My name is Beatriz and I live in Portugal, a small (but not that small) country in Europe. It has many big towns, some monuments and a lot of stuff for tourists to see and places to visit, particulary the beaches. We also have a big gastronomical variety in which sea sources play a big role, as well as our traditional roasted piglet. On the other hand in my opinion our musical part of the culture isnt really that great.
The place where I live is a VERY small village, located in a valley, surrounded by a few mountains, near the beach (about 30km) and a river.
Every day is basically the same. Nothing new happens. Everyone knows everybody. And although people are kind, they are also very “curious” and nousy so there is no point of trying to hide something from them, they will find out anyway.
Normally I wake up at 7:15am and catch a bus around 8:10am to be at school in the neighbouring town at 8:30am, when the first class starts. Then I have 8 hours of school (sometimes less) until 5:10pm (sometimes until 1:10pm) and then I go home.
By the way, in September I will go to the first year of high school which is the same as 10th grade.
Here in Portugal the compulsory education lasts 12 years (no uniforms needed, thank God). For the last three years which are called high school (10th,11th and 12th grade) you have to choose a course. There are two types of courses: one which gives you access to university and another to the working industry. But after finnishing highschool you can still choose whether to go to university or not. It also depends on your financial condition, because a lot of families simply cant afford paying for the university studies, so most of the people usually go to work as soon as they graduate. However, now there are many companies who want people with superior degrees, so the university applications are rising.
Where I live there’s practically nothing to do besides hanging out with friends at one of the cafes or at the local park. Because of that I spend most of my free time online, reading or, as mentioned above, hanging out with my friends.
There’s also a karaoke every Saturday night, but I don’t fit in very well in crowds. My singing abilities are also not very good which is a well-known fact.
If I need groceries or hygienic products there is a local market and a convenience store which sells almost everything. When it comes to clothes or other things, you have to go to a neighboured town (it’s like 7 minutes by car, 4 minutes by train and an hour if you go on foot). You can find there many clothes shops and a few places where you can have fun. But to go to cinema and bigger bookstores and stuff like that you have to go to an even bigger town which takes about half an hour by car.
Personally, I love my country and the place where I live, but my biggest dream is to pack my backpack with the necessary things, grab my passport and a map and run away. What I want the most is to be free and travel the world. Like a bird. But because I barely go out of my house, I think that the moment I would be gone, I would miss the quiet lifestyle I have nowadays.
There’s also a big forest behind my house that I like to explore. Each time I go there, I find new things… and spiders. Oh God, I hate spiders. That’s why I take my cat with me, because she apparently likes to eat them.
Ah, and my house has a terrace where I normally go to read or think or daydream or watch the moon during summer nights which could be however sometimes counted as a family event.