1. One month, too short to stay-Miss Mini

When I stay in one place for a month, there are times when I feel that way. It may be a question to yourself, such as ‘Am I a traveler or not?’ or ‘Am I traveling or am I in my daily life?’

Maybe ‘living for a month’ is at the boundary between travel and daily life. What is certain is, a month in Lisbon is too short for me.

2. One month, not short for a staying trip-Whales

“Are we traveling or living in Lisbon?”

Suddenly, the words she gave me. And even though the words she left behind were small in me, it caused several continuous ripples.

Looking at it, staying somewhere for a month isn’t just relaxing and enjoyable. The dishes are poured out on a daily basis as well as the daily meal. Garbage has to be organized and cleaned. I have to go to the coin laundry with my clothes that have been old for a few days and reorganize my clothes. And even in the midst of that, the days left from day to day do not stop and only gradually decrease.

I paused and arrived in Lisbon and looked back at the days I had been through. Then, what caught my eye is a landscape where countless numbers of things we could have done but had to give up or let go of for one or another reason. So what have I been doing so far, and what am I supposed to do for the remaining days? Rather, where am I now in the first place? Is it right in Lisbon? Isn’t I just in Seoul passing by Lisbon for a while?

As she said, maybe a month is a short period that doesn’t fit the word ‘stay’. Looking at it, is the word ‘to stay’ a verb that expresses our actions now or is it an adjective that expresses our state now?

However, as I look back on my time in Lisbon and count the days I will spend in the future, I find myself changing little by little.

I find myself trembling, trapped in anxiety and anxiety because of tomorrow that will never come. I find myself angry with a loud voice trying to hide my fear. I secretly cry when I was alone, but I find myself playing a definite attitude by hiding that fact. I find myself running with the speed of other people walking and running without my knowledge. Rather than talking about’the me in me’, I find myself trapped in the image of ‘the me that others see’.

We discover the truth that all of them are virtual images. I’m just here. It may change from time to time, but in any case, at that moment, I discover the simple but clear truth that the’I’, who has likes and dislikes, exists now and here.

In the midst of the people waiting for their turn to shop and check out at the supermarket, I try to spend a long time leisurely. When you pass a little kindness to someone you’ve never seen before, listen to the time when you make eye contact, laugh, and say thank you. I watch the flow of the Teju River, the beautiful sunset colored in the glow of the sunset, and tears are gathered in my eyes for a while. A month’s stay here tells me that it’s okay.

The period of one month, yes, that’s right, may not be a short one, given that our trip is a kind of “stay”.