Flour Power

(photo by the_girl)

It was 6 months ago that I moved to Galway, Ireland, for a 6 months internship sponsored by the INOV Contacto program. It was 6 months ago that I left the comfort of the house I had lived in for the previous 20-something years and moved to a completely new place. It was 6 months ago that I had the first of many pints of Guinness…

Those were 6 great months.

A lot of fun was had at the awesome Irish pubs. Some travelling was done around Europe. A lot of people were met, and some became good friends.

Those were the good things, and although not everything was perfect, I really can’t point any especially bad experience. So the overall experience was very positive.

And that’s why I’m going back!

That’s right, I hadn’t made it official yet, but I’m announcing it now. The company where I did the internship offered me a contract extension and so I’ll go back to Galway for some more time.

It’s now time to rest, and I’ll be back in one week.

Hello everyone! (yes, both of you!). I present you the first post of what I hope to be my long lasting personal blog.

First, some background.

I've been planning to start a blog for some time now. I guess I felt the need to have some kind of presence on the web besides having an account in all the major social networks. Or maybe I just wanted to share my ramblings with more than just the person that happens to be next to me at the time. The truth is, the blog never got started until now. And why was that? Those that know me might say it was laziness (which, I must admit, is one of my many "skills"). I prefer to think it had to do with the fact that my life wasn't that much interesting and that I shouldn't waste my time writing uninteresting stuff for no one to read.

But something happened to make me take the step to actually do it...

And that was being selected to be part of the Inov Contacto program! What that meant was being sent for an internship in a company I didn't choose, in a city that could be anywhere in the world. My destination: Galway, Ireland!

This was the tipping point for the blog creation and so, from now on, this is going to be my small space on the web. For starters, I'll be posting all kinds of adventures I happen to stumble upon during my stay in the country where Guinness was born. Since this is a personal blog, you may also expect to find posts about my interests, which include movies, music, tv shows, poker, technology, books and, of course, funny stuff on the Internet. And then there might be some seemingly senseless posts...

You might be wondering why am I writing in English since I'm actually Portuguese. Well, this is yet another attempt to keep improving my English. And I have quite a few non-Portuguese-speaking friends that might be interested in reading what I have to say. And I'll write in Portuguese whenever I need to say something that can't quite be expressed without the richness of our beautiful language

And that's basically it. Join me for the ride!