What's your biggest fear? IS IT GHOSTS?! IS IT ME WITH A CLOWN MASK ON?!
Very likely, you with a clown mask on.
tbh I don't know what is my fear, maybe being lonely. I don't believe in ghosts or supernatural beings, everything has a logical explanation. I also have pointy ears and speak vulcan haha...no. Being lonely sounds right, losing someone I care about, not being able to grasp life happily, something like that.
Is Halloween big in Portugal?
It's not as big as in the US comparing to Carnival for several reasons.
First, it's called Noite das Bruchas = Witches' Night. It's mostly dedicated to spooky crap, skeletons, witches, maybe zombies. It's not an all-out any crap candy fest.
2nd, We have Carnival (close to easter), where we dress up the way you do in Halloween, and usually have social gatherings, parades, parties, dancings, it's the "big" costume holiday here.
3rd, it's being influenced by American tradition and is now becoming much like Halloween there. We already had pumpkins but now plastic decorations and whatnot are becoming way stronger, like a Halloween Xmas.
4th, the following day we have "All saints day", it's regarded for kids to go door to door asking "Bread for god", old way for kids to beg for bread, nowadays it's candy, the same your kids do in Halloween night. It's also normal to have family diner, sort of like Thanks Giving.
This is a carnival parade from close by place, I chose this photo that shows Cabeçudos = "Big Heads" which is a common Portuguese carnival parade tradition, and I chose this particular photo because you might be able to recognize Hugo Chavez. The rest of the figures are from Portuguese government, had to do with a big deal of computers we did with Venezuela. It's not the only deal with Venezuela but this one is very well known. Our Carnival caricatures are very political, yes.
We know you're a fine english typer, but are you a good english speaker?
Yes, above normal. Americans say I don't have an accent, not even American accent, Portuguese and British say I have an American accent. Any person here can speak English, some better than others, but to speak with good accent and proper fluency is rare. I'm very fluent, even if sometimes I may struggle momentarily trying to formulate a fluent speech, I don't usually have a problem.
Not that long ago I dined with a Syriza member of the Hellenic Parliament, I was so fluent that my party asked me to translate Portuguese to English so she could understand the discussion we were going to have later, and translate from English to Portuguese what she would say to the Portuguese audience. I've heard I did very well, it was my first time trying to do live translation, I can guarantee you, it's not easy, I was sweating when I was trying to translate from English to Portuguese live.
I was used to translate portuguese to english for my wife, but the opposite is much harder, I can't simplify english to portuguese because of nuance/connotations.
At the end of the event, people asked her some questions and I helped translating back and forth, and she then offered her place if I ever went to Greece.
