2 Weeks Here

It's hard to believe we've already been here for 2 weeks. Time is definitely flying by. Tomorrow we're going to our language school to check it out, and we begin taking classes next week. This past weekend we went exploring one of the older downtown neighborhoods, Alfama, and went to the "Thieves Market" there. We bought some Portuguese children's Bible story books, some other Portuguese books for J., and some jewelry for me. We've started reading through our books to work on our Portuguese already. I'm picking up a little more of what people are saying, and I'm able to read most of the stories without looking up too many words.

There are some obvious differences between life here and in the U.S. besides just the language difference. Most apartments do not have central air and heat, or if they do you cannot afford to run it. Everyone has fans and space heaters to make it through. Most people hang up their clothes to dry. We bought a drying rack the other day so we can put our clothes out. We haven't yet progressed to hanging them from our balcony like most of our neighbors do. Lunches are long and late and dinners are super late. We never eat dinner before 8 p.m. now. And you do not eat anything with your hands. You eat pizza with a fork and knife--the fork is always in your left hand and the knife is always in your right hand no matter what you're eating. When you eat a sandwich, you hold the sandwich with a napkin instead of your hand.

Grocery shopping is a new experience. We have found one store that sells peanut butter and another store that we have to drive to that sells tortilla chips and cheddar cheese. The store we have to drive to is seriously the biggest grocery store we've ever seen--it's much bigger than a Super Walmart, although it is not a one-stop shop where you can buy everything like you can at Walmart. Our neighborhood grocery store has a good variety of things. We're having to cook a little differently. A lot of things we're used to are not available here. We now cook a lot of things from scratch. I've already made my own cream of chicken and cream of mushroom soups for sauces as well as homemade salsa and guacamole.

And soup is a vital food group here. You eat soup at least once a day. I bought a hand mixer for soups and am trying to learn how to make some of their foods.

Sorry, guys, for when you come to visit. No one wears baseball caps or tennis shoes unless they are playing sports at that moment. And women, bring your cute shoes and purses, but be prepared to walk on cobblestone streets all day.

Driving is a little different--you can't see the names of any streets, so navigating is hard. They love traffic circles, and everyone drives a standard (which I haven't learned how to drive yet, so Jonathan does all of the driving). The metro is nice and easy to use, which is great!

There are a lot of similarities between culture here and in New Orleans, too, though, so we don't feel like we are in a strange, new place. Both have similar religious backgrounds--mainly nominally Catholic--with the older generation practicing more and the younger generation moving toward Postmodernism. The climate is similar right now--although it won't get quite as hot or cold here as it will in New Orleans. The histories even have similarities (although Nola's is much shorter)--both have gone through natural disasters and had to rebuild (Lisbon: earthquake and fire, Nola--fire and hurricane), both have been ruled unwillingly by the Spanish, both have been a center for the arts and other cultural elements in the past. Both are past cultures--looking backwards. Both are family oriented and neighborhood-oriented. 

God is already giving us a love for our city--for the people, language, and culture. We're enjoying site seeing, but we spend most of our time in our neighborhood prayer walking, exploring it, and trying to talk to store owners, workers, and people at cafes. Pray for us to make friends and have good conversations with people--so we can share our story and God's story and hear their stories. Pray for us to continue to love Lisbon, our new home, and to be good students of the culture and language.