Sharing some reflexions and feelings

Today I thought posting a brief heads-up 

since I was not able to post in more then a week.

It was a busy week, new job related, and I wasn't able to sew

or do anything else crafts related.

The cravings however were huge,

and this morning I've been sewing and sewing,

working on a new hexagon table runner.

Anyway...

I thought I would share a little bit how I feel

about the new job experience.

 I think I've told you that this is a part-time job,

8 hours per day, 2 days per week,

as an over-the-phone interpreter.

As some of you might recall I am originally from Portugal,
so my language target for interpretation is Portuguese.

Portugal

is situated in Europe,

the most western country in Europe.

Like Great Britain and Spain,
 Portugal was once a big colonial empire.

The Portuguese colonies would go
from South America (Brazil),
to Africa (Guine-Bissau, S. Tome e Principe, Cabo Verde, Angola e Mozambique),
Indonesia East Timor),
China (Macau)
and India (Goa, Damao e Diu).

It's understandable why Brazilians speak Portuguese, right?, as all of the former Portuguese colonies speak Portuguese also.

 The Portuguese language,

which derived from Latin and is classified as a "romanica language"

(along with French, Italian and Spanish), 

gave birth to all those Portuguese speaking branches all over the world, which have different accents, regionalisms and influences that absolutely differ from the original European Portuguese Language.

If I was able to spike your curiosity about this beautiful European country of mine, you can check out here for more information.
Coming back to my new job thoughts/reflexions...

Since the employer does not make the distinction
between European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese,

both Portuguese and Brazilian languages are interpreted

either by Portuguese or Brazilian Interpreters,

randomly.
And sometimes it's not that easy,

not only the accent is so much different as also

there are conceptual and cultural differences in both languages.

 Well... to put it all on one word: it's a very stressful job!

Very demanding and stressful,
since one doesn't know what about the next call will be,
and it can be about anything.

Literally anything:
medical, insurance, emergency services, legal, technical, federal or state services, court, legal...
... and one has to be ready
to quickly remember specific terminology types,
to be able to deliver a good, accurate rendition,
to be able to remember different customer services protocols
and so on and so on...
Overall... it's a field far away
from my professional special education background,

most customer service related,

with some nice and others not so nice CS representatives.

It's really demanding and stressful.

Will I keep on?
I can't honestly answer that question yet,

but it definitely leaves me with a nostalgic feeling on my soul,

from my days of teaching, and the contact with people in presence,

 real presence,

not just voices over the phone.

I hope to meet you all here again shortly.
Till then, you all take care.

The Day After Christmas

On Sunday morning

we woke up

to this beautiful Winter Wonderland here in East Tennessee.

The perfect Christmas landscape,

which is not very common to happen here during Christmas season.

The reverse of the coin is that it's really cold!

The snow has started to melt yesterday,

but the shade spots are really icy now,

and it makes it an hazard just to try to go out on the deck.

I hope you all had a very merry time,

and I also wish you a wonderful New Year for 2011.

As for me,  it was a bitter-sweet time,

with my mind drifting most of the time

into more happy times

and also into very very sad moments.

As some of you know,

J passed way last August  and my mind and heart

kept going to places where I wish I never had to be.

I did do my best, I even cooked a little bit,

and it was nice the girls coming over and sharing gifts.

And of course it was very nice

to talk to my sweet aunts back in Europe.

Since both my parents have also passed years ago,

it feels good to hear them say

"We miss and love you very much".

And of course, my son and my sister and brothers also called,

and it was a very nice Christmas gift from all of them.

This New Year for me is looking in fact like a new year.

I've been dealing, since August,  with all kinds of situations

as you all can understand.

But so far everything seems to be getting along,

and I'll be starting a job the very first of the year.

It will be very new to me

(different from my teaching career that's for sure)

and I'm excited and truly nervous about it.

It will be only for the weekends,

but the best part is that I'll do it from home.

As you can see bellow,

these will be my job tools:

a secure phone land line,

a pair of headsets,

note pads, pencils and pens,

glossaries,

 and of course the computer.

I'll be starting my training January 2nd

and my effective first day on the job will be January 15.

As you might have guessed

I'll be an over-the-phone-interpreter

for a prestigious language services company here in the USA.

These are auspicious news for the starting of the new year

and I'm glad to share it with you.

Stay safe and warm and try to enjoy the beauty of the white stuff,

tough so many people are now having a real bad time

dealing with all the negatives of this so now called a huge blizzard,

specially in the Northeast of the country. 

I'll see you all shortly!

A little Portuguese history...a little Portuguese Music...a little Portuguese Super-Star Mom!

Some time ago I've told you I was born in Africa,

in S.Tome e Principe.

So now you know where S.Tome e Principe is located...

As you can see,

S. Tome is one island and Principe is another island.

S.Tome is the island where I was born,

and tough I do not remember my time there

(I do remember my years in Angola and Mozambique),

I can still hear my parents telling me

it was the most beautiful place they've ever lived in.

 

As a matter of fact three of us (me and two brothers) were born in Africa.

The other three (my sister and the two younger brothers)

were born in

Portugal main land in Europe.

My dad was in the military and was placed in different countries of Africa

(then Portuguese colonies) 

during our growing up lives..

But all of us did live in Africa, sometime or another

(except for my baby brother, born in the same year

we all came back to Europe for the last time),

and my childhood was spent between Africa and Europe.

And today I live in North America... life can be weird, don't you think?

Why am I telling you all this?...

Because today I want to take you with me down memory lane,

sharing some pics and some music too.

My older brother
once introduced me to Joao Afonso music,
taping me a collage of one of his albums called Missangas.

This song (Fugir com o Cientista) is part of that album. 

Joao Afonso also lived in Africa

and his so beautiful music has lots and lots of African influence.

Carteiro em Bicicleta
is one of his most famous songs,

and really, really good music, wouldn't you say...?

Joao Afonso is
Zeca Afonso nephew.

Some of you know very well whom am talking about...

but for those of you who don't...

Zeca Afonso

 is (was) the most famous Portuguese Revolutionary Singer

(from before and after the Revolution)

and it was one of his songs
(Grandola Vila Morena)
that triggered the broad casted code
for the Portuguese Military Revolution in April 25th 1974.

No blood shed, only the people's will and

the soldier's carnation guns made it all happen...

no more war, no more deaths in the war...

I remember my mom just saying

"Thank Goodness my son will not go to the war!"

She was talking about my older brother who at that time

was about to be drafted and be called into the military.

And that was the FEAR of all the Portuguese mothers...
isn't it the same with all the mothers..., all over...?

Any How...

Africa does scar you for ever.

I used to dream of Africa, literally, when we definitely move back to Europe.

I used to wake up during the night and not being sure of where I was.

I'd miss my friends, my play grounds, my growing up fantasies...

my doll tea parties with my sister and friends,

my Enid Blyton like adventures with my school mates...

All of us girls were like The Five aficionados,

we even had a club named THE FIVE ,

and we gave each one of us the same names as the characters

and would try to run the same adventures...

I still remember the poor girl chosen to be Timmy, the dog...

if she wanted it in, she had to accept it...and she did, of course! 

So many stories and so many wonderful memories!

My older brother had the good fortune to go back

and revisit Africa a couple of years ago

(still waiting to see some pics brother...)

and if I ever will make out my bucket list,

go back to Africa is definitely one of my top ones!

And before I finish this post about my beloved Africa,

one last thing I would very much like to share with all of you:

the beautiful movie star like

 my MOM in Africa
(Guine-Bissau),

early 50's, when she married my Dad!

(We all love and miss you Mom & Dad!) 

Strip Quilting inside my Garden

Saturday is here and the week is gone.

Behind it... the severe weather... and lots of destruction, pain and suffering for so many folks so close by.

All across the state, specially in middle Tennessee, the flooding brought bad memories to us all of Katrina.

I can hardly imagine what those poor people are going trough...

People died and so many lost everything.

My European background makes it difficult to accept

that we are in fact at Nature's mercy.

More than a state of mind it's a state of the heart if I can say so...

whatever will be...will be.

There's no way to prevent it from happening.

Here in East Tennessee things were much much lighter...

We got some rain, some HOT temperatures...

some moderate wind... a few branches down...

and that was it.

Today we're cooler and we have sunshine.

It looks and feels nice.

So... walk with me,

let me take you inside my garden,

and you'll see why I spend so much time taking care of it.

It is indeed my little piece of heaven.

Am I right...?...

J loved it, and I'm very proud of myself.

It's very relaxing just to sit on a bench and listen... nothing but the birds... the hawk calls... and the cat that wants to be pet and jumps on my lap... When I was quitting (smoking) a year ago I would just sit on the bench,

close my eyes

and there I would go...

nowhere but wherever I would want to!

Sometimes,

I bring some flowers in the house for J.

The peonies are really gorgeous this year.

Inside and besides my everyday routines,

I made some place mats.

Remember the strip quilting

I've shown you in here?

Well...

I've used some of the blocks to make some place mats.

You can see them in more detail bellow.

With the rest of the blocks

I made a small quilt

and used it as a sort of table runner on the armoire in our bedroom.

I really enjoy this technique

and I suspect I'll be making a lot more with it in the future.