To let you know a little bit more about myself.
New Years 2004:
Visited Colombia
Summer 2004:
Did the Camino de Santiago
Visited Hawaii
Visited Iceland
Update on my stay in Gainesville, Florida
All my basic education was in english. Firstly I attended the PDO (Petroleum Development of Oman) school until fifth grade and then the American-British Academy from which I graduated in 1996.
From My time at the PDO I recall excellent moments which definitely shaped me. Getting a pencil tip lodged in my wrist due to pencil fighting; playing rugby until way after dark when the field attained a mystical element to it by being midly illuminated with weak lamposts; sitting on the pillows listening to the teacher read us stories;
After PDO I went to an international high school called The American-British Academy (ABA).
The ABA was anything BUT an american-british academy since all classes were comprised of students with a very wide variety of nationalities. Oman is, or at least was when I knew it, a very beautiful country.
The landscape is impressive, a mixture of arid mountains, vast sand dunes, and endless beaches. Without a doubt Omans` landscape influenced me.
Another aspect of Oman which affected me was its cultural variety. Many workers from India emigrated there in search of (and finding) all kinds of jobs, this led to the formation of large Indian communities along with their typical foods and ways of being.
Every year we (my parents, my brother, and I) would go back to Portugal for one of the nearly three months of summer holidays. During these holidays we would, nearly always, visit a few other countries en route (or not) to Portugal. It was, most probably, these small tastes of other countries, their cultures and their people, that first instilled in me the travelling bug. By travelling so much and looking at so many different cultures (and, most importantly, doing so before one gets old enough to take decisions of their own at which point they normally opt for the path of least resistance and stay at home) definitely shaped my view of the world.
As of today I have lived the majority of my life, 13 years, in Oman. I learnt most of what I know today while I was there and met many amazing people with whom I still try to keep in contact (and with whom I hope I never lose contact).
So, I finished my highschool in Oman, did the graduation ceremony (which coincided with my 18th birthday) and flew to Portugal. I should add that I left to Portugal (with a month stopover in Germany with my girlfriend at the time) but with a knot in my throat because there had been an opportunity for me to continue my studies in South Carolina with a Tennis oriented scholarship but this was not to be.
I knew what life in Portugal was, and knew that it was very different from what I had lived untill then, yet I was looking forward to this change. The way I looked at it was that in Oman people lived in close contact with nature (at least closer than in many metropolitan places) but there was some selection of things which we came in contact with. In Portugal, on the other hand, you could find whatever crazy combination of people and places that you wanted. If you wanted to join a rock band you could, if you wanted to join a group of skinheads you could, if you wanted to practice yoga with others you could, if you wanted to join a theatre group... as long as you weren`t lazy.
Immediately upon my arrival I started preparing for university and learning to speak normal portuguese. This proved to be loads of fun!
I entered in the University of Lisbon, the course of Physics. At university I met many interesting people and made many friends. Unfortunately I cannot say great things about the department... or about the teachers... images of students attempting to cross a large stagnant pool which is pulling at their feet making it hard to move, demanding great effort for each step, spring to mind when I recall the university. The same teachers have been there for an eternity. Very few replacements, very few new additions, just the same teachers who repeat their mantra year after year failing students without a care, never changing the curriculum... It is a dangerous beach of quicksand.
Approximately 25 students start the physics course each year. Approximately 1 or two finish each year...
The course is designed to take 4 years, the average is around 7 (note: "average").
Anyway, even though it is terrible, those who manage to stick through a course at the University of Lisbon come out very well prepared with a strong, rigorous, theoretical background.
Tennis, which I had dedicated so many years to, had to be left behind. Not only is it expensive to book a tennis court (even being a student!) but the tennis teams and meetings are not well organized (not organized at all in most cases) and there is no incentives to do sport at a high level. Here I started taking yoga classes with my girlfriend at the time and found that many aspects came easily to me. The first yoga classes did not have much meditation but did follow Patanjali`s "eight-limb" structure, giving importance to mantras, mudras, asanas, kriya, pranayama, meditation, relaxation... Then I got involved in Ananda Marga slightly before I began rock climbing.
Portugal has some very beautifull locations and rock climbing is a great way to find, visit, and interact with the spirit in those locations.
I first got involved in rock climbing when my brother got a job at an outdoors store and bought climbing gear. From then on I was hooked. The first session with my brother were always adventures and then he stopped and I continued climbing with another friend.
At the end of the physics course, after five years, I decided to start the Masters in Astrophysics since it interested me and since there weren`t many other options. The Masters is two years but at the end of the first I left for Florida.
The reason why I chose to do a Masters is that I wanted to do research. However, the curriculum did not provide any research and once I knew of the possibility of coming to the USA, where the research capabilities are much greater, I took it. I had to restart the Masters here in Florida which meant taking two more years of classes (which I just ended) and also teaching a lab class but I immediately got involved in research.
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