of the same Erasmus Mundus program arrived soon after, and the courses began on the 17th of September. We all became good friends, as we all had come from various parts of the world. Thanks to Erasmus Mundus, we all had a clique though. No one was left around.
The Alameda Park, in front of IST
The early days, i.e., the year 2012 was exciting. Everything looked new and fresh. I had visited France (Paris), India (Bangalore and Hyderabad), and USA (Mountain View/Googleplex) before. But this was my first experience living abroad. Luckily I was not alone in this journey, and it was pleasant! During my first year in Portugal, I maintained a weekly blog on my life in Lisboa. Everything seemed new and fresh, and I never ran out of things to blog about. We tried to learn Portuguese. I even got a certificate for the A1 level. However, my only regret in Portugal was not truly learning Portuguese. I never realized I would stay in the country for around 7 years. Indeed, it was not a continuous stay of 7 years — more of an on-and-off stay due to the Erasmus Mundus mobility requirements. Still, Portugal was my base country for the entire period. My initial plan was to stay just a year. But this lovely country and circumstances made me stay much longer.
Cascais Beach - my first beach outside Sri Lanka
We spent some time visiting popular places in and around Lisboa. We used the yellow bus, the Lisboa's version of the hop-on-hop-off buses you would find in any major cities. We paid visits to major museums and churches. Belem, Estrela, Oceanario, Sao Jorge Castle, Sintra, and Cascais/Estoril beaches - all those popular touristic destinations in Lisboa. Sao Jorge Castle, despite being within the city limits, feels like otherworldly. Sintra is just outside Lisboa. It is blessed with the beauty of nature and architecture. Lisboa Oceanario is undoubtedly one of the best in the world. Cascais beach was clean and nice - but later I would visit much better beaches in Portugal. We do not have a metro in Sri Lanka. I started to getting used to (and love) the metro journeys in Lisboa.
IST/ULisboa - Alameda Campus
Our EMDC program was a coordination of 3 universities - IST/Lisboa, UPC/Barcelona, and KTH/Stockholm. While half of us spent the first year in Lisboa, the other half was in Barcelona. We all would meet in KTH/Stockholm for the third semester, before breaking away for the thesis in the 4th/final semester. I also became the Erasmus Mundus Association (EMA) program representative (PR) for EMDC. It was fun, representing EMDC. Later, I also represented EMDC and EMJD-DC at EMA in the following several years and organized EMA days and participated in an EMA General Assembly.
Taguspark Campus
Some of our classes in the first semester were in Taguspark. A long shuttle journey twice a week also became part of our life. Taguspark is in the middle of nowhere. So when we had lectures there, we had to spend the whole day on the campus. Luckily, the Tagupark canteen offered relatively good food. All you can pick at once with a fixed price. We also had some good memories and made some local friends at the Taguspark campus. The Taguspark campus was also more modern than the Alameda one. Later during the Ph.D. I had the Data Quality course in Taguspark - thus reliving those Taguspark memories after 2 years.
Praca do Comercio
In Saldanha, right next to our campus was "Canela e Acucar", a cafe restaurant that offered cheap food, starting from 4.45 Euro. Bacalhau, the salty dry cod fish is a popular Portuguese food that we tried often. We also had several fish including Carapasinhos (the small fish, fried), Dourada, and Robalo. We also had other options such as Francasinhas. We learned one thing quick. If you ask for "Sumo de Laranja" you will get some orange soda. Not the real orange juice. You must ask for "Sumo de Laranja natural" for freshly squeezed orange juice for like 2 Euro or 2.50 Euro. The orange juice maker was virtually in every cafe in Portugal. We liked to have orange juice as it is natural and 100% orange. No water, sugar, or anything else added. The Civil department canteen food was 4.50 Euro, with daily options for 3 Euro food also. Then there were also subsidized canteens for students in the main building, as cheap as 2.35 Euro. We tried all the canteens - their food options and desserts.
Despite our busy schedules and group projects, we still had lots of fun. Our university also hosted some interesting events, such as the annual musical evening of Arraial Do Tecnico. Music, snacks, and beer. That was fun. Thanks to our diverse friends, we even had our own "cultural days" or international students' days - including a Chinese party and a Brazilian party. We also visited the Hindu temple close to Telheiras in Lisboa, as well as the mosque in Sao Sebastiao! As time passed by, I experienced my first autumn in Lisboa - much wetter and colder than the summer. I enjoyed my first Halloween in Lisboa, meeting new friends.
Bairro Alto
Every Friday evening we would visit the "Erasmus Corner" in Bairro Alto where we have beers and some drinks and meet other exchange students as well as some locals. Bairro Alto hosts the Erasmus Student Networks and an Erasmus Bar. The place had a unique smell of beer, Portuguese and international food, and the occasional smell of urine from some corners. Bairro Alto is popular for its cheap beer - 1 euro per cup. Bairro Alto neighborhood was also special for me - especially the view from the corridor where I had a birthday celebration in 2013.
My first new year in Lisboa was exciting. Despite the exams, I decided to do a big shopping, because I was so energetic. I also had received my scholarship money. So why not? Falling in love in Lisboa was a wonderful feeling. The experience was mesmerizing. We recall the new year of 2013 and the romantic memories of Praca do Comercio (with the Terreiro da Paco metro station) every now and then. After several years, we still fondly recall those first 6 months of 2013 as "those days".
On the way to Freeport from Oriente
I also had started to travel outside Lisboa. I first visited Fatima with 2 of my Sri Lankan friends. It was an average Portuguese village, if you remove the religious significance. But it was also my first trip in Portugal outside Lisboa. Therefore, it was special to me. During these days, EMDC also had our Winter Event in Nuria, Spain. We met our EMDC mates from Barcelona for the first time. It was also our first international trip from Lisboa. We traveled to Madrid and Barcelona and stayed in cheap youth hostels - dorm rooms and bunk beds. We enjoyed the snow and a real winter of -11 C. It was also my first time getting drunk. In my entire life, I had got drunk only twice. First in Barcelona (2013) and then in San Francisco (2016). Strong memories.
Romantic Parque das Nacoes
Not all walks are memorable as our extended weekend (Thursday evenings - Monday mornings) walks. Parque das Nações had become our regular romantic getaway. We walked by the riverside, from Cabo Ruivo, Oriente, Moscavide, and until Sacavem. Over the years, we witnessed how the Parque das Nacoes neighborhood evolve. We visited all the restaurants along the river. Some restaurants later closed down and new ones, including a fancy Chinese restaurant appeared years later. We also visited the newly popping up restaurants in Parque das Nacoes. We fed the seagulls close to Oceanario and also fed the geese in Estrela park. I got used to walks and metro rides between my university (IST) and ISCTE-IUL. We also frequented the Hard Rock Cafe in Restauradores and Starbucks in Rossio train station, as they both are close to each other. In the blue metro line, we also visited Santa Apolonia. The photos bring back vivid memories.
Drinks at Hard Rock Cafe Lisboa
Arroios neighborhood had a Dim Sum restaurant. Although the service was bad, the food was good. Therefore, we visited it several times. There was also a Chinese buffet restaurant, which was similar to every other Chinese buffets in Lisboa. There was also a Portugalia that we visited once. Estefania neighborhood, in between Arroios and Saldanha was a good one for a walk from our apartment. We used to buy lots of things from Pingo Doce and take them back home. Eventually, we also started to visit the nearby Continente.
A night walk in the Avenida neighborhood
We watched several movies. At times, two movies back-to-back in the same day in the same shopping mall. We also had the loyalty cards from the movie theatres! There was also a night we decided to stay in the streets just outside Centro Comercial Colombo after a late night movie from 2 am until 6.30 am when the metro station eventually opened. Yes, we were crazy. :) I also started cooking in Lisboa. Initially I started for fun and to save money. I became quite good with cooking eventually. I actually was enjoying cooking various interesting recipes. First I followed the recipes to the letter. Later, I started to innovate. I used to post photos of my cooking to Facebook, until I retired from Facebook in 2015 December. Eventually, as I started cooking, I reduced the freqeuncy of my visit to the Nepal restaurents. However, I would still take my friends to a Nepal buffet.
Beautiful view of Obidos
My first spring in Lisboa was refreshing and romantic. We made boat trips to cross the Tagus river, which separated Lisboa from most of everything. From Cais do Sodre port, we would take a boat to Cacilhas in the other side of the Tagus river. From Cacilhas, then we take a bus to the beach towns such as Costa da Caparica. We attempted our best to see dolphins in Setubal. But we failed several attempts. ;) Óbidos was a town that we loved visiting - its cherry wine / ginjinha (ginja) in a chocolate cup was truly unique, best of both worlds. We played Chess there while enjoying some ginja in a romantic hotel (Pousado do Obidos). We visited Obidos once again later for its chocolate festival. We also went to the Freeport open-area shopping mall twice, taking the bus from Oriente.
Typical Portuguese food along the river
We frequented many good restaurants in the city. There was a Nepal restaurant, Restaurante Kathmandu, in our road. I was frequenting it, especially because it was the closest to Sri Lankan food I was able to get while in Lisboa. I took many of my friends to that restaurant at several occasions. I also visited some other Nepal restaurents. We also frequented Restaurente Destino, a friendly restaurant in Restauradores neighborhood. We would often walk from Restauradores to Avenida, along Avenida da Liberdade.
Finally, the summer was back to Lisboa again. By this time,
Porto Matosinhos Beach
I decided that I would come back to Lisboa for my master thesis. Therefore, my stay in Lisboa is not going to be limited to just one year. :) We also started to feel the pain of friends saying goodbye, as the semester ended. Some were in Lisboa for just one semester! I would love it if every wonderful people stay with me, and not to leave in the middle. :) But life is always moving.
My move to Stockholm came close too. I had to go to Sri Lanka before that. We visited Porto and Lagos before I left Portugal. Saying goodbye is hard. But I reassured I would come back. Since we were spending time in Porto and Lagos before I left Lisboa, time went real quick when we were finally back in Lisboa. I came to Lisboa 10 months back with a free memory. I left Lisboa with a strong association to the city. I knew I would be back soon.
1.4: Party Never Ends 2013 August - 2013 December
Vila Franca de Xira riverside walk
While I was in Stockholm, I visited Lisboa twice. First, immediately after arriving in Stockholm, to enjoy the summer in Lisboa and Setubal. Then, during the mid-semester break, which was already wet autumn in Lisboa. During my second visit, we also made a metro station trip, visiting each and every neighborhood connected by Lisboa's extensive metro line - that we had missed previously. We also visited Alcantara-Terra, the touristic riverside of Lisboa. We also visited Vila Franca de Xira by train. It is a riverside town that can be reached by the train from Lisboa that goes towards Azambuja. The town hall had a free open wifi by the riverside in the town. But when I visited the town later, the wifi was no more open for public.
The beautiful Lagos
When I am away from Lisboa, I often think of the days I spent there. Despite my 7 years there, most of my memories revolve around 2013 - specifically those days, the first 6 months there. The memories are addictive and intense, and they are like a drug - I can feel the blood circulations with the memories. My memories of Portugal also is correlated with a few songs I listened to during my stay in Portugal. There are a few songs, mostly of Romanian origin - I always associate them with those romantic memories of Lisboa - because I listened to them for the first time during those days. Some songs bring back the memories of youthful moments, nostalgia, and the longing feeling that is defined as Saudade in Portuguese.
I always made sure to revisit the places that I loved visiting such as Obidos and Evora. But I never revisited Porto and Lagos later. Therefore, those memories are sealed as the memories of 2013 summer. But I, of course, want to revisit Porto and relive those memories. It will always be like time traveling to 2013 if I revisit Porto or Lagos. On the other hand, the place may still be the same. But it may not be possible to recreate the exact moments. We can try.
Yagheli da?
I am Pradeeban, an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Alaska Anchorage. My research focuses on networking and big data innovations for healthcare and Circumpolar North.
Before moving to Alaska, as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Biomedical Informatics, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA. I researched and built efficient frameworks to schedule and execute biomedical informatics workflows.
I have an EU Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate in Distributed Computing (EMJD-DC) from INESC-ID Lisboa / Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal and Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium. I received my MSc degree, Erasmus Mundus European Master in Distributed Computing (EMDC), from Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal, and KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden.
