Moving from USA to Portugal - ONE YEAR ON

[Music] hello now you may remember my dear friend Shana two years ago we were doing a video about van life in California a year ago we did the video about Shana moving from the United States to Portugal on why would you do that so we'll link to those videos in the description below here so here we are a year on with an update a living simply video on Shana and for start you obviously love living in Portugal because you've just bought this apartment haven't you yes I can be a little commitment-phobic but I made a commitment to this country and found this apartment fell in love with this town it fits me perfectly and I'm very excited to be here so you said fall in love with this town we're not in Lisbon are we no or not we are in a place about 45 minutes away by train from Lisbon or 2025 minutes by car a place called set to ball or stu-ball as a lot of the locals call it yeah so I'm no longer on the river tells you that borders Lisbon I'm on the Sado River and I'm in a it's a bona fide city it's just a small city with all the amenities one could want arts culture great food walkable and about half the cost of living in Lisbon yeah because Lisbon could be quite expensive comment yes and way fewer tourists here Tim yes really nice city so obviously you love living here obviously Portugal has lived up to your expectations what have you found to be maybe some unforeseen challenges of moving to a new country like Portugal well if you know me and you know me I'm I'm a crazy researcher and I am fortunate that even though I spend a lot of time doing a lot of research and kind of figuring things out talking to people how that benefits me is that I didn't have as many surprises as maybe some of the other expats I know who have moved here so Portugal for me has lived up to everything that I thought it would including the challenges but that's part of the reason I did this because I you know as I maybe mentioned last year want to keep my gray matter sharp I want to challenge myself I want to be present and intentional about everything I do and here with the language challenges no I don't speak Portuguese yet this year this year but my comprehension is pretty good yeah is that you cannot be on autopilot so like day-to-day living you know it's not traveling it's living can be very exhausting yeah just think for example today you had a phone call I know one of those automated phone call things the yeah we don't know what it was with maybe from the electricity company yes so you know I answered it because I'm waiting on a delivery and a few utilities situations to be straightened out still don't have internet here and I understood enough to know that it was the electric company calling and that if I wanted to say yes I could press 1 if I wanted to say no I would press 2 but I don't know what I'm saying yes or no to what was the question so I hung up and you know it's my friend Cyn Lisbon say if it's important they'll send an email and then I can run it through Google Translate yeah so what about friends if you found it easy to make friends and not just I mean with other English speakers have you made friends Portuguese friends why has it been easy you know for me I'm I'm tempted to say surprisingly but it for whatever reason I have had very good luck at meeting locals and in fact I have people that I've been into their homes they've set up for instance my moving situation for me and made sure that the moving company I was using was reputable and you know that they would be here on time and all of those things and I have talked to other expats English speakers who one person who told me you know you'll never be invited into a Portuguese person's house you'll never really make friends with them they're lovely friendly well within four months I was already going over 240 and you already in Portuguese right oh yeah absolutely absolutely and I have one Franky checks on me every to see how I'm doing how I'm getting along and you know they're like if you need anything we're a short drive away leather pole so much the Portuguese people as you've seen and as you know oh my gosh so lovely and I feel so fortunate to not only have these friends and to be deepening these friendships but even just the casual people on the street that we've met over the last couple accommodating with the food we want to eat you know all of that and so that for me has turned out to be a very huge positive I in fact I just had a gal message me via Instagram saying she lives in Lisbon she's been there longer than I have and said she's having a terrible time meeting people how did I do it and you know my heart goes out to her and I gave her a few suggestions but I think there's something to be said for getting away from the capital city as well because you know you've got an influx of travelers which is fine we're all travelers at one point or another and then you have sort of the expat ghettos where you know the English speakers congregate and it does I think make it harder to meet Portuguese people because they get pushed out of those marries you've never lived in those geysers you've always lived in I wouldn't say edgy places but you've lived away from those sort of little enclaves I mean the last place you are at in our mother was 100% Portuguese wasn't it all right thank you and also I'd say you became a local absolutely you've got to know your neighbors you got to know the local cafe owners dock keepers all this kind of thing right so you you know for people who are watching this and thinking well how does she do it from a viewers perspective I would say the way you did it was purely because you you threw yourself in there and became a local right and that was with intention I mean yes would it have been easier in some ways to plop down in Lisbon and have you know 20 great vegan restaurants available to me and all the best coffees and all of that sure that would have been easy in that sense however you know this is my third move in a little over the year here and the first two places I lived in were two different neighborhoods in Al motto which is a working-class community it's where Portuguese people live slowly others are starting to move there but when I hit the ground running it was you know Portuguese all the way I mean I had to really be on my toes to try to make out what people were saying to me and there were you know all the people in the country in general if they're about 50 years old or younger pretty much speak English or have a good grasp of it certainly more so in Lisbon where I was living people just looked at me like I'm not sure what you're saying and so I think that's what increased my comprehension as well as my ability to fit in what are the locals in a better way so the other thing we've talked about is is a lot of people expect that you've done a lot of sightseeing a lot traveling you've been to Porto you've been down to the Algarve what's the reality of how much of Portugal you've seen the reality is I have not seen anything more than the Greater Lisbon Duval region which it's kind of considered a greater you know region and again that was done in a strategic way because my intention was to make this country my home so I'm not here for two weeks blitzing around like crazy seeing one town in one night in another town in another day I knew the region I wanted to make my home based on climate and other favourable things for me yeah so I knew Porto wasn't it although I'm excited to go visit it wasn't an an imperative for me to do it immediately because I wanted to settle in make a home make friends start to build a community yeah and then I'll use this as my launching pad to travel around there's also one of the other things we were talking about is the fact that even though you're in a beautiful country like this it's nice and sunny now even though it's any 2nd of January you still have to go grocery shopping you still have to do laundry you still got to go down the electricity company office at two years - in two years - felt like 2 years 2 hours yeah but and that's the thing those things that I would do in a day back in California that would be second nature and I wouldn't even think about it I'd pick up the phone and call the electric company say hey turn off my utilities here set me up here what do I need to do everything is line by line what are they telling me what you know and by the time I'm done accomplishing one task I'm exhausted for the day that's another interesting thing you just said in California you would just pick up the phone and call someone and I remember in a previous conversation we've had you've said here because you're in a different country and you don't fully fluently speak the language you prefer to go to an office and speak to someone face-to-face yes so everything is really labor and energy intensive and I also don't have a car so if my local office is you know a 20-minute ride away on the bus or I have to take two buses or fortunately moving down here everything is within walking distance but everything is an event yeah it's not just a offhand you know errand or tasks that you do it's like okay I intentionally have to go to the energy company today and I have to accomplish this yeah so where has you done it in two minutes in California they take you half a day have you found it easy to get around without a car I have and again that's another intentional thing I you know I'm focused on minimizing not only my expenses but the attention I have to pay to details like paying insurance paying for petrol maintenance wondering if my car has been scratched or hit you know so I just eliminated all of that by moving here so that's another reason I didn't choose a rural area to live in or a smaller village I wanted to be in a metropolitan area that is well-connected by a variety of transit and I have an amazing pass that allows me to see the entire region for 40 euro a month and that's ferries buses metro train everything everything goes um so I don't have to think about it having my back pocket I just get on when I want to get on and it's a done deal freedom of this yeah it's sophism of the region and that's the thing and I have a lot of freedom by not have car because I'm not worried about what's going on outside you know where it's parked what what's happening with it yeah and you don't feel ever like you came and met me at the bus station late at night it's not you don't feel unsafe no not at all I never feel unsafe in Portugal is such a lovely place no and when we were talking about I thought you know as I went to meet you in the late later evening I was like yeah it's probably maybe another place it's like I think about in California walking to a Greyhound bus station at 9 or 10 p.m. at night that is not the best thing for a solo woman to be doing and no I took my dog I pay attention I mean I don't just throw all caution to the wind but there isn't that edge here of that impending like danger around the corner kind of thing but it just isn't that's pretty good so that's another reason solo woman I I picked Portugal so you've been here now you did about I know you did about a year's worth of research you've now been here for a year and you are now using that knowledge and you've launched a resource for people who are thinking of moving to Portugal yeah so tell us a little bit more about that okay so I started this it's sort of my accidental side gig you know I'm a writer author consultant for nonprofits and businesses and entrepreneurs but I started the site business because so many people were requesting my help and so I started a little business called so you want to move to Portugal and what it is it's a one to one opportunity to have an hour conversation via Skype or if you happen to be here in person or like I did one in California when I was visiting last month and my client happened to be there and the difference between what I'm offering and what let's say a migration assistant would be offering is it's not legal its advice it's not financial advice it's not even real estate advice however we can touch on those topics I'm just not a pro so you need to seek professional advice for that but what it is it's an opportunity to ask a woman who's done and I have Half Men and half women clients so it's not specific just to women but how did you do it what are you what is life like on a daily basis what are the general costs what do you think of this region versus that and so I'm able to get in depth with either three to five of the big questions that this client would have for me and anything I can't answer I research and follow-up and then the other nice thing is because I've built a nice roster of resources for myself people that I have vetted that I would feel comfortable you know recommending to you that's what I do for my clients as well so they get access to mine sort of you know a list so someone's just thinking about it they could by say an hour with you and you could you you you have a pre questionnaire down you yes send them with the biggest questions they want to ask yes and then you have an hour and their questions might be well where do I start and you could give them the names of the resources right exactly and I can give them the you know especially if they're coming from the US you know the steps I have some documents the steps they need to follow to get the short-term visa in order to get the longer term residency you know all of those things you would direct them to the legal professionals who would provide those things yes so to my migration assistant or now I have an amazing attorney group that I've been working with and they are phenomenal I would recommend you know I'd recommend them to anyone so but those were hard-won resources because they're trial and error I had worked yeah I've had to find people and so now I have that and for you know for a nominal fee and then because it's been so popular my clients that have signed up have chosen to do an additional one or two follow-up session so I can help them as they're in their progress you know along the path whether like for instance I have a client now I've done two sessions with her and she will be moving soon so she'll be here to visit down here in stubo she and I will spend some time together looking at the region yeah so would you say it's almost almost like a counseling you know what it is it is it's like it's like a relocation counseling is what it's like yeah so a location counts things like I know right I mean that's really what it is I think there you go it's a real okay counseling business but it's you know what I say and I think because it's obviously a little more friendly I say it's an opportunity for conversation yeah it's what it is and because I know when I was first doing this and looking at all the options and yes it can you find a multitude of resources online you can some more reputable than others and if you work all the time to spend at the time but I've laser focused in on these things and pulled up the cream of what I think is the most useful for people super so we will link to mm-hmm that in the description below along with the previous video we've done about your first mu you know first of all we did about a year ago and even the van video what the time so they can see the trajectory yeah this is actually although of course you've now sold merely huh yeah everything's been liquidated for the most part in the US which yeah it's good yeah cool excellent right well I think it's about time we went and hit she's do Bob what do you think yeah another offense offended the sun's come out again yeah I got out of the waterside yes we thank you so much and yes so thanks for watching as I say if you do want to find out a little bit more about moving to Portugal check out the link in the description below to Sharla's so you want to move to Portugal and we'll put my Instagram to I'm not I'm not on social media much I tried to limit that but I do post to Instagram so they can follow my daily life just day-to-day life about the food street architecture yes a fantastic place okay lovely all right well thank you so much for watching as ever folks if you enjoyed this please give us a thumbs up subscribe already and it just leads me to say from Shawna and for me thanks for tuning in which is very good your professional you I could take over this channel no you could oh okay sorry [Laughter] [Music] you

Channel: Andrew Ditton

Views: 128,862

Rating: 4.8679762 out of 5

Keywords: Andrew Ditton, Shanna, Shanna Trenholm, Portugal, Moving to Portugal, American living in Portugal, Setúbal, Lisbon, Living in Lisbon, Living in Setubal, Living in Portugal, expat, vegan, vegan in Portugal

Id: 0IixRuKDUII

Length: 18min 45sec (1125 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 12 2020