A trip to Portugal to present the Thesis work

The aim of the long adventure started some years ago is almost there. i left all the friends in Grenoble and i brought all the stuff home in belgium. I moved to portugal 4 days before the final exam (D-4).

On the saturday (D-2), Célia drove Stephanie and i to Belem in a resto and then i had the opportunity to taste the Pasteis de Belèm, it is different than what i expected, actually it is even good! In belgium we have some kind of pudding cake that tastes the same but that you eat cold...

The Morning of the 24 th september 2007 i made the presentation in the main auditorium of the ITQB. It was followed by 1h30 of discussions and questions. At a moment during the questions, we heard a huge blast noise! and fumes came suddenly from the projector, i have to admit that the sentense i was pronouncing was a bit interrupted, i could not believe this was happening! If it had happened just 1 h before, i would have been screwed up without projector to show the presentation.... :S It took me 10 seconds to remember what i was going to say to answer to the last question.
finally, the 4 referees and my 5 supervisors had a meeting in another room and decided that i graduated!
Believe me the sensation is strange when you are called Doctor but that you are not a medecin... :)

I will soon have a link to the presentation movie in here...
but like a friend wrote to me :" if the projector decided to commit
suicide instead of continue listening to you, maybe I don't want to see
the presentation... "


I spent the afternoon collecting the correction comments from the referees, indeed, i need to provide a corrected final version before 24 th october in order to get a chance to have the diploma in one year.

The day of the presentation was actually a nicer day than i ever though :) exhausted at the end but after a special moment!

The evening, almost the entire group of supervisors with a part of the collegues and friends from portugal made a resto in Cais do Sodré.
While waiting for the others to joins, we were just discussing in front of the resto "portugalia" when some people near us began to move strangefully with cameras in the hand. doing this all around a girl. My friends were telling that the women is a famous Brasilian actress. Seing this scene was funny and a first ! we were so close that maybe we will appear on some of the pictures to be published in some magazine... :) so i graduated and was seen close to (ok, 4 m at least heheh) an international actress the same day... UAU!

The resto was nice and i tasted an "açorda" of shrimps.
It was funny to see the waiter come with a pan, put it on the table, open the cover to show us how well the shrimps were aligned together in circle with the white and yellow of an egg in the middle over powder of bread mixed with some kind of vegetable cream. Suddenly he mixed it all thoroughly in such a funny way that everybody was telling that now it did not look tasty anymore :D
bon appetit! :)

---------------------------------------
Resting Time the following day (D+1)

Since i was not going to stay too much in the country of the sun, I went for a little sightseing tour with some friends from belgium.
We saw Belem very fast and some gardens in Cascais

The park:






I never saw such a strange alignment of ducks in a small lake :D




Cuidad petanquus virus is also present in portugal!!

i finally went back home from Carcavelos to oeiras by feet but with a beautiful view :)

I noticed that the location of the trash bins is very unusual in that beach....

The 26th i went back to belgium (D+2). i am absolutely needed in there for the following week end for the wedding of my sister....

Not yet the end of the adventure :D