Portugal: Celeste Soto (A Day in the Life and Cultural Connections and Observations)

A Day in the Life

My favorite part about my daily routine in Portugal was how physically active I was! I made it a habit to run 5 miles every morning and they were the most beautiful runs I’ve ever been on. I will run with no destination, so I was able to go around and explore Portugal at 5 am in the morning. The best part about these runs was the beautiful architecture and how colorful the city was. I can still recall the pigeons!! Pigeons are not shy over there, they scare you. The number of times they will get in my way or fly so close to me was hilarious. I would also love to go back from my runs and tell my classroom about the things I got to see during breakfast. Moreover, I would love to go on long walking trips with our classroom. This helped us with bonding and making the best friendships. My favorite walking trip was when we went to visit Sintra! I really enjoyed being able to be active with people. This pushed me to keep going and to help motivate others to go up to the top of the castle. Especially as kinesiology/ HPHE major, I loved being around people who wanted to explore and be active. The hill to the castle was so tiring but so beautiful and worth it. We were so high up I got to see clouds! Moreover, the shops near the castle were so cute and had the most beautiful clothing. I got to get so many cute things at Sintra for my family.

Cultural Connections and Observations

I never in my life thought I would miss fast food or going for a late-night snacks when studying or staying up doing assignments. As someone who is from Chicago, I thought Madison was bad for closing places at 9/10 pm. However, in Portugal everything is closed except Mcdonalds after 9pm. This caught us off guard when even their ‘gas station’ type of shops was closed! The pharmacy shops, like Walgreens, were closed too!! That night my friend and I went to sleep hungry wishing we knew about this earlier. It was during these moments we will miss home. We missed stores that would be open when we wanted them to be. Moreover, when we found out their burgers are not actually burgers it was such a saddening moment for us. It was on a Friday night when we were all craving a burger after trying three different places and an American burger, we did not get again for the fourth time. We felt so American in this moment that we explained to the waiter our wanting for this burger. He laughed along with us and explained we will not find a typical burger unless it was on the American food chains. Those being Mcdonalds and Burger King. The closest I got to American food was my typical sandwich order, but I will say my love for sardines grew in Portugal! Something that really surprised me was how they do not tip at restaurants. I mention this because we tipped the waiter who gave us advice on where to find a burger and like our CIEE instructor explained they get so happy. Their reaction is priceless since they do not usually receive tips.

 

Celeste Soto

Hometown: Chicago, Illinois

Major: Health Promotion Health Equity

Program: UW Movement as Medicine

As I move forward with my career focused on being a health coach, I’m likely to encounter clients with imbalances in the body that can be caused by sedentary behavior. Indeed, this study abroad opportunity will provide me, as a health coach, with a plan to create and curate several resources for those wishing to reduce their sedentary behaviors. I’ll help guide them to change their old habits and create those new sustainable positive habits.

Portugal will open the door to seeing social inequalities in health through a different lens and learn strategies for tackling them. Moreover, I’ll learn how to offer stepping-stone-focused strategies not only for Portugal but worldwide