STOP 4 | Portugal: It's over, with a smile (Days 9-10)

This post is dedicated to the Heroes who did fall, but found the strength to get up and fight back!

Day 9 | July 31^st

I am thinking that the human kind is not able to socialize / interact anymore with each other. We use Tinder and similar for dating, we use Meet-Up to meet people with similar interests than ours, we use LinkedIn to find a new job, Facebook to scream at others people that don't think like us and Instagram to show off. And I can keep going. Basically we don't talk anymore; at all. The only connection we are interested in is the internet one, that allows us to create our virtual avatars, in a world when the boundaries between reality and fiction have become so so blurry and we are not able to distinguish the real selves anymore.

If God create humans, I am not sure he would be pleased about the final outcome of his efforts. If we are the result of an evolutionary process, I am wondering what we did wrong, what caused us to be so distant from each other. We basically move from Aristotles saying "humans are social animals" till now, where we are not really "social" anymore, probably more "animal" with less instinct though.

Today is a 9th day that tastes like a 10th and last day: tomorrow I will leave the centre early in the morning to catch my flight to my next destination. I woke up really early this morning, 6:15am, and after lazing in my bed a bit, I went out in the terrace for a walk. The sun had not risen yet, and it was pretty chilly that I had to go back and pick a sweater.

I am excited as Geraldine is about to cut our Diet and then the isolation, so we will get something to eat to cut it (don't get too excited, as for the rumors is not going to be lobster and champagne). But if I start counting the time, the wait will be never-ending, as the shaman didn't give us an exact time.

I feel good, I feel good about the past days here, about the time and focus I had to narrow down a few aspects of my life; I feel great about the level of clarity reached on some regards and the steps ahead. I am even more thrilled about the next couple of months and the execution of all my thinking. And probably I am also a little bit curious to understand what's new in the world. But I gotta wait a bit.

Smiling like a kid with his new toy, I was walking my usual path after breakfast got served: Diet got cut for me at 7:45am with a salty onion salad, and a plain roll: best and needed food for my life at that moment. The shaman said I could get sleepy, hence she served it earlier than usual: I ate it in a few minutes and I started walking out in the terrace, smiling at life, but actually smiling at myself. Isolation is supposed to end - if I am not mistaken - at around 10am, when we will be hearing the gong: at that moment we are welcome to go to the dining room to have our soup and probably to talk to each other a bit, with no hugs (or even shaken hands on these 2 days).

Geraldine had some errands to run, so probably I won't see her again before my departure. And the two friend dogs went with her most likely as I am not seeing/hearing them anymore: what a pity, I really wanted a pic of them, as they were part of my narration here.

I put on my swimming trunks as there is a pool in the reserve and probably we can use it for a bit in the afternoon, even tough it's particularly windy today, as it has never been.

I am not even sure about the first people I'll talk to, what I am going to day, It feels like I know my neighbors, Tiago and David, for ever, as we have been in the same terrace for the past 10 days, walking and wandering around or even sleeping outside, however no gazes, no signals, nothing at all. So freaking weird.

And hopefully tonight I can port over to online, all my paper notes and share this amazing experience with my 20 readers.

Day 10 | August 1^st

All yesterday was about reconnection. I took the chance to take some pictures and to port over my thoughts, including this blog. I had the chance to get to know the other participants more and we had a late lunch at 3pm, with a lot of veggies, soup and roasted potatoes that was delicious.

I did not remove the flight-mode from my phone till evening, as I didn't feel talking to people or friends, despite it was my hardest desire during the isolation. I just needed time to get used to normality again. I texted a few people and I just called mom saying everything was great!

During the late evening, I also spotted a fire and alerted the shaman's assistant to call for help, as I don't speak any Portuguese.

Everything was sorted out eventually.

Ready to go to the next stop!