Oh boy. I’m in a stealing mode again. But Beverly nails it so well here about negotiating Portugal as a foreigner.

You try it. Substitute the word Philippines and a few other words as appropriate and see if you don’t agree this is dead-on for the Philippines:

To survive in Portugal you have to be doubly smart. On the one hand, and especially if you are estrangeira, you have to follow all the rules, dot all your i’s and cross all your t’s. Above all you must never lose a piece of paper that proves conclusively your intelligence, commitment or identity.

But on its own that’s not enough. You also need to build up a repertoire of ways of getting round all those same rules that you must be seen to be keeping. And you have to build a network of people in influential positions who will help you to get round them.

So on the one hand I am Beverly the duh-sent who goes through the motions, never upsets the status quo and talks of Bolonha, internationaisation, insucesso escolar and always cumprirs as regras.

At the same time I am also Beverly the Blog Chick who dabbles in being international, entrepreneurial and pedagogic and who knows how to get round all the rules just like any other Chica Esperta. It’s the Chica Esperta who does and who makes things happen.

Like Beverly, “so far I’ve not been very adept either at keeping the rules, nor at getting round them.”