A Portugal Update!
Bom dia, amigas! That is Portuguese for good morning, friends! I’ve been working hard to pick up some words, which was my goal to start in July. It’s close enough to Spanish that I’m doing ok?! But also very confused?! The bar I’m setting is low - just don’t embarrass yourself! - and so far I’ll be able to order a LOT of coffees and that is very important!
It’s been about 2 months since my first update on our move - if you missed it you can read it here! I’m working hard on casually moving to a different country and not making it my entire personality.
It does feel all consuming, though! Looking around my house I’m always thinking FUCK I GOTTA GET RID OF ALL THIS SHIT and in the middle of the night I’ll wake up panicking about shit I can’t control. Normal, right?!
Progress Report:
We’ve got a place to live! Thanks to the help of our new friend Declan, a real estate agent in Porto, we picked an apartment and contracts are being drawn up right now!
Continuing from my newsletter? Start reading here!
Things that were important to us in our search was that we needed outdoor space, we needed 2 bedrooms and an office or 3 bedrooms, it needed to be pet friendly, we needed lots of cool shit around us, but we wanted to be away from tourists / in a quieter area.
Our apartment is at the red X!
We ended up choosing Gaia, south of the Douro River. Declan really went hard for it and thought it would be a great fit for us! We are a 10 minute walk from the train and 3 stops from Porto city center. Gaia is quieter and more chill but still has tons of amenities!
What is funny about this place, too, is that every time we map it from somewhere it’s a 16 minute drive away. Airport? 16 minutes! Ikea? 16 minutes! Beach? 16 minutes!
And it really fits the bill!
This place has 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a little balcony AND a huge terrace! It has a few furnishings which will make our lives a little easier since we aren’t bringing anything with us*.
And have you seen these views?!
It’s on the 10th and top floor of the building and has amazing views of Porto proper, the Douro River, and a beautiful cemetery next door! haha - Declan was quick to assure us that living next to a cemetery is good luck but even if he didn’t it wouldn’t matter to us/me! I love a good cemetery! And you walk across it to get to a huge department store … ok Porto! Weird already!
Since we found this place things have really felt more real, and the fear has turned to excitement for sure. I’m so excited to get there!
And yeah you’re doing the math on this, too - we’ll be paying double rent for 3 months! Barf! But you just have to. You need a place to live before you go to your visa appointment and it can take up to 3 months to be approved. We are hoping to go to Porto in September to bring over a big load of stuff and get the place ready-ish for Shane to be there by himself for a couple weeks, so at least we’ll have a place to stay! Oy!
Royal will… HATE IT!
This apartment has 2 bedrooms upstairs and Royal is scared of stairs! He’s also scared of small spaces, like elevators. Will this be a nightmare? Oh yeah 100%!
Progress Report, cont:
We got the animal’s crates from Starwood Pet Travel so we can start working with Royal on getting comfortable being in there. We’ve been working with him for about 3 weeks now and things are getting better! During the fireworks last weekend he even when in there to be safe. He’s eating every meal in there! So slow and steady progress.
We are less than 3 weeks away from our visa appointment! It’s on July 28th in Washington DC, after all that planning for Houston. We are flying in Sunday night the 27th, our interview is the morning of July 28th, then we are going to train to Baltimore to catch a baseball game before flying back Tuesday, July 29th. We both felt better about not getting a flight out same day just in case something happened so the evening of the 28th is a safety net night, you know?! We have no idea what to expect!
I’m still battling with our Portuguese bank account! I’ve sent paperwork 3 times so far at $100 each time and every time something is wrong so we have to do it again. I can’t log into our account because my phone won’t get foreign texts? So far this has been the most frustrating part of the process. It just feels like everything we do is wrong, and every week I get to flush $100 down the toilet/DHL Express knowing I’ll have to do it again next week. Barf! But at least I’m friends with the guy at the DHL Express now!
I’ve got 6 months of Portuguese health insurance, MANY documents notarized, bank account info, tax returns, applications, personal statements, and background checks. We’ve got flights!
We need proof there is money in that bank account I just don’t understand right now how to get?! And our contracts from our landlord finalized. And I think that’s it?!
It feels like a LOT of paper, and I don’t exactly know what these binders should look like, but I’ve got time to figure that out. Once this appointment is behind us I can start concentrating on selling all of our shit! Because…
* Originally we were planning on shipping container-ing our stuff over to Porto, but with tariffs and backlogged ships and delays and extra fees being reported in the ports, we’ve scrapped that idea. We’ll be using a company called mybaggage.com (haha) to air freight whatever we want for like $100-150/box. So it’s REALLY time to start getting selective!
What is nice about this though is that we were planning on having to wait like 3 months for our shipping container stuff to arrive, and with air freight it only takes like a week. We are hoping to pack no more than 30 boxes, so it should cost between $3000-4,500. We’re just pulling numbers out of thin air though! Who knows.
So that’s about it! I’m nervous because literally everything is new, but it’s feeling REALLY REAL, which is helping get my mind around it and, like I said, feel more excited than scared. I’ll feel like $1,000,000 once this appointment is behind us! I’ll write again once that’s over!
Obrigado, amigos! (thanks, friends!)
