Patricia Westheimer, author, teacher and business writing consultant, is originally from Baltimore, Maryland. She currently lives in Cascais, Portugal and in Paris, France. She is the principal author of Scott Foresman's Executive Writing Series. In addition, she writes a bi-weekly column for The Portugal NEWS (
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The mission of Americans in Portugal, founded in 2000, is to enhance the quality of life of expatriate Americans, their spouses, significant others living in the Lisbon area and to promote favorable relations between Americans residing in Portugal and the Portuguese community.Sweet Eighteen
dated 2009-06-16 | posted in columns | topic People | permanent link
When I turned “sweet sixteen”, I traded my high school boyfriend, temporarily, for Mr. Mims, my driving school teacher. He was short, soft-spoken and honest. Plus, he showed me an infallible technique for parallel parking. Within four months I learned the rules of the road as well as how to navigate them. Once he was certain I would succeed, Mr. Mims escorted me to the Maryland Department of Motor Vehicles and waited for me outside. I took th ...
Outliers
dated 2009-06-02 | posted in columns | topic Culture | permanent link
Não é Possivel?
Malcolm Gladwell is a bushy haired, brilliant, British and American journalist best known for his blockbuster non-fiction book, Blink. In it he explores how intuition works in a split second of inspiration and certainty. His book confirmed my life’s experience: in a “blink” I decided to become a teacher, move to Portugal, create the Pinetree Project and marry Don.
His most recent book, Outliers fascinates me even mor ...
Another Well Kept Secret
dated 2009-05-19 | posted in columns | topic Travel | permanent link
“You’re going to Ireland?" my friend Susana queried. The emphasis on the word “Ireland” made me nervous: what was so wrong with the country to deserve such lambasting?
Turns out: nothing. Five days there last week rendered a country full of luxurious grass, a tumultuous but mesmerizing sea and best of all the friendliest Europeans that side of Lisbon. The Irish mafia, the potato famine and the fact that Ireland defeated the Lisbon Treaty w ...
Super Mothers
dated 2009-05-06 | posted in columns | topic Charity | permanent link
Meet the Super Mothers
As far as I’m concerned the true heroines of Mother’s Day are the seven mothers at the SOS Village in Bicesse. Sure, there are great mothers all over the world, and I was lucky to have one of them. But the women I know in Bicesse: Celeste, Natacha, Fernanda, Cinda, Emília, Eugénia , Filomena and Amélia, who retired last July, stay in my mind as the most dedicated, loving and hard working mothers I have ever met ...
Sign of the Times
dated 2009-04-28 | posted in columns | topic Economy | permanent link
You don’t have to be extra astute to decipher the words scrawled on shop windows all over town. Familiar ones say: Remodelação; Fechado para obras; Fechado; Vende; and Trespasse-se . But are we really to believe them? Let’s take the first: Remodelação. How naive I was to believe my favourite shoe shop that they were really remodelling. With so few customers why remodel? And that’s just the point. Management seems to prefer the disguise ...