Happy 1 year of living in Portugal to me!
One year ago today I landed by myself in Porto with 3 bags, 3 pets in transit, and Shane stuck in Chicago with a tumor in his kidney moving in with friends. HOLY SHIT!
When I got back from the US last week!
Today I’m sitting in an apartment that feels like home. Shane had his 6 month appointment here in Porto and got a clean bill of health! Our little family is very happy.
And we just LOVE it here!
I click on every article that comes to me written by people moving back to the US after hating their international move to try to figure out what happened, in an effort to see if I can get ahead of it! But all of those articles are the same - people running from something, people who have never moved anywhere before and thought it would be super easy, unhappy people moving to find happiness, or, the worst one, people moving for clicks.
Since the blue tsunami last week, a few people asked if I’d be moving back now! um, no.
Laura likes to say that wherever you go, there you are. You can’t outrun yourself! Moving somewhere new isn’t going to make you happy. You have to find your own happiness inside of you, and you carry that with you wherever you go. I say that like it’s easy! It’s absolutely not easy, but it is the answer.
We are very happy here in Porto not because Porto made us happy, but because we built a lovely little life together and we wanted a change of scenery. This change of scenery worked out even better than we hoped it would! We weren’t looking for it to fix anything, or solve any problems. We wanted a vibe shift! And a vibe shift we got!
We play a lot of games on our huge table, and it’s great!
One of the goals of getting out of the US, and out of Chicago, was to chill the fuck out! As an intensely unchill person I can say that I am chipping away at that goal.
I noticed it when I was in the US in October! I don’t think I noticed it before then, really. I tried to work less over the summer but ended up working more probably - I taught less classes, but did a website redo, started a new job, edited tons of on demand classes, did a summit, etc etc. I was overall kind of disappointed in myself because I felt this pressure as a first time bread winner to make sure I was feeding my family lol and I let that kinda take over.
My joke has always been that I am a workaholic but because my job is cute no one worries about me. Lol but seriously!
But I wasn’t looking at all the other ways I have actually chilled out! In the US I listened to people talk about closing their rings and counting their macros and gains and protein and fiber and steps and bricking their phones and screentime and TV time and JESUS FUCK! I don’t do any of that shit anymore! I don’t count steps, or protein, or really anything. I don’t know where my phone is right now. I don’t brick, or close or open rings!
I don’t order things if I can help it, I just live without stuff I can’t find, I’m never in a car here, I walk everywhere, I eat food! My phone is like a work machine/DJ/VPN TV machine and I’ve never cared about it less. I see healthy old women living their lives every time I leave my house which makes me feel like a normal aging woman. I haven’t bought a scale and I don’t understand KGs anyway. It’s GREAT!
I’ve never been patient, but Portugal forces you to understand that nothing is important or urgent, and so I have never been more patient. I mean I don’t have a choice but also I’m not irritated about it anymore so that’s progress!
Assimilating haha
Porto itself is perfect for us. More so than we even could have imagined, really! It’s BEAUTIFUL, and everyone is so friendly and funny, the food is amazing, being so close to the ocean is an unexpected pleasure, despite the fact that we are sitting here waiting for a tropical storm to hit, we have found so many shops, bars, and restaurants we absolutely love. There isn’t a whole lot we can’t find, and even less we actually miss. At this point we really can’t imagine living anywhere else!
How’s that for a 1 year in post?!
