O testemunho No. 2 da Chiara (SPEA)

I haven’t understood yet if life in Lisbon is quite and calm or fast and chaotic.

Sometimes it seems relaxed, like its inhabitants drinking “cerveja” and eating “tremoços” outside the bar “sem pressa”. Sometimes it seems slow, like a walking trail, with a tent and a backpack, trying to discover the rural internal part of Portugal passing through fields of wheat with the color of the sun and orchards that smell of tradition and love for their land.

Sometimes it seems lazy, like the long home working days, making this "teletrabalho" now, a way of life, without knowing the faces of all your colleagues, but that despite everything, at the end of the day, makes you say, "I like what I do". Sometimes it seems calm, like a road trip with your great friends, trying to discover non-touristic places, through local tips and map, searches that make me continue to amaze the incredible and authentic beauty of this country. Sometimes it seems infinity, like the long hours waiting for the birds passing, looking into a telescope, until you observe ... the imperial eagle!!

Sometimes, instead, it seems chaotic, like a workshop with about 20 9 year-old jumping and running around you, while you try to explain them the diet of birds. But, in spite of everything, that colorful and noisy mess, fills you so deeply inside that they make you think that this is the right path for you. It seems frenetic, despite the Covid, all the nights are filled with smiles, dinners, friends, wine and dances, that bring you to say "tomorrow night I'll stay at home to rest" and then you never do that. Sometimes it seems too full and with too little time in a single day to manage friends, distant family, volunteering, interests and work.  Sometimes it seems to run, with the project towards the end and still a world of things to do and faces to meet.

Well, whether it's a slow life or a hurry, this is my life in Lisbon, and always, despite everything, I am and will always be very grateful for it.