Strangers in a strange land

20

and

Sep 08, 2022

A collection of tidbits that are too small to make a solo entry here, some of which may have been posted to either Facebook and/or Instagram.

No wonder a lot of people here know English

Turns out that Portuguese school children are required to take English starting in first grade. This is, of course, in addition to Portuguese. Around 7th or 8th grade they add another language, often Spanish or French. Not sure how long this has been a thing, but it may explain why younger people are more likely to speak at least some English.

Yes, we do use our clothesline

And yes, we have dropped items. Fortunately, our downstairs neighbor - with whom we’ve had exactly one conversation - is lovely.

OK seriously, what is a “New York style cheeseburger”?

What are we missing? Please, enlighten us. Comment below!

New language-learning resource

If anyone is interested in picking up another language, there’s a relatively new resource out there that Scott has been finding helpful: linguno.com. The site offers exercises in verb conjugation, active recall, and listening skills in seven languages and adds fifteen new crossword puzzles every day. It’s in beta now and likely won’t be free forever. Check it out!

If you’re going to have a car in Lisbon, it’s helpful for it to be small

This may be going a little far, however.

But ain’t it awesome! WANT!

IT RAINED! IT RAINED!

We arrived in Lisbon on June 23. Between then and September 6 around 3 AM, we had not had a drop of rain. Some clouds that looked promising but burned off, yes, but no actual precipitation. Terça-feira, we had enough to give the sidewalks a gentle clean (not thorough; anything is helpful, though) and create a few puddles. While Lisbon doesn’t usually see a ton of rain during the summer (three or four days of rain is common), this season has been drier than typical (probably a harbinger of summers to come, unfortunately). The forecast suggests a good chance for more rain on domingo/segundo/terça. Fingers crossed!

Things we don’t see as much of in the U.S. anymore (and that look different here)

** Corner mailboxes

The red mail is standard delivery, blue seems roughly equivalent to priority.

** Payphones

Would you prefer cardboard or sandpaper?

After a fairly wide sampling of grocery store options, those appear to be our two choices for toilet paper here. And the rolls are tiny, only 130 sheets each (which is why we’ve had ample opportunity to try so many brands). At least they’re also expensive so they’ve got that going for them.

But wait! There’s something new on the market!