Before starting this, I would like you to know that I took this idea from a friend who wrote her own personal experience during the blackout. I thought it was pretty fun, so I decided to give it a shot myself!
So, on Monday, April 28th there was a huge blackout that affected Portugal, Spain, France, and probably a few other countries, and oh boy, was that crazy. Since I live in Portugal, the blackout started at 11:30 AM and at first I thought it was just a short circuit as one of those had happened the weekend before, so I immediately went to check the electrical board. To my surprise, everything seemed just fine, which made me realize that the problem probably wasn't just at my place. As observant, (and probably creepy) as I am, I started checking on my balcony in which I heard a few of my neighbors mention the lack of electricity.
After a quick google search, I had discovered that it was a general blackout that wasn't affecting only Portugal, but other countries as well. Everyone had started to panic, as people started calling each other, and it was even worse with the messages on my class' groupchat who started wondering if this was a terrorist attack, or a Russian cyber-attack. No one knew the actual cause, so it made everyone go absolutely insane. And this was during the time in which we had still access to telecommunications due to the phone services being able to keep the emergency generators for a short period of time.
I hadn't gone to college that day because I was feeling un-well, so it felt even worse for me, as I felt very isolated once the signal was lost at around 2 PM. No internet, no news, no phone calls. I had no idea what was going on and felt both scared and somehow unbothered (?) at the same time. I have no idea what was going on in my mind during that time, but I was probably just absolutely losing it. I remember that I thought that I should use the daylight time as much as I could, so I took a shower to avoid showering in the dark. For the first time in my life I felt very thankful that I had gas powered hot water instead of an electrical one. I could shower and cook without any issues, so that was awesome.
Around 3-4 PM, I decided to write on my journal to register the events and also because I had been neglecting the poor thing for a while now. After I started writing, I panicked when I couldn't remember how to write "opportunity" in portuguese, so I went through books to find out if any had it written somewhere. It didn't even cross my mind at the time that I could've used my phone's autocorrect to figure out the spellling. Probably because I was trying to preserve the most phone battery that I could.
Once I was done writing, one of the books that I had been looking through, actually caught my attention and I decided to read it for about an hour or so. Around 6 PM, I took a nap because there was nothing else that I wanted or could do. I was probably going insane after not having internet for 4 hours, so taking a nap was a good call.
I woke up at around 9:50 PM, in which I could see the darkness that had engulfed my room. I could still see a bit of where everything was, so I grabbed 2 scented candles and lit them up on the kitchen table. A few minutes later, was when I heard the humming sound from the fridge and a few seconds after that, the energy had returned. I could hear everyone outside celebrating, it was crazyyyy. This was a time in which a lot of people randomly decided to socialize, and I actually felt bad for having stayed all by myself in my room (which probably only made me lose it faster). Although hearing my friends' experience made me have a good laugh knowing how there were people already making survival kits while I had been so unbothered.
This whole experience felt like a huge fever dream, and honestly, I'm glad I was here to experience it. Not that it was a good thing, but it was something, alright.
Anyways, that was my day during the blackout, and I hope you all liked to read about this whole thing.
Bye, my little vees~
******
Eu não tinha ido à faculdade naquele dia porque não estava me sentindo bem, então foi ainda pior para mim, pois me senti muito isolado quando o sinal foi perdido por volta das 14h. Sem internet, sem notícias, sem ligações telefônicas. Eu não tinha ideia do que estava acontecendo e me senti assustado e, de certa forma, despreocupado (?) ao mesmo tempo. Não tenho ideia do que se passava em minha mente durante esse período, mas provavelmente eu estava completamente louco. Lembro-me de que achei que deveria aproveitar ao máximo o dia, então tomei um banho para evitar tomar banho no escuro. Pela primeira vez na vida, me senti muito grato por ter água quente a gás em vez de água quente elétrica. Pude tomar banho e cozinhar sem problemas, o que foi ótimo.
Por volta das 15h00 às 16h00, decidi escrever no meu diário para registrar os acontecimentos e também porque eu estava negligenciando-o há algum tempo. Depois que comecei a escrever, entrei em pânico quando não consegui me lembrar de como se escreve “oportunidade” em português, então folheei livros para descobrir se havia algo com essa palavra escrita em algum lugar. Na época, nem me passou pela cabeça que eu poderia ter usado o corretor automático do meu celular para descobrir a maneira de escrever. Provavelmente porque eu estava tentando preservar o máximo possível da bateria do celular.