Natural Selection in Women in Terceira

Hello, I’m Aisha, and I’m going to add on to what Fei Fei said about our first full day here. We had go to the university to turn in our money for the housing deposit and for the rent fee because we’re staying at the residencia. The walk was about 20 minutes, and we were taken there by a med student named Hugo who is also staying at the residencia. He ended up acting as a translator for us for the whole day as we explored the island. After paying our fees, we took the scenic route back to the residencia. While standing in one place, you can see the sea in one direction, huge green hills to the side, and the city with its pastel-colored buildings behind. We were all snapping our cameras like crazy, but somehow, the beauty of this place can’t be captured in a picture. I will take a picture of a landscape that is literally breathtaking, and then look at it in the screen of my camera, and it will look completely different. I wish I could bring back to the United States the Terceira that I see, but I know I can’t. You have to experience this for yourself.

Hugo is one of the funniest guys I’ve met in a while. He pronounces his name ‘ugu’ like you would pronounce oovoo. When we asked him to spell it, he said H-u-g-o, like Hugo Boss. We kind of have a two-way translation system going in which we help him with English words while he teaches us bits and pieces of Portuguese. We told him how we pronounce Hugo in America, and he thought it was hilarious! He also taught us about the prejudices that Portuguese people have against Brazilians and other Europeans. It’s interesting hearing about the culture of this place through the eyes of someone who is around our age.

So, as we were walking around the city, the subject of high heels came up. As Fei Fei mentioned, the streets and sidewalks are cobblestone. Hugo said that women will wear heels while going out at night, and will fall flat on their faces when their shoes get caught up in the cobblestones. I have thought more than once today about how glad I am that even though I absolutely love shoes, I only brought sneakers and flip flops to Terceira. The way Hugo tells stories is so entertaining. He described in a feminine voice how the women will say ‘Hello’ then BOOM, fall down because of their heels. He also said that some women will wear sensible shoes when they go out at night and carry heels in their bags to put on while they’re on the bus. ‘Those are the smart ones that survive,’ he explained to us. With seven of us being pre-med and interning at a hospital here, of course someone had to drag Darwin into this. ‘It’s like natural selection!’. Hugo told us so many stories today, helped us order when we went to a restaurant, and sat with us as we figured out our rent fees. Even though Nicole can understand a bit of Portuguese and some of us know Spanish, it was so nice having him along. I can’t wait to see the hospital and the rest of this amazing place!