We took the early train to Lisboa for the Fulbright Orientation. We barely caught the train with a couple of minutes late. We had our breakfast at the dining car.

We had some good conversation with the Uber driver when we rushed to the Fulbright Commission from the Lisboa Santa Apolonia train station. William lost his phone on the Uber. We tried to reach the driver, but couldn’t.

We saw some cruise ships, which we did not see last time we were in Lisboa.

We had a good and interesting Airbnb.

At the Commission, people talked about their experiences. One common theme was that Portugal has been transforming drastically in the past two decades or so.

Two previous Fulbrighter who had settled down in Lisbon shared that perspectives. One person said he had become local and he drove like a local, which meant yelling at all times to other drivers for no good reasons.

The Uber in Lisboa was crazy. Among a few trips we took getting around in one day, two did not have seat belts (they were permanently removed).

Dr. Biswas took William to their apartment so that he would not be bored by our meetings.

We went to a museum which used to be used as a political prison. Many communists were jailed there. The guide said she used to do it in French. William asked many questions and had a good time. He made himself the go-to person for the guide when she had questions for the group.

We had a nice diner at the Independence Palace.

William was exhausted but he still went to file a police report at a nearby police station. The officer spoke excellent English. She told us the Uber record was of no use because the driver was only listed by two first names, which were probably made up.She filed the police report anyway. While we were about to leave, she passed us a handwritten note with a list of things we should visit in her hometown Coimbra. She was highly efficient, upbeat, and cheerful. Our experience at the police station in midnight became the high point of our day.

The police officer as well as the police station were so nice and perfect that we almost felt we stepped in in the town of Pleasantvill (1998).

We traced the cell phone using Google service and found it travelled around Lisboa for a while before went to a suburb to the north east, where the police officer said home to many new Uber drivers. Two days later, in one email account that the phone connected to, I found a receipt for a new sim card from a shop in Brasil.

We did contact the Uber, and they were as unhelpful as they have always been.