A nevem Carolina

Farewell!

2010-05-25T23:03:00.003+02:00

I'm back in Porto, so I will stop updating this blog... But as soon as I have the new one (that will be used together with a portfolio site) I'll drop here the link for the ones that want to keep up with what I'm doing.

In the mean time, something for Orlando:

I'm sorry, Mr. Muffin Man said he was too afraid of being "trapped" in Budapest due to the volcano (either that or he did not have enough money and this was just a lame excuse.. anyway..) but he was kind enough to set up a meeting with his magyar cousin, Mr. Mako-Muffin-Man! (mako is poppy seed in Hungarian, which is something they use a lot for sweet food)
So here you have, the picture!

ps: if Mr.Muffin-Man asks, I have no idea where Mr Mako is... he just kind of vanished after the picture and before lunch (around that break for a snack in the middle of the morning, you know?)... maybe he went home because he was...tired? hungry? I dunno..

Good luck!

2010-05-15T08:40:00.004+02:00

Good luck Mom and Dad! Not sure I would be very happy driving in Budapest...

Kipakolás!

2010-05-11T08:27:00.003+02:00

This is the demo that I did for my iPhone Application class... sorry for the voice... you cannot expect too much from me at 7 a.m. and in a hurry :P
thank you for João that had the patience to put together the sound and the video!

And this is my Csizmás Kandúr book... "Puss in Boots" without any text, just images, a class project where we participated in a contest held by a hungarian publisher. I did the bookbinding of it for the presentation, and the teacher liked it so much that he asked me to keep it! I had to do another one for me :P

Open publication - Free publishing - More illustration

...

2010-04-26T16:22:00.001+02:00

Morri para o mundo!

(no idea how to translate this, sorry!)

... the final presentation is in the 3rd of May. I am really going to die.
No updates until then, probably ;)

Another Work in Progress!

2010-04-19T20:59:00.004+02:00

This is the meta-communication... how it is so far. I really need to finish it this week... auch.

ps: In the last semester, in Visual Mathematics,in onde of the tasks each student had to draw a set of tiles to include in an interactive wall (another class about interactivity and programming developed the wall itself)... the teacher applied to "Bridges" in Pécs (link) and our project was one of the chosen ones! So this means me and the other students will have our set of tiles in the interactive wall..but I will no longer be in Hungary, it's in July. I hope someone takes pictures or films it...

Illustration Friday: Linked

2010-04-13T14:32:00.003+02:00

Illustration Friday is always an excuse to try out techniques...

Some iPhone fun

2010-04-10T01:35:00.003+02:00

Experimenting with different colors.
done with sketchbook mobile and slight texture added after in Photoshop.
(I recommend a full view!)

What if...

2010-04-07T14:24:00.002+02:00

...everybody in Europe had dinner around the same time?
(I know, I know, sunlight and bla bla bla...)
It's just that today I'm going to an "after-dinner going out thing" with my animation class, around 19h30.
And then, I have a birthday dinner at 21h...

Now I don't know if I should join the animation class for one hour before dinner, and then meet them again later, or just go there after the dinner, taking the risk of missing them because their night out may be already over, lol.

Work in Progress!

2010-04-03T09:12:00.011+02:00

Here are my first 2 exercises in animation this semester... it's still a work in Progress, but I thought it could also be interesting to see it in an early stage. In the first part we have a morf between 3 objects, and then I connected the first exercise to the second one, a 10 second lip sync.
Enjoy!
ps: sorry for the lousy quality...

The best Sugar store!!

2010-03-19T10:02:00.001+01:00

And it's sooooo close to my house... oh temptation, sweet temptation!

Just look at these cakes and desserts! Aren't they gorgeous? A feast for the eyes (and the mouth, I bet!)

Well, I had to have something.... Chocolate pie with forest fruits... yummy!
And it was Theresa's last day here, so after having lunch at Menza (a great looking restaurant nearby) I paid for her dessert :)

And the bathroom? Full of candies, of course! Reminds me of "Vasco da Gama" shopping, in Lisboa.

Now this is sweet rice.. I had it a few weeks after. They have like 7 different kinds of sweet rice (chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, tiramisu, etc) and then several topings and combinations! I had vanilla rice with brownies and chocolate crunchy thingies :P
(a little bit too sweet, but really really tasty anyhow!)

I will definitely advise Mia and Nuno to go there :D
(oops... sorry about the diet :S There is, anyway, a nice vegetarian fast-food restaurant in front... you can have salads and "vegetarian pitta" if you want... before ;))

IllustrationFriday: Subterranean

2010-03-17T11:15:00.001+01:00

I do like the snow (yesterday it snowed during the night) but I hope Spring will be coming soon... It's about time!

Second Part: Pécs

2010-03-09T13:43:00.001+01:00

I really liked Pécs... it's a nice city, well preserved and interesting... I mean, it's the capital of culture for 2010 for some reason...

We had a reference for a hostel that we saw on the internet. We rang several times and nobody answered... I mean, it was really several... even because the doorbell was silly and changed the tune/music each time we rang. (Christmas, classical, country, you name it! the neighbours must have been sooo annoyed...)
So we gave up and found this one on the way, Nap Nap Hostel... really young and fresh, with great conditions! This is a picture from the staircases, full of grafitti.

After checking in, we traveled around and went up the hill.

Anja and Juliana taking pictures

well, traveling in January does have it's nice side ;)

The mosk that is now a catholic church.

The ceiling... gorgeous!

You have to agree that this mixture was quite strange to see...

St.Peter cathedral, if I am not mistaken. Although the exterior might look quite the sober, the interior was richly decorated, covered in paintings and patterns

These door handles were so cute!

Theresa and Anja in the underground chambers... again, completely covered in paintings and patterns... I could stay there forever drawing and admiring!

As soon as I have the time I'll post about our last part of the trip, Kesthely at the Lake Balaton.

Illustration Friday: Brave

2010-03-09T09:10:00.001+01:00

Experimenting.

tiny tiny...

2010-03-06T11:25:00.000+01:00

I'm going to ruin my eyes :S

papercutting technique!

my name, for the cover of the book I am making for Illustration... It's the Puss in Boots, just images, no words except for the cover (these were the conditions..)

Oh, it will be a loooong weekend...

MOME has a door to heaven!

2010-02-27T11:24:00.000+01:00

... it was locked... I did try to open it :P

Do you recognize this???

2010-02-22T00:46:00.000+01:00

It was in an exhibition about character and background concept for animation.
And I am pretty sure where the illustrator got the inspiration from...

link to the real one ;)

(oh, and these are really old pictures, from the design week, but I completely forgot about them..)

Torsten Posselt at MOME

2010-02-20T10:15:00.000+01:00

A post about a presentation that I saw, here:

Arte Por Toda A Parte

(in portuguese)

Paper Mask

2010-02-20T00:28:00.001+01:00

We saw this advertising in a magazine about a masquerade party in a local bar, Instant...
And since I didn't feel like wasting money, I decided to "make something quickly"...
of course, as usual, I got carried away and took 3 hours and something to complete it!
And when we arrived at the party... me and theresa (who had some cat ears made by herself and a cute cat-like-painting on the face) realized we were the only ones wearing something.
Lol, how embarrassing. Me, someone who looooves being in the spotlight...
Oh well.
At least I like it and a lot of people complimented it (including people I did not know..)
And we got free beers by the barman. We asked him if it was a masquerade party, he had no ideia... he then asked 2 other guys, they did not have a clue... checked in the poster "oh yeah, apparently it's true!". And Theresa had the nerve to ask if people in a costume had the right to a free drink. Lol.
(We spent the rest of the night hearing "meows" from guys and explaining to random curious people that "yes, we are in a costume because it was supposed to be a masquerade party here today!")
Sigh..

(yes, I know that I look serious... but you know how my cheeks and eye masks work, lol!)

The Royal Turkey

2010-02-11T09:45:00.000+01:00

While we are still dealing with details (trying to improve it, there are a few things that may be done differently) but in the meantime... here is our animation:

The Royal Turkey

Click it to go to a private link on YouTube!
(and sorry for the lousy quality... I'm still doing some tests, trying to get a better image without the video ending up around 100MB...)

I hope you enjoy it ;)

(hugs to you all, I miss you!)

Illustration Friday: Muddy

2010-02-10T23:58:00.000+01:00

This time, Illustration Friday was a good excuse to try a different technique...
Paper collage and acrylics on paper.

Romania

2010-02-06T18:13:00.000+01:00

creepy "hollywood-style" Deva sign... in front of Deva's castle (not the one we visited, we visited a castle in the nearby village Hunedoara, where the Dracula was held prisoner for several years before being deported). Picture by Anja

We took the train from Hortobagy to Romania, early in the morning (because the trip takes 7 hours)... and I must say that the first impression of this country, from what we could see from the window, was not the best... quite "abandoned", with houses in ruins, a lot of factories and houses made out of anything and everything people could find. Of course, the weather also contributed to this creepy feeling, for it was cloudy and gray...

these pipes you can see at the bottom ran through the city we were passing by, exposed to the weather and full of rust... I would never trust those things...

We arrived at Deva and we just could not find the hostel! We didn't have a reservation (none of us has a credit card..) but we had the name that anja found through hostel world and a map from google that she took from a link that was there.
We were walking and walking around, people were looking at us, and two gypsy women tried to ask us something and teased us... it was not comfortable at all!
Well, I called João to try and find out if we were in the right place (poor guy, lol...) and he could not find the hostel on the website! but, if he searched on google, he could get to the page anja saw (probably it was taken down from Hostel World but the link was still up) and find the right location, which apparently was not where we were.
We asked some policemen for directions and headed to the newly indicated street...
...and again, nothing! We just could not find it!
We saw a "villa alex" nearby and we decided, ok, let's just try this one, it doesn't matter if it's more expensive or not, it's just one night and we cannot find a hostel here...
we knocked on the door.
nothing.
again...
nothing.
we started screaming "hellooooooooo! is anyone there????"
and nothing.
we found a phone number on a paper near the door, we decided to call them (anja was the victim), and someone on the other side "hello, welcome to Romania! I hope you enjoy your stay, bla bla bla..." and anja managed to explain to the lady we were at the door. But apparently, she did not understand english that well. Anja started screaming "WE ARE AT THE DOOR! DOOOOOR! HERE! DEVA! VILLA ALEX!" but apparently it was not working... and then the lady called her son because he could speak german, and literally put the cellphones (one with anja's call, the other with her son) in front of each other so that anja could speak to him! lol!
Of course, the sound was terrible and Anja was struggling to understand and be understood, but eventually (not sure how) they realized we were there and wanted to stay there for the night. Uff! The man opened us the door (finally!) and we found out we were in a really really nice house, well furnished and with big rooms.
We were able to pay in Forints...we had no Lei because the intention was to drop the bags in the hostel and go to a place to change money. The german girls pay 6 euros each time they use an ATM, and I did not want to use my card in Romania because, well, my bank could think that my card got stolen again, so we had a lot of forints to change. (ah, the lady in Debrecen's train station information office told us that in Deva we would be able to find a place to change money almost everywhere, which proved to be false).
The lady was actually kind enough to cook us dinner (it was already 22h, if I'm not mistaken?)
... of course, we later found out they took way too much money compared to the average price of the food! Oh well, not a big problem...

our exquisite bathroom!

On the next day I went to an atm and took money for all of us, because it was sunday and nothing else was open, and we needed money to pay the entrance in the castle.
Actually, we just saw a van (with ten seats, or something like that) that had a label saying "hunedoara" and we just pointed to the driver, who stopped and allowed us to get in. (definitely a weird system!).
In Hunedoara, we found a taxi and just took it (we were 4 and it cost around one euro to each one, quite cheap indeed) and finally, we were at the castle!

aaaaand...
...it was not that creepy, lol.

The weather was fine, sometimes even sunny, and I believe Romania itself, the surroundings of the castle, were far more scary that the castle itself.

view from the castle... such a chaos! I think "urban planning" hasn't arrived to Romania yet..

the entrance, over a river (like a real castle! hah!)

inside...

Theresa and Anja trying to warm up in the sun... they were so cute, trying to fit into that sun frame!

picture by Anja, while she was in the "warming-up spot"

view from the castle.

detail of the painting covering the main tower.

the sun was almost setting when we decided to have lunch... (a picture by Juliana)

picture by Anja. They had these "pops" of color everywhere... it's strange, you would see old, ruined gray/muddy houses, next to colorful (and I mean reaaaally colorful) facades, popping out from the gloomy atmosphere.

another colorful house, picture by me

After lunch, we decided to walk all the way down to Hunedoara... and on the way there was this cute animation for the people crossing the street, and Juliana filmed it.

...and an ice-cream house. (picture by Juliana)

We then bought some food in a supermarket for the night, and took the bus back to Deva, grabbed our bags from Villa Alex and headed to the bus terminal... we were going to take the "Orange Ways bus", that would take us the whole night from Deva to Budapest... we were searching for the terminal, and searching, and searching... the only thing that said on our ticket was that it was next do mac donalds, but the whole bus terminal was next to it! we asked a guy, that sent us to a building... but the lady in there sent us back to the place near mac donalds... we were getting a little bit desperate when we finally realized that a big orange bus had just stopped next to it, on the street!
Uff!
It was time to go back to Budapest, to rest for 3 days before our second part of the trip...

Focused

2010-02-05T11:34:00.000+01:00

For Illustration Friday... Seems that I just cannot stay away from the greens... (I think I will choose a pallete from color lovers next time!)

Done in Photoshop, aproximately 1 hour

Hortobagy

2010-02-03T00:09:00.000+01:00

Hortobagy did not have much to offer in the Winter...

looking tired, and still on the trip...

picture by Juliana

It was freeeeeezing outside, and the only thing to see in Hortobagy is... well, the outdoors. The landscapes. The horses running free and all of the fauna that is supposed to be quite unique, specially when it comes to birds. Oh, and horseman...
But we saw almost nothing.
Ok, wait, my mistake, we did see horses...

...but this was the closest we could get! Obviously, we gave up when we buried our feet in that muddy path. (I still haven't washed my boots... but shhhh, don't tell my mom!)

just... hmmm... walking around... trying to warm up the legs...
picture by Juliana

...and this is supposed to be a very unique stone bridge, according to our guide books.

strange strange church...

...and in the restaurant, finally warm! but still looking tired, as you can see by the faint smiles.
The food was quite good, but the restaurant closed at 15h, and we had our train around 17h or 18h, I cannot recall right now. So we went for (yet another) walk in the village... and we saw this little girl with two leashes on her hand... one had a dog, and on the other was a goat! Lol, that must be quite of a unique pet. (at least for me, city girl..)

(i'm sorry for the poor quality of the picture... I had been experimenting in manual mode, and I didn't realise it had a really low exposure setting, when I just pointed and shot a picture as soon as I saw the girl. I kind of tried to save it in Photoshop...)

As soon as the sun vanished from the sky, we decided to wait inside the train station.. which was just a room with heaters all around and a strangely abandoned cashier... we were alone there, when a strange man in a long black jacket entered and sat down. He looked suspicious (poor guy, victim of our fertile imagination, probably) and Anja said that the whole scene was becoming quite like a suspense movie...
a few minutes later, the door opens again...
and comes in a guy with an electric chainsaw on his hand! Lol, now that was way too much, almost like someone was making fun of us. We laughed, of course... but you never know...

Of course, we survived, and we headed to Debrecen one last time, for in the next morning we would have to wake up early to go to Deva (Romenia) by train...

Debrecen

2010-01-30T21:33:00.000+01:00

The Protestant Great Church

Debrecen disappointed us a little bit... Although it is the second largest city in Hungary, actually it's quite small and we did not find that much to see there...or at least there was no "awe" feeling when we were there... except in the museum, perhaps.
Anyway, I will leave here some pictures of the things that I liked the most!

A Hotel in the main avenue...

This one had stained-glass windows, but you cannot really see...and at night the inside light was not enough to admire them properly, but they seemed to be really nice.

The inside of the Church... it was quite strange! it had benches all around, in every direction.

The Déri Museum was a nice surprise. It held a personal collection, and we thought "well, let's take a peek, it shouldn't take that long..."
2 hours later, we were still there! It had a little bit of everything, from egypt to ancient greece and rome, to hungarian art and folklore (oh, I loved these little mugs that were shaped like men and women... I'm definitely going to the flea market to try and find one of these!)...
For me, it was the best part in Debrecen... very inspiring.

ps: oh, Debrecen had traffic lights with count-downs! It was sooooooo annoying to see the seconds going by, waiting for our turn to cross. I wonder if it is a good improvement or a little bit pointless...

Cave Baths

2010-01-29T17:08:00.000+01:00

The Cave Baths in Miskolc-Tapolca was one of the best days of our trip!
We did not take any pictures because, well, it was a thermal bath and we love our cameras way too much.
But I really had to share something so that you could have a glimpse of it...
It was definitely worth it, it was different and inspiring. And relaxing... I'm just sorry that on one of the parts the water was a little bit cold... it must be better closer to the summer.

However, that temperature was actually perfect after accidentally finding out there was a water-gymnastics class starting in the exact pool where we were. It was us 3 (Theresa was taking a power nap) and a lot of old people, but I must admit it was fun, lol!

picture found through google image search engine

picture found through google image search engine

The above is a quick drawing in my iPhone, because I did not want to forget the mood, the colours and the reflections of one particular cave/chamber that had these underwater lights changing constantly and this weird thing in the middle with places to seat... and it echoed and augmented the voices a lot... it had a really strange/sci-fi feeling attached to it...

After the cave-baths there was not much to see... we had lunch, walked around the local park, and left to Debrecen!

...to be continued ;)

Hollokö

2010-01-28T18:51:00.000+01:00

It was cold, veeeeeery cold, but it was indeed a nice trip!
We started in Hollokö, a very very traditional village in Hungary... but unfortunately it's also a touristic place, which means it practically dies in the Winter. Every museum was closed, we could only walk around the place... However, the feeling of having the area just for us was at the same time spooky and nice. Like an abandoned town.

The three backpackers... it was so funny to watch them put those bags on their backs! And to see them taking them off was also quite entertaining...

Some crooked traditional houses, protected by UNESCO

The church (I love these very enlightening descriptions of photographs...)

hmm... random detail of pots?

... and some company along the way.

Lucky for us, the tourist information office was open and we left there our heavy bags.

I have a cap! and some fairy-like leaves, found on the way :)

Up up up we went until the castle... closed, of course, during winter time... but nearby we found a nice surprise. A quirky open-air theater, stage for our random silliness.

(picture taken by Anja, for obvious reasons ;))

To end the evening (before catching the bus to Miskolc, to sleep there), a nice lunch in a traditional restaurant.

I'll leave you now some pictures of the room in Miskolc... it was a really neat and modern place for students, close to the university. We were truly sorry for only spending there one night! Oh well...

the bathroom, connecting to Theresa's and Juliana's room!

And as soon as I can, I'll post some pictures of the rest of our trip.
Hugs to you all!

I'm going to travel!

2010-01-12T00:30:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow I'll have to wake up around 5 a.m.... ouch!
And I'll be back on the 18th! (if everything goes well)

We'll be going to Holloko tomorrow morning because it's a traditional village with traditional people, according to Juliana.
From there, in the evening, we'll go to Miskolc to spend the night and in the next day we'll try the cave-baths in Miskolc-Tapolca.
From there we proceed to Debrecen, take one day there and visit the national reserve of Hortobagy in the next day. Back to Debrecen, we take the train to Deva, in Romenia... we'll be visiting one castle associated with the Dracula, the place where he was held prisoner for 7 years before being deported. The castle is not in Deva, it is in the nearby Hunedoara.
From Deva to Budapest we'll take a night bus and seven hours later (in the early morning of the 18th) we'll be back "home"... exhausted, probably!

We'll recover for 2/3 days and then follows Pecs and the Lake Balaton.
Uff!

I'll post some pictures when I come back... in the meantime, you can always "google-image" it ;)

See you soon!

Tough to come, tough to go...

2010-01-11T16:35:00.000+01:00

We went to a fancy restaurant in João's last day here, in order to spend his last forints (and because it's always nice to go somewhere nicer than burguer king*, once in a while ;))...

*No need to fear Mom, I've actually never been to a burguer king, it's just a matter or speech!

Sorry for the not-so-good quality of the pictures, but they were taken with my brand-new iPhone :D
(shameless advertising?)

I had duck with potatoes in the oven and strawberries with strawberry sauce... delicious! Really exquisite!

A close-up from my dish.
We were the only customers in that restaurant on a wednesday night, so the service was good and fast, of course.

and João with his dish (he thought I was only taking a picture from the plate...) He had veal goulash with some weird-but-oh-so-good potato thingies that were a mix of mashed potatoes and potatoes cut in pieces, all crunched up in what resembled disks, and crunchy on the outside (really hard to describe, lol!)

But actually, this was not his last day here... for the flight in the next morning was canceled due to bad weather in Paris. Curiously enough, he was flying to Geneva and not Paris, but the easyjet plane was coming from Paris to Budapest.
This means he returned to my place and he also had to take money from an ATM, to come by airport shuttle (how ironic! but that dinner was well worth the money, it was delicious!).
This also means he re-booked his first flight to a few days later and that he lost the flight from Geneva to Porto... (later he bought a ticket in TAP, from Geneva to Porto, on Sunday)

But... he also couldn't go on Sunday! The easyjet flight was canceled again (this time the bad weather really was in Switzerland). He asked for the refund and lost the TAP flight (more money down the drain... oh well...).

He left this afternoon, bought a new ticket in TAP, so that he would have a sure connection and not loose money again, and he left from Budapest to Lisbon, and then Lisbon-Porto.

Uff! This was really an expensive trip for him, after all the problems in the begining and now in the end... But at least the time he spent here was really really nice :)
(oh, we visited the parliament! I have to post a few pictures from that, it's a really gorgeous building)

I hope he has a good trip back home!

I miss the snow...

2010-01-04T11:50:00.000+01:00

the first picture in the first day of snow... I was so excited, running around the room and trying to take one decent picture from the snow, that I arrived reaaaally late at MOME... I'm glad Anja was also late, because we were going to meet to animate :P

This was how I left Budapest (and my university) before Christmas:

the A building

Now it's sunny but cold... and after having my feet wet from the rain on new year's eve (those boots from deichman are really nice-looking, but quite poor in quality) I bought some real boots in Timberland. Now I'm ready for the bad weather, and although there was a little bit of snow yesterday, it was not enough to cover everything in white...

Still my university... That's the building of the theoretical course.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-02T12:17:00.000+01:00

post-post-post midnight celebrations (I forgot to film midnight, I just recorded about 10 minutes after... probably those fireworks are from someone that decided to launch them later?)
You can see João, Theresa and Anja and Tobi. (and their friends around)

We went to Theresa's house for a "warm-up party/get together before midnight/whatever" around 21:30h, and we were chatting until 23h45... there were several german and swiss people, friends from Theresa and Anja's boyfriend (Tobi), so we were actually the only non-speaking german people there!
From there we went to Oktogon square, to celebrate the new year.
There was a big screen with Viva (though I didn't understand very well why... but again, I felt I was in germany and not in Hungary, lol) and at midnight there were a lot of fireworks! It was funny,there were a lot of people with fireworks in their hands, launching them. You could buy them anywhere and just do the party yourself. (Tia Gui, imagine drunk people with noisy fireworks in their hands! scary..) Different (seemed a little bit more chaotic, maybe) but nice.
From there we went to this big party in a disco... I kind of regret having spent those 20€, lol! It was crowded, had music and drinks... but it was not my style at all. The company was, of course, nice...just too many drunk teenagers all around (I'm getting old...).

Hugs and kisses to you all, wishing a very very good 2010!

Behind the scenes

2009-12-06T10:34:00.000+01:00

We finally started the animation!
But in the meantime I'll leave you some more images of the process before the first shooting...

my room. We didn't have decent tables or black curtains or anything... so the teacher just started dismantling some shelves and a cupboard he had there and started building up everything! (he is on the left, putting up the curtain to block the light) And when me and Anja needed cork, he just went to the wall and took that thing you have there to pin notes... "here, take from this one!"

The hands! first the wire structure, then using thread to cover the fingers, and then the dipping into silicone....

...just a close-up

the armature with the arms attached. It's on top of the drawing, for us to check proportions.

making the head... first the basic structure (the eyes are beads) and then I'll remove some clay from the cheeks before it goes to the oven to harden. That way we can add soft clay after and we'll be able to make him chew!

That is my table in my room... after one night of work with anja, having also Juliana and Theresa there for company and help (thank you!)

I worked on the heads of the puppets while Anja did most of the sewing... and to think she didn't have much experience, who would have thought? they turned out great!
(the clasp I did out of wire, btw, and the crown is golden paper...)

the head is cooked and has the soft clay, and then we had to buy brown fimo for the eyebrowns and the moustache because we forgot.

The jester, before having the colours in the face. You can see the structure underneath and the purple thing in the back will become his shirt.

the final head

The king ready to be animated, next to Anja that is making the hat of the jester, out of leather... In the meantime, all that fimo next to her was being used for making the food for the banquet table!

The jested before I painted the hat green with checkers.

and the final one... Anja checking the light! We were finally ready to begin! (the background also turned out really great, Krisztina did a great job on it! I'll show you a frame or a little bit of animation, after, and you'll be able to see it properly)...

until next time!
(I'm now heading to MOME to do the next scene... yes, on a Sunday!)

Entangled

2009-12-04T13:03:00.001+01:00

for Illustration Friday.. did it in about one hour and the colors in 5 minutes...oooh, and I'm late for my animation class, so szia!!

Meet...

2009-11-24T21:34:00.000+01:00

Mr. Aicsou Taumbom! xD

This was the puppet we did for testing walk cycles... Obviously it was also to learn how to make the structure... but most of us got carried away and gave them faces and (somewhat) personalities!

Aicsou and Anja's girl...

the first walk... not very nice, the steps are way too small...

and the second walk cycle... better, it starts pretty nice but in the end I was too hasty. I hope I have the time to give it one more try!

Recipes...

2009-11-24T20:48:00.000+01:00

When João was here, we cooked quite a lot! (well, at least to my standards...)
First we did some "Pastéis de Nata" for Eni's birthday...

And then some "Queques de Cenoura" (carrot muffins) also for Eni. We wanted to give her some Portuguese sweets, besides the Vintage Porto from 2003.

Aaaand, almost in the end, João decided to make up something, based on the "Pastéis de Nata" recipe... and it was so good! These were actually Eni's favorites! (chocolate never fails...)
So here, have some pictures and the recipe written by João (because Eni wanted to do it, which she did, and now I noticed there's another roll of that pasty in the fridge... probably more coming!)

Manheuse Chocolate Custards

pre made puff pasty
4 egg yolks
2 tablespoons of flour
3 tablespoons of sugar (maybe more or less, according to your taste)
chocolate (whatever chocolate you like, whatever amount you like, wise men say “no amount of chocolate is too much chocolate)
2 or 3 teaspoons of coffee
1 teaspoon of cardamom
1 ½ cup of whole milk
1 cup or small box of cream
cinnamon (wise women say “no amount of cinnamon is too much cinnamon”)
other ingredients you may find interesting to throw in the mix, a personal touch is always good
Begin to fill the cups with the paste. Instructions on how to do so vary from paste to paste and cup to cup, but usually instructions may be found on the box or cover sheet. Anyway, it's good to have this done before starting with the filling, so you can focus on the filling later. Also, it's boring so it's good to put it away as quick as you can.
Having this done, you can start by melting the chocolate, if you use it in bars (which i advise) in the lightest fire you can. You can help it not sticking by adding some butter, just a teaspoon (oops, forgot to add the butter up there, but it's optional, anyway...). Have it melted, but don't waste too much time and start adding the milk, cream, and the egg yolks. Start stirring and don't stop until the very end. I know it sounds a bit boring and tiring, but you'll start smelling it and then you won't want to stop.
Anyway, add the cardamom, coffee cinnamon too. After a while, the yolks must be cooked already, so you can start tasting and adding more coffee or other ingredients so it meets your taste. In the beginning, the mix will look maybe a bit too light, but it will darken eventually, don't worry.
When there are no more chocolate lumps in the mix, add the sugar and the flour and stir away till you have a soft paste. Once you achieve this, you can stop the fire and start filling the cups (see, if you hadn't done them before, you would have to do them now...).
Once filled, put them in the oven, which must be pre-heated and as hot as possible, so the paste gets really crusty.
Take them out when they look good enough or when you can't resist the smell anymore.

Character Design

2009-11-21T01:02:00.000+01:00

For my Animation class we have to make a stop-motion based on a story the teacher gave us.
It must have 2 characters... briefly, the story is: one is eating, the other one distracts him and gets his food, the first one gets angry and hits him and manages to get the food back.

The idea is to work on the expressions and in the animation itself, and not so much about extending the story.
We are going to have a king and a jester :)
Here are the character designs that I did, for my group to work on (we are now in the process of building the puppets, so more on that later!)

The first sketch for the king

More sketches for the king: expressions, chewing...

Adding the jester

Sizes, interaction

it's easier to draw than to make that in stopmotion!

testing colours (not the final ones)

First sculptures of the heads

changing the nose...

more on the noses, and aproaching the final designs

sitting at the table

final jester in a standing position and with the final size, so that we can measure it and build the armature
(actually we altered a little bit these drawings after)

and final king:

The saga continues...

2009-11-21T00:56:00.000+01:00

My bank "uncanceled" my card but now it's the hungarian bank that will not give it to me... Montepio tried to convince them for one hour to give it back, but they say it's the rule and that for security reasons they just cannot give it back. Oh well. A new card has been issued so I'll wait for my parents to send it to Budapest.

An advice for future ERASMUS students: take 2 cards with you, that way if something bad happens to one, you'll have a plan B...

Illustration Friday: Unbalanced

2009-11-20T09:33:00.001+01:00

Just a quick quick quick idea/illustration on the theme "Unbalanced"... I'm trying to keep my promise!

Having a rough day...

2009-11-13T19:28:00.000+01:00

So today I went to the ATM machine to get some money because I only had like 200HUF (less than one euro)... and my card gets "swallowed", "held by your issuer's order".
What??
I went inside, told them my card was stuck... and the lady said unfortunately she could not give it to me because my bank told them to hold this card because it was not authorized...
What??
(she did check the expiry date, but it only due in May)
So I called to Montepio... and they told me my card had been canceled.
What??
It was getting better and better...
Besides, they didn't know why, there should be an explanation but there wasn't... so the guy that was speaking with me on the phone tried (is still trying?) to figure out what happened and waiting for the answer of the place where I asked for the card.
I suppose that now I will have to wait until monday...living with money that anja lent me.

But... I am pick of the week in Illustration Friday!
At least that made me smile in the end :)

Illustration Friday: Blur

2009-11-13T01:33:00.000+01:00

Blurry Poetry for my Desktop
...the topic was just an excuse for me to experiment with the blur tool in Illustrator, actually.
Not 100% happy with it, but it served the purpose.

More on Processing!

2009-11-08T10:45:00.000+01:00

An old exercise about using variables... just something a little bit related to "Op art":

Link to "Círculos"

And another one, quite recent, a further development of an exercise in the class. If you click on the right side of the drawing, it will increase the number of sides. If you click on the left, it will decrease. You may, of course, do some print screens and use the images for something if you want! (that's what I'm going to do ;)). Here it is:

Link to "Raios"

ps: thank you so much to João that has a lot of patience to explain me about programming and helping me out with the exercises whenever I am stuck :)

Plitvice at last!

2009-11-05T17:46:00.000+01:00

me in Plitvice in the morning, photo by João.

We decided to wake up early and be at the entrance to buy the tickets at 7h (our guidebook advised to go to the park before 8h)... we were there at 7h30 but apparently the booth only opened at 8h. Oh well, we can wait in the cold! (I bought a hairdryer before heading to Croatia, and when I was about to use it this morning before the Lakes it did a weird noise and a lot of smoke... so I went outside with my hair wet. Nice!)

The first picture I took inside, everything was covered with that morning frost!

We were the first to enter the park, followed by a horde of chinese people.

One of the 2 goups of Chinese people we saw at the park.

It was a nice, sunny but a little foggy, fresh morning and the cold actually made us move and feel like moving.

...every path was covered in white!

Plitvice Lake

The scenery was breathtaking, and we were immediately sure it was all worth it... and the fall colors fit just perfectly the deep blues and greens of the lakes.
We decided to take the route "A" because it took between 2 and 3 hours, but you had routes for every taste, including 6 to 8hour-routes! (the longer ones). We were kind of sorry of not having more time, but route A was quite enough.

a tiny detail...

photo by João. Those colors were amazing!

We stopped for a cappucino in a coffee-house in the middle of the way (after about 1hour and something of walking) and oh, it felt so good to have something warm in a cozy place with big windows and that beautiful landscape all around us!
Cappucino gone (and lazyness too), it was time to walk again and try to compensate the time we were in that stopping-point.

Smaller waterfalls

So we were climbing the mountain, going up up up, taking pictures,being marveled, etc, when I noticed I left my backpack at the coffee house! And there goes João running (poor guy...) because we were afraid we didn't have enough time to get to the end of the park in order to catch the bus.
It was time to speed a little bit (I'm glad this part of the route was not so pretty), looking at the lakes... and waterfalls... and rumbling water... when I get this irritating feeling that I really need to pee. Damn!
From now on it was only João taking the pictures because I was too focused on trying to contain my bladder (how noble, Carolina! and how nice that you're sharing it with us!). My mind was racing: still about one hour of hiking to go. Ok. Oooh, what a nice ladscape. I need a bathroom. Oooh, big waterfalls. Amazing, but I want a bathroom. Lakes. Pretty. Bathroom!!
All of the sudden it was over...the feeling was bitter-sweet, if it was not for the fact that the bathroom was outside the park, it would have been a pitty to leave!

lol, here is João imitating the Chinese... when we went to these wooden lockers outside (before entering) and opened the door to place the bag, we heard some Chinese going like "ooooooh! flash! flash! flash!" (what the..? oooh, a bag inside an outside locker? that is so cool, let's take pictures? lol! And inside the park another one took us a picture, put on a big smile and waved goodbye... lol, I felt like a souvenir.)

We had 30 more minutes of waiting, so we decided to eat something traditional (at least it looked like that) and just rest at the bus station.

it was quite nice! it looked like a sweet "bôla-de-carne". Mine was peach and forest fruits, João's was of Chocolate and walnut.

The bus didn't take long, and soon we were in Zagreb again.
And there we were, with plenty of time until the train arrived.. and there goes one hour... and another half-an-hour... and it was almost almost time. Where the hell is that train?? I'm glad I had João with me, because I was quite pleased drawing when he figured out we were in the wrong platform(actually it was the right platform, the right number, but not the right letter, which meant we would have to go furder until we found it). We started running like crazy, and as soon as we confirmed we had found the right train, we hopped on and the train immediately took of. Uf! More than one hour ahead of schedule and we actually almost managed to miss it.
The rest of the trip went smoothly... and 6hours later we were home again.
Even after all the little problems, I can say it was a really nice trip. I have a feeling we will go back eventually, because there was so much left unseen...

Road to Plitvice

2009-11-04T18:02:00.000+01:00

We intended to leave before lunch and eat in the Plitvice National Park (the bus from Zagreb to the lakes takes about 2 hours and 10 minutes)... but due to some complications (our "ride" fell asleep and we decided to take the bus that left around 12h40) we got there later... muuuuuuch later:
We were tired, and fell asleep in the trip... but I had the alarm clock set to ring after 2 hours (so that we could have about 10 minutes to wake up), and we actually even woke up earlier than the clock. We were awake for about 15 minutes or more when we stopped in the middle of nowhere... And João found out we had passed our stop. The guy that checks the tickets told us we were sleeping (yeah, thanks a lot for noticing and not awaking!) so we got out in that station and just waited for the next bus...that was due in about one hour. nice...

There was nothing there except for a not-so-inspired painting of the waterfalls as an advertising, and a coffee/restaurant for the travelers to have something before heading to the road again. On the way to the toilets you could see a lot of stuffed animals like foxes and rabits and deers and rabits (all sort of animals from that area) that were put in a way so that they would be drinking beer and playing cards! I wish I had taken a picture, put I was too pissed off to think about it, I suppose (I hate wasting time...).

So, we just walked around that area... the mountain was quite impressive, and the sense of space and abandon caused a strong impression on me. Aaaand, they had bears enclosed in the back of the restaurant (I wonder if they were kept as pets??).

When the other bus finally got there we found out we had to wait (yet again...) for about 30 minutes, since it was their "stop in the middle of the trip for eating"... oh well.

We eventually hoped on (and spent more money to go back...) and arrived at Plitvice at nightfall.
The owner of the Hostel went to pick us up (the house was pretty close, but his english was not that good and he was having trouble explaining the directions over the phone). The room was actually quite good: really warm and comfortable, and with a private bathroom.
And then we found out we almost had no money. João payed with euros, but we didn't have cash to return. How nice! And you know what? The next cash machine was 2 kilometers away. Aaaand, there was no bus going there, or cab, or any means of transportation. Aaaand (yes, it gets better!) it was already night, dead cold, and the only way of getting money was by foot, walking along the road (kind of like a highway). There was really not much light but we headed to the cash machine anyway. And you know what? There were traffic signs for the drivers to be careful with eventual bears. How cute! And my backpack had two big smelly sandwiches! Cool!
Basically we just walked for about one hour, telling stories of people being chased by bears, and people that got bitten by bears... and I even had time for "noivado do sepulcro", 'though I couldn't remember every word. It was actually quite fun. The return took us less time (we were hungry and the road was going down, so it helped). We had dinner at the (only) local restaurant and decided we were going to buy the tickets for the park around 7h a.m.,in order to have some quality time there before going back to Zagreb to take the train back to Budapest...

oh well, tomorrow I will show you Plitvice, because right now I have some homework for Processing to do.
See you tomorrow!

Zagreb!

2009-11-03T23:06:00.001+01:00

Pictograms at the Zagreb train station
(now this is the kind of pictogram our teachers in Portugal will never ask us to think about...lol, I really liked the contrast of the gun and the ice-cream next to it...)

Me and João went to Croatia for a few days, and we were sorry we didn't have more time to visit the whole country... it seems nice!

We were thinking of renting a car, but we forgot a tiny little detail: none of us has a credit card. We were glad to find out that it only costs around 28€ to go to Zagreb and come back... and not so glad when we realized it was really slow (about 6 hours, by car would take us half of the time!) At least I had time to do my hungarian homework (and get nauseous after a couple of sentences)... and I crossed a border for the first time! I mean, one that has controllers from both countries, and people asking if we have something to declare (we were asked if we had, for instance alcohol, or souvenirs. lol, souvenirs?? Is that really a problem??)

In Zagreb we met some friends from Morena (a croatian girl that is doing ERASMUS in FEUP), that showed us a nice bar and allowed us to stay in their house for 2 nights (thanks Tin!!).
So we only did some sightseeing during friday, but it was more than enough to see the small but pretty Zagreb. Of course, we would have enjoyed a few more days to explore the city (unfortunately we didn't have time to see the graveyard, apparently it's worth a visit, according to our guide book)... at first sight, the city reminded me a little bit of Budapest... but in a smaller scale, with narrow streets and small buildings.

Tin said something like "yeah, we had a few bombs a few years ago, but nothing special, only a few people died"...it's such a different reality from peaceful Portugal! Anyhow, the city seems well preserved and clean, it was nice to just walk around the downtown area.

Saint Marcus' church... that roof looks like pixel-art!

Neo-Gothic Cathedral, seen from the back

...and this one I don't remember. It was nothing special, but i liked the picture!

To end the day, a meal with Tin in a terrific restaurant that had really well cooked stuffed meat, apparently a specialty from the Balcans.

and on Saturday... "Plitvice here we go!" (more on that tomorrow ;))

Time flies by...

2009-10-16T01:04:00.000+02:00

For Illustration Friday, on the topic "Flying" (I actually managed to put it up before the website changed the theme!)
(it took me about 2 hours and a half to complete this one... it would have taken less, if I hadn't been silly enough to quit photoshop without saving at all... I was in the middle of the process. But I suppose it wasn't that bad... the new one got a new pose and a slightly different way of painting, and it turned out better. oh well!)

Design Week: the first exhibitions

2009-10-12T16:32:00.000+02:00

The Design Week is an event that last for about 10 days.. you basically have more than one exhibition opening each day, and several studios open their doors for people to visit and ask some questions. I was lucky because I didn't have a lot of classes this week...so I really was able to enjoy a lot :) (have I mentioned that my schedule changes every week? it's so time-consuming to make the schedule in InDesign for the whole semester... bah...)

This was the first one I attended.. an exhibition of MOME students from the glass and ceramics department. The university really does a nice work at promoting it's students... and I was amazed at the presentation of the exhibition as well: each student had a huge (really well taken) picture of them with their object, and in front of it there was the object. Very well lit and very stylish (I think I actually admired more the work of the person that designed the exhibition than the works of the students... oops!)

... and here you have one of my favourites: a musical instrument done in ceramics (it had a really nice sound)... unfortunately I forgot to write down the name of the student. Sorry!

In this gorgeous building (the Museum of Applied Arts, also known as the other building of MOME... textile and ceramic students actually attend classes here, I believe!) we were at the Hungarian Design Awards. We were invited by David, one of Anja's flatmate, that actually had his BMW car (concept design of a cool bmw with a seat in the exterior) featured there.

So many people! And all of them actually ate there! (like me) I must say it was a wonderful surprise, to find out we were entitled not only to food, but CATERING food! It had appetizers, several different dishes, deserts, drinks... after that initial surprise a few days ago regarding my expenses here, it's nice to have such a dinner for free ;)

Gravestone, by Maurer-Klimes Ákos, Kucsera Péter, Ivánka Ándrás Rudolf and Ivánka Katalin, and manufactured by Ivanka Beton... such an original idea. the cross is a hole, in this case filled with water from the rain, and those yellow things are leaves... to show that the cross will serve as a bowl to the nature elements... I don't think I had ever seen "grave design".

Corporate Identity Design of a delivery service of tacos. I just found that little frida kahlo so cute! XD
(next time I will post some pictures of the studio of animation I went to..)

Germs!

2009-10-09T19:08:00.000+02:00

A topic from Illustration Friday, a website that delivers a new topic every friday... I've always wanted to make it a habit because it's good for practicing, but I never had the time. Well, I kind of had a little bit this week, so I drew this today. I'll try to make these speed (it took about one hour to do) illustrations a habit, just to keep me exploring and trying to be faster... I hope I can deliver one each week! (you'll be here as witnesses and to complain when I don't ;))

ps: I used handmade stamps for the germs, and Photoshop for the dog.

Maria changed sex!

2009-10-09T18:36:00.000+02:00

"Maria" biscuits here are called "Albert" XD

(lol, sorry for this random silly thing! I went to buy these biscuits to make a "bolo de bolacha", as it is traditional from Portugal and tomorrow I have a party at some french girls' house where each one has to take something to eat and drink that is traditional from their home-country...)

wow. I need to eat less.

2009-10-08T16:21:00.000+02:00

Not that I feel fat. It's just that I spent about 97,627 HUF in september... which means about 365.50€!!!
Ok, there is a swimming suit included in that value (I had to buy a sports swimming suit and the glasses to do some exercise in a pool in Buda)... but still, most of it is just food from the supermarket, or at MOME's cafeteria (I usually spend between 2€ and 4€ there...).
of course, there are some products included like shampoo and cleaning products for the house, and materials for university (including acrylics that will last me for the rest of the school year I hope!) but still... I need to controll myself.

6h30 am

2009-10-08T15:31:00.000+02:00

The rest of my furniture arrived today! Actually, it's only a bookshelf so far... but I think I will have Eni's desk, she told me she's getting a smaller one.

The thing is... it arrived today at 6h30 am. damn. I had to wake up at 5h30 (which ended up being at 5h45). I'm so sleepy...

btw, it's the design week here in Budapest! I went to an open-studio of animation and I have been in exhibition-openings all week! (which also means that I've been having dinner for free, lol!)

First Exercises with Processing

2009-10-06T22:43:00.000+02:00

Just two exercises I did as a homework...
This one is more abstract (just click until you're satisfied or press any keyboard key to erase everything):

Triângulos

And this one is just plain silly (the idea was to learn how to do something a little bit complex and attached to the cursor...)

GotaParva

have fun! XD

Robert Capa

2009-10-04T11:10:00.000+02:00

I did a review (well, not exactly, more like a biography with comments from the guided tour) on the exposition of Robert Capa, here in Budapest.
It's in portuguese, and you can read it here:

arteportodaparte.blogspot.com

About about what I thought... well, it's a really extensive exposition, well-covering the life and work of the photographer. I usually don't go to photography expositions (I tend to choose the ones more close-related to drawing and painting), but I must say I truly loved what I saw. It made me look at photography in a different way. It's impressive to see his passion for war photography... and to think he only started taking pictures for a living because "it seemed interesting, let's try it" (he originally wanted to be a journalist). He seemed to be in the center of the action all the time, and you can see he showed war in such a "humane" way... I mean, the subjects he captures are always so true to themselves, so natural and in such difficult situations and environments, that you really feel he captured perfectly the human side of war. He didn't go to concentration camps, he didn't shoot the airplanes that bombarded the cities... He was always with the people, for the people and in the center of the action. He showed the world what war was all about. Not statistics nor technological advances and machinery... but people.

A part of a building falls in Kaldy Gyula!

2009-10-03T11:03:00.001+02:00

Firemen were trying to understand the cause of this accident that ended up with a car completely durty with dust!!!

(lol, yes, it was not that much of a deal... the car seemed quite ok when he passed by my window... since then, me and Eni found another building near here that has a warning sign for people to know that if something falls in their heads, it's their own responsibility, they have nothing to do with it. Nice!)

Mgaaah, my face is all over the place!

2009-10-02T22:27:00.000+02:00

...at least in the beginning of the video at tv.up.pt, regarding our animation workshop with the fantastic Geoff Marslett!
here, take a look:

(and damn, I really need to correct my posture at the computer...)

Mushrooms a la Carolina

2009-09-21T21:16:00.000+02:00

Hey, look! I made up a vegetarian recipe! (and it was really good)
If anyone feels like trying, here it goes (from what I can remember...):
Make curry rice.
Aside, put some olive oil and half of a chopped onion in a frying pan. Use one or two chopped garlic clove.
Slice a few fresh, white mushrooms (I used 5) and let them cook in the pan for a while, before putting half of a small chopped tomato.
It's time for the salt (more or less, it depends on the quantity and your own taste) and some spices. I used one tea-spoon of cumin and two tea-spoons of "sweet" paprika (it means it's not "hot")... and one hint of cinnamon, but I'm sure many of you will disagree ;)
As soon as the mushrooms are almost done (they will get a little bit darker), add the soy beans (I used half of a 200g can), let them cook a little bit and throw in the pine nuts. A few minutes must be enough, so that they won't be too hard nor too soft.
To end, spread one thin slice of cheese and let it melt while you stir the food.
Et voila!
Enjoy ;)

My animation class!

2009-09-18T10:51:00.001+02:00

The teacher asked us to write our names in the board and draw a little caricature next to it, so he could memorize who we are.
In the meantime, all the other classmates drew as well, for us to know their names...
Everything is finally starting!!! I can't wait to learn the basics of stop-motion animation, like making a puppet, the sets, and learning how to move it...

I love Overbooking!!!

2009-09-16T15:58:00.000+02:00

That's right, you read it correctly... due to overbooking, I was upgraded to business class! (as in first class)
Fancy!
So I sat in my seat, and the pilot said the plane would have to wait about 20 minutes before taking off. The steward came right away, asking if we would like to have some water in the meantime. Fine until now, nothing special.
We were flying for about one hour when he came again, asking if we wanted newspapers and magazines... and about half an hour later we were asked if we wanted some "aperitif", which I refused because I thought it had alcohol. The man next to me, however, asked for a tomato juice. It was so weird that when the steward said "miss, are you sure you don't want anything?" I also asked for a tomato juice. And he also brought some peanuts and things like that.
(I must say the tomato juice really was... tomato juice. With salt and pepper to add and all... blargh. It was for free, anyway!)
Some time later, he had these tweezers and he was holding little towels all rolled up. Of course I said yes, completely confused looking at that strange thing "fancy people" use for something that was a mistery to me. Ok, luckily the man next to me knew it was to clean the hands (it was warm and soft, and with a hint of a fruit perfume), so I copied his gestures XD
And then, came the lunch! (around 4.30pm?)
We had to choose between 2 meals, I chose fish. Ok, not "fish", it was "Stone Bass confit with Sparkling Wine and Leek Risotto" (Cherne confitado com Risotto de Espumante e Alho Francês), and we were given the choice between several little fresh, warm breads.
In the tray there was also the traditional butter, and something delicious that was President Camembert Cheese.
And there was also an appetizer, "Pastrami with Radicchio and Romaine Lettuce" (Pastrami com Radicchio e Alface Romana), with some great apple and lemon sauce (so I think).
Oh, the alternative to the fish was Roast Pork with mushrooms (Porco Preto no forno com cogumelos).
The desert followed, "Traditional Portuguese Dessert with Mango" - Sericaia de Manga (I never heard about it, lol)
And finally the coffee which was also supreme.
So you see, the overbooking was not such a big deal.. at least not for me! (and the guy that was at the last minute separated from his wife and two young boys didn't seem bothered to be in business class either, lol)
Thank you TAP for such a pleasant flight... it was the best trip to Budapest yet!

Lisbon from above

sunset in the clouds

I had an "Excelent"...

2009-08-25T12:58:00.000+02:00

...so did everyone, I think, lol!
Anyway, I'm back in Porto, and i can proudly say I finaly have a place to call my own! It's in a really nice area, 5 minutes from the subway, near St.István church (remember? that really big one?). I'll be sharing the flat with a hungarian girl, and I was lucky to find a place in my last day there!
She's really nice and the room is big, very sunny and with a small balcony... it will be my home for the next semester at least! As soon as i get back, I'll take some pictures to post here... in the meantime, take the map:

View Larger Map

Balaton Lake

2009-08-19T20:08:00.000+02:00

Finaly, some time!
Today I did the written part of the exam, and on friday I'll have the oral part (I'm quite in panick...)
I think it went quite ok, some things I didn't know, but I still wrote something anyway. I'll tell you when I get the results.
In the meantime, have some pictures from my trip to Balaton!
We went to the castle in the hill, and around 14h, I guess, we went down to the lake. It felt like a huge pool with a nicer scenery! It even had those pool-like stairs to get in.

some kind of small harbour...

you can see it was quite cloudy in the morning!

the view from the top of the hill

down at the lake!

Nham Nham!

2009-08-18T16:17:00.000+02:00

Mnhammyyyyy, palacsinta fahejjel!! (cinnamon pancake!)

Links!

2009-08-18T16:05:00.000+02:00

That's right, I now have a list of links (well, it will eventually be a list as soon as I have at least two sites there...), in which you can peek into other erasmus blogs!
The first one is Lukas and Marta blog, debrecen-by-night.
(You can see a lot of people there, specially in Andrea's birthday party!)

(yes, I know, I'm cheating, I should be posting some of my pictures... but the written exam is tomorrow, so I really need to study. Maybe later!)

hugs to you all!

Duna

2009-08-12T23:58:00.001+02:00

Pictures from the trip we did about one week ago... we were in a 2 hour trip in the Danube, and I was a little bit bored, so I had fun taking pictures...
enjoy!

(experimenting with "HDR" photography... I like the result!)

(this one was taken with Britta's sunglasses in front of the lenses... hence the strange colour!)

...and meet Britta, my roommate! the vintage feel is due to my glasses in front of the lenses... (you can see I didn't have much to do!)

Adventures with the language...

2009-08-10T20:46:00.000+02:00

Today I had the first "real" conversation (if I may call it that) in Hungarian!
We are searching for a flat, and this agent called me and started speaking in hungarian... so, obviously, I panicked! I started saying "nem ertem magyarul!!!" (which is I don't understand hungarian) and asked her, in hungarian, if she spoke "angolul"... she said "kicsit" (a little),but when I asked "when could we arrange a meeting" she answered me back "nem ertem, nem ertem!!"
Ok, it was already becoming quite dificult to comunicate at this point.
I was saying "SEE! APARTMENT! WHEN?" but the answer was always the same "NEM ERTEM! NEM ERTEM!"

So, it was time for drastic measures. I HAD to speak in hungarian.
and even using extremely simple sentences (I don't think they were actually gramatically correct, lol, but those "key words" were enough), I was able to understand her, and she understood me. After a few words (that envolved telling her that I wanted an apartment with 4 rooms, and that we couldn't see it tomorrow, it had to be the next day) we now have a meeting on "Szerda" (wednesday), at öt ora este (5 in the afternoon).
Or so I hope.
lol.
(in the meantime, Piotr and Britta were laughing at my panick and strugle, and of the fact they were not in the same situation...)

So, I am extremely proud of myself XD
After that, in the elevator, a hungarian lady said that I had a pretty necklace and I thanked. (of course, I only understood the word "szép", which is pretty, and she pointed to my necklace, but those are minor details.. I'm still proud, lol)

This whole episode is helpful at least to forget the major fail two days ago, in the bus, when I actually thanked a lady for stepping on her toes. Lol, am I nice or what?
(oh, thank you so much for allowing me to step on your toes, you're way too kind! It was always a dream of mine, you know? so thank you for your generosity!)

Yesterday morning...

2009-08-08T23:07:00.000+02:00

...guess what I drank?
That's right, another tiny shot of palinká... but it was a little bit later, around 10h30 A.M...
Pffff, much later, so it had to have more alcohol... 45%!
I swear that next trip, if I see them with plastic cups around 11h30 a.m., I will run for my life, lol.

here's the proof:

(I really didn't notice any difference between the peach palinká and the plum palinká, but I would say that I'm really not exactly a specialist when it comes to alcohol...)

and the last...

2009-08-06T21:57:00.000+02:00

...from the 3rd day, the last one sightseeing in the company of my parents.

(just a drawing from a detail that was in a building... to practice)

In front of the Basilica

2009-08-06T21:55:00.000+02:00

Shot at the square right in front, with gorgeous patterns on the floor.

Still from the 3rd day

2009-08-06T20:27:00.000+02:00

One cookie for the first one to find my parents in the photo ;)
(yep, that's one biiiig basilica... St. István Basilica.)

(you may click on it)

(and no cookies for whoever finds me on this one ;))

Something for Nuno

2009-08-04T22:16:00.000+02:00

Just a picture my father obliged me to take to show Nuno... so here it goes! (I had forgotten about it.. sorry!)

(I'm not sure if can post this wihout the authorization of the owner of the audi... oh well, if he, for some weird reason, sees this, I will take it down)

Some place to call my own?

2009-08-04T18:54:00.001+02:00

I have officially started looking for a flat. I have 2 weeks and a half to accomplish it!
Wish me luck!

Mom and Dad

2009-08-04T18:43:00.000+02:00

I hope everything is well in Portugal... Sometimes I miss my family and friends (oh, and mom's cookings... as soon as I get back I reaaaaally want to eat some fish... it's hard to get it around here!)

A japanese garden...

2009-08-03T17:05:00.001+02:00

... for Ana Marques ;)

A japanese garden that was in Margaret Island... I went there with my parents, in my third day here. I'm only posting because I know it will make Ana envy, hehe ;) *

Yesterday

2009-08-03T16:13:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I had a wonderful and really relaxing time at Palatinus, in Margaret Island.
I had to pay 8€ for the whole day, but it was the most well spent money of my life... I was really needing a break from the classes and the hot weather...
I know, I know, I'm in a wonderful city, so I seem to be on vacation, but learning a foreign language (such as hungarian!) is not an easy task, and I miss my two weeks of doing nothing by the beach. It was great to take the sunday off to do nothing at all... I want more!
We have just started a new week with a new teacher, that doesn't (or doesn't want to) speak in english. In a long term it will be better for us to get used to hearing it and trying to understand, but still... it was a really tiring class!
Let's see how it goes. Wish me luck! ;)

what the...?

2009-08-01T22:20:00.000+02:00

Omg, today I had a small shot of Palinka at 9h15 IN THE MORNING!!
These people are crazy, lol.
We were going by train to a little town, and the hungarian girls had a bottle for us to have a little... in the morning...

For the record, that Palinka had 37% alcohol.. not much, by their standards, since there's a palinka with 50%...
In the picture we have the bottle being held by Britta, and you can see it was a "Barack Palinka". (no, not the president, but "peach" in hungarian)

ps: at least I think my throat was a little bit better for a while (it probably got numb or something)... it has been hurting for 2 days...

Learning...

2009-07-31T11:02:00.000+02:00

"szép lánnyal beszélek"

Word by word translation:

beautiful girl_with speaking_I_am

(I feel like Yoda, lol)

Today..

2009-07-30T21:54:00.000+02:00

Let's take a break from the old posts and pictures (i'll get back to that soon).
So today I had a class in the afternoon, with an enthusiastic teacher... and she was explaining to us how learning hungarian could be so easy, because there are some words that work as a stem from which all the others come from...
So, she started telling us:

Look at the word PILLANA... isn't it such a beautifull word?? And what about PILLANGÓ?
ooh, all the words with this stem, PILLA, are so beautifulll! Don't you think? Repeat after me! PI-LLA-NA! Once again! PI-LLA-NA! PI-LLAN-GÓ! isn't it beautifull? I really love these words!

Hmmm...

I'm sorry but no, I don't hear the music nor the harmony nor I can see the prettyness of those words regarding that the stem looks waaaay toooo much with another word in portuguese... (I'm sure you all portuguese out there thought of that too!)
I really wish I could answer her and say "yes, what a nice word!" But... hmmm... sorry, no. Strange images popped into my mind everytime she repeated (once again...) and I had to say them out loud. lol.

More Food!

2009-07-29T22:27:00.001+02:00

Food from the second day, at the same restaurant... everything was delicious, but I think I started to get a little bit fed up of all the cheese...(no offense, Martinha!) I don't think there was one meal, so far, that didn't have cheese!

Mom's plate: Keméncében sult, toltott tortilla - pirított zoldségek, garnélarák, parmezánmártás.
( Tortillas baked in oven stuffed with roasted vegetables, shrimps, and Parmesan cheese sauce)

Dad's plate: Cézar saláta píritott csirkemell kockákkal
(Caesar salad with grated chicken breast cubes)

My plate: Rukkolás rizottó csirkemellkockákkal, pirított fenyomaggal, parmezánforgáccsal.
(Risotto with ruccola and chicken breast cubes, roasted pine seeds with ground Parmesan cheese)

A Request from Lu

2009-07-29T17:59:00.000+02:00

Here you go, a photo of me with the Royal Palace behind :) *

(btw, obrigada por todos os comentários até agora, minha gente!! É giro ver que gostam de ir cuscando o que se passa por aqui.. e daí estes posts todos hoje, aproveitei para colocar mais qualquer coisinha já que tive um bocadinho mais de tempo e o incentivo foi grande.. obrigada!)

Need to practice...

2009-07-29T17:46:00.000+02:00

My hand is sooo rusty... all of that work in the end of the semester left me no time to practice... I hope to correct that soon.

Guess who was really happy...

2009-07-29T17:32:00.000+02:00

...on the second day,at the "Hungaroring Fest" that we happened to be at, at the Royal Palace?

Dad is probably going to kill me as soon as he sees that I posted these pictures... but I had to do it for Tia Gui, Mariana, and Nuno's sake ;) (sorry!)

What a Grand City

2009-07-29T16:26:00.000+02:00

I'm loving it, though sometimes I feel small... like the city enjoys showing itself, being photographed, but at the same time shows you you'll never be up to it's grandeur... hard to explain.
These were taken on the second day, in the castle hill.

(you may now click on the images to see them bigger, if you want to... I probably won't do the same when there are people portrayed in the photograph)

The view from the hill over the Danube (that pointy building is the parliament)

Royal Palace

Food!

2009-07-28T23:29:00.000+02:00

You can see I was with my parents in the first days... the dinner was always in Blue Cafe, at the mall, and we were able to eat strange Hungarian food (at least I think it was!) in impeccably arranged dishes.

Mom's plate: Kemencében, sajttal pirult tagliatelle prosciutto-val
(Tagliatelle with prosciutto and cheese, fresh from the oven)

I'm glad they had the translation in english, lol, otherwise it would be reaaaally risky to order something...

My plate: Vegetarian dish (didn't have hungarian name...)
(Poached camambert, cheese cake, grilled corn in herb butter, roasted baby carrots, served with rice with dried tomatoes.)

Borsodi Bivaly + Friss lecsó vasserpenyoben vagy tojással
(Fresh vegetable stew made in an iron pan with sausage and egg)

I must say they were all really good... we came back the next day ;)

Meet my Room...

2009-07-27T22:06:00.000+02:00

...403, at the Balassi... and I'm sharing it with Britta from Estonia.

the door

the entrance

the bedroom

the view from the window

Jó reggelt!

2009-07-25T23:09:00.000+02:00

Welcome to my Erasmus experience Blog, where I'll be sending postcards from Hungary to all my family and friends.
I am a Communication Design Student at FBAUP (in Porto, Portugal) and I am going to study animation at MOME (in Budapest, Hungary) for at least one semester, starting in September.

"September? What the hell are you doing there now, then?"
Right now I'm waiting for my hungarian classes to begin... these will take place at the Balassi Institute, where I am currently living. The course lasts for a month, and this will actually be my first *real* experience living away from my parents house... (yep, this means I don't usually cook, and that I have never done my laundry... this ought to be fun to watch, lol)

So, to all of you interested out there, I'll be posting some images and a few comments (don't expect too much writing, though) on how I'm doing here, and how it is to live in a new country, where I don't understand a thing of what people say on the street!

Wish me luck!

*Carolina Búzio

p.s.: "Jó reggelt" means "good morning" the first word I learned by myself, and "A nevem Carolina" means "My name is Carolina"!