Last weekend I had my “goodbye” final AFS camp before departure. There are about 70 other AFS foreign exchange students here in Portugal. They divided us up and half of us went to Coimbra and half went to Braga. I traveled to the camp in Coimbra with 34 other students. Coimbra is nicknamed the “college” town because of all the universities in the city. Portugal is a very relaxed country and the people just flow with changes. Nothing is usually planned. If you have plans, they will probably change ten times before you actually pick what to do. They like spontaneity and aren’t upset if things don’t go according to plan. The train I was supposed to take to the camp at 4 p.m. was full so I had to go on one two hours later. I thought I was going to be late, but I was one of the first ones to arrive. When people in Portugal have meetings or plans at 8 a.m. that means 8:30. If you do arrive on time, you’re just embarrassed to be the only one there.
There were students from over 10 different countries at my camp including: New Zealand, Thailand, China, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Argentina, Germany, Austria, Mexico, and the US of course. Ari and I and three kids from Argentina were the only ones from the semester program at the Coimbra camp. The rest of the kids had been here since September. I met another girl, Rebecca, from Washington, D.C. There are more Americans who have been here the full year, but they were at the Braga camp so I will meet them on the plane ride home. Rebecca said two American students went home around December; it just wasn’t for them. Another student, I learned went home 3 days after arriving in Portugal, they never even met their host family or gave it a chance. All the students knew each other because they had previous camps and programs together. Some lived in the same town as each other. It was really cool to meet so many kids from so many different countries. At the camp we did different activities and talked about going home. The camp was conducted all in Portuguese. Most of the year long kids could understand everything. I had to have them repeat a lot and say it slower so I could understand. I can understand more easily now, just my pronunciation is awful. Some of the yearlong kids knew as much as I did though, so that made me feel better. I think you really need at least a year to learn and develop the basic skills for a new language. Everyone missed home, but very few of us were ready to leave. Most people thought that the middle months were the hardest, but now Portugal is like their second home. Going home will be nice, but home will always be there. You never know when you will see your friends in Portugal and when you will see your new friends from New Zealand, Germany and Norway. I’m so excited to have bagels and tacos again, but who knows when I’ll have pampilhos and a dish with bacalhau. It’s not just the food, but also the people, the culture, the cities. I can’t express how strange it is to think that I will be in NY in 4 weeks. It never felt like I was really leaving for Portugal until I arrived, so I don’t think it will hit me until I’m on the plane or when I see my house. Enough of the rapidly approaching departure blues…
This week I went to school Monday, but on Tuesday and Wednesday I went to Lisbon with my host sister. She showed me all around the city on Tuesday. Lisbon is such a beautiful, relaxed city. It was about 95 degrees on Tuesday, just typical Portuguese summer weather. I hadn’t planned on staying over, but in Portugal I’ve learned to be flexible with “plans”. So on Wednesday we went to H&M to get swimsuits then headed off to the beach. We met up with my sister’s friend who showed us around Cascais. Cascais is just south of Lisbon. It is a gorgeous city and beautifully kept up with flowers adoring the patterned streets and brightly painted buildings. The beach we went to was little but it was not crowded. The water was cold, but you got use to it. We got ice cream from an ice cream shop that was one of the first in the city. There’s so much more of Portugal I have to explore!
Thursday I didn’t have school because it was a holiday. This Friday morning I went to Sociology class where we watched a movie and then I didn’t have any more classes. I only have two days of school left; I don’t know how many classes I will have though. Santarèm is hosting agriculture fair next week so that will be fun!
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