Samora Correia

While I received my school placement before arriving to Lisbon for orientation, I wasn't too familiar with the vila I was going to be staying in. So of course, like anyone with modern technology these days, I Google'd it.

And this is what I found:

 
Yup, that's it. The same church kept appearing over and over and over and over.

My first thoughts? Small town Portugal. Well, as long as I'm not the only one stuck in a small town with only a church as the greatest attraction, that's not so bad. Besides, everyone talks about how cheap it is to travel within Portugal because everything is so close! 

As our orientation finished up day after arrival in Lisbon, every volunteer was able to meet their respective school representatives. In order, I heard someone ask the others in my program: 

"Where will you boys be staying?... Oh! Valongo? Idães? You both are so close to Porto! You'll love it there!"

"Aveiro? It's the most beautiful city in Portugal. You'll love it there."

"Marinha Grande? It's a beach town! Super close to Nazare. You'll love it there!"

Then it was my turn...
"And you? Where will you be staying again? Oh... Samora Correia?"

Instant looks of pity.

"Well... at least you'll be close to Lisboa."

From the look on everyone's face, it seemed that I got the brunt end of the stick with my location. So I instantly Googled the distance from SC to Lisboa. I discovered that it was a 40 min drive... by car. Unfortunately, a car wasn't part of my contract. By train, it is an hour journey. Okay, that isn't so bad, I thought. It will be cheap, I can get there in an hour - no problem. Determined to not let the jaded opinions cloud my judgement, I tried to keep an open mind as I crossed the bridge hovering over Rio Tejo. With tired eyes, I watched farmland after farmland pass by my window like a 7 second vine repeating the same clip over and over and over. 

Finally, some civilization.

Exactly 43 minutes later, we arrived to a street filled with white houses that share the same burnt orange roofing and yellow accents, but only one of these houses I would now call home. 

 While I still get some sympathizing looks and words of condolence here and there when I tell local Portuguese people where I'm staying, I've finally adjusted to where I am. I can walk wherever I need to within 30mins and I even found a couple bars to check out whenever I feel like appreciating a local drink. Cheers to that!