Who we are — The Lion and the Fish
Cristiano is the lion. Elizabeth is the fish.
This is a story of (Portuguese) boy meets (American) girl.
It was during the last presidential election when a depressed Elizabeth, a senior in high school, found an outlet in politics. In the midst of the primary elections, she became passionate about Bernie Sanders, so on one lonely Friday night, she wandered onto a social platform for Bernie Sanders supporters.
Meanwhile in Portugal, at roughly two in the morning, Cristiano had just stumbled home from a birthday party. He was tipsy and restless — some browsing was in order to get some melatonin going if he ever wanted to fall asleep that night: “Bernie Sanders social media thread — Ruse cruise.”
Elizabeth was initially greeted by some liberal guys, looking for a date; however, the only user that caught her eye was the witty, snarky, right-winged guy with a bad attitude. Realizing she was only seventeen at the time based on her profile, and unaware that she just was one week short of turning eighteen, the subject of the message was as follows: “Good thing you can’t vote ;^].” She typed off a response, ending it with, “Don’t message me ever again,” and to that, he said, “I don’t take orders from bern outs.” They engaged in banter and subtly flirtatious conversation for the rest of the night.
A huge crush formed for both Cristiano and Elizabeth. They kept talking — about everything, really — and they haven’t stopped talking since. Eventually, Cristiano took the leap and bought a plane ticket to see Elizabeth in America. He knew his life was in grave danger — Italian-American families always threaten to murder potential suitors in cold blood(!), something that is also common among Portuguese families. Not only that, he had been afflicted with a nasty, vomit inducing stomach bug prior to his flight. But with a bottle of 1975 Vintage Port wine from his late great grandfather in his suitcase, nothing was impossible. Luckily for him, the Port wine and his charming personality, combined with pity for his debilitated state won over her family on the first night. He even dodged his way out of a previously promised interrogation conducted by her dubious father and brother.
“I wish he wasn’t so nice so I could hate him.” -Elizabeth’s Dad about Cristiano after the first night.
Some years and many overpriced plane tickets later, living between two countries and with the intention to visit some more, we have decided to share our lifestyle and opinions with the very same medium that brought us together — the internet. Our goal is to inform and spark discussion on a myriad of different topics, and especially those that have obstructed our progress through life, in the hopes that if you are going through the same hurdles, or if your interests happen to align with our own or somehow overlap, we will have you covered and make your experiences less painful.
Our differences go far beyond political opinions, although over time we have reached an understanding that we ultimately have the same goals on most issues. Similarly, when we first met we had virtually nothing in common. But it was our curiosity and openness about each other and each other’s experiences that bound us together. Now, after an inordinate amount of time spent together, we have acquired many of each other’s interests and passions: crafting recipes from scratch, sugar-free baking, experimenting with all-things-fermented, reading, movies, travel, finding charming cafés with specialty coffee, growing our own produce and other cute plants, exploration (and intentionally getting lost along the way), to name just a few, and the list will inevitably continue to grow indefinitely.
To us, writing is immensely therapeutical, a way to unravel the knots that form in the mind and take shape in reality. Additionally, we thought it would be quite fun and gratifying to tackle the challenge that is co-writing with your significant other. Some paragraphs in this post are written by Elizabeth and revised by Cristiano, while others are written by Cristiano and revised by Elizabeth. Some are even written simultaneously, sitting side-by-side. Expect our blog posts to be exorbitantly diverse as we have a wide range of interests (and pick up more as we go). They will reflect the past, the present and, occasionally, what’s to come.
Our lives can be very turbulent. You are only as boring as you want to be.
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