School, Liaison, Orientation

Written March 9th.

I had my six-week orientation near Leiria from Friday February 26 to Sunday, February 28. I had to take the bus by myself to the orientation site and back home on Sunday. I have definitely improved my observation skills. When you can't understand anything, you do a lot of watching. All the students who are studying in Portugal for 6 months were there. There were four other Americans (besides myself), one girl from Chile, two girls from Costa Rica (they just arrived four weeks ago), and the four students from Argentina. There was also a boy from Thailand who had arrived late for the yearlong program and never got to go to an orientation so he was there as well. It was nice to see everyone again. All us Americans were relieved to actually be understood and to talk fast in English. Since the other students speak Spanish they have an easier time with the language. They said they could mostly understand what people say, it's just hard for them to say anything back because the accent and pronunciation is so different. The orientation leaders had to switch between speaking Spanish and English and some Portuguese so everyone could understand. We did lots of different activities and talked about how we could make the most out of the rest of our time in Portugal. One activity simulated our experiences. We divided up into three groups at three different tables and received instructions for a card game. Once the game started we couldn’t talk at all. The winner of each group had to move to another table. When the student from the other table started playing our game she was awful at it. Each table had a different game so trying to learn the new one was difficult without being able to communicate. Some students tried to help the new person, others just ignored them and some were just annoyed that they didn’t know the rules. It was a good metaphor for our experience here. It’s a whole new game, and we can’t play by our own rules. We have to learn the new rules and language in order to completely fit in. As Fernando Pessoa (a famous Portuguese poet) said, “Our language is our culture”. Once you know the language life is much easier. I still feel like I’m way behind with the language. It’s easier to read than to interpret what people are talking about. I have tutoring with my Portuguese teacher every Monday and it’s very useful. She brings workbooks meant for young children to learn Portuguese (rightly titled “SOS Portuguese”) and they help a lot. It’s funny how “American” some Portuguese people are. Her ring tone is Linkin Park and she said she and her daughter are addicted to Gossip Girl.

Thursday was “strike” day. This is when anyone who works for the government doesn’t go to work. Most of the teachers still went to my school though. I didn’t have Psychology because the teacher was striking but I still had PE and Sociology. In PE, a rugby instructor came in and taught us how to play. We each had belts that had two flags attached by Velcro. If a person from the opposite team ripped your flag off, you had to stop and pass the ball. We played with four players on a team. The object is to get the ball to your end zone, basically like soccer, but you throw and catch instead of passing and kicking. I somehow made an amazing fake and miraculously got past all four players on the opposing team to score my team a point. It was definitely the most fun I’ve had in PE class. Thursday also happened to be a rain free day! The sun was out and it was 60 degrees outside.

On Friday, the Psychology teacher did not show up again so we didn’t have class. Instead I went with my friends and we looked in some shops. It was pouring and some of the small streets were flooded. Everyone keeps saying how this much rain is not normal. There are iris’s that are already blooming here. They usually bloom at the end of April early May in NY. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned before, but there are no woods or forests around Santarem. I’m so use to looking out my window in NY and just seeing the Adirondack Mountains and the trees. There are trees here of course, just not a forest. You cannot fully appreciate what you have until you no longer have it.

Through the AFS program, each student gets a liaison, or counselor to talk to in their new home town. I just received the name of mine last week and Sunday she invited me over to lunch. I ended up staying for lunch and dinner and got back home around 11 pm (luckily my host family wasn't upset). My liaison is a woman, in her 50's. She has hosted 5 students before from all around the world. Her three grown children were there too. They live in Lisbon and drive up to Santarem about twice a month. I really liked getting another perspective of a Portuguese family. My host family is very nice, but I make sure everything is neat and organized. My liaison's apartment felt lived in. It was so nice to be able to do things like helping out setting the table and cleaning up. At my host family, the maid does it and it's so strange for me. I went back to Portas de Sol with her son and his wife because his wife had never seen it. It was neat to see all the water. It looked like a huge lake, where all the water is covering the vineyards. We went to see Shutter Island at the movies later and we ate dinner around 9:30. They had vegetables with every meal. My host family only eats vegetables sometimes and I've been craving them. I feel like I've just been eating tons of bread.

At school, I finally received my student card. It's basically like a credit card. You have to beep it to a sensor every morning to activate it. Then you can buy school supplies or test papers in the school store or food at the "bar" as they call it. They have the most delicious croissants and sweet rolls. The rolls have baked coconut on top and their so good to make a a ham and cheese sandwich.

I have another class trip to Lisbon on Friday. Hopefully it won't rain!