Wednesday

Day 28, 25 of December - Aaaaaaahhhhhhhnd it's gone.

    So today I had a different day... I went to Pingo Doce (a portuguese supermarket) and I bought a King cake (Bolo Rei, typical Christmas cake) some napkins and a knife. I was about to make my 'good deed' of the year...

    I had in my mind, in the beginning of December, to buy around 10 blankets and distribute them to some homeless people. Today, was the day I should do that, but it was raining a lot, so I decided I was going to buy raincoats, and distribute them. But I'm having a small management problem with my money (WHERE IS IT) so I ended up buying these things... My heart was faster than usually, and I was beginning to sweat. Why was I so nervous? 
   I was still inside the supermarket and I decided I had to cut the cake there, because it was raining a lot and I didn't even had a place to cut it outside... So, I asked permission to a lady that was using the ATM, to cut the cake on top of the ATM. She looked at me suspicious, maybe because I was holding a knife, starring at her, drawing money, but eventually she nodded. First problem: solved.
   When I started to walk around looking for homeless people, it wasn't raining that bad, and I actually found quite a few (people) in the first half an hour. The cake's slices were flying...


    The problem was, it began to rain a lot, and no one was on the streets... The few that remain begging, declined my help and didn't accept any cake. So I headed to banks. It's very common to see homeless people sleeping inside those small 'rooms' where we can draw money. After walking for 15 minutes, I found a person sleeping inside one of those rooms. I took my credit card out of my wallet and opened the door. We was in a deep sleep, so I decided just to leave the cake slice near him. No one would steal it, I hope... 

   It was still remaining 1/4 of the cake... What now? Where should I go? TO THE METRO STATIONS! I covered 3 metro stations, all the exits, and the cake was near the end. When I was heading to the lat exit, I found Maurice. He was writing poems with an old typing machine. It was like if he had jumped from the XIX century to there. I asked if he wanted a slice, and he accepted. Then, he replied: 
-Do you want me to write you a poem? 
-Yes, that would be lovely. - so he began to write it... It took a few minutes, but it was worth the waiting. 


   So, what I want you to do next Christmas, (or even earlier, you don't have to wait for a special occasion to make a nice gesture) is to make someone smile. Just stop doing what you are doing, and think for a while: "What are we doing in this world, if we don't do something nice for those who need? For those who don't have what we take for granted? Think." 

There's no need to do something BIG... Just make someone smile...



MERRY CHRISTMAS

Asdrubal

Thursday

Day 27, 12 of December - Am I homesick?

I don't usually 'miss' things like: 'Oh, I miss when I was younger...' or 'I miss my previous "life".'  But, today, when I was doing the groceries, I saw dog food, and I actually felt 'saudades' of buying it to my dogs. You're probably asking yourselves "What the hell does 'saudades' means?!' Well, it's a typical portuguese word which doesn't have a proper translation. It means you miss doing something, but in a much stronger way, much deeper inside you. And, yes, I miss buying food to my dogs, I miss feeding them and playing around. I miss my daily routine when I was at my other house. I miss waking up in the morning (in a rush because my dad is already waiting for me in the car to go and drop me at school) take a shower and run to my dad's car with the toast between the teeth. Before classes I used to go to a caffe to meet my friends and then we would debate and discuss about going or not going to school. If we decided not going to school, we would spend the whole morning playing cards and drinking beer (sorry dad). In the afternoon we didn't have classes, so we would stay in the caffe xD Oh, glorious days are over... Maybe in a few years, I'll be saying the same about today, but now, I miss those days... I miss my town, my daily-routine, my people...