Grocery bags hung in her hands as she walked down a bustling Scottsville Road on her way home.

“It was an interesting phase – it took me one hour to walk for groceries,” 24-year-old graduate student Clara Figueirinhas said as she reflected on the days she didn’t have a license.

Coming from Lisbon, the capitol of Portugal, Figueirinhas was used to the convenience of public transportation that Bowling Green lacked.

She often looks back on the year-and-a-half and thinks of it as a learning experience. As a second-year graduate student, she is an assistant teacher for an introduction to biology course and a researcher in the lab of the Engineering and Biological Sciences building.

Figueirinhas’ research is a unique endeavor in itself. Inspired by specific islands of Portugal, her interest was sparked by a species of lizard that had no genetic information to show it was related to other lizards on an island nearby.

“I dedicate half of my week, all afternoons and mornings, to research,” she said.

She collected half of her DNA samples before coming to Western and continued during Winter Break. She traveled to the deserted island of Farilhoes equipped with only a fishing pole and dental floss in the shape of a noose.

Figueirinhas laughed as she remembered her methods for getting the lizards; she associated catching 10-centimeter-long lizards with capturing crazy dogs like a dog catcher.

“I had to sit and be very still to catch them,” she said. “With the fishing pole stretching out three feet, I slowly approached the lizards, put dental floss around their head and gave it a pull.”

Though she spent one week without fresh water, she recalled the experience as an exciting one.

“Just lizards and sea gulls, sleeping on the floor of an old lighthouse,” she said, visualizing her stay there.

Figueirinhas extracts all of her data in a small lab filled with books, then returns to her apartment to prepare lectures and analyze the data.

“Honestly – I work in my spare time,” she said.

And her persistence doesn’t go unnoticed.

“Clara puts us to shame with how much time she spends in here,” Hendersonville junior Ashley Mefford said while sharing the lab with Figueirinhas.

While Figueirinhas enjoys the research and has gotten more comfortable here, adjusting to this region of the world still has its quirks.

“We have to ask her to slow down a little bit, reminding her that we speak a tiny bit slower in good old Kentucky,” Bowling Green freshman Jessica Donnelly said about Figueirinhas’ teaching in her biology class.

New traditions such as Thanksgiving, celebrating two Father’s Days on different dates for the U.S. and Portugal and friendly strangers smiling at her when she passes them are just a few of the things that Figueirinhas finds weird.

“Bowling Green is very small and peaceful,” she said. “It feels much safer here – different, but very pleasant.”