Things are not as we expected

22

Some of the board games available at The Whisk on a recent game night. Photo posted to group Telegram discussion, stolen by Scott.

When planning our move, some of the hardest decisions we had to make were around which board games to take. One criterion we used to help speed the process was “how language-dependent is this game?” We figured that if we couldn’t teach the game relatively easily to people who might have a tenuous command of English, it’d have to be a game we really like to play as a pair to justify bringing it along. We also figured it’d be a while before we needed larger, party-style games, so favorites like Two Rooms and a Boom didn’t make the trip.

As we get deeper into the board game scene in our area, we’re wishing we’d known then what we know now.

We’re playing games with people from all over the world. Some are native to the Lisbon area. Most are not. All games are played in English. Nearly everyone has a level of fluency with this language, often impressively so: Ivo, born and raised in Portugal, used the word “zephyr” recently in a word game.

(Stop. Enter your response to the poll now. There’s a spoiler later.)

At a recent board game night at a café not far from our apartment, Scott was at a table of six. Miguel, on his left, is Portuguese, mid-to-late 30s. To his right sat Or - looks to be in his mid-30’s, with a heavy accent. At one point in their game, everyone had passed but Or and Felicia, who was momentarily confused as to whose turn it was. Or said to her, “Your turn. It’s just the two of us.” Scott mentally queued up the 1981 Grover Washington, Jr. classic and was internally grooving when Or, after a pause, followed up with, “we can make it if we try.”

Later, Mika’s 2007 UK chart-topper Grace Kelly came over the café’s sound system. Miguel started bopping his head lightly side to side and humming along under his breath. Scott mentioned that he hadn’t heard that song in a while; Or offered that it took him back to 2008.

Movie references in A Fake Artist Goes to New York? Multi-national groups had no trouble with them. Games based completely on spoken communication - Codenames, Just One? Easy-peasy. (OK, Scott tried to get fancy in a game of Just One when the guesser’s word was “wind.” Everyone else went with the definition of “air movement” - this is where Ivo’s zephyr came in - while Scott used “clock,” as in “wind the clock.” When quizzed afterwards about his strange choice of word, he was told that nobody would have figured that one out. When briefed later, Amy said she’s not sure she would’ve gotten it right away, either 😄.)

One-liners at the table run the gamut from references to Airplane (someone joked he had a “drinking problem”; everyone got it) to random song lyrics.

In other words, it’s basically like every other table we’ve been around. Except with a wide variety of accents.

This past weekend, we were looking at our 600-square-foot apartment and trying to figure out: a) how we can cram 15 people in here, b) where we can purchase a folding table and chairs, and c) where we could possibly store any folding table and chairs we might actually find a way to buy.

This is not where we thought things were headed when we got to STL, either. Six months after that move Scott had a milestone birthday. Amy never thought she was going to be able to throw him a surprise party and have a whole mess of people show up.

It’s not a bad place to be.

And we’re well aware that tomorrow we may feel totally different about how things are going.

We’re just riding the roller coaster, and hoping not to fall off.

That’s all for now.

Love from Lisbon,

Scott & Amy