I am delighted to be here as a columnist for the Resident. My hope is to share with you inspiring and uplifting insights into expat, immigrant and foreigner life, as well as share with you notable Portuguese people who exemplify all that I love about this country.
There will, of course, be down and dark sides too on occasion, as our collective ‘estrangeiro adventure’ necessarily contains within it all of life’s ‘ups and downs’.
Today I’m sharing more a paradox than a problem, as with nearly six years under my pastel de nata-expanded belt here in Portugal, I realise I might have become a little cosy and complacent.
However, sitting as I am, writing on one of the country’s excellent Wi-Fi-enriched coaches (buses to our American friends), I am suddenly present to the wonder and mystique, once again, of being a foreigner.
Not knowing where to wait, how best to show my digital ticket and hearing three different languages before breakfast, all take me back to that mixture of delight and panic that hallmark the first days of my family’s expatriation.
“People are strange when you’re a stranger,” said The Door’s Jim Morrison. But isn’t that part of the wide-eyed joy of life here in a new place, a Portugal chock full of possibility and promise?
As my coach swings into a tiny, almost hidden, seemingly Art Nouveau portal in Caldas da Rainha, I am plunged again into the different, unexpected and exciting. Lisbon awaits me today with further surprises – the true joy of being in a new country, a feeling I am delighted to be re-acquainted with.
Now, contrast this innocent abroad approach with the urgent need many feel to integrate and connect with the new culture. Learning the language, as we are rightly urged to do, and immersing in the culture can be distilled into that phrase: “Don’t be a stranger”.
My Portuguese ‘social age’ on arrival in this now beloved country was certainly under ten. Honey, I shrank like a kid in terms of cultural norms, and social and political awareness. Despite a couple of Covidian years that stunted my social progress, a concerted effort otherwise to converse and collaborate has lifted me into maybe teenage awareness of real life here.
And therein lies my paradox…
Do I continue to NOT be a stranger, integrate urgently and normalise my life here, risking cosiness and complacency? Or do I keep my eyes wide-open and delighted like they were today?
Back to my laptop on the return journey home, catching the sun setting behind Óbidos castle, I recall a day where I sailed at the invitation of Portuguese friends under the capital’s 25 de Abril bridge, with Cristo Rei on the skyline and Belém ahead of us. Later, in Cascais, we swam where Portugal’s president takes a dip and nonchalantly rescues damsels in distress.
Absent of airs and graces, we enjoyed tasty ‘petiscos’, classic ‘bolos’ and toasted with ‘espumante’ to friendship and happy and healthy lives among tourists, tankers and cruise titans on the Tejo.
This is Portugal. And that is the paradox. How might we blend in without losing our delight in Portugal’s unassuming beauty and innocently joyful way of life?
I hope I, and you, never do.
By Carl Munson
Carl Munson is host of the Good Morning Portugal! show every weekday on YouTube and creator of www.learnaboutportugal.com, where you can learn something new about Portugal every day!
