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Category: Language

  • Wrapping Up 2023

    Wrapping Up 2023

    October: We headed back for Year 2 of Portuguese language class. With any luck, at the end of the course we will have a B2 (upper-intermediate) language level, and hopefully a bit more ease with conversational Portuguese. Our favorite neighborhood kid Bianca needed help with a school project and it was Halloween themed, so definitely…

  • Oh, Olhão!?!

    Oh, Olhão!?!

    “How did you choose Olhão?” is an all too common question we are asked by friends and other expats. We were looking back through our blog posts and realized that we never really answered that question here on FinazzoFun. I’m going to give the easy and mundane answer and then want to delve into our…

  • An Unexpected Trip To The End Of The World

    An Unexpected Trip To The End Of The World

    After finishing a whirlwind tour of Portugal in September and a transition into our first week of language class, we were delighted when our friend Jorge invited us for a leisurely trip to Sagres on October 5th. This is Republic Day in Portugal, a public holiday that observes the transition from a monarchy to a…

  • We Made It 1 Year

    We Made It 1 Year

    June 20th marked 1 full year in Portugal and the time blasted by like a bullet train. Maybe that means we have been having plenty of fun (“day drinking” European style is next level – even our background in emergency services did not prepare us for this), or perhaps we are just oldish now and…

  • We Skipped Ugly Christmas Sweaters This Year

    We Skipped Ugly Christmas Sweaters This Year

    Andrew: Brother Visit: Rob made his first trip to Olhão in early December. His arrival matched up almost perfectly with the beginning of the rainiest week of the year. The rain poured down and both Michelle and I got horrible head colds two days after he got into town but we still had plenty of…

  • Our Dance Card Is Filling Up

    Our Dance Card Is Filling Up

    In Medford we had a few “non-work” friends, but every year or so we’d talk about making a concerted effort to expand out to new social circles. We made amazing and hopefully lifelong friendships with coworker and work associates but those gatherings almost always circled back to endless conversations about our job. After almost 20…

  • Immersion: More Like An Ocean Than A Pool

    Immersion: More Like An Ocean Than A Pool

    Michelle: Immersion?!? People use this word pretty frequently when the subject of our move to Portugal comes up. It is usually a short, topical conversation much like a fleeting news headline. What actually comes to mind when you use the word immersion? I consider one of my favorite kitchen gadgets an immersion blender which I…

  • Is ABC Really As Easy As 123?

    Is ABC Really As Easy As 123?

    Back in November of 2021 when we shifted our retirement in Portugal from neutral to “full speed ahead” we signed up for Duolingo in order to start our Portuguese language studies. We learned a lot of words, a bit about sentence structure, and some verb conjugation. Duolingo is fun and I still enjoy it daily,…

  • 2 Months In Portugal

    2 Months In Portugal

    Highlights (Andrew) Challenges (Michelle) Things we didn’t know… (Both)

  • 3 Weeks In Portugal

    3 Weeks In Portugal

    So much has happened since we arrived on June 20th in our new country. We wanted to give an overview of how things are going, what we have struggled with, and things we have learned along the way. Andrew and I are each going to weigh in with our personal perspectives thus far. Highlights (Michelle)…