First day in Madeira - part 2

My first day in Madeira – part two

In the last article, I told you about the process of applying and almost not applying for my Erasmus in Madeira. I explained how hectic it was to get there when I had a night to pack everything for those (in origin) four months from which eight months happened finally.

I am going to share what happened when I got on the plane and what happened when I finally got to Santa Cruz/Funchal.

Who is that sitting in front of me?

Imagine! I was enrolled into a five-year long programme at my university, but thanks to my previous Erasmus experiences I did not really spent all years in the same town. That means I did not spent all of the years with my classmates. When we got to the last university year, many of my classmates had been working already and so I did not meet them in a period longer than a year.

Lenka – the friend who suggested me Madeira for my Eramsus and I did suggest Granada to her – has informed me that one of our classmate was about to go to Madeira in September as well. That day when I was going to Prague to catch the flight, it came into my mind that it could be possible that she would be travelling on the same day. The flight tickets were ones of the cheapest and it was a direct flight. Well, but I did not get in touch with my classmate to ask about the day of her flight.

I finally got on the plane, completely forgotten about my previous thoughts. As I was walking down the aeroplane aisle, who did I see?!? Yes, my classmate with her boyfriend. Both of them were sitting just a row in front of mine. So we started to chat and rest and read aeroplane magazines and finally – we could notice the land of the island which fascinates me that much now.

I remember seeing Desertas, not knowing what it was. Thinking of Porto Santo. Well, there we were after all. The plane landed and I knew a new part of a book of my life was about to be given a completely new and long chapter.

Picture: As Madeira is an island, you can sea water down there when looking from an aeroplane window. And finally - you'll see the archpelago of Madeira.

Let us drive!

My classmate has rented a car, so she offered me giving a lift to Funchal from the airport. I accepted, obviously. It was not her driving but her boyfriend. I just asked: “Would you dare driving here?”when I saw all the narrow roads and hills going crazily up and down. I thought I could not ever drive in Madeira! Funny enough now when I look at it back knowing everything that has happened since the first day in Madeira. I was driving there in less than two months.

Picture: First day assured me I would not drive in MAdeira. Well, what happened in two monthes after that day? I drove!

Couchsurfing in Madeira?

She mentioned they wanted to stay with someone through Couchsurfing but not that many people were really using it actively in Madeira (or they did not want to host anyone). So they basically did not have a place to stay yet. They just planned to find something upon arrival. I just remember a piece of information I had heard in the past. “You might ask at the dormitory where I will be living whether they have got a free room for tonight.” I suggested.

Let me speak in Portuguese! Or better not to...

It took us a while to find the dormitory in Zona Velha, but at the end we got there. I told myself I would start speaking “Portuguese” since the first day. I knew maybe five words but as I spoke some Spanish, I believed I could understand when people in Madeira would be talking to me. What a fool I was! When I got too the reception and heard a receptionist speaking in Portuguese, I realised I should talk to her in English! I could not understand a single word.

I even thought for a couple of days that there are also some French Erasmus students living in the dormitory. There were none, but as the way of pronunciation of the leter “rr” sound like the French “r”, it confused me.

Is Erasmus actually about being international?

As I described in the previous article, I went to Madeira mostly to “wait for January”, meanwhile learn Poruguese and get to know its culture. Even though, I felt more like meeting the locals rather then Erasmus students, I wanted to be in the international environment.

So as mentioned above, I was at the reception, standing in a line, waiting my turn. Suddenly, some Erasmus students appeared – Czech people. Then I saw another group – a Czech group. After, a guy came downstairs to the reception and said “Ciao!” in such a way, that it sounded like Czech. So, even though he was one of the funniest Italians I have ever met, I thought he was a Czech man as well. I just whispered into my classmate’s ear: “Speak with me in English now, please. I did not go for Erasmus to speak Czech all the time. Czech is my mother tongue.

I met some Spaniard in my life who told me they did not want to spend the whole semester speaking in Spanish with other Spaniards so they never told them what their nationality was and talk to them only in English.  When I saw how many Czechs there were, I wanted to do the same, despite the fact I love my country and my mother tongue.

Picture: There were many Czech Erasmus students but also many Czech tourists in the town.

And my roommate was...

“Do you have any friends her?” ask the receptionist.

“Not yet, I came alone. But I believe I will.” I replied. “ But if you are asking because of you wanted me to share a room with my possible friend, I would love to live with a Portuguese girl. I want to learn Portuguese.”

“It is not possible, as their rooms are full already.”

There was a hope that I would be living with a Spaniard at least, so I could speak in Spanish in the room. I was finally given a set of keys and was directed to the second floor. Almost all Erasmus were living in the basement. I push the key into the key hole, opened the door and saw my roommate.

“Hello, I am Iva, your new roommate.” The girl seemed to be very nice – and she really was and is. Just when she told me her name, we realised we are both from the same country. I told her about my fear that there were too many Czechs which she confirmed. Oh, but how well we got on! She was one of the Czechs who became finally my best Erasmus friend.

She offered me her food – rice with vegetables. I will remember forever, probably. Then the day was almost over and I was waiting for what next days would bring.

The Czechs everywhere!

It seemed to be crazy. Anywhere I went, I heard people speaking my language. Our country is so small, but it seems that our nation got in favour with Madeira a lot! So, anytime there was an Erasmus event organised by the ESN (Erasmus organization) and I heard some Czech, I walked to the other side. I was doing it till an event which was a speed meeting for us – international students.

So we were standing in a circle – one was inner, the other was made of people around us who were moving after a short period of time which we spent talking to each other and introducing ourselves. So I met many Czech students and said: “I am also a Czech girl, but can we keep speaking in English?”

Oh, that lovely evening I got on so well with these Czech girls and boys that I finally spent most of my Erasmus life in Madeira with them (when I was at the residence and not with people from Madeira J ). They are so nice, that we still keep in touch and visit each other.

So did I learn Portugues finally?

Well, I would say I definitely learnt some Portuguese, but as it is a difficult language, I still do mistakes. It is not my worry though, because I know I am not a native speaker, so it is fine to work on an improvement of my Portuguese language skills, but it is acceptable and perfectly fine to do mistakes. I usually say that who does not do mistakes, does not learn.

Do you know what more? I really started to use those five words in Portuguese since the first day. But I will tell you more about my Portuguese acquisition in another article.

Picture: I was liing in Madeira, I wanted to learn the language. My Portuguese is like this picture now: with some mistakes but you can recognise what it is.

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