The University of Porto

I enjoy this benign exuberance and, strangely, can sleep through it. But I’m ambivalent about the University of Porto student as an idea. Caped and cloaked by day, they live in a world of guarded ritual, with upperclassmen bearing giant spoons, leading their younger charges through the streets.

In Gaia, they asked me not to photograph them, to which I responded by looking at my feet, planted firmly on the sidewalk. They backed away like coyotes, lacking the power to persuade me in one of the city’s most public areas. I have seen underclassmen lightly hazed, and, as this video above shows on a weeknight at 3:30 a.m., you can see their respect for the hardworking people of Porto, who assiduously indulge them. This screamfest will repeat itself tonight and the night after that.

One Porto resident explained to me that the big spoons derive from “Harry Potter” lore (J.K. Rowling is said to have developed many of her ideas for the series while living here in the early 1990s), but I dunno.

Boundless entitlement: No photos! I am implored.