Sometimes the life chooses for us, and often it chooses suddenly.
Everyone of us knows, at a certain point, when the change time is arriving, it is something that you feel, you don’t know how to explain to the others, and maybe you don’t know what you are looking for neither , but you know that you need it. I was looking for a change, I wanted to go to Spain, a country that I have always loved for its culture, language, food, I was planning everything to move, and instead my change has been different, and it is named Lisbon.
We start a little bit before! My name is Paola, I’m 30 years old, and I come from Naples, one of the most beautiful cities of Italy, but I haven’t felt it as my home, for me “house” is another beauty city, Rome, where I have studied and worked for 11 years. There, I have found friends, I have experienced opportunities and every kind of situations that have changed me, but after all these years I was tired to do the same things every day, without enthusiasm, creativity, or no ideas to put in my job. I was literally alienated.
I was unsatisfied and I didn’t know what to do for changing my life, and suddenly I have discovered an opportunity: the EVS project.
It was no clear what it consisted in, but there was written two interesting things: Lisbon and sport, the last one, my huge passion. I thought: maybe it could be what I’m looking for, even though I thought to be “too old” for being take into consideration really, but in the past I had lost the opportunity to participate to the Erasmus project for several reasons, and now I didn’t want to lose another one.
I had almost forgotten my application form, when a day I have done an interview and I have been selected to move in less of 10 days, and so, I have upset my previous life and my new house has become Lisbon, a city that I knew yet, because the last summer I was here on vacation, and my new job’s place has become Junta de Freguesia de Carnide, a dynamic place, in which is clear that everyone works with passion because they believe in what they do for the citizens, a place where there is always a space for my ideas.
I have to admit that the first days have been terrible, because I needed to find a house in few time and I have discovered soon that it is not so simple because of lot of people who search at the same time, but for me it was necessary to find a comfortable place where to live in, I mean, Lisbon would become my home, and I wanted to stay in a good way.
Fortunately, I have been able to deal with this first obstacle, and I have found a cute house in Moscavide, where I live with a kind and untidy landlady who teaches me a lot of new “palavras” and way of doing by Portuguese people, and I have to say that I consider her my first friend here in Lisbon.
I like the neighborhood, because it is full of shops, and I feel as I stay in my old quarter; it is comfortable and there is everything that I need.
I have appreciated three things in this first month: the efficiency of public transportations, Lisbon’s atmosphere, and I have met new people.
The first is one of my obsessions, I like taking metro or buses because it’s my favorite way to discover the city and new places that people often ignore, and in addition, it is rewarding when you pay for a service that works!
The second point is tough to explain, but Lisbon, for me, is a strange city, with a surreal atmosphere, where old and new are mixed, where some things are at the forefront, and others are remained motionless over the time, as if the change did fear. Sometimes, I feel as this equilibrium could break suddenly and to generate chaos, but it is just my impression, because here everyone and everything has a slowly rhythm, where the is no place for the anxiety.
The last point is very important for me. I have met other volunteers as me, they come from several countries; I know them a little, because we don’t work at the same place and I have few opportunities to see them, and I feel that they are so different than me, my habits, and way of doing, but I hope that we can spend more time together, I’m not sure that we will become friends, because for me my friends are irreplaceable, but I would like to find someone with which to share this important experience, where it happens something of good or bad, where I think that I want to come back home, or when I fell alone or enthusiastic for this opportunity.
I have met also people who work with me in Junta, and I have to say that they speak a terrible english, but at the same time they are so kind and I appreciate their efforts for teaching me the Portuguese, that I can forget their English! I believe that to find good people to work with, it’s a good way to start a new life. In addition there is always music in the office, and I really love; every job’s place should have music all time.
Honestly, every day I ask to myself if I have done a good choice, if to leave everyone and everything it has been right for me, I have left an entire life that I have built with huge sacrifices and efforts. People say always that the changes are good, but I say that everything depends on our choices, our feeling, and what make us feel good.
For now, I’m happy of my choice, I’m glad to live in a charmed city as Lisbon is; I’m here to challenge myself, because I had lost trust in myself, and now I feel that I have a new opportunity to prove who is Paola, most of all to myself.
I’m here also because I want to understand what kind of person I may be, what I want to do in my future. I have always lived following my duties, and I have never heard my desires or necessities, because for me the others were more important the me, and now, for the first time I have done a choice only for me, for my well-being; I feel free.
I have always had few certainties in my life, but what I know now is that I will learn Portuguese, I will live in Lisbon for one year, I will visit new cities, I will study, I will change myself a little bit more, and who loves me, they will support and stay by me.
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