Busy day!!

Today’s itinerary:

- 6:45 p.m.
Wake up in Coimbra. Do the usual things, shower, breakfast…

- 8 a.m.
Leave the house to catch the train to Porto.

- 8:46 a.m.
Get on the train.
(I fell completely asleep in the train and woke up in the train station just before Porto, that is to say 5min before I had to leave the train).

- 9:36 a.m.
Arrived at Porto, charged my bus card with voyages so I can go around the town.
I waited for almost half –hour for the bus to take to the University of Porto “Reitoria”, for an interview. I got there almost an hour before the time my interview was scheduled for. Everything was going has scheduled, until they decided to discuss the applicants they had already interviewed, and everything got a 30 minutes delay.

- 11: 30/35 a.m.

My interview!!

I think it went pretty well!! It was very simple, and very pleasant. The last interview I went (for another PhD program) they were much harder on me; they made more questions, and wanted to know what I was planning to do. Here they just asked me simple things about my work, and the mood was completely different, I did not felt as nervous as last time. And, one thing I was not expecting, the interview was in Portuguese, not that I feel difficulties in speaking English, but it made me less nervous.

- 11:50 a.m.
On the bus stop again… another long wait for the bus, this time it were about 15 minutes, but again… (The buses in Porto are completely out of schedule, it is so irritating…)

- 12: 05 a.m.
IBMC, last time I was there was a month a go… not a very pleasant visit.
Went to try and see if my supervisor had time for me, I need her help to finish my Thesis Results’ Chapter, but she was going to the field in the afternoon so… no talk for anyone. As so, I went to see I could find some of my friends and see what had happen in the last month of my absence. I found two of them, we chatted for a while and I lunched with them.

- 2 p.m.
Time to go to the airport to say goodbye to my little sis, which is right now on her way back to Germany. I had the greatest of lucks, while I was leaving IBMC a bus passed that would leave me just in front of the metro station. :P
In the metro station, it was the usual confusion to charge the card for the trip to the airport. Besides that I had arrived just in time to catch the right metro, but since I got on the wrong platform… I missed by seconds.

- 2:39 p.m.
I got on the metro. (Yupiii!!!)

- 3 p.m.
I arrived at the airport. I had just got out of the platform and I saw my sis and my Mom, who had just arrived. Just in time!! :D
After that, me and my Mom accompanied my sis in every usual thing you have to do when you are travelling: check in, go and see if the plane was on time (it wasn’t, it was with a 45 minutes delay), wait for a while, then she went in to departures zone. This is always a “fun” episode, my sis uses army boots that have a metal plate on the front of the boot, so she has always to take off the boots so she can pass in the metal detector. She does not even wait for the detector to give a sign; she takes them off while waiting in line. Then we waved goodbye, and it was again time to get on the metro.

- 4:22 p.m.
On the metro again, this time on the way to the train station.

- 5 p.m.
I arrived on Porto’s train station. Went to buy my train ticket, and instead of asking a ticket to Lisboa, asked for a ticket to Coimbra… My mind today is little bit off. I noticed just before I paid, so no harm done.

- 5:45 p.m.
A 3h journey awaits me… (I’m writing this on the train it is 7:12 p.m., I have ahead of me more 1h and 20m of journey).

And this has been my day so far… It was a big day. And by the end of the day I will know if got in on the PhD Program… Let´s see!!!

Above all I wanna thank my little sister for having come to Portugal to mine (and my father’s) birthday. Thank you so much!!! I just loved your present!! :D