Nascida e criada em Portugal. Já morei na Polónia, no Brasil, na República Checa e agora é a Suécia que me acolhe.
O meu blogue, tal como o meu cérebro, é uma mistura de línguas. Bem vindos!

Born and raised Portuguese. I have lived in Poland, Brazil, Czech Republic and now I'm in the beautiful Sweden.
My blog, just like my brain, is a blend of languages. Welcome!

sexta-feira, 30 de dezembro de 2016

The goodbye

It is there, when you are hugging goodbye the person you love the most in the world and you think it will be like this forever, that you question all your choices. I have no doubts I want to live in Sweden and I have no doubts I wouldn't stand living in Portugal for long, but when I my heart contracts and becomes as small as nut as I hug my sister goodbye yet again, I can't help but question it all. 

However, one can't have everything and although living close to her would also mean more sun, warmer weather and closeness to my family and friends, it would also imply a lot more I don't want to have. 

I would see people, including my sister, working hard for little money. I would not stand it to live in a place where in most cases dreams do not count, and one has to be thankful for having a job, no matter how bad it is.
I would not be able to be bullied or to see my colleagues being bullied by employers who do not want to follow the law. No, I wouldn't stand to live in a country where women are fired for getting pregnant and where fathers are not allowed to enjoy their paternity leave, even though that's their right by law.

I wouldn't enjoy either freezing indoors in the winter, when it's 10 ºC outside. I did not enjoy having to sleep with two shirts, three socks and three blankets a week ago in my hometown.

I wouldn't like to go back to such a bureaucratic country. It's true that Portugal is not even the worse place regarding bureaucracy I have lived in, but I do enjoy how smoothly things go in Sweden. Especially after seeing my sister struggling for 3 weeks straight between long phone calls, long queues and a lot of nerves, to simply connect electricity and gas in her new rented flat. Three weeks! On top of that, the electricity company passed along her phone number, through which now she is bombarded with sales phone calls, but when the door bell failed to ring the technician from the same company simply left without even trying to call her to see if she was inside.

I would hate having to watch out every single step I would take on the side walk to avoid all the dog feces. Or even worse and find abandoned animals on the side of the road.

I would not enjoy living in a place where common sense does not rule and people, for instance, smoke near children, just because it's outdoors and it's allowed (e.g. in a stadium, where children can't really move away).

Of course there's also a lot of good things. Those I plan to enjoy every time I'll visit on vacation. Vacation that will always imply the goodbye at the end, but that will also always have the happiness of the first encounter and many other good moments.

Writing this text helped me seeing that although I question my choices sometimes, especially in emotionally fragile moments, deep inside I know that they are right and that I chose the right place to live.

4 comentários:

  1. Portugal sounds quite similar to South Africa in many ways... No wonder many South Africans dream of living in Sweden... Wishing you a happy 2017!

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    Respostas
    1. Sweden is not perfect but it's a lot better than other countries. I think I'm lucky to be here! Happy 2017!!!

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  2. Catching up on your blog Sara, and I have to agree with you.
    I do love going to Portugal on holiday, sightseeing the wonderful monuments and cities, visiting family and friends, but I doubt I would again be able to live there.

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    Respostas
    1. It's true. Portugal is great for all you mentioned and it makes a great vacation, but that's it. Living there would be quite hard.

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