I'm Ready for September

But First a Quick Reflection on August Back in the U.S.

September always feels like a new start, the beginning of a new year.  Maybe it’s just the imprinting of twenty years of school that’s hard to shake.  But to me September seems a better time to take stock, set intentions, and implement new habits, rather than in the dreary doldrums of January.  As summer is starting to wind down, September also feels like a particularly nostalgic month. The fact that my birthday and wedding anniversary both fall at the end of this month certainly adds to the whole ‘marking of time’ vibe.    

Shaking off the stupor of hot, languid August I’m always excited for the reboot offered by September. Even though the summer weather continues through the month here in Lisbon, as it did when we lived in California, some sort of mental shift nonetheless occurs.   

August in Lisbon is a particularly sleepy month.  The neighborhood is quiet.  There’s less traffic around town.  And, it’s quite common to roll up to a restaurant only to be greeted by a handwritten sign indicating they are closed for ferias (holidays).  With September, the neighborhood starts coming back to life, and in another week or so it will be bustling again.

So before falling forward into the embrace of autumn, a brief pause to reflect on summer.  A couple people have asked me how it felt being back in the U.S. for several weeks, and if it made me want to move back.  It certainly felt easy and familiar.  When you know the language and the culture and just the way things work, it’s easy to relax into a comfortable mental auto-pilot. It’s hard to overstate the amount of mental energy that is sometimes required to accomplish a basic errand.  As an example, last week I had to take our son to the dentist.  This errand meant driving in Lisbon to a place I’d never been before (I rarely drive anywhere, and add in narrow roads, roundabouts, and aggressive drivers and I’m a nervous Nellie) and then conversing in Portuguese after a month of operating only in English. Minor issues of course, but things that just aren’t issues at all when you’re in your home country.   

America the beautiful. Summer in California and Montana.

Of course, our time spent in the U.S. in August wasn’t anything like living there again would be; it was more like an extended family vacation.  Lots of hanging out with family, going to the beach, and eating all the foods that are hard to get in Lisbon like burritos, bánh mì, or old fashioned donuts.  While Lisbon has lots of good food, you just can’t beat the variety in many places in the U.S.

Likewise, I appreciated the convenience of being able to dash through Target for toiletries, OTC medications (I had a cold turned respiratory infection that started at the end of June that I only recently shook off despite two trips to the doctor and rounds of prescriptions here in Lisbon; I need those heavy duty American cold meds!), and a few school supplies. 

OK, we did visit one nostalgic place. ;)

And, because we didn’t go back to the city we previously lived in and instead visited family in their respective cities, we never had to grapple with that uncomfortable nostalgia you feel when you try to go back to a place where you’ve lived previously, only to realize it’s not the same.  So, we were truly just in family vacation mode the whole time.  It was so great spending time with everyone.  Living half-way around the world from your loved ones is hard, and often guilt-inducing.   

But, I can’t say I felt any particular desire to pick up and move back to the U.S.. While I will never be one to proclaim that I am never going back or that this, or any, move is permanent, I certainly feel like we have more to explore and learn here, about Portugal and about ourselves.  As someone who moved every few years my whole life and who gets the ‘seven year itch’ about places, I tend to view any move as an open-ended one. So, no, we aren’t planning a move back to the U.S. in the foreseeable future, but in the long run who knows where we’ll end up. For now, I am just going to soak up living here in the beautiful present. 

Tchauzinho!