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Festival Med 2023
Our wonderful friend Jorge (our Portuguese professor) loves live music of almost any variety. Jorge had been telling us and other students in his classes that Festival Med in the nearby town of Loulé is an amazing event, he was going and offered to have us join his group if we were interested. The festival…
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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…
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Day Trip To Spain
One of our classmates/friends and her husband invited us along for a shopping trip and lunch in Spain. This sounds exotic from an American perspective but it’s quite commonplace here in Portugal. Spain is about a 45 minute drive from Olhão and public transportation options are also available. It is a popular destination because a…
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New Year’s Contemplations
Many people use the word resolutions to describe their aspirations at the beginning of a new year. This is a bit too rigid and doesn’t inspire motivation for me. I like to use contemplations instead, which conjures feelings of reflection, thoughtfulness, and a long term analysis of a particular situation. Here are some areas I…
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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…
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Festas And Fun
The season of holiday parties was upon us and we said yes to almost any reason to celebrate the remaining weeks of 2022. Two parties in the countryside: One of our classmates lives in Moncarapacho which is about 7 kilometers from Olhão and we attended two social gatherings at her house. The first was a…
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Giving Thanks Abroad
November sits right between two movie filled months, Michelle’s horror extravaganza in October and Andrew’s Christmas romantic comedies in December. It’s that time where many Americans make a full transition to having lives dictated by various holidays and parties for six weeks or so. Fittingly, it was a transitional month for our lives in Portugal…
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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…
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To Lisbon And Back In 37 Hours
Andrew had successfully navigated his residency appointment in October, and now it was my turn. We still haven’t found a house sitter in Portugal, so I traveled solo to Lisbon and back via train while Andrew stayed home with our furry kids. My primary goals were: pack light for easy travel, find something delicious to…
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Fall Reading
Andrew: The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson. A digital library loan. My Rating: ***** Even if, like me, you are kind of sick of stories about multiverses, don’t skip this amazing novel if you are a sci-fi fan. A scientist discovers a method to jump to other dimensions that are similar to our own BUT…