I landed in Portugal on a drizzly day, September 29, 2013. Could it be two whole years have passed since then? If it weren’t for this blog I’d be in denial. In some ways I feel like I’ve been here longer than two years, and in some respects it feels like I just stepped off the plane and handed over my passport to the border agent. “29.09.13 Porto” was the first stamp in my new passport with my new name.
First Year In Portugal
If I were asked the biggest difference from Year 1 to Year 2 in Portugal, I could sum it up in one word. Was it the new dishwasher? Improved language skills? New friends? Visits from old friends? Interesting work opportunities? All good things — the dishwasher was positively transformative — but for sheer brute force change, the award goes to this guy.
Casa Aguiar got a mascot.
More pet talk...A few weeks after I wrote my First Anniversary post, Ice came into our lives around the age of five months. My Year 2 in Portugal coincided with Ice’s puppy year, which started with him trembling in the company of big neighbourhood dogs. But eventually he got over his fear, grew bigger (from 9kg to 23kg!), and became chummy with them. There was one dark period in his life when he had to wear the Cone of Shame, but he’d rather not talk about it. Our daily routines revolve around his high-maintenance lifestyle: walking at all hours of the day and night, taking him to the dog playground, sharing information (“Did he poop when you went out this morning?”), and being responsible consumers (cost/benefit analysis for dog food and dental sticks). The best part is, Ice loves to travel with us — he even has a travel hammock for the backseat of the car. He’s also got his own hashtag in Instagram (shhhhh, he shares it with other dogs, but most of the photos are his).
Talking like a true dog parent, here. Time to put away the photo album.
Year 2 Report Card
Have you ever started a new job in a new field and tried to explain how you felt the first months? That’s how I felt a year ago. Too much to remember, all at once. It was more than a vocabulary avalanche, it was an information tsunami. I had to look up everything, constantly: metro stops, bus numbers, routes, streets, shop names, landmarks, words, signs. (I use Google Translate on my phone, but it’s mostly terrible.) I’d regularly lose track of my monthly prepaid phone balance, transit card balance, logins, passwords, PIN codes, fiscal number, and I’d even blank out on my own address from time to time. Talk about disorienting. It eased off in Year 2, but it felt like my brain was leaking everything I was trying to take in.
If there were a New Arrival Performance Review, I’d be in trouble. So I threw out the employee evaluation concept and turned it into a report card. I’m not an employee, I argued to myself. I’m a student… evaluating myself. If I were to plot my second year in Portugal into the format of a report card, it would look something like this (in no particular order):
Geography: B/B+
Ask me the name of a district capital in Portugal, I could tell you the district or make a good guess. A city that’s not a district capital or a small town, I would be less certain but I’d have a good crack at it. If this were Jeopardy, I’d choose “… Famous Monuments in Portugal for a thousand, Alex.” Geography is definitely an area in which I feel more confident, because of photography.
Politics: C
Do I get extra credit if I have a stack of pictures of the Mayor of Porto? I photographed him every day at F1H2O. Honestly, I’ve tried watching political debates and more news this past year, but I zone out after five minutes of anything on television, even entertainment. I do read some Portuguese political news articles online, though, and I’m confident I’d be able to recognize the top-level government people on the street, along with some local mayors.
Language: D
Easily my worst subject, by a long shot. This is a post in itself. I’d give myself an F, except that I can function in daily life just fine (shops, markets, restaurants, getting around) on my own. I’ve taken trips in Portugal on my own. I get by, thus I can justify a score higher than an F, but until I can negotiate a phone call and take communication to a level where I recognize more than a few words in the average sentence, it’s a D.
In the past year I’ve left a trail of unfinished courses… OK, two. The first one was a year ago and I managed to last for six weeks — not quite halfway. The second one in the spring was a different program. By the time I began, I was already six classes behind and unable to catch up. (My email to the instructor ended up in her junk folder and sat there for a while.) To reduce the frustration and stress, I’ve decided to forgo classes completely and experiment with alternative methods of language learning (more on that in the separate post). Now that the classroom stress is gone, I’m making small strides: talking to people on the street in Portuguese, eavesdropping on transit conversations as a listening exercise, engaging with the vendors in the fish and vegetable markets when previously I would just excuse myself by saying I don’t speak Portuguese.
I have to credit my faithful doggie companion for prompting more casual street exchanges; suddenly, total strangers talk to me everywhere, every day. They pet Ice, coo over him, and ask questions. It’s been a real boon to the number of opportunities I get to hear and speak Portuguese, and these sorts of simple, quick exchanges are helpful because there’s enough repetition in the questions that I can process the sounds and practice my answers.
Social life: B+
I made some new connections over the past year, people who I spend time with regularly, which really boosted overall morale. I wrote a big post about this over the summer.
I had a stint of volunteering last year that lasted a week, but I’ve been hankering to do more. This has been a challenge, because of my wretched language skills mostly, but also because I hadn’t found a good fit. I’m pleased that finally I have a regular volunteer gig every other Sunday at a migrant detention centre, but I’m actively searching for other opportunities to expand my volunteering hours. Ultimately, I’d like to reach other social groups in need of assistance or training of some kind. Stay tuned.
Food: A+
Seriously, I give myself big props for my arroz de polvo — it’s a sign of major progress in the Portuguese Kitchen department. I was making some traditional dishes in Year 1, such as bacalhau com natas and bacalhau à brás, but this year I’ve added to my Portuguese repertoire in the fish and seafood category. The quest for the best bolo de bolacha made zero progress in Year 2, I’m sad to report, but I’ve tried new specialties such as Pastéis de Chaves and found new food haunts such as Comida da Rua in Mercado de Matosinhos (the BEST meia de leite and price point in town).
Work
Year 2 saw large gains thanks to patience, mostly, plus social media and consistency. My proudest achievement was Air Transat’s PR firm giving me the opportunity to put a spotlight on my favourite places in Porto, in the form of words, photographs, and video. I have to admit, video is not my forte and I prefer the back of the camera to the front, but I was able to talk myself into getting over my self enough to make the video. Because it’s not about me, it’s about Porto!
And last but not least, Year 2 travel by the numbers:
Trips in Portugal: 18 (see the Portugal collection for albums)
Trips out of Portugal: 3 (see the Travel collection for albums)
New countries: 3 (Malta, San Marino, Andorra)
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