This is the slogan for the toilet paper store at El Cortes Ingles. Yes, there is a toilet paper store. A designer toilet paper store. They sell other paper products in addition to toilet paper: paper napkins and paper towels. Their products are all very brightly colored, including the toilet paper. You can buy lime green, hot pink, bright turquoise, black, red, orange, yellow toilet paper and paper towels to coordinate to your kitchen and home. I think this is awesome. It's outrageously expensive for a product that is going to be cleaning up messes but the concept is pretty cool.
In addition to the toilet paper store, my favorite specialty shops so far have been the coin collector shop, the glove shop, and the orthopedic shoe shop.
An entire shop dedicated to orthopedic shoes. What a great world we live in. I like the European model way better than the American model: instead of massive shopping complexes where you can get everything at once, every product has its own specialty shop and you can just pop in and out very quickly on your way to and from places. The walking is healthy, it gives me lots of time to think and soak in the sunshine, and I don't spend as much money on things that I don't need now or ever. It has become a part of my daily life, stopping at the fruit stand on the corner and paying less than a euro for a full bag of fruit from the middle-aged Portuguese man who likes to smile at all the old ladies that come into the shop. Every day at our pastelaria Senhor Tall winks at us and our other new friend, Senhor Patient, is very patient with me as I try to conduct my transactions entirely in Portuguese. Yesterday I was trying to buy multiple pastries for dinner with the girls and we spoke in Portuguese for five whole minutes.
!!!!
Muito accomplished, if I do say so myself. He taught me some useful things like "to go" and the names of all the pastries I like and he was very patient as I showed him that I understood what he was saying by counting out my change exactly. That's the nice thing about Lisbon: the people. It's so easy to establish a niche here. Everybody is so friendly and accommodating and everyday I feel like there are people around keeping an eye on my progress. Sergio, our friendly front gate security guard at the dorm, has been teaching me new things whenever I have to ask for something. "I'd like a token for the dryer" becomes "Quero uma ficha do socara" (Don't check the spelling; this was all spoken and I'm 100% I spelled it wrong) He even brought me a Portuguese grammar book to help me study. One catch though--it's all in Portuguese.
Back when I was trying to choose a location for study abroad, I thought that going to Europe would be too generic and too overdone. I was looking for a place that would still be European but would also be off the beaten track and really allow me to immerse myself instead of living life like an American surrounded by Americans in a different city. Lisbon is spot-on for me. It's a modern city with old-world charm, it's not too big but it's big enough, the people are amazing and the atmosphere is beyond words. And the best part? I feel so alive. Every day, if not every hour, I face obstacles and come out of them with such a feeling of accomplishment. I get a rush from the smallest things, like ordering completely in Portuguese or meeting my new Brazilian friends or navigating my way across the city without getting lost. Even just being able to read advertisements. I feel like the world is happening in real time and I am completely in it.
Having the opportunity to interact with so many people from all over the globe also helps put things in perspective. None of the study abroad students here are concerned with being stressed or overloaded or too busy to take time for themselves. I have nothing to be angry or irritated about, no huge burdens in extracurricular activities, no meetings, no appointments. I have the freedom to take advantage of every opportunity. I can make spur of the moment decisions, I can change plans and I can even not make them and things still turn out great. Everybody is focused on meeting other people and learning about the world. Being here is not about the in-class learning as much as it is about interacting with other people my age outside of class. And it's fantastic. Having conversations with other people about their daily lives in their countries make me that much stronger in my beliefs about the way life should be in my own country. I have never considered myself a particularly political person but now that I am old enough to vote in a presidential election (and the economy is going to the dogs and Bush has to leave office) I am very engaged in and excited for this election, as are people around the globe apparently. So I engage in a lot of discussion about politics and have a better sense of what I want. For example, education. Portugal finances public education so students go to school for almost nothing. Even at the school cantina I can get a whole meal for 2 euros because it's subsidized by the government. Granted, Portugal is a much smaller country than the United States, but even a country like Brazil has affordable public education because the government helps pay for it. When we compare with our friends the cost of going to college they are shocked that we would pay anything more than a few thousand dollars a year to learn and get a degree, without which we wouldn't be able to move forward in our lives and get good jobs to support ourselves. Pardon my rant; I am merely fascinated by the global perspective I've been able to get on my own country. I don't know if I'd ever be able to leave the United States permanently because I can't bear the thought of being away from everybody I love for that long, but I think it would be pretty amazing to live in another country for a few years to get a better sense of what I really want and expect from a government. I think I can't accurately judge the American government until I've had experience with another one. It's just a thought but I daresay it's an intriguing one.
On a less serious note, I also had the opportunity today to clean out my school email inbox. It felt so unbelievably good to delete hundreds of unimportant emails and reinforce my belief that just by being here I am a happier and healthier person than I've ever been in my life. Well, mostly healthier. Between the pastel de nata and the inexplicable desire to purchase lime green toilet paper, I might have a few unhealthy urges. I can't help it. Pastel de nata is too good for its own good. And hot pink or turquoise toilet paper? I mean, come on. That is just begging me to buy it.
I love Lisboa.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment