Meredith Burns
[ 00:00:07 ] Welcome back, Portugal drunkies! Hello, we're so happy to have you back absolutely always. We're having wine this time, yes. We always threatened you; we threatened you to have um our next podcast with wine instead of coffee, so we're back to it.
Mark Burns
[ 00:00:27 ] Cheers, okay?
Meredith Burns
[ 00:00:36 ] So, this week, we were thinking that we would in our last few weeks of Porto theme that we've been doing, um talk a little bit about highs and lows. So what are your just to get us started because you know we like to tell stories a bit of a story, yes? So what are some highs and lows this week?
Mark Burns
[ 00:00:58 ] Well, I think lows this week um probably started but maybe three or so days ago um but definitely we've Experienced it in Porto, uh, yesterday and absolutely today, and that is the excessive amount of wildfires there's over sort of 120 wildfires throughout Portugal. The one that is closest to us is about 20 miles southeast of where we are, um, in a beautiful, beautiful area, but I don't know what it's going to look like after this. I think I saw that it was over 9,000 acres have already been burned, yeah, yeah, I mean not in just that area, no, but I think overall, I think it's something like 27 square miles in total um area and yeah, it's just something that you again you hear about these things happening, but unless or until you experience Them, they're like man. It's just a news feed, but this morning I woke up, and about to take the dog out, and I looked outside, and it's sort of all this golden hue. It's almost like um one of the uh filters that I use for photography, and it has that hue about it. And and it's just this ash cloud, vintage yeah vintage, and it's just this ash and thick smog. And you open a window, and you can taste it, it's that smoke, yeah um it's it's pretty bad. And again we're in I would say proper safety um in terms of being that far away from one and not that close enough to um that much greenery um but for everybody else out there it's it's so sad absolutely and you're
Meredith Burns
[ 00:02:41 ] right about how you know we've heard about this before we moved here you know when you're researching a place it's like it's like moving to florida and not researching like what hurricanes are you know so you know it's it's interesting because you know i grew up on the east coast in north carolina we dealt with hurricanes we dealt with tornadoes this one comes from the uk and he's like i've never really dealt with either of those things you know you don't get forest fires you don't get hurricanes tornadoes and things you get a lot of you get a lot of rain um for sure but then like you come to a place like portugal and this is Normal now, um, the seasons especially being so hot and dry, especially in the outcourt, in a lot of cases that's what we've heard, but apparently the north is not immune, definitely not immune to it.
Mark Burns
[ 00:03:33 ] It's um, so that's a real sort of sad low in the sense of what we see and experience and listen to and watch on the TV, it's uh, it's one of those realities of life, yeah.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:03:49 ] And I immediately start thinking like, who do we deal with, donate to, like what can we do? I mean, I can't, I can't go and fight a fire, but you know, I did read that um, you can make certain donations of items to the fire departments here, so maybe when you're gone, I'll think that's
Mark Burns
[ 00:04:06 ] A great, great thing, you know. Bottled water, energy bars those are the sorts of things that I've read, yeah. That um, it's a little thing, but I think it goes a long way just to showing support and also an actual, you know, um need, yeah.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:04:24 ] And I think we've always, I know that you guys have heard us many times talk about how we can give back to this lovely country that we've moved to, and when things like this happen, yes, it affects us, but it's really about how we as immigrants can do more than we are, yeah. Um, in terms of giving back. So for sure, we'll see how we can do that.
Mark Burns
[ 00:04:48 ] So fingers crossed for everybody, and you know, best wishes and safeties, yeah.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:04:53 ] Now that we've talked about the low, I guess you guys yeah um, the high of the week oh my god I love this high of the week. So was it Thursday, I think it was Thursday? A friend of mine, a theater friend from Charlotte, sent me a message and was like, 'We're in Porto.' And I was like, 'What?
Mark Burns
[ 00:05:17 ] Why didn't we get a heads up?'
Meredith Burns
[ 00:05:18 ] They had been walking some of the Camino, which is fascinating to me. We have met many, many people um over wine and drinks and things like that who have walked some of the Camino or all of the Camino. We've also interacted with Camino travelers in places that we've been traveling like uh Viana de Castello, we met that one traveler. And even through Porto, yes, because it goes right through Porto, yeah. So anyway, they were walking some of the locals here doing some of that, but they were kind of ending their trip in Porto, and so we, I was just super thrilled; like I was just so excited. Stephanie and George came over on Saturday, hi guys, shout out! And we had the best time. We had um, local Portuguese sheep's cheese and presunto and wine, and we literally sat at the kitchen bar and talked, talked, talked, talked; it was just like home came to us, yeah. That's all I can say; I love it when it happens, and it was so unexpected, and it was just so lovely to see somebody from home and Hug them and realize that they're not that they're not that far away, right? And I just want to kick myself because we didn't even take a picture we were talking so much, they had to be somewhere by seven, literally looked up and the time was gone, and I was so sad because I was like, 'Oh, we could have sat here and talked all night.' And I just feel like sometimes those impromptu visits, or things that you didn't um know would fill up your soul as much as it does. It did. It totally did. So thank you guys for coming and reaching out to us, and I just love it. Thank you so much. It just...I told him when you guys left, I said, 'I feel like I've been restored.' Like, and then, and then after that, I talked to my parents for a night; I don't know which never happens. Like, on video, we were never on the phone for an hour, and it was just fun. We were all on the phone, my sister was on there too, and it was just like we were... it was like we were in the living room, you know? And um, so I went to bed Saturday night very rejuvenated; yeah, my cup was full, my cup runneth over, yeah.
Mark Burns
[ 00:07:35 ] So unlike the wine, it was a good high, yeah, yeah, we had plenty of wine; it was a good time.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:07:40 ] Okay, well, so this is what we thought we would talk about segue in, yeah? We would talk about today, well you know, the last couple of episodes we've really been talking A lot about Porto because the last day is coming, we are moving October 1st and so I feel like I've kind of been in a um reminiscent mood about this because you know this has been our first stop and hopefully the first of many different stops. We don't know where we're going to end up, nope, but Porto has been so good to us for 10 months and we've really gotten to know this city and its people, and we just... I feel like I've been kind of reflective for the past couple of weeks as excited I am as I am about moving to Tavira and I am, believe me, yeah um. I'm also trying to take this time and really think about like, yeah, what am I gonna miss?
Mark Burns
[ 00:08:31 ] I don't want to rush it, I'm ready for it, but I don't want to rush to to do it if that makes sense. I still want to make sure that we sort of eke out as much enjoyment here as we can and we have been working our way through our Porto bucket list, yes. So hurry, but what do you think about Porto?
Meredith Burns
[ 00:08:47 ] You think babe are the, you know some of the highs and lows of our first 10 months here in Porto. Um, I think by the way, I call them highs and lows, okay? Some people call them peaks and pits, but what do you call them?
Mark Burns
[ 00:09:02 ] Peaks or troughs? Ah, I was good; I was thinking, oh, I could say something really rude, but I won't.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:09:08 ] Great, well, that was a joke, one over here, anyway.
Mark Burns
[ 00:09:11 ] You never know highs and lows. What do you think of um, I think from a highest point of view again when we first set out to to come here um, it was the unknown culture, the unknown language, the unknown – where are we going to be? And I think one of the biggest highs was learning about what I wasn't sure of. Even though I've like moved around a little bit coming here, I think has been one of the biggest highs of coming into the city and having that city life experience, where you can meet all sorts of people from all sorts of countries um, but specifically, you know when you as we started to build up a core of people – that we know that
Meredith Burns
[ 00:09:56 ] Are Portuguese that are generally speaking Porto-Portuguese um I think the culture and and the the people yeah firsthand has been a real high for me yeah I think being in the biggest or essay point let me take this back I think being in the second-biggest city in the country like enabled us to meet so many people and experience the culture in a in a different way than if we had started in Tavira, for instance, with 25,000 people most of those being a lot of immigrants and not traditional Portuguese or from Portugal; there is a certainly a higher per capita if you think that way, so I think that our choice to come here and it was not.
Mark Burns
[ 00:10:48 ] By I mean it was by design we were we made this choice because we thought that living in the second biggest city with the kind of culture that Portugal had, I mean Porto has that, that would be a better introduction to us and I think that we accomplished that, I think for sure um and you know again as you say I think if we'd gone to a smaller city um the experience would be would have been fantastic I'm certain of that but I don't know that it would have delivered in the way that I've felt that Porto has delivered yeah yeah so what are some lows yeah so go on then give me a low for you I think a low for me um was not really thinking through
Meredith Burns
[ 00:11:33 ] The timing of when you were moved here, um, okay, I take that back. Go back to several different episodes; well, we did think about it, we just didn't listen to ourselves right. How about that? We were so eager to get here, we were delayed with our visa more so than we thought, and so our plan was, you know, have our interview in September and move over here by November 1st and that just didn't happen. And we ended up coming over December 1st without our visas and then had to truck back and forth, which you guys have heard of before, but we show up on Porto's doorstep in the middle of winter season and I think that's just a challenging place. To start, terms of the weather patterns in northern Portugal, yeah, and we've talked about it a million times so I'm sure you guys were like 'stop talking about how much it rains there, mayor' but it's true. Like, it's one of the reasons why we are moving to Tavira; it's probably the number one reason we're moving. And so if I could go back, and I'm not a big fan of regrets but I do think we might have had an easier transition
Mark Burns
[ 00:12:48 ] - oh, the transition would have been far, far easier in, let's say, a more temperate climate.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:12:54 ] Let's be real, it was the end of January and we moved over here; it would be a couple of weeks maybe of a little cold and a little bit rainy, but it
Mark Burns
[ 00:13:03 ] Wouldn’t have been every day we've got the tail end of stuff, but not the lashing of everything, yeah.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:13:10 ] So, so I think we're going to have to go back to I feel like again if you're contemplating that and you're thinking about moving to Portugal and you're also considering somewhere north of Lisbon, consider that in your plans. And I know sometimes you can't really, like, you're chasing your tail with your timeline. Yes, you can have your timeline, but you know immigration is going to be the full determination of what your timeline is. But I do kind of wish that that wasn’t our experience, but at the same time it can be high, I feel. like I'm in a job interview where I'm taking my weaknesses and I'm flipping them over to strengths right okay because it was a low yeah but I also think that we learned a lot through those first few weeks we were forced to learn a lot about ourselves because all the shit was peeled back and we were uncomfortable we were worried we were um uncomfortable unsure you know because we're like gosh did we make the wrong choice about this place because it's literally raining every day yeah and I just think it forced us to learn faster than maybe we had to if we had moved somewhere else yeah but I think as well leaning into that low is
Mark Burns
[ 00:14:30 ] You know the other low and we said it before about picking the apartment that we picked, yeah. Now we were under some level of a gun in terms of timing changing, yeah, um, and what we we wanted to make sure that we had something that when we landed gave us some element of creature comfort and we paid for that literally, you know, both financially and and every other way, um. So I think that was another low, although I don't regret what we did, I don't think it delivered as much as it should have done right.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:15:07 ] We could have made a better as soon as we could, we got out of there, yeah.
Mark Burns
[ 00:15:11 ] So that tells me that, you know, that was a low, yeah, even though there were Some benefits out of it, there was definitely more negatives, yeah. So my experience of that is: choose wisely, you know.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:15:22 ] And if you, if you're second-guessing yourself then something's nibbling away at you, at you, and you know, you best I also think that a lot of that has to do with lack of patience, you and I both, I'm more impatient than he is, but I think when we decide that we want something, we want it right now and we want it and because we we're confident in what we've chosen, and so we're just ready for the next thing to start right now, yeah. And sometimes, especially with this situation, I think that we were so eager to just get things going. That uh, we could have made better decisions but again all of this is in hindsight and I think it's really easy to sit here and say that. But you know, I'm just trying to like give perspective to others out there who are thinking about this and really continue to do it. And I think that's a really good point, and I think that's a really good thing – you know, it's the number one thing I'm sure people are like, 'Where do I live if I decide I want to go to Portugal? Like, where do I go that is going to be my place?'
Mark Burns
[ 00:16:20 ] In the forums, you know. People are saying, 'Oh, we're going to emigrate soon and um, we don't know where we want to be.' Can anybody suggest where we
Meredith Burns
[ 00:16:28 ] Should go and, it's just like my goodness, that is just too too wide a question, yeah, you know it's you, you can't be told where you you need to be, no, you can't, but you can narrow some things down and you can narrow some things down and you can narrow some things down, and you can eliminate some things immediately, yeah, and I feel like um, I wouldn't have chosen a different place for our first place, but I've also learned a lot here about what I really want, how I like to enjoy life, and what things you know Porto delivers on for us in those capacities and what it doesn't, so um, yeah, I just I I think that it's I don't I don't like talking in regrets I really don't, but I do think that you know highs and lows, and talking about those things might have helped somebody else.
Mark Burns
[ 00:17:19 ] Yeah, you know there were definitely better decisions that could have been made in hindsight, and that's a wonderful thing.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:17:25 ] However, I'll also say this: don't come over here like with this idea in your head that the place that you choose is the end all be all for you and that it's a once-and-done thing. Be open to saying, 'Okay, yeah, well we are going to do this, we are going to do this, we are going to do this; we experienced this, and I loved it, but we know that somewhere else could but I do help us achieve something else.'
Mark Burns
[ 00:17:48 ] we're trying to do and we could move there I do think though that if you're buying something here yeah straight off the bat then you've got to you've got to be so so certain I would totally rent first before I bought without a doubt that's just me though yeah because of our experience I don't think that's any different to even if you move within the within the U.S. You know, we've known people as real investors that move from one place to another sight unseen or they've gone and seen it whatever, and it's still a regret. Yeah, you know, and that's within the country, within the language, within all the bureaucracy that you know. Yeah, and you know people still gnaws it up, gnaws it up. Can you spell that? T-h-a-t, ha ha, um... gnaws... no, n-a-u, something or other.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:18:38 ] It's a, it's a it's a an expression; it means to get those only listening, I am rolling my eyes big time at that dad joke! Moving on, moving I also think one of our biggest highs and we talked about this a little bit, um, is just getting to see this country and the culture firsthand from Porto. So when I say that, I mean not just within Porto City but like all the places that we were able to visit because Porto was our hub. Yeah, and you're you're sitting here with a major train station and accessibility to so many day trips to go see Different facets of Portuguese culture and this countryside, and so let's let's think about it. How many places have we gone? We've gone to Viana do Castelo, which we both said was our favorite. This past weekend, yeah I mean I don't know. We've been to Guimarães, we went this weekend, so many times that's the birthplace of Portugal. We went to Braga, we've been to Aveiro multiple times, we love Aveiro. Um, where else?
SPEAKER_3
[ 00:19:50 ] This one, obviously let's go.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:19:53 ] Yep, those are not day trips I'm talking about from Porto being able to just hop away for a day, go experience.
Mark Burns
[ 00:20:00 ] I think the thing is, we've done several but it's unfortunate but I think we there was Definitely an opportunity to do more if if we had wanted to, I think. If you know, if we wanted to stretch a little bit further into the north or into the central of the country, um, but I don't know. I think that having done what we've done, I've really enjoyed the places we've seen, yeah.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:20:29 ] And I like that we balanced it with seeing this city because it's bigger than people think, yes. Definitely, I love being able to take our long walks and yeah, we've been there. You can see like literally look at the city when you're walking along the river and go, 'we've been there', 'we've been there'. Oh yeah, that's Matt; we've done all of these things. Within the city, I'm just we've probably only scratched the surface of like, I don't know, 30% of the city, I don't know maybe not even that, but again it's what do you want it to be, you know?
Mark Burns
[ 00:21:02 ] What do you want it to be? Yeah, I remember, we're living here, it's not just like we're tourists, we live here, we do normal things and it's like when you live somewhere, it doesn't matter where it is, when you live somewhere, you tend to kind of ignore your space and travel, like away, you know, outside of the country or to a different state, yeah, because you walk out the side door wanting to go and see the great big outdoors and things right? But you know all the neighborhoods Have different, definitely have different feels, oh yeah, definitely. And I think that should be another thing, I mean we haven't got a specific um write up about each of the neighborhoods, but there's stuff out there where you can go and get a feeling of, you know, is this more kid-friendly or is this more um the sort of younger um artsy friendly, and so you get those differences. I would encourage people to to definitely do that sort of level of research, research yeah because it's important yeah um yeah.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:22:00 ] So what are some more lows anything?
Mark Burns
[ 00:22:03 ] Oh I got one, okay for me, I have um so having traveled around a little bit uh different countries.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:22:12 ] And everything else I think one of the biggest things I've been disappointed in myself about is not being so um engaged in or disciplined in the language, oh my god, that was mine, I was waiting to see where you were going; I've got that one.
Mark Burns
[ 00:22:29 ] You have to think it's so true though, yeah, and and I, that's it, that's a, there's still um, you know we're not stepping out of this country, so we've still got to i mean anything if anything. I think that being in Tavira, um, and trying to become more of a community because the town is that much smaller; I'm hoping that we are forced into those day-to-day conversations with shop owners and restaurants.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:23:03 ] And places I don't, I think it's going to be even easier for us not to; I think we're going to have to be more disappointed, yeah, we are for sure.
Mark Burns
[ 00:23:10 ] But as I'm saying, is that I'm it's a shame that I haven't officially let's speak for myself, you can speak for me too. We haven't um, you know, done what we said we would do, so that's a bit of a load, yeah.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:23:26 ] And I think that we haven't done what we intended, which is learn more of the Portuguese language officially like in in a class or doing our online class that we have; but I think that we haven't done that because we haven't had to right and that's the truth. I don't; I'm not proud of it, but but it is real. Life, I think people are intimidated to even come here because they think 'oh my god, I don't know any Portuguese.' Let me tell you, unless you're like in some of the most rural villages, the people here know English and they know Portuguese, and they often know French and German and Italian. Let's just be honest; they are much more progressed than we are as Americans to know multiple languages. So I'm appreciative of that because it enables my experience to be very easy, yeah. But it does make it really easy to not have to lean into that discipline of learning the language the way we intended. Um, but if we ever decide that We are going to have citizenship, we're going to have to pass a test, right, and so we're just gonna have to figure that out, we're just gonna have to figure out what works for us, and maybe we have different paths because maybe you learn differently than I do, yeah. Um, I still think we need to, I mean, I think our online course is a good place to start, but you know my biggest pet peeve is like, don't teach me a bunch of crap that I'll never use, yes. Like as an immigrant here who's literally just trying to get back right, I need conversational Portuguese that I would use on a daily basis, not how do you say olive tree, like I'm probably not going To use it very often, right? I just need conversational and I feel like we've learned a lot of that from our just our contacts and making friends here, um, so we've done okay. We've never hit a barrier, but I will say that the other week, it is a lot.
Mark Burns
[ 00:25:33 ] It's never been a problem. I wish that we had done more, so that's that's a still in progress.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:25:38 ] But what we have done well, which is a high is walking our asses everywhere and having more healthy behaviors here than we ever did. Like I would say our most okay, we used to be runners, so we're going to ignore that fact because that was a long time ago. But honestly, the most consistent we ever were with walking. Or some sort of like activity regimen was during Covid, yeah, we would literally make ourselves it was the only time we could really be out and so we would make ourselves go a good hour at least every day. It was just every day, every morning, we would be doing that. And I feel like here, we've kind of gotten in that groove too, and I think for the past few weeks, we've been even more committed to, like, intentional walking not like, 'Oh, we got to go to the store' or 'oh, we're going to go and walk for dinner; let's go and walk around for activity's sake.' And then all the other stuff is extra because, yeah, we have to do that too, but that, and Just I feel like we do eat healthier here, um as I guzzle my glass of wine, but we do, we do, we do eat healthier here.
Mark Burns
[ 00:26:55 ] I would say by nature of the foods here what we are actually consuming is better for us, yeah our choices are better too, though you know, like we're eating less meat, not by design, but we just are, well, no, I think certainly in the last little while, for, but it is by design, except for all the Portuguese bread, well, you know that's that's something that that's a you thing for sure, it is a trigger food, I'm not even kidding you.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:27:21 ] Their bread is so freaking amazing; it is good, and even people who have like allergy sensitivities come over. Here to Europe, and they try the breads here, and it doesn't bother them at all.
Mark Burns
[ 00:27:32 ] I wonder why, I wonder, I don't know, I don't know what the difference is, but I know that it's good, I know they're just freaking delicious. So, give me a another low, another low.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:27:47 ] I don't know that I have another low; I think those are the main ones for me. Do you have other lows?
Mark Burns
[ 00:27:54 ] No, I mean that's why I'm trying to get you to hit on another one.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:27:58 ] I mean no, it's just really like because that borders on the line of like regrets and I don't...I really yeah, I want to make sure that I don't step into that, but you; there are always going to be things where you wish you had done or you wish You hadn't done that, that's what I said you know, yeah.
Mark Burns
[ 00:28:16 ] I wish we had gone to more places potentially, but I'm not that um, I don't know what the word is, but I'm not I, I'm very happy with the places that we have explored and the places we have experienced, yeah, um.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:28:33 ] Definitely, I have a low, I just have one come to me and this is a disclaimer because this only responds to certain trolls online, I'll say, but one of my lows has been realizing personally, sometimes and again not in person, not with the people who we interact with on a daily basis, but on the keyboard warriors behind their computers ready to come out and say hey, I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that, and I'm going to do that. Um, is being an immigrant here, and I'm not saying that in general, I'm proud to be an immigrant. I'm trying my best to be so respectful of this culture in this country because we had no intentions of coming here to change it; we came here because we loved it. Right, um, but I do know that some people in this country, just like every other country, just like literally in the U.S., right now, that they don't give a crap who we are; they don't, they don't want to see us here, and it's been difficult sometimes because you realize that there are, there are going to be people out there who feel this Way we're not going to, we can't ignore. I mean when you ask me, 'Are you welcome?' My answer is going to be yes because we have not experienced anything in the world that we've experienced in the last negative except for people online, that's right.
Mark Burns
[ 00:30:10 ] But I think as well you know that that goes to the to the heart of who that person is. If you want to behave like a complete dickhead then you're going to get treated like you are a complete dickhead, yeah, you know. If you want to behave with respect and humor and all of the the good stuff, people are going to engage with you, people are going to enjoy your time and company, and you know recognize. You when you walk back into the restaurant the third time, fourth time around, you know, because that's that's what they want, yeah.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:30:42 ] I just, I, I want to make sure I'm clear: my low here is experiencing some of that disdain from some people um because in their head every person who comes here that is not from here is just contributing to the problems that the country um that exists um in the country specifically gentrification and housing costs and all of those things which absolutely exist, yep. Um I have a i have a debt, i have a different empathy now and i've always had i've always had the empathy but it's a different empathy now for Immigrants in the U.S. because of my experience here, and I haven't even really been [here]. I wouldn't even say I've had a negative experience yet, right? I'm just... I want to be honest that there are some online trolls who come after us all the time because we've made ourselves pretty public about what we've done, and we've come here from the U.S. and we want to... we want to tell about our lives. It is true, we are contributing to some of the problems that are happening in Portugal, yeah. The problem that I have with it is that we can't... we're not, I feel like it's misplaced, yeah, because we're not in control of whether an apartment costs $1,000.
Mark Burns
[ 00:32:14 ] Euros or two and a half thousand euros, that's down to the landlord now. The landlord is going to be and they're not regulated really, right? But they're going to come from a sort of uh, not necessarily capitalist but kind of it is a capitalist kind of way, you know. I want to get the most amount of money I can get, I want to get the most amount of money I can get, I want to get the most amount of money that I can and if somebody's willing to pay that then you know there's that, the problem.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:32:36 ] The thing is though, is that immigrants here are being blamed for those things just like immigrants in the U.S yeah are blamed for things that really have nothing To do with them, that's the truth, and so I just have a different perspective, even more empathetic than I used to because we have become more empathetic than we used to, because we have become more. The immigrant you had already become the immigrant right, and again I, I'm framing this as low, but I also i don't know if I really put it in that bucket because I am just learning right; it's like you're learning about a culture, you're learning about what people really think about the societal things that are going on, and not just in your own bubble of like, 'this is a great place, look at this great weather, blah blah blah.' I mean, it's like You know, wine is three euros; three euros to them is still might be a lot and so I have to gut-check myself sometimes because of those things. Our experiences coming from the U.S. to here have been extremely different in terms of affordability, but that doesn't mean that our life is affordable to the Portuguese. And so I get it like I do; I get it why some of them have disdain for the situation, you know? And that makes me...
Mark Burns
[ 00:33:59 ] I know, but you know they would argue that well, you're just contributing to it, but you're also contributing to the infrastructure, you're contributing to the taxes, yes, all of the rest.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:34:10 ] You're trying to get health insurance privately, so that you're not putting more of a burden on the public system, and not everybody immigrant does that. I get it that's i'm not saying you should that is just something we've chosen because, just like our friend Heather who was interviewed here a couple weeks ago, her entire TikTok is called Mindful; you should go check it out, it's all about being mindful as an immigrant coming into somebody's country and and what is appropriate and what is not in terms of cultural appropriation, gentrification, all of those things that they do exist we would be silly to try to battle that. It doesn’t exist, it’s just you know I try to figure out what we can do to give back, you know, to be uh, I don’t know the right word, it's something we've always done thankful or uh, grateful in some way and figure out how to to do that and give back to the community that has really welcomed us, and I know that all of that might not seem very welcoming but again, I go back to it’s the handful of people on on online forums who have something to say about what we’ve chosen to do um, can’t make everybody happy but it is an experience that has opened my eyes in a different way as an immigrant here absolutely um and on that note should we try and find
Mark Burns
[ 00:35:38 ] A high to finish it with what's your ultimate high, I think just that this is the start of it, I think that you know this has been absolutely fantastic, I've enjoyed it, um, I've enjoyed the city, I've enjoyed the people of the city, the visitors that we've had come through, um, who would have thought we had so many? Not me, not me, because none of them were my mates, they're all yours, um, so I think that you know from that point of view, I want to, we're leaving here on a high for sure, oh yeah, um, and I'm just always grateful that we're on this journey together, and that we continue to look forward and beyond, you know, looking at just ourselves because.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:36:29 ] I think if you go and live somewhere else you you it's not just about you and your bubble you and your bubble yeah I think my biggest highest of highs is from the past 10 months I feel like we can do anything we want and I think that has directly come from choosing to move choosing this place using all of the experiences even when they felt like lows to like culminate in what feels like a lot of confidence for me and I don't you know it's even things like well sure public transportation like I know how to work with that even if I'm in a new place right there's buses I don't love the bus anyway I could get on a bus though might be going
Mark Burns
[ 00:37:19 ] The wrong way, but you get on the bus.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:37:21 ] I do feel like it's logistical things like that traveling the way we have, experiencing how to get somewhere without a car um, navigating around a country that is not your own language, inner you know, interacting with people when you know you're probably going to look like a crazy person or look like a fool because you don't know how to speak their language but you're trying all of these things. It's like it um strengthens your confidence muscle the work I do and if you start doing that it becomes kind of addictive, because you're well-to-impress them, not even that. I just want to go, I just like I, I feel like we can go and do whatever we want to. That's great, but like there's a confidence that I've always had with you, that's why I married you. Right now, there's a confidence more, more so about what this life will look like because the world could be at our fingertips and I'm not intimidated by it anymore.
Mark Burns
[ 00:38:34 ] I don't think, yeah, I mean, again, it's a much, much bigger conversation than this, but the world is small, you know, and that is, and again, ultimately the only reason that we are committed to Portugal and, you know, for the next whatever years is with Charlotte here, you know, and I think once that changes, is that going to change how we look at our highs and where we're going to get our highs from then?
Meredith Burns
[ 00:39:02 ] Yeah.
Mark Burns
[ 00:39:03 ] And that may be different compliments and, you know, further afield.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:39:07 ] Yeah.
Mark Burns
[ 00:39:07 ] But for now, yeah, I'm really, really happy with what we chose, why we chose it, the results that we've had from it, the good, the bad, the uglies.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:39:21 ] And, you know, everything you've ever wanted is on the other side of your fear. Yeah. And that is literally like we pushed through that. We've gotten here. We've experienced the first 10 months of this and I'm not fearful anymore. I'm just like, what's the next experience?
Mark Burns
[ 00:39:40 ] I don't think you should ever have any fear of that. I think the biggest fear is not doing something that you believe that you want.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:39:46 ] Right. Regret it.
Mark Burns
[ 00:39:47 ] Right. So, that's where I come in.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:39:49 ] Yeah.
Mark Burns
[ 00:39:50 ] So, there we go.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:39:51 ] Well, thank you guys so much. What a, what a chat.
Mark Burns
[ 00:39:54 ] What a, what a. See? Cheers. Cheers.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:39:57 ] We'll see you guys next week. Thank you for tuning in. Send us some questions if you have questions, either on TikTok, Instagram, here, if you're looking at YouTube or right on the Spotify or Apple page for podcasts. Yeah. Because we're going to do another FAQ probably in the next month or so. But I'll see you next week for our final episode about Porto. Yeah. Before we leave for the Algarve.
SPEAKER_3
[ 00:40:21 ] Yep.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:40:22 ] We're still going to talk about Porto. I'm sorry. Yeah. We're still going to be talking about Porto for a long time.
Mark Burns
[ 00:40:27 ] I think it's probably going to be, how do you compare to Vera with Porto?
Meredith Burns
[ 00:40:32 ] That would be a quick conversation. They're nothing alike. Yeah.
Mark Burns
[ 00:40:35 ] They're completely different. Awesome. Okay.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:40:38 ] Thank you guys. We'll see you next week. Absolutely.
Mark Burns
[ 00:40:41 ] Thanks very much indeed. Take care and have fun. Oh, I like that sound.
SPEAKER_2
[ 00:40:48 ] Listen up, future expats. For more content about our move, the visa process, Portuguese culture, and destinations, and tons of support resources for your own decisions and potential move abroad. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Portugal Junkies.
Mark Burns
[ 00:41:05 ] Stay in touch and help us reach more people by subscribing here and following us there.
SPEAKER_2
[ 00:41:11 ] Cheers, y'all.