Settling down in Lisbon

Hi guys! 

I am still blogging about my 2nd day in Budapest and so busy with going to school and still trying to settle down that I haven't filed my insurance claim for the lost luggage issue. Just had a really early self-cooked dinner. Let me show you a quarter of my room:

Most of the daily necessities are provided in my apartment but the bedsheets and duvet were so dusty. So I decided to get my own bedsheets and a throw. It's still very very warm in Lisbon so meanwhile, I'll wash the duvet covers and everything else so that I can still have them for winter! The pillows provided were square (and dusty) so I got my own pillow. Doing laundry is difficult as there are 10 people living in this apartment (9 rooms) and there are simply not enough laundry lines to hang. I stay in the upper level and have the window on the roof so I can just hang my laundry there but not much. This is the reason why I'll only show you all the rest of the room next time without the unglam hanging laundry. I don't like to wear shoes into the room (super Asian I know) so I mopped the room quite a few times and decided to get bedroom slippers. They are maroon with pink polka dots which kinda match the bed. Haha.

I spent a lot on groceries and some other miscellaneous stuff to get settled but I am pretty sure the spendings will be greatly reduced in a few more days except nearer to winter of course. The amount of groceries I bought can probably last me for a month other than bread, meat and cheese.

Living in Lisbon is hard as most people do not understand English and almost everything here is in Portuguese, except, well... the train station signs. I wanted to buy bedsheets but end up, I bought a pillow case and duvet cover (which I used as a bedsheet I don't care as long as it fits). Ordering food, too, was a difficult task. I went shopping with the NUS guys at Columbo 2 days ago and we went to have dinner at the food court. We wanted to order steak but each of us wanted different sides, we were like playing a guessing game and they were so impressed that I guessed that the staff was asking how well I like my steak to be. Things like these just make me want to just stay in the apartment and make do with whatever groceries I bought, which I did most of the time, I had only eaten out for 3 meals so far in my stay in Lisbon. Oh, and there are slopes everywhere plus the building I am living in does not have a lift, I have to climb 8 flights of stairs to level 4 everyday. So... I rather eat bread or cereal if I am too lazy to cook than to go out. I fell into a tourist trap once when I eat at Baixa yesterday for lunch. I need to do serious good Lisbon food hunting tomorrow since there are no tutorials this week.

I can't get used to their choice of toiletries too. Lisbon is a sunny city surrounded by the sea. People here like to be tan. There are almost zero sunblock on sale in a normal supermarket (at least not for people with sensitive skin like me). Most comes with bronzer and tanning function. There are not a single whitening product in a normal supermarket. I have to head to El Corte Ingles to get imported ones. Sanitary pads too is a problem. Girls here seems to use more of tampons and don't seem to use any overnight pads. I just had my first period in Lisbon and oh boy, it was horrible. I should have insisted on bringing common things like sanitary pads and tissue paper (tissue paper here are expensive and rough). I had to buy a few through guess and check in a nearby supermarket to tide through the first night and it's so horrible. When I head to school for a long day of lessons I had to change like 6 times in a day. I couldn't take it anymore and went to El Corte again and bought some other brands that are not found in common supermarkets and it was okay. I wonder how many more months can I endure without proper sanitary pads. And as girls, you all should probably get what I mean.

Europe is in generally far less efficient than Singapore, naturally. But it really cross my limits. Getting a student concession card requires students to fill in a Portuguese form and queue almost an hour just to make payment and to submit the form. I had a hard time filling up the form until some Portuguese students came up and help me (the metro staff refused to do so) and wasted one hour of my life to queue up just to pay 12 euros admin fee yesterday. Today, I had to spend money on transport to get to the station just to queue (again) and get the card. Concession cost 35 euros monthly thereafter. && luckily, we can just recharge it after a month using the machines. The photocopy shop in school is super slow and crowded too. I foresee myself heading out to scout for other copy shops. School isn't as chill as I thought it will be and I really hate to waste time just because of inefficiency. My time is better spent on studying, preparing meals and doing my laundry when I am not travelling.

I miss online shopping and having a lot of clothes to choose from everyday. I miss my exploding cupboard full of dresses. Even though Inditex clothes are so much cheaper here, it's still not cheap. And the sizing are well... not exactly suitable for me. I bought quite a lot of stuff from almost all the Inditex brands but there were nothing really nice or what. I just needed clothes. There were simply nothing I really like. I dressed for functionality during the past month of travelling. I somehow also dress for functionality for the past few days and that kind of put me in a rather bad mood since Nova is very much like SMU and everyone dressed up so nicely to school. I just look like a really Asian Asian. That prompt me to get a new bag (in the photo above) rather than to carry the ugly navy blue sling. BUT there are still nothing in the cupboard that I really like and I can't find anything I really like around here. && I really would love to use my new wallet but I am so afraid to lose it.

I guess I just miss Singapore.