After three mentally and physically exhausting days, I've finally settled in to the new country. The overnight group flight definitely didn't help the jet lag as this will probably be posted around 12 AM here, but it has allowed me to meet the rest of my group who come from all over the country. We quickly moved to a town right outside of Lisbon, Almada, and spent the day continuing to get to know the people that we would be spending the next 20 days with, playing icebreakers and chatting at a local cafe (COFFEE HERE IS AMAZING!). After orientation, we were all tired as we all got less than three hours of sleep, so we quickly hurried off into our hostel rooms to catch some Z's for the next exciting day.
We started the next day off with energizers, creating our small group names and chants (TARTARUGAS! PARE UM PLÁSTICO!) After the continuation of our orientation, we had our first Survival Portuguese lesson. There we learned the simple phrases we needed in the country such as greeting someone, ordering something, and the different tones within the Portuguese words. I initially thought it would be way easier for me since I've taken 5 years of Spanish and Duolingo made it seem like it was very similar, but the tones were way harder than Spanish ones. Soon after, we took our first tour of the Lisbon city center. We had a scavenger hunt, trying to find the answers to 11 questions along the route, in our small groups. At the completion of the trek, we finally had some time to spend on our own in the city! It was exciting as I had to put my few Portuguese phrases to the test. We finished off the day with our welcome dinner at a churrascaria which was nearby our hostel.
Today, the third day, we finally went surfing! Trust me, it's way harder than you think it is. My arms are currently SUPER sore from having to attempt to paddle to catch the perfect wave and to push myself up on the board to the stance. Even though it was hard, it was still an amazing experience! When we got back, we had some down time before having dinner back at the hostel, so a group of us decided to go take a walk to the beach. It was such a nice place to snap a few Instagrammable pictures since the sun was starting to set and there was hardly anyone there.
Over the past few days, I've realized a few things. Maybe it was just arriving early in the morning, but it just wasn't as busy as your typical NYC airport. Even going through customs wasn't completely terrifying as they weren't barking orders like the officers back at home. Everybody wasn't hustling like most people would back in the city; it almost felt like I was moving in slow motion. Or maybe it was just the inevitable jet lag that's almost impossible to beat. Tomorrow, we'll be leaving the Lisbon area to travel three hours up north to Aveiro, which is also known as the "Venice of Portugal"!
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