Did you know that if you happen to fall down a typical portuguese apartments’ flight of stairs, the bruise on your bottom will be in exactly the same place where you place your weight when sitting on a toilet. Very interesting and unfortunate fact. How do I happen to know this information? All I will say is that the shoes I wore this morning had no grip, and that my coffee hadn’t kicked in yet.
I don’t know where or who the people reading this are in the world, but the most important thing to know at this time in my life is – I’m in a country with much more forgiving weather than that of Siberia! I seem to have gone from one style of living, to something almost on the other side of the spectrum. The constant for this equation? I remain I ballet dancer in a theatre wherever I go… well, for the time being anyway! After I hit 30 I hope to have some back-up plans in terms of my choice of profession. As far as ballet dancers go, the age of 30 seems to be on the ‘older’ side of the spectrum. Back, to my point – I’ve moved to lovely ‘little’ Lisbon since September 2021 to join the National Ballet Company here. When I logged in to write this blog, I noticed that the previous thing I posted was (yonks ago) in fact recalling my very enjoyable holiday in Portugal and momentary escape from the craziness of COVID in the cities. Being vaccinated now makes it easier to travel but unfortunately didn’t have any effect when it comes to quarantining or not after contact with a positive case. Luck would have it that the day I arrived in Lisbon to officially begin my new life, my best friend who I was staying with happened to be a little under the weather. This was a thursday and by the saturday when he discovered that one of his students had contracted the virus, he too tested and came out positive. Fortunately he didn’t come down with the virus too badly, and by the Saturday when he tested, we were already at their beach house in rural Portugal, so confinement was much easier than in Lisbon. Even so, it was a nightmare to get hold of ‘Saude24’, the COVID helpline of Portugal (health24) and receive the correct advice and documents in order for me to test and quarantine. Since I had literally just arrived a few days ago, I didn’t have the social security number or tax number or even a Portuguese phone number, which made things rather difficult. And, despite being double vaccinated, the protocol required me to quarantine for 14 days since contact whereas Tiago (who was positive) only required 10days since symptoms. I missed the first week and a half of my new job in quarantine with a negative PCR and no symptoms, but hey, ho, these things happen. Thankfully for my second week in quarantine a fellow Aussie from the company was kind enough to drop ‘round some lino flooring so I could do my own ballet class and exercises at home to get a bit in shape while the rest of the implant were busting their butts in ‘Concerto Barroco’.
You’ll be happy to hear that despite a delayed beginning with the company (I wasn’t the only one, an American boy had arrived in Lisbon but wasn’t allowed to begin working yet since his VISA hadn’t been approved), I still performed Balanchine’s ‘Concerto Barroco’ in their first program, ‘Noite Branca’. This coming Sunday I’ve been invited to a music festival by one of the pianists in the company. He’s far overqualified to be a ballet class pianist, and during a conversation dropped in that he was releasing his new album and performing it live at the upcoming ‘imminente’ festival in Lisbon! He was so kind and got tickets for not only his show but the whole day for my friend and I! Other acts are ‘Ana Moura’, a famous Fado singer and ‘Jorge Palma’ a well-known Portuguese artist, among many others! I’m so excited, I haven’t been to any festival for ages since the world became host to a pandemic. The weekend afterwards I will go on tour to Ourém, another city in Portugal for a performance of Noite Branca (‘white night’, because all of the costumes are white in the triple bill.)
Yesterday after I finished class and rehearsal, a couple of friends and I drove to the other side of the bridge for lunch and an afternoon on the beach. (The ‘bridge’ I speak about is one which seems to be a copy of the San Francisco one, over the river ‘Teju’ or Tagus in English. The ‘other side’ I speak of is not a reference to Adele, but a region called ‘Almada’. Many people live in Almada and cross the bridge to commute to Lisbon daily since it’s much cheaper to live over there. The beaches tend to be less crowded and more beautiful on the other side of the river as well. My friends’ boyfriend is a keen surfer so we met a few other portuguese surfers and I am now inspired to pick up a board and try my hand (or should I say foot) at it. Doesn’t sound like a bad life does it; spend my mornings dancing and evenings by the beach surfing. The last time I surfed I think was when I was 14 and convinced myself that I wanted to learn. So for my birthday I received lessons and even a second hand board – but other than during that summer, we never managed to find the time on weekends to go over to Straddie (my forever favourite beach which we visited every year since I was born).
After chilling at the beach, my friend and I caught the ferry back across the river to Lisbon. The sun was setting over the river, turning the sky a vibrant red. It was a lovely trip except for the fact that I had forgotten my mask in my other friend’s car, and not having time to buy a new one before boarding, managed to improvise by tying a singlet around my head. The result worked a treat as a mask for COVID but was unfortunate in appearance.
That’s all for now, and I’ll try to write more often! Let me know if you read this and if you would like to hear more about anything.
Beijinhos (Kisses),
Ellie
Tonight I was invited by my russian friend, Yulia (russian version of ‘Julia’) to join her and her partner for homemade pasta (she said she’d been saving mussels, especially for me), but unfortunately I need to go to the dentist as my retainer broke the other day as I was snacking on a carrot, and the only time available was tonight or in two weeks time on Monday (I can’t book any other time as I don’t know my schedule yet!).
It was a small group of us and the boys barbecued traditional ‘shashlik’ outside (skewers of pork neck and chicken drumsticks) while the girls prepared the table. It’s very traditional russian for the girls to ‘prepare together’ and the men to do their thing outside. My friend had made a homemade onion marinade which was just gorgeous on a lavash/pita bread with the pork and some parsley. (In Russia they only really eat two herbs: Parsley and Dill. My roommate told me that only very recently, a few years ago, were other herbs introduced. It’s the same deal with foods such as avocado, spinach and exotic cheeses such as haloumi and feta. Instead of feta they have their own kind of version, ‘Brinza’. It’s not as good if I’m honest, but don’t tell them I said that!)
This is Alicja (Polish), Emily (USA) and I during our show of Coppelia. How wonderful are the costumes? Handmade for us. I love my red boots, I feel like they came from ‘puss in boots’. If you’re interested, Emily just started her own video blog /vlog which you can see 
You may be wondering what a pile of multicoloured teddy bears made of flowers could be doing on the streets of Novosibirsk? The answer is that is was International women’s day, and that it’s a big celebration here. The men make a big deal of their women, taking them out for dinner, buying presents and tulips. At the theatre as we arrived in class, a boy gave each of us a tulip. The men on the streets not only sell teddy’s, but all park their cars with handwritten signs on the boot, advertising tulips of all colours. It reminds me of Amsterdam! Even now, at home I have a vase full of tulips still surviving. Oh, and how could I forget, all of the makeup stores have huge 40% off sales, which I took advantage of, since I use a fair amount of foundation on stage each night!
they look better and are re-usable.) So I went for a walk and passed by the Augustinius Abbey, not far from my house, where inside was a garden. Would you believe, that I walked into the grounds and suddenly found myself in front of where Gregor Mendel’s pea garden once stood? Gregor Johann Mendel, the monk whom I learned about in biology back in Yr11 in Australia, the man who basically discovered genetics through cross-breeding pea plants. Who knew that all of this happened in Brno? I can’t believe that I’ve been living here 5months now, and only now did I discover this! There is even a highly regarded Mendel museum (although it is very much closed at the moment along with every other museum, cafe, office or restaurant in the country). So, that was my grand discovery of the day. The rest of my time has been spent doing ALOT of cooking as well as catching up on good books – I’m currently reading ‘Pachinko’ by Min Jin Lee. It’s about living in Korea during the second world war and follows the fictional, though realistic story of a family in poverty and how they survive under changing circumstances.
Elliements 