6 Months in Porto!
Today marks 6 months since I moved to Porto!
And I feel like I’ve accomplished and figured out so much, but have absolutely just scratched the tiny surface of everything that I have to accomplish and figure out. And I’ve kinda felt like that every day of my whole life, so that doesn’t feel overwhelming for me lol - I just keep chipping away and it’s ok because I think that everyone else is probably just chipping away, too.
Six months in and I’ve figured out:
How to stay here for at least 2 years! We qualified for our 2 year residency visa, which is easily renewable (fingers crossed!) and while it’s been in the mail for 10 weeks as of this moment, it’s somewhere and it exists so we’re staying!
Generally - I’ve figured out how to teach from here! I still have the odd internet issues here and there, and I’m going to change up my teaching set up next week when my work table is finally arriving, but I am teaching, I have classes, people are signing up, and I’m feeling really connected to everyone still even though I’m an ocean away from most of my students.
How to see a doctor! We have health insurance - the “expensive” health insurance that covers preexisting conditions is like $145/mo for both Shane and I and includes dental. We’ve both seen doctors, have picked up prescriptions, have gotten tests done - I’ve even been to the hospital for a thyroid ultrasound and gotten my blood drawn and tested a few times. More on all of that later!
How to take a pet to the vet! There is a vet’s office up the street! I brought Roosevelt there like it was All Creatures Great and Small, with no appointment, and waited my turn! She got shots, was seen three times, got a clean bill of health, all for about $20 a visit.
How to not be lonely or feel left out (for the most part!)! I’m just really proactive about my interactions with my friends and try to reach out more. Text more, make times to call, do more sharing of articles and silly things, just to keep the conversation going. It doesn’t always have to be a big catch up, it really can just be a few messages here or there and that goes a really long way to helping me still feel connected. If I’m feeling lonely or isolated, I try to make that a me problem that is for me to solve - and I do! I chose to move, so I’ve got to choose to stay involved, stay connected, and stay in touch with people. When people reach out to me it’s absolutely amazing, but I’ve got to remember that everyone is busy! And if I’m the one always reaching out, that is ok! Out of sight out of mind is normal for people whether you’re up the street or in a different country. I’m not trying to take it personally! It’s on me to keep connected. I’m like 85% good at this now I think!
How to speak about 40 words of Portuguese! WHEW I am struggling here more than I thought I would. Portuguese is really hard and my Spanish is absolutely no help. I’m not taking the time to dedicate to it, which I’ll change!
How to keep doing my hobbies! I bought a sewing machine and go to the fabric stores! There is a craft store up the street I’m in all the time, and it’s so nice to have a couple of yarn stores very close, too. I’m adjusting to trying to go to find something I need instead of automatically ordering it, which I love.
How to baseball - Long time readers and insta followers will know that I’m a huge baseball fan, and a huge fan of my Detroit Tigers, and a real concern for me moving to Europe was to have to adjust my viewing schedule. Now that might sound silly to you but it’s real for me! I love baseball, I watch TONS of games! Not even just all the Tigers games! So what I’ve been doing is watching the day games live - a noon CT game is now a 6pm WET game - but most of the Tigers games are night games and 7pm ET is midnight WET. So I just don’t read notifications on my phone in the morning and get up, do my chores, and start my day watching last night’s game! It’s kinda funny - I’ve tried REALLY HARD to turn off all baseball notifications on my phone, but the Tigers are so hardwired in there my phone just doesn’t believe I don’t want notifications. Like, ok! I get it! So I just don’t look at it! It’s kinda nice!
Six months in and I have NOT figured out:
Taxes! I’ve got time, but every time I take a webinar or read an article about paying my taxes I learn about something else I’m not doing. I’ve got to wait for my residency card to officially change my address in the Portuguese tax system and then I’ll get the ball rolling on it. But until then I’m just low grade worried about it all the time!
How to make more connections - I’m SO lucky to have met some people here who I consider friends, and they’ve been so kind and introduced me to a bunch of people they know, and that’s basically everyone I know here! I should probably, like, go meet people.
Non-surprising best and worst things about living here:
BEST: It’s freaking beautiful. Everywhere your eyes fall it’s like a wonder of the world. Every walk feels special! It’s just breathtaking.
WORST: I miss my friends in Chicago. I’d just love to co-work with Laura in person like we used to, have a game night, or have a little backyard crafting hang with everyone. I miss Laura every day and wish I could just go over to her house! And it sucks I can’t do that.
BEST: Those last few years in Chicago were STRESSFUL. The Trump of it all. ICE moving in. The non stop hopelessness, just paying into a system bombing kids run by a madman. I’m still very locked into world news, but it doesn’t feel oppressive anymore. I feel able to take time away that I didn’t feel able to in Chicago. When I feel stressed I go for a walk! I get some gelato. I fully unplug. For some reason that felt impossible to do in Chicago. Things are so bad, and I’m not hiding from that. I’m an American forever and I take the good with the bad. I’ll never renounce my citizenship, I will always vote, etc. I feel able to cope with the weight of that better here, and that is important for my wellbeing. I’m very grateful for that!
WORST: …
BEST: Despite Shane and I both making good salaries in Chicago, we still struggled to live within our means because of the high cost of living. The lower cost of living here in Porto means we can live within our means and work less! We can go out to eat for $35 - in Chicago that was at least twice as much. We can get a week’s worth of groceries for $65, in Chicago it was at least twice that. In the end, the way we wanted to live stopped being feasible in Chicago! And we are working less and living better here in Porto, and that is amazing.
WORST: …
BEST: The pace is slower here, and it’s absolutely glorious. I’m a workaholic crazy person, and I’m trying to take time to walk, to draw, to play games, to just SIT. I don’t constantly feel behind here. I’m a fast EVERYTHING - walker, eater, talker, doer. I’ve started eating slower! I take breaks just to sit and sip my tea. I have not started walking slower lol
The SURPRISING best and worst things about living here:
BEST: We absolutely love living in Villa Nova de Gaia! We read the blogs and articles about the best places to live in Porto proper, and sent a list to Declan, our real estate agent, and he sent us a list of apartments. He snuck in what ended up being our favorite, and it was across the river to the south of Porto proper in Porto’s country cousin, Gaia. And it was absolutely meant to be! It’s SO much quieter than Porto while still having tons of shops, bars, restaurants, grocery stores! Royal is so much happier here than he would have been in Porto. And Porto is so close - 3 stops on the train that is a 5 min walk away, or a 25 minute walk down a truly beautiful tree lined street, over one of the most beautiful bridges in the world. Everything is Porto is like a 40 minute walk from our house, and when you’re not ever in a hurry, that’s pretty nice.
WORST: Deliveries! We just have to order things sometimes, and when you do you are given AT BEST a 12 hr delivery window, at worst a 48 hr delivery window. You need to be at home to get a call AND to buzz someone into the building or go down and greet them at the door. If you miss the call, they won’t buzz. Sometimes they don’t call and buzz the wrong door! Sometimes they call and my limited Portuguese doesn’t get the job done and they hang up on you, which is fair! They will not just leave any packages inside the building. It is a HUGE PAIN!
BEST: Watching the weather from our beautiful 10th floor apartment.
The RAINBOWS the SUNSETS the FOG the STORMS rolling through in the distance! Absolutely majestic. Living this close to the ocean has, mostly, been amazing.
WORST: The 3 tropical depressions that went through this winter resulted in some water damage in our apartment and, 4 months later, has only been kinda looked at by our landlords. It’s absolutely fine and, we understand, very normal around here! Lost of other areas of Portugal were hit a lot harder than Porto and we were very lucky, but every time it rains were like WELL I hope the ceiling doesn’t cave in!
BEST: Living this close to the ocean! We can WALK to the OCEAN along an amazing riverfront walking path. Then we have grilled fish lunch on the ocean! WTF! How do you get to do that?! It’s just crazy and beautiful and amazing.
WORST: ….
BEST: The wine. Having absolutely never been a wine drinker my entire life, moving to this wine region wasn’t a pull. But the wine is $3 a bottle and DELICIOUS and I have a glass of Portuguese white or green wine basically every night, and it’s really lovely.
WORST:…
BEST: The Portuguese are SO nice to us. I’m putting this under surprising things, despite everyone saying that the Portuguese were amazingly welcoming to immigrants and extremely nice, lovely humans, I am surprised at how amazingly welcoming to immigrants and extremely nice, lovely humans everyone has been. Everyone is quick to help, quick to laugh, quick to say the english words they know even if they don’t know many of them! I’ve had 2 bad interactions with people in the 6 months I’ve been here, which is a hell of a lot less than I would have had in Chicago over the same period! And those bad interactions were 1) the guy at the water company absolutely REFUSED to help me when I called about not having water in my apartment. Finally he said he’d send someone out and just didn’t. It sucked! and 2) I got into an Uber and the driver was a huge fan of Trump. Wouldn’t shut the fuck up about it! And yeah, I’ve had all of those exact same interactions with Americans in America! I’ve fucked up multiple things multiple times, of course, and the Portuguese have been kind, helpful, understanding, quick to smile and laugh even if we are communicating at like 15% capacity. It’s really been surprisingly lovely.
WHEW ok! I could go on and on I think but those are the highlights! I got a little carried away, but I think this would be fun to revisit every 6 months or so and see how much progress I’ve made. If you made it through this whole thing, you’re a real one! haha
