From Colombo to Colombo

I ordered my Lisboa bus pass today ( I will get the one month card with unlimited travel for a month). The funniest part was when the officer issuing the card looked at my form and asked

'Your passport was issued in Colombo?' with a very puzzled look on his face. At which point I replied: 'Yes, but at the city in Sri Lanka. Not at the shopping mall in Lisbon (obviously).

For those who have never heard of Colombo it is the name of my home city back in Sri Lanka. Coincidentally it also happens to be the name of a large shopping mall here in Lisbon. In fact Colombo is the first place I visited in Lisbon after arriving here! And what can I say I love that mall! It's got everything you can ever need to shop (well almost at least!:D).

I am living quite close to Colombo( I mean the mall!) right now but tomorrow I will shift to my new house in Areeiro. I will miss Colombo then( but you bet I'll be taking the metro there often!). I'll post about my new neighborhood as soon as I get there!

Beijinhos:)

Colombo in Lisbon

Colombo back home

Once upon a time in a little island called home..

Hey AIESEC!

I've been meaning to start this blog for ages but didn't get round to it until now. I am an AIESECer (let's get the obvious out of the way shall we?) from Sri Lanka ( a lovely little island just south of India). Right now I'm doing my internship at a software company (MRNet Consulting) in Lisbon, Portugal and I'm 5870 miles away from home!

So what made me fly 5870miles away from home for an internship? Answer: AIESEC. I was an active AIESECer in university(University of Moratuwa) back home and after promoting and organizing so many interns to come on exchange to Sri Lanka I thought I ought-to try it myself too. Everyone whose been on an exchange would talk about the 'life changing experience' they've had and I wanted to see for myself ( I am a very curious cat:I). I also love travel and flying 5870miles away from home seemed the ideal travel experience to me!:D

Starting your AIESEC internship is not a very simple process though. There is a lot of AIESEC procedures to follow, a lot of planning and preparation involved. The start of my own internship got delayed as I had a long and dragged out visa process to follow. However after climbing many mountains I finally cleared the process, bought my ticket and flew from Colombo->Delhi->Zurich->Lisbon! (I just wanted to find an internship with the longest flight route:D). But I made it, and here I am in Lisbon, Portugal!:)

First impressions about Lisbon and my internship..

LOVE:)

AIESEC Lisboa Catolica! My matching LC is so friendly and gave me the warmest welcome!:)

The company and my colleagues

My macbook! Given to me by the company for the internship

Bacalhau! (cod fish) - a favorite Portuguese delecacy that comes in so many different preparations

Sight seeing in Lisbon

Colombo - the big shopping mall that feels just like home ( probably coz it's got the same name as my own city back home:D)


HATE:(

The cold. I'm used to temperatures of above 22ºC at least and the cold windy weather in Lisbon is not my kind of weather. But then its my fault for coming here in winter!

Not being able to speak Portuguese. I am trying really really hard to learn but Portuguese is so hard to pronounce! Naõ falo Portuguese!:(

Hope to get over my hates soon though!

More details on my internship will follow in future posts so stay tuned! And as they say in Portugal, beijinhos (pronounced - beijhins | meaning - kisses)!:D