Bullet points are back in style, mostly because I decided that I was too lazy to write up 700 more words of drivel just now.
• The extent to which everything is quieter and generally less laden with charades in the apartment now is absolutely striking and I'm not complaining whatsoever about it.
• I found a new room for only slightly more per month in an ultra-modern apartment shared with other students, so I'll be moving in April.
• We're moving into the point at which I've been here long enough that with some of my friends it's no longer "how awesome that you learned so much Portuguese so quickly!" and is instead just "why, exactly, are you not using all that Portuguese?" Should fix that.
• Playing tour guide makes me realize the extent to which I actually have put a remarkable effort into assimilating as much as is realistically possible here, to enough of an extent that I can say I know at least something about each general section of the central city. I like that.
• I now embarrass myself in Portuguese in new ways by being able to give directions, order food for multiple people, and other general things in the public sphere without issue but barely having anything to say in basic chit-chat and banter.
• I can't tell if I have exacerbated breathing problems (asthma-like) or if I'm just sick, and whether or not the dust and dirt I can't seem to get completely rid of in my room is the culprit for that.
• Life is much easier when you have little to no dishes to do. So I adjust my eating habits accordingly, even when I'm home.
• A friend of mine is coming in a couple of weeks with a "care package" of random American hygiene products, becauseholy shit the same sorts of things are absurdly expensive or impossible for me to find here.
• I have enough crap that I would like to give some of it away, and by that I mean various articles of clothing and a couple of pairs of shoes. I have no idea where to do this here.
• I do now have an idea of where to recycle things, though, and the city is surprisingly recycling-friendly, something I was not expecting at all.
• I have begun the entirely typical spiral of talking to everyone from places where I am not significantly less and all of the many people I've met here nearly constantly, to the small detriment of my inter-continental networking abilities, such that they ever existed.
• My first two classes got cancelled so it will not be until the seventh full week of my sojourn that I actually have a class I receive credit for here.
• I opted not to bother with the Portuguese course here after all, because I am learning Portuguese rapidly and better in an organic, social way than I would otherwise. No lazy Europeans complaining about how they don't speak Portuguese involved (that's my job), no faux Brazilian accents. Great.
• I spent three days in the north of Portugal in the city of Porto, which I will write about at length at some point when I have motivation.
• I still can not speak Portuguese well without either coffee or alcohol in my system, and preferably both.
• The extent to which everything is quieter and generally less laden with charades in the apartment now is absolutely striking and I'm not complaining whatsoever about it.
• I found a new room for only slightly more per month in an ultra-modern apartment shared with other students, so I'll be moving in April.
• We're moving into the point at which I've been here long enough that with some of my friends it's no longer "how awesome that you learned so much Portuguese so quickly!" and is instead just "why, exactly, are you not using all that Portuguese?" Should fix that.
• Playing tour guide makes me realize the extent to which I actually have put a remarkable effort into assimilating as much as is realistically possible here, to enough of an extent that I can say I know at least something about each general section of the central city. I like that.
• I now embarrass myself in Portuguese in new ways by being able to give directions, order food for multiple people, and other general things in the public sphere without issue but barely having anything to say in basic chit-chat and banter.
• I can't tell if I have exacerbated breathing problems (asthma-like) or if I'm just sick, and whether or not the dust and dirt I can't seem to get completely rid of in my room is the culprit for that.
• Life is much easier when you have little to no dishes to do. So I adjust my eating habits accordingly, even when I'm home.
• A friend of mine is coming in a couple of weeks with a "care package" of random American hygiene products, because
• I have enough crap that I would like to give some of it away, and by that I mean various articles of clothing and a couple of pairs of shoes. I have no idea where to do this here.
• I do now have an idea of where to recycle things, though, and the city is surprisingly recycling-friendly, something I was not expecting at all.
• I have begun the entirely typical spiral of talking to everyone from places where I am not significantly less and all of the many people I've met here nearly constantly, to the small detriment of my inter-continental networking abilities, such that they ever existed.
• My first two classes got cancelled so it will not be until the seventh full week of my sojourn that I actually have a class I receive credit for here.
• I opted not to bother with the Portuguese course here after all, because I am learning Portuguese rapidly and better in an organic, social way than I would otherwise. No lazy Europeans complaining about how they don't speak Portuguese involved (that's my job), no faux Brazilian accents. Great.
• I spent three days in the north of Portugal in the city of Porto, which I will write about at length at some point when I have motivation.
• I still can not speak Portuguese well without either coffee or alcohol in my system, and preferably both.
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