Celebrate the tiny triumphs!

Recently, when I passed my 7th lesson of Portugese I went to a shop where I was able to ask for a plastic file folder and the cashier understood me! I am now at that point where I have heard and read a lot of verbs, only I need to be able to memorize them now. As well as the irregular ones…When I have class I try to speak more and more in Portugese, but I am glad my teacher still alternates from English to Portugese. At home sometimes I dare to ask one of the children a question in Portugese, but most of the time it doesn’t go without errors or misunderstandings.

Someone showed me a nice running path, close to my house, which goes all the way (2,5 km) to a village called Sintra (beautifully green with a palace). Not that I make it all the way there, haha, because that will be more than 2,5km and I also need to get back. During running I found a Portugese Christian radio channel. They also played sometimes an English song and even an American style country song :-)

The town where I live, I do not consider as beautiful, since it has a lot flat buildings and not a lot of green. What I do like about the town is that there are many cultures. This makes me feel as if I am already traveling in the direction of my next destination. There are many people here from Angola, also in the church I attend each Sunday. But also Brazilians and people from Cape-Verdie live here. The economy here is quite different from ours in the Netherlands, since the people earn salaries on an average between 600-900 euros. On the other hand food and rent is less expensive compared to the Netherlands.

Did you know that a lot of elderly people (including couples), in Lisbon, spend a lot of their time in a shopping mall. Only because they have no airconditioning at home. It looks quite funny, as if that is their activity of the day. I am sure it might be sometimes more frustrating to them.

Groetjes Irene