Where does the time go?

Lisbon update #2

From Scott

Quinta-feira (Thursday), 2022-30-06

Today is a day we're expecting many deliveries - IKEA, Amazon Spain, Amazon Germany. As many of you who live in urban areas undoubtedly know, we have to be home for the delivery or the possibility the driver can get into the building is greatly diminished. We're not sure what would happen if a driver arrived and we weren't home. Would they buzz other apartments hoping someone will let them in? If they got in, would they leave the package somewhere unattended? Where? Or would they just give up and return another day? Other than a brief trip to the farmácia, we shouldn't be walking all over Lisbon and I might have time to write an update.

Still no word on the luggage - we've heard reports of people who've arrived via Air Canada ten or more days before we did who also do not have luggage. So we are not expecting anything soon. The Pres/CEO/whoever of the airline sent a long email today that boils down to: we're overwhelmed, we know it, we realize this is a problem for everyone, and we're going to cancel some flights in July and August to try and get things back on track. What that means for lost luggage is unclear but I do hold out some long-term hope.

Sexta-feira (Friday), 2022-01-07

So much for a leisurely day of hanging out at the homestead yesterday. One thing I'm learning here: no day goes sideways quite like a Portuguese day. 

That brief trip to the farmácia? Should have been maybe 45 minutes out and back, tops. 

Here's how it played out in real life: I walked past the Rato Metro station - it's directly on the route to the farmácia - where there is often a fruit stand. My plan was to buy cherries and peaches on the way home. There was no fruit stand. Plan B was to continue past the farmácia and explore some new territory en route to my first visit to Continente Bom Dia, the third of at least four major grocery store chains here in Lisbon. On the way to the Continente, I spied a place called "Megastore" and couldn't resist walking in. And I'm glad I did - they had all sorts of stuff we need! I got myself a couple of pairs of shorts (8,95€ each), some things for Josie and a few household items as well (step stool, paper towel holder ...). The place is huge and I walked most of it. Can't wait to bring Amy there. It's all cheap stuff but it'll work. 

Then I managed to make it to the Continente, albeit with a mostly full backpack. Wandering around a grocery store for the first time is always an experience. It takes longer, I've found, when most stuff is not in English. (Actually, pretty much everything here takes about four times longer than it did in St. Louis, often though not always because of the language barrier.) I loaded my cart, checked out my food, packing it into two of the many bags I now carry inside my backpack because one never knows when one will find something that needs to be taken home. Another thing I am learning: it is not good to be caught out and about with no bag. Now with a full backpack and both hands occupied I made my way back home through untraveled streets (need a third hand for the Google Maps phone). I don't know how long I was actually gone but it was considerably longer than expected. (I feel like there's got to be a way to look up/keep track of how far I walk and how long it takes given that I have both a phone and a smartwatch on me at all times but figuring that out has been low on the priority list. Thoughts?)

Packages were arriving throughout midday, each bringing a small number of welcome "to do's" with them. Unroll the rug (lift the couch, slide it under, make sure it's even . . .), re-arrange the electric outlets and chargers, set up the landline that will allow us to call the US free from 9 PM - 9 AM every night and all weekends (up to 1000 minutes a month), realize one of the glass storage containers we ordered was broken and figure out how to return them ...

We had finally gotten around to putting Josie's travel crate up on Buy Nothing Lisbon earlier in the day and Amy had someone coming to pick it up between 16 and 17. We decided to bring it downstairs and leave it in the lobby area so we didn't have to wrestle with it in front of someone else (it barely fits in the elevator with just the two of us, a third person would only complicate matters). We navigated that successfully and waited for the doorbell to ring figuring we'd go down to help if it was just one person arriving to pick it up. When we heard the bell, I went out the door to the elevator and Amy followed close behind. Just as she shut the door, we realized neither of us had keys. By the time we got down to the lobby, the crate was gone so that at least got handled. Then it was time to figure out how to get back inside our apartment.

Fortunately, I had my phone in my hand. It's amazing to me how that one item has become such a lifeline here. I WhatsApped our property manager and asked if he had an extra key. A few minutes later he replied that he did not and suggested maybe our real estate agent might. She did not. It was time to call a locksmith. I used my translation app to prime the phrase "we're locked out of our apartment" and Googled "locksmith near me." 

The problem with saying something in a different language is that the response comes in that language as well. I'm never prepared for the response. The very nice woman who answered the phone knew enough to know what was going on but there the conversation hit a bit of a wall. "Fala ingles?" I asked, hopefully. "Não" was the expected response. A moment or two of fumbling later and a different voice came over the line. She had handed her phone off to a very young child! The girl (turns out she just finished first grade) knew way more English than I did Portuguese and it wasn't long before they had all they needed to know ("the keys are inside, we are outside" seemed to be an important bit for them). "It will be thirty minutes and 65 Euro" the tyke informed me, and we were happy to hear it. 

Thirty minutes became 45. Finally the phone rang and a man apologetically asked for our address. "Oh you're in Lisbon," he said in passable English, "I'll be there in 15 minutes." Um. Ok. Great! At least he's not dropping us. Fifteen minutes became 30 and a van appeared. The usual struggle to find a parking spot and he was here! "Fala ingles?" "Não." Sigh. Given that I know enough Portuguese to be able say reasonably clearly, "I'm sorry, I don't speak Portuguese very well," I can understand why I fairly frequently hear, "I don't speak English" in perfect English. This guy didn't even try 😄. I plugged "we are very happy to see you" into my translation app and we limped along. The longer he stayed, the more I felt comfortable typing something into my app (I use DeepL, in case you're interested; it's quite versatile and very helpful) and attempting to speak it in Portuguese. I think what trips me up the most is my pronunciation. People often don't know what I'm trying to say; then I hold my phone up for them to read the translated version of what I typed and they get it. So it ain't the app ... 

Anyway, Rodrigo turned out to be a really nice guy. He showed us a video of his VERY cute daughter (who I'd spoken to earlier), she goes to an English school in Sintra, solving a math problem (17-13) out loud in English using what I have to believe is that "new math" I keep hearing about. He seemed quite concerned that our property manager didn't have a spare key and that we might be footing the bill for his services; he asked a couple of times if he should bill me or the property manager's company. He had trouble opening the door the easy way and ended up having to break and replace the lock. Then he didn't have the equivalent level lock on his truck, only a slightly fancier version, so the whole thing ended up costing more than the original quote. Maybe he was just taking the foreigners to the cleaners, but I didn't get that sense. He seemed genuinely apologetic. And he was impressed with Josie who barely barked at all despite having strange voices in the hallway and being cut off from us through her dinner/walk time. All in all, if you have to get locked out in a foreign country, that's the way to have it happen.

By the time we got back in, it was after 1900. Time for dinner and then I got to put together a piece of IKEA furniture! One of my favorite things to do! Only, I needed a hammer and I didn't have one 🙁. So I got as far as I could and left the rest for today.

Back to Friday

While walking Josie last night I spotted what appeared to be a reasonable facsimile of a small hardware store, right on the next block. This morning I queued up "I need a hammer and a pair of pliers, do you sell those?" in DeepL and went on my way. Once again I struggled to make myself understood. The shop owner told me my pronunciation was more Spanish than Portuguese. I think learning to swallow the last syllable of most words will help a lot (ContinENT not ContinenTAY, for example). But I came home with a hammer and a pair of pliers! As satisfying as it is to assemble a piece of furniture, it's way more so after acquiring the tools from a small business in a language that's not English! Small victories!

So we're slowly turning our apartment into a home. Josie is happy to have a rug and a third floofie to lie on, we have more places to store the stuff we don't have (but the bedside tables look GREAT and will be way more convenient than the teeny shelves attached to the wall). We continue to eat like royalty for very little (heading out soon to pick up two more "surprise bags" - one from a place called Ninja Buns (I mean, how can you not get random food for 2,49€ from a place called Ninja Buns?) and another from a Lebanese restaurant I've been eyeing from abroad for months). If you live somewhere serviced by the app Too Good to Go, I highly recommend giving it a try.

I've rattled on for far too long and as usual there's so much more I want to say. Thanks for reading this far.

Love from Lisbon,

Scott

From Amy

I am trying to think of a way to express how awesome Lisbon is, and failing miserably. Being amidst the city that's busy and active - and yet tucked a bit away from the noise and hubbub - is everything we dreamed of. We have a lovely apartment and it's great to just hang out and listen to the gentle clinking silverware from the restaurant across the street, and yet a block away is a major tourist destination. We are truly blessed. So far the weather has been nothing but delightful. Warm, yes, but the breezes are continual and lovely. With the front balcony windows open full, and the back two windows open top only, the apartment is always fresh and clean and cool. We have multiple parks not far from us where we can see grass and stunningly beautiful trees. The architecture; I just don't have words for how amazing the architecture is. I think that sums it up for me: I have no words. From salads that get their own Facebook posts to incredible meals of apparently leftovers, we are eating well and healthier than I've ever eaten before.

That said, the challenges continue. I think Scott adequately covered the difficulties with making ourselves understood. And I am consistently behind Scott in both language comprehension and certainly the ability to speak it. It will come. We have, after all, only been here a week. 

Amazon Spain, which is what we use for deliveries, is not the Amazon we know. Products that we are used to - like squeezie cheese, our go-to pill delivery system for Josie - seem simply unavailable. Or they are, but not the brands we know and trust. It's easy to say oh I'm just going to grab underwear. Well I don't have my brand here. No problem I'm adaptable. I think this kind should work? Okay what size? The European sizes don't translate as evenly as you would think. I end up with underwear that is small. Very very small. Okay I'll just order a size up. Then I washed said underwear. After I'm done laughing hysterically at the size it comes out, I'm very nervous about the underwear I have already ordered. I may need to order underwear several times!

And so it goes, in this blissful city of lisbon.

Love, Amy