A Trip to the Mall

Having finished my first, rather intense work week and considering that it is my birthday tomorrow, I decided to treat myself to some shopping. I was recommended a shopping mall a bit outside city and asked the guards at the gate to order me a taxi to get there. It was a quite nice mall and I found just about what I needed (two pair shoes, two tops and some practical things for the apartment). It was nevertheless very exciting to go shopping without being able to speak Portuguese. It is really striking how few people here speak English. Today I did not meet one single person. Most of the time its works quite ok though, although every time I wanted to pay with my credit card they asked something that I never understood. I thought it sounded like “cash or credit?” but it didn’t seem to make sense. Then I thought they asked whether I would sign or had a pin code, but no, it didn’t seem so either. I felt so stupid, but it worked. What made things a little more complicated was that I managed to sit on my credit card so the card got a knick that made it work less in the readers. In the ATM it did not work at all, so I am really happy I had cash enough for the taxi home. I have to contact my bank to have them send me a new card.

Well, talking about the taxi drive home. That was another exciting thing. I had a number for the taxi company, but kind of assumed they would not be able to talk English so I tried to ask for help from an information desk. I showed them the number, said “taxi” and offered them my mobile and pointed to the gate and used all English/French/Italian words that I thought would make sense. But no, it didn’t help. They just sent me to another exit. I thought maybe they meant that there was a taxi stand at that exit and went there, but no, there wasn’t. So then there was not much left for me to do but trying to call myself. First I thought it went quite well. I managed to explain that I wanted a taxi to the specific shopping mall and the specific gate and also gave my name. Then I had expected to get something like a time estimate or a number of the taxi or something like that, but I just could not understand what the operator said. Somehow it seems the harder I try to understand, the more tired I get and the less I understand. After a while she just said “boa tarde Susanne, boa tarde”. That left me wondering if that meant a confirmation, like “good evening Susanne, your taxi is coming any minute and soon you will be at home and have a nice evening” or if it meant “just piss off and have a nice evening whatever you like to do, I don’t give a damn”. Anyway I decided to trust it worked and sat down and waited for a taxi to come. But at the same time I felt I could not just sit and wait for something I didn’t know would come, so when I saw a taxi standing at the parking lot I just walked over and asked if it was free. It was. So to the taxi driver who was possibly sent to the shopping mall on my behalf; I am so sorry and hope you got another customer who gave you a really decent tip.

To be able to get home in any situation I have learned how to say the address in Portuguese. I thought I did a good job and the driver seemed to understand. I could also follow the drive and see that he was driving the right way. But then at a crossing in the embassy quarters I realise he wants to drive to the Swiss embassy. Ok, this is a rather common mistake so I will not blame that on my pronunciation. I am just very happy the Swiss embassy was rather close to the Swedish. Honestly I had no idea where the Swiss was and was just happy to see the sign for the Italian in the same crossing and knowing that the Italian is just next to the Swedish it was not so difficult to point the right direction. I really have to learn Portuguese. Although it will make my life here less exciting. 