We were very excited to sit down and have a chat with Aimee, one of our models from the very first Sisao photoshoot. Aimee is an actress by profession and teaches theatre to kids by passion. She also works as a Portuguese language teacher here in Lisbon.
Hi Aimee! Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us, we know you have a quite busy schedule! Tell us a bit about yourself please.
Hi! I’m Aimee Serafim, I’m in my early thirties and I live here in Lisbon. Originally I’m from Rio das Ostras (which is about 2hrs outside of Rio de Janeiro).
I originally came to Lisbon from Brasil with my boyfriend who is a videographer because both of us decided that we wanted to travel! We were living in Rio for 8 years, but things weren’t really moving and we wanted to experience the world. We were dreaming about going to Disneyland, but “somehow” ended up in Lisbon (laughs).
Once here, we fell in love with Lisbon and never went back, that was 4.5 years ago. Lisbon is like “home, but better”. In Brazil, you have to be rich to have a comfortable life. Life is less stressful here. We haven’t been back since! I’m a bit scared to go back actually (there have probably been a lot of changes). I kind of don’t want to spoil the positive memories that I have, but my boyfriends family is still there so hopefully we can go visit soon! Due to the pandemic, prices have been crazy.
I actually lived in Paris for a year studying acting when I was 18, but found it suffocating. I really love Paris, but wouldn’t want to live there. I do love Eurodisney, though, we’ve been 7 times already! It’s our mutual guilty pleasure, in a nostalgic way. It’s a lot of fun. I do love the strong female characters in Disney like Mulan or Pocahontas. My “secret” passion is Harry Potter, but it’s a very private thing and I don’t usually show it to outsiders or have posters hanging everywhere or wear a Harry Potter scarf.
I’m really happy to have my own space and be able to decorate it, we were always living in flatshares with other people in Rio, so we enjoy having our private space here! Other things I enjoy are going for walks with our dog, Bao and sunshine and blue skies. I also really like going for bike rides with my mum (she eventually moved over here as did my younger brother). I’m also a huge tea drinker! Herbal, black, green, with flavor…you name it, I drink it!
A funny fact is that my family has always had ties to Portugal! My grandfather worked in Portugal as an airplane mechanical engineer in the 60ies/70ies but they moved back to Brazil then.
My very first job here was teaching theatre to kids in a private school which was super fun. I also worked in a craft beer bar for 2 years. I guess I always loved working with Social Media. At some point I started setting up a brand strategy for her mom who is an artist. Her account is @serafiniando, you should definitely check it out! People saw that and started hiring me for Social Media strategy and content creation. Right now, I take care of 4 other accounts. And yes, you could say that my days are pretty full! My boyfriends grounds me, otherwise I would be “all over the place”.
My happy places? I love Ericeira, because it’s a small fisherman town like my hometown but has a lot of young people. There’s a big Digital Nomad scene. There is a lot happening there, arts and food wise. It also has this great surf scene. I don’t surf right now, but I loves spending time in the water, it’s my happy place. I’m a fish!
Ericeira feels a bit like home, it’s cozy. I arrive there and I’m instantly happy! One day, I would love to have one of those small fisherman cottages.
You could say that I’m a half long term plans, half “take every day as they come” kind of person. Some things just can’t be planned I guess. Although I would love to have kids one day, I’d like to focus on my teaching and acting career first! I’d love to be in more movies but hard to get more roles. Not the Hollywood movie type, more independent cinema. And definitely not Telenovela!
My younger brother says I’m very spontaneous and random, I describe myself as very adaptable. Sometimes it becomes too much and I overdo it and need to calm down. I have to work on learning my own limits and to set boundaries. I’d say I’m an “ambivert”, I really love going out and socialising, but I need to be alone to recharge.
Find Aimee on Instagram