Once you cut your toenails in a new country, you actually feel like you live there. When I finished there was a strange shift in my feeling – this is home. This is normal. We were kinda “frenetic” at the start – every time we wake up, we’d ask: where are we going, what are…
Tag: everyday
Moving to Lisbon: The Meta
We’ve been here a little more than a month now. Things have settled down a little, and it’s certainly more calm than the first week, but there is still a lot of friction. One of the most surprising friction points is, well, me. I’m a pretty worldly person, and I wouldn’t have considered myself particularly…
Moving to Lisbon: The First Week
I had meant to write this when it was a bit fresher, but I honestly didn’t have it in me. Friends, this past week was hard. Harder than I thought it would be, and I’ve been though some shit. I had what I assume must have been a full on panic attack yesterday that was…
Portuguese ATM Exchange Rates – Just Say NO
When given a prompt about whether you want to ‘protect your exchange rate’ or some shit, say ‘NO’. You might get a scary looking “Are you sure?!?!?!” prompt – double-down, hit NO. There. That’s the entire post. (JK, lemme explain below) So my understanding of that weird prompt you get on Portuguese ATM’s is that…
Our first “regular” day in Lisbon
This is something I keep looking forward to. Right now there’s lots of stress, lots of waiting, lots of forms to fill out, and lots of expense. It’s all….awful. So the main thing I keep trying to look forward to is: what’s our first low-stress day going to look like? I’m imagining this will be,…
North American Animals I’ll Miss
I know this seems like a weird thing to post about, but it’s something I have slowly been making peace with over the past few months since learning that hummingbirds are only in the Americas. There is plenty of wildlife in Portugal and the Iberian Peninsula overall, but there are a few favorite neighborhood regulars…
Barbers vs Salons in Portugal
So, Portugal tends to be really progressive (especially for a Catholic country) – it’s one of the reasons why we’re moving there – but there was one sticking point that came up that was absolutely surprising. While it probably wouldn’t apply to most women, who in the US don’t typically go to “barbers”, I thought…