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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
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Pumpkin Spice And Halloween In Portugal
Andrew: We LOVE Halloween. It isn’t as celebrated here as it is in the United States but the stores still put out a few costumes and if you look hard enough you can buy a pumpkin. Although I considered digging out some costumes we held off this year. That doesn’t mean we didn’t celebrate at
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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
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Another Journey On The Road To Residency
My journey through the bureaucracy of becoming a legal resident in Portugal has been a series of physical trips, often covering long distances and being more stressful than the actual appointments involved. Trips to San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, and Orlando have all been intense journeys. Fittingly today’s post will focus on my journey more than
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Converting Our Visa To A Residence Permit
We chronicled the saga of obtaining our visas through the San Francisco Portuguese consulate in several previous posts. The visas which we received in June are temporary and allow us to stay in Portugal for 4 months or until our assigned appointment with Serviço de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras (SEF) which is the equivalent of immigration/border
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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,