My old friend Howard Grabois made a comment after my last post – “I notice that you often comment on folk’s ability or lack thereof in English. How’s it going with your Portuguese?” I’ve been trying to speak Portuguese as much as I can. I used a combination of software, online sites, and audio booksContinue reading “Speaking Portuguese”
Monthly Archives: August 2020
Me as a Portuguese businessman
This is going to be another one of those articles where I expose uncertainties, so it’s going to be a little hard to write. I like to think of myself as a great planner. I do lots of research, and I try to take my time with important decisions – plus, I always have atContinue reading “Me as a Portuguese businessman”
The arrival of the furry duo
One of the biggest deals in this whole moving operation revolved around getting Keiko and Lexie to Portugal, as described in Episode #5. They finally made it here on 7 August, an almost three-week break from when we saw them last. As you can imagine, Kristie and I were eagerly looking forward to being togetherContinue reading “The arrival of the furry duo”
Unexpected complications for finance
I was aware at some level that the European Union had different rules around privacy and security than the US. I’ve been reading news articles for years that talked about how the EU was introducing this measure to protect users from data mining, or that new requirement to prevent access to their personal or financialContinue reading “Unexpected complications for finance”
First week in Porto, Part II
When we last saw our plucky protagonists, they had passed out back at the hotel after an overly busy, overly ambitious day of trying to do everything at once. WEDNESDAY, we set some simpler goals for ourselves. Our biggest mission for the day was to take the metro from our stop (Marquês, pronounced “MARKsh”) downContinue reading “First week in Porto, Part II”
The first week in Porto
So, moving is always a big deal, right? Imagine that multiplied by a factor of I-don’t-know-how-much … that’s what moving internationally is. I started to try and do a day-by-day breakdown of everything we accomplished in week one, but as I was getting it all written down, I realized how much we overdid it. Basically,Continue reading “The first week in Porto”
Welcome to Porto!
On Sunday 26 July, we left Lisboa on the final leg of our travels to our new home in Porto. I have to step back in time for a minute and talk about luggage. Because it’s going to be so long before we see the stuff from the container, Kristie and I decided to takeContinue reading “Welcome to Porto!”