Tag: American in Lisbon

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Making Work Great Again… in Lisbon

 

Lisbon Cityscape

Making Work Great Again… in Lisbon

Starting month 2 brings an assortment of new experiences and challenges. Unfortunately, the shiny patina of a new experience starts to wear off. The seemingly predictable rhythm of the every day starts to set in, but to really throw you off and keep you paying attention, you change locations. We packed up the whole gypsy caravan and moved from Belgrade to Lisbon. With this there’s a litany of detail that causes you to engage way past your comfort zone. The basic changes of even knowing where you are in relation to others or the locale becomes exaggerated, there’s new keys and new apartment, new trash rules and a new grocery store to navigate. Quick side trip: For those of you that know the detailed layout of your local Publix (or Kroger, Safeway) there’s something that’s extremely telling on how people live by the way their grocery store is laid out. Lisbon is no exception. You notice a sweeping array of fresh fruit, vegetables and then there’s the cod bunker (yes, cod..the fish) These folks are sold on the power of salted cod. This display takes up a large portion of real estate between the melons and meat. Cod.. it’s a huge part of Portuguese cuisine and they love it. Love it or hate it, it’s a dominate force. Oh, and I’m liking it.

Then there’s the streets. The old town section is laid out in a crazy random maze, that is actually planned chaos. The Moors used this as a tactic to make it almost impossible for anyone invading to make a straight shot to the castle. It is a bona fide design point, as I am told. The streets are meticulous covered in limestone cobblestone that contingent on where you are in town can be literally peppered with basalt (black stone) laid out in the most captivating and intricate designs. The cityscape can be vertical in places adding to a challenging walk. It’s not unusual to have a stepped or terraced feature in a sidewalk to support navigating your daily walk. Yes.. It is a vertical city, giving your glutes an amazing workout. Be prepared, this is a five-star-sensible-shoe town. Think mountain goat precision balancing acts. Yet you start to notice that local women do navigate in high heels and even higher wedges..very impressive!   

The first day of my work commute, one of Lisbon’s famous yellow trolley traversed the street right as I turned the corner to walk up the street. It looked like a movie scene or an animated postcard that I just happened to witness. I did stop just to take it all in.. the sights, the trolley sounds, the narrowness of the streets and people just going about their everyday. This was also my new everyday. WOW! thank you, Remote Year.  

Realizing that  basic living logistical challenges is the cost of changing locations, it elevates you about two levels . While stretching, you get to absorb, breath it in and allow yourself to experience the sheer panic and beauty of a change of venue. It makes you feel alive. It energizes your creativity. You see new things with tired eyes and suddenly it’s effervescent.

Lisbon’s history and culture are deep and as American’s we have had exposure to the great discoveries of Prince Henry the Navigator and the explorations of Vasco de Gama. Portuguese is the 6th most spoken language in the world. There is a respectful beauty of the old city’s cityscape: tiled buildings, red clay tiled roofs, punctuated with the omnipresent cobblestones, street art, musical interludes of traditional Fado and lyrical guitars. This is a seriously magical place.

Most tourists stay a week, checking off their Bucket List items. When you stay longer, you take time to visit with your local barista (Mine is originally from Ireland and she makes an extraordinary Almond milk latte), buy cherries from a local grocery at the bottom of your terrace and take a long walk after dinner because there’s so much to see and do. You start to use words like terrace, cobblestone and trolley on a regular basis. Somehow there’s a funky juxtaposition of this beautiful simpler life overlaid with the virtual nature of digital working; technology has enhanced my life.

Yes, there can be pangs of extreme Heimweh… of home sickness. I am missing my Florida life. I miss my beautiful daughter and friends.  A benefit of a digital life is everyone is a simple keystroke away. It’s very easy to send them digital postcards, ensuring that they are part of this precious and precarious journey…real-time. By the way, I ate grilled Sardines for my Sunday dinner while watching the world beach soccer championships (yes, this is a real thing.. go figure!) while sipping a particularly crisp vino verde on the most incredible beach, Nazare.. where you can watch the sunset over the Atlantic (I’ll give you Floridians a moment to process)

Wish y’all were here too.. Smile– – I’m determined to Make Work Great Again.. one blog post at a time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Happy 4th of July from Lisbon

 

As an American temporarily living outside the country, the thought of celebrating 4th of July is a bit melancholic… I love the 4th.. it’s one of my favorite holidays. It’s the quintessential lazy day. There are no presents required, usually entailing a party and there just might be some BBQ (OK.. maybe fried chicken, fried okra and potato salad)  involved. It’s a soft national holiday, perhaps no work and it ends with a full concert (preferably the Boston Pops.. and the 1812 Overture.. it’s the cannons and carillon and when the last cannon goes off) and a brilliant display of fireworks (note: my love is of choreographed fireworks displays, not firecrackers or errant bottle rockets that we all know terrify dogs and hurt returning veterans, be smart…OK?) illuminates the night sky. It is dazzling and it is oh, so American. Fireworks !!! Oh, and everyone in America celebrates it. It’s one of the few holidays we have that are inclusive of our entire citizenry. This year July 4 is a normal weekday in Lisbon.. no red-white-blue bunting, perhaps a picnic, but no patriotic displays. Perhaps that’s perfect punctuation for our country today. America’s in a funk too.. ☹

I’m wondering if this year marks the official start of America’s midlife crisis; that delightful time when you realize that you are not living up to you perceived potential, your life is good but lackluster, your prospects are limited and perhaps your cutest and thinnest years are past (oops, sorry.. that’s me) .. Humm, America… so what did you do..? You bought a seemingly shiny sportscar that you think makes you look cool and rich. The interesting thing about it is you don’t, we’d don’t and it’s time to take a good long look in our societal mirror and make some improvements. Yes.. we, the people…

If the premise is to Make America Great Again… perhaps America needs a bit of a midlife make over:  go on a diet, eliminate the bloat, reexamine your values and determine what it is that you want to be when you grow up. We have had an excellent run. It seems like we’re arching on the trendline and starting to decline. As a member of the Boomer generation, I and we all know what this means. Our supposed way of life is compromised, retirement was pending and we’re not as relevant as we think we should be. There’s an interesting thing that happens when you don’t stay hungry, the world starts catching up and in our case, we are being eclipsed. Our way is no longer the preferred way, business and much of manufacturing has morphed into an international digital culture. If you are not current, you are toast. After spending last month in Belgrade, I realized that America needs to get out of her funk. We have not had a war on our soil for centuries (was it the War of 1812?). Our cities have not been bombed, except for Sept 11. Our shores are safe. Instead of celebrating our good fortune, we have become isolated, xenophobic and narrow minded. Oh and I’m finding the world doesn’t care about us as much as we think they do. They care when we act stupid, bully, nation build, nation destroy and subvert their ways. There was a time when most of the world wanted what America had. This is no longer the case, sometimes they see our society as shallow, vapid and completely consumer consumption and work driven.  They see and hear that we want a wall put up to keep the Mexicans out (Ask any German about the effects of a walled society). Our problems are big (cite healthcare, new job creation, et al) and  symbolic landscaping walls aren’t the start of the remedy. It’s décor, when we need our foundation fixed. We need some serious help and I’m betting on America. We can do this.

The premise of our America is amazing. We’re a patchwork of diversity that sometimes works, sometimes resists and always surprises. We are in desperate need of a middle-aged makeover, NOT gratuitous plastic surgery and certainly not décor. We must do the big work the kind of work that starts with our core values coupled with slow and steady improvement. We all must be rowing in the same direction toward the same goals. This is the kind of work that you must earn, not buy and we must do it together. We are slow, fat and privileged. Saying Make America Great Again is repeating a marketing slogan, it does not even come close to the level of complexity, commitment and work required to regain our world stature. No one is going to give it to us. We, the people must do it.

On this 4th of July, I ask you: Are you willing to do the work?

 From Lisbon.. Wishing y’all a wonderful 4th.  Enjoy your friends, family, good food and the fireworks displays ! We’re going to have a lot of work to do to turn this sideshow around. I hope you’re up to it.

 As Kate Smith used to belt out in the World War II era… God Bless America, my home sweet home.. (yes, this is very dated..but you MUST view it.)