Life in Portugal 2024

Settling In

These Past few Months

Much of my time these past few months has been spent studying for my Portuguese class. As a temporary resident, living in Portugal, the government offers free Portuguese classes and they have been amazing. Some of my fellow students previously completed A1 and A2 in other schools that charged quite a bit of money and they all said our free class was better. It depends on the teacher of course, and we are lucky to have a phenomenal one. I’m fortunate too that it’s only a couple of blocks from my apartment in Porto.

On top of this I was working. Finally completing my latest novel, number thirty or thirty-one perhaps? I really have lost count, LOL. This one is more significant in a way because it’s the last romance I plan to write. That could change eventually, but for now, I’m moving to other passions.

Plus… the rain. I learned recently that Porto is the rainiest city in all of Portugal. I thought last year was bad because it rained all of January. Oh how wrong I was. This year it’s rained, almost continuously, since November. Five months straight of rain. And not just any rain. This is pouring, coming down sideways, blowing your umbrella inside out, soaking you through to your underwear, kind of rain. Not all the time, but most of the time. I realize if I had a yard so I didn’t have to walk my rambunctious puppy four times a day (for an hour each time) the rain wouldn’t have been such an issue.

The Future

And now you’re mostly caught up. So, what does the future hold? I’ll work up to weekly posts here but until school is over (mid-May) I’ll have to write in between studying, six hours a week of class time, tutor time, tests and taking care of my pup. And then I’ll be up (or off) and running. In future posts I’ll talk about life in Portugal from pet adoption to travel to community and everything in between. Instead of creating separate (and different) podcast episodes and using AI to put these posts into audio, I’ll just make these posts into their own podcasts so you can either read or listen.

I’m excited about the future. It’s almost spring here—yes technically it may be spring, but the weather hasn’t quite caught up yet. My nine month long schooling is almost finished and while it’s been so rewarding, it’s also been super challenging. And I have a lot of future planning to do. I’ll include some of that here too.

Thank you for reading. Thank you for taking this journey with me. Thank you for being here. Please reach out if you have any questions or comments!

Thank you so much for reading! If you don’t want to become a paid subscriber but enjoyed this article, you can buy me a coffee below or simply share this article with a friend. Your support (in all ways) is greatly appreciated!

I'd love your support through a (free) subscription to get my weekly articles and podcast delivered to your inbox. A like, comment or a share also helps tremendously!

For short, how-to, personal tidbits and informational vids on living in Portugal, check TikTok.

For photos of Portugal and travels (including vanlife) please follow on instagram.

For Facebook users, you can find the FB page here.

The old/er podcast (live your dream and how to travel full time) is on the website.

Thank you so much for being here and please don’t hesitate to reach out!