Hi Nancy, Another great post and don’t you love the way the body obsession doesn’t seem to exist here? I sure do! I was so self conscious getting in a swimsuit in the US because I assumed my body was not the right size. Here I see all shapes having a wonderful time and when there are butts and boobs no one pays the slightest attention. It is so refreshing to me. In a similar vein, I see women breastfeeding their babies all the time. Maybe in some more liberal parts of the US, women can do that freely, but in Texas, people will make all sorts of remarks about how disgusting it is. I never got that at all as I think it is a beautiful sign of a mother loving her child. But you know Americans…porn is great, but breastfeeding is ewww.
I have another one to add to your list. I have a 31 year old son who visited and told me he doesn’t like Portugal because they are “too slow.” When I asked him what he meant, he said they don’t bring the check for meals fãst enough. I laughed and told him that is because they think it is rude to throw the food down and immediately put the check down because you may want other food later and they are not concerned with how long you sit and enjoy yourself. He didn’t like it saying he prefers to eat and go. I told him it was good he lived in America!
So true. #3 is a lost-in-translation kind of joke. Setting the scene, in Portugal a prescription is called a receita medica, and a receipt is a recibo (and a recipe is a receita). So in a pharmacia being asked for a receita is being asked for the prescription, not the receipt. In bygone days, the recipe for the medicine. The amazing thing is that a piece of paper isn't important; all you need is the number in the app or on your phone, and the whole of it is available at any pharmacia in the country--no trying to decipher handwriting, no prescription pads, no confusion. And no wariness about whether it is the $3 generic, the $30 branded or the $300 compounded version, whether it is part of the formulary covered by insurance or not, in this drug store or that one.
Another piece of paper thing is the treatment letter. Never leave a medical interaction without a letter of treatment and further instructions; with it you can walk into any centro de saude and it magically opens a closed door.
In Madeira, they frequently DO need the receipt if there had been multiple refills in a single prescription. They manually mark out the 3 and write 2. The original scrip would not help with that.
Nancy's feed is often informative. You go a bit of extra distance to do research which is desperately absent on open chats.
I'm usually looking for the reasons or purposes or social history of Portuguese culture to understand why and how things are different here then ...wherever.
In a country with the population of Los Angeles county that is just organizing after 50 devastating years of oppression, a pandemic and the massive attempt to meet the needs of a first world country yet remain true to her humanitarian soul things don't happen like in America where oligarchs of tech have railroaded the public into being their servants.
Receipts Returns Boxes Guarantees RX:
You need your receipt because the entire country guarantees your purchase for years And they don't have the staffing or Besos' mega bucks.
Why shouldn't we need to show some proof of purchase? The returns are costly to the companies...🥹.
I get highly discounted meds from a fantastic policy whose limits are pressed. I organized my Scripts...with gratitude.
Conscious careful change takes time...without it harm follows.
Bodies:
Thankfully Europeans are not ashamed of their bodies.
Body shaming is a product of the corptocracy propaganda to profit from it. And to oppress women...🥹
Same for Big Pharma. I worked for 20 yrs with the biggest Pharma Corps in Advertising. I know their agenda. There is no concern for a patients welfare unless it interferes with profit.
In a more conscious capitalist culture those ads would be banned. And RX and health care would be nationalized and financed in part by Pharma.
Language: Aren't non speakers blessed with the acceptance and tolerance of the PT people that don't reject us.
It's the immigrants duty to keep learning and studying and conversing in the language of their HOST country.
Caution: If we don't learn from our hosts and understand their kindness is conditional we face the quickening of the rise of the right.
Chega..
If you are reading this you are not poor. You have a roof and heat. You don't compete with certain immigrants who will work for 3€ an hour ( there is no minimum wage here). PT native needs to compete with them for survival. For a roof and a bed and 🍳🍜🍲🧆🥘
When the center buckles fear takes hold and things change. Not for your better.
Chatting about thong bikinis 👙 is a privileged semi conscious pastime.
Oh, wow, you just helped me solve the mystery of why my wife could fill a duvet cover with receipts. “This receipt FNAC in 2008 will clearly be a soft friend.” What a fantastic happy read over café e bola de berlim. See, after 18 months my language skills are off the hook. Cheers from Porto!
What a great post! I would add "if you don't want to spend your time avoiding overcrowded tourist spots.' It might be less so on the mainland, but, on a tiny island, adding 10s of thousands of new rental cars per year causes serious problems.
All true! I moved here a year and a half ago, and can attest to the veracity. I'd add that Portugal is the place for you if you also like: cabbage, seafood, cabbage, wine, cabbage, driving fast and cabbage.
And you forgot the number one reason for me as a US expat living in Portugal: I am not in extreme debt from medical expenses. If I were living in the US, just from a few minor health issues, and one hernia operation, I would be either in debt or would have exhausted most of my retirement savings.
"dental floss riding between her butt cheeks" made me roar with laughter - so true and not for me. I've gone quite happily on Europe beaches in the past with nought on top. Now I don't think I could afford the SPF50 to cover the expanse of bare skin but I'm also not keen on beach life now. I think my Portuguese is dismal and badly cobbled together but all congratulate me on my fluency (???????) - I guess restaurant and biker lingo is pretty simple. 😊
Pretty light, accurate, and fun read. Thanks! I would just add: if you don’t want to be amazed by the genuineness of going out for coffee at any time of day (especially in summer).
Let's face it. The woman in your photo has the nicest ass I have ever seen. I'm sure mine never looked like that even at 16. That said, at 16 I was walking on a beach in Denmark and was shy about the boobs, being a reserved New Englander at that time but utterly terrified by the man walking around with an erection (I was on a walking path adjacent to the beach and he came out of the shrubs). Yikes! Was I a prude??
Hi. As a portuguese, i liked your post. Most of what you describes, is a sign that Portugal is a civilized country
agreed.
Hi Nancy, Another great post and don’t you love the way the body obsession doesn’t seem to exist here? I sure do! I was so self conscious getting in a swimsuit in the US because I assumed my body was not the right size. Here I see all shapes having a wonderful time and when there are butts and boobs no one pays the slightest attention. It is so refreshing to me. In a similar vein, I see women breastfeeding their babies all the time. Maybe in some more liberal parts of the US, women can do that freely, but in Texas, people will make all sorts of remarks about how disgusting it is. I never got that at all as I think it is a beautiful sign of a mother loving her child. But you know Americans…porn is great, but breastfeeding is ewww.
I have another one to add to your list. I have a 31 year old son who visited and told me he doesn’t like Portugal because they are “too slow.” When I asked him what he meant, he said they don’t bring the check for meals fãst enough. I laughed and told him that is because they think it is rude to throw the food down and immediately put the check down because you may want other food later and they are not concerned with how long you sit and enjoy yourself. He didn’t like it saying he prefers to eat and go. I told him it was good he lived in America!
You nailed it in this response! I see and love those same things here.
So true. #3 is a lost-in-translation kind of joke. Setting the scene, in Portugal a prescription is called a receita medica, and a receipt is a recibo (and a recipe is a receita). So in a pharmacia being asked for a receita is being asked for the prescription, not the receipt. In bygone days, the recipe for the medicine. The amazing thing is that a piece of paper isn't important; all you need is the number in the app or on your phone, and the whole of it is available at any pharmacia in the country--no trying to decipher handwriting, no prescription pads, no confusion. And no wariness about whether it is the $3 generic, the $30 branded or the $300 compounded version, whether it is part of the formulary covered by insurance or not, in this drug store or that one.
Another piece of paper thing is the treatment letter. Never leave a medical interaction without a letter of treatment and further instructions; with it you can walk into any centro de saude and it magically opens a closed door.
Bless the Portuguese
In Madeira, they frequently DO need the receipt if there had been multiple refills in a single prescription. They manually mark out the 3 and write 2. The original scrip would not help with that.
The status is in the system, but yes, if you don't bring the paper for them to mark, they will print it out and mark it as a reminder for you.
I'm fortunate, our pharmacy refills based upon the text or email on my phone.
Nancy's feed is often informative. You go a bit of extra distance to do research which is desperately absent on open chats.
I'm usually looking for the reasons or purposes or social history of Portuguese culture to understand why and how things are different here then ...wherever.
In a country with the population of Los Angeles county that is just organizing after 50 devastating years of oppression, a pandemic and the massive attempt to meet the needs of a first world country yet remain true to her humanitarian soul things don't happen like in America where oligarchs of tech have railroaded the public into being their servants.
Receipts Returns Boxes Guarantees RX:
You need your receipt because the entire country guarantees your purchase for years And they don't have the staffing or Besos' mega bucks.
Why shouldn't we need to show some proof of purchase? The returns are costly to the companies...🥹.
I get highly discounted meds from a fantastic policy whose limits are pressed. I organized my Scripts...with gratitude.
Conscious careful change takes time...without it harm follows.
Bodies:
Thankfully Europeans are not ashamed of their bodies.
Body shaming is a product of the corptocracy propaganda to profit from it. And to oppress women...🥹
Same for Big Pharma. I worked for 20 yrs with the biggest Pharma Corps in Advertising. I know their agenda. There is no concern for a patients welfare unless it interferes with profit.
In a more conscious capitalist culture those ads would be banned. And RX and health care would be nationalized and financed in part by Pharma.
Language: Aren't non speakers blessed with the acceptance and tolerance of the PT people that don't reject us.
It's the immigrants duty to keep learning and studying and conversing in the language of their HOST country.
Caution: If we don't learn from our hosts and understand their kindness is conditional we face the quickening of the rise of the right.
Chega..
If you are reading this you are not poor. You have a roof and heat. You don't compete with certain immigrants who will work for 3€ an hour ( there is no minimum wage here). PT native needs to compete with them for survival. For a roof and a bed and 🍳🍜🍲🧆🥘
When the center buckles fear takes hold and things change. Not for your better.
Chatting about thong bikinis 👙 is a privileged semi conscious pastime.
Also great content filler and time killer.
Thank you Rudi for helping change culture.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudi_
😔
Oh, wow, you just helped me solve the mystery of why my wife could fill a duvet cover with receipts. “This receipt FNAC in 2008 will clearly be a soft friend.” What a fantastic happy read over café e bola de berlim. See, after 18 months my language skills are off the hook. Cheers from Porto!
I did exactly like you're wife, though it drove me crazy to see them in my filing drawers!! 😁
What a great post! I would add "if you don't want to spend your time avoiding overcrowded tourist spots.' It might be less so on the mainland, but, on a tiny island, adding 10s of thousands of new rental cars per year causes serious problems.
All true! I moved here a year and a half ago, and can attest to the veracity. I'd add that Portugal is the place for you if you also like: cabbage, seafood, cabbage, wine, cabbage, driving fast and cabbage.
I like the variety of cabbages found here!
me too - we grow 7 types!
And you forgot the number one reason for me as a US expat living in Portugal: I am not in extreme debt from medical expenses. If I were living in the US, just from a few minor health issues, and one hernia operation, I would be either in debt or would have exhausted most of my retirement savings.
"dental floss riding between her butt cheeks" made me roar with laughter - so true and not for me. I've gone quite happily on Europe beaches in the past with nought on top. Now I don't think I could afford the SPF50 to cover the expanse of bare skin but I'm also not keen on beach life now. I think my Portuguese is dismal and badly cobbled together but all congratulate me on my fluency (???????) - I guess restaurant and biker lingo is pretty simple. 😊
😂😂😂😂😂
More laughing from over here! It was a great, true and humorous post.
Love your list Nancy, especially number 1. I would add don’t move to Portugal if you want to pass on the right, or hang out in the left lane.
Yesss! Good one.
Yes, omg, the reams of receipts! 😆
How much Portugal late April. Lots of Europeans few Americans.
Pretty light, accurate, and fun read. Thanks! I would just add: if you don’t want to be amazed by the genuineness of going out for coffee at any time of day (especially in summer).
That guy has a nice ass!
Let's face it. The woman in your photo has the nicest ass I have ever seen. I'm sure mine never looked like that even at 16. That said, at 16 I was walking on a beach in Denmark and was shy about the boobs, being a reserved New Englander at that time but utterly terrified by the man walking around with an erection (I was on a walking path adjacent to the beach and he came out of the shrubs). Yikes! Was I a prude??
If you like looking a woman’s backside in a thong bikini. Please quit this click bait