Greetings everyone, Welcome Spring! I hope this finds you doing well. Having endured an amazingly wet March here, I think we now have fins. I know that many of you in CA also had a lot of rain, but it was insane here. After enduring a prolonged drought, a few days ago Lisbon and much of the south finally got hammered with rain for a few days, causing much flooding. April is looking to be wet here as well. 😬
In a stroke of luck, a few weeks ago while searching for some information on the Porto Expats FB page, I stumbled upon a new posting offering three brand new ceiling fans for sale. A very nice couple, Jennifer and Chris, ordered the fans and only found out after they were delivered that they couldn't be installed in their new home (lacking the right support) and they missed the 30 day return window. After confirming with our handyman that they would work in our place, we made a date to pick them up. Jennifer and Chris just recently moved into their new home which is part of a renovated 300 year old mansion (turned into 3 separate units). The two moved here last year from San Francisco and, upon meeting them, we hit it off immediately and agreed to make plans to meet up for drinks soon. We are thrilled with the fans, which are very modern, extremely quiet, have six speeds and great light. The lighting in our home is not great so these have made a huge difference for us, In fact, we like them so much that we've ordered one more for the living/dining area as well.
This past weekend we met up with Jennifer and Chris for drinks and snacks and celebrated our new fans. In the course of the conversation, Chris asked us where we grew up in California. When Nick said that he grew up in El Segundo, Chris told us that they just met some new neighbors who live in El Segundo. I could immediately hear the "Twilight Zone" music in my head and asked if this couple was very tall, which Chris confirmed. For those who have been reading my spiels for a while, back in late 2022 we met a very tall couple from El Segundo, Eric and Andrea, who were introduced to us through another couple we'd recently met while standing at the #500 bus stop in the Foz (an area of town along the ocean side of Porto). Eric and Andrea were on a house hunting trip when we met them, and that's when we discovered that Andrea had been best friends with Nick's niece since they were little girls. In fact, we actually attended a birthday party many years ago (in the 80's) and met Andrea. Now, they are the new neighbors of Jennifer and Chris. Chris then texted Eric to tell him the news, and now the six of us plan to get together when Eric and Andrea return to Porto in June.
Besides almost drowning in rain in March, we were drowning in studying as well. We both had our second written tests as well as our first oral tests. Talk about stress. We had to work with a partner to engage in a conversation, answering questions that we had been practicing for a month. Granted, the questions I had to answer for my A1 class were not as extensive as Nick's A2 class, but speaking only in Portuguese for 10 minutes (15 minutes for Nick) in front of our instructors was a bit intimidating. Speaking in English counted against us too. We both feel that we did well in our oral tests, though we have no idea how we're graded and not sure when we will find out, as we are currently on Spring Break. Our written tests were last Thursday ... mine was two hours in length while his was three. Overall we both feel sure that we passed but we won't know exactly how we did for a month, due to make-up tests that have to be administered after the break. Our final tests will be in June. And yes, Mimi, I am now dreaming in Portuguese!
I'm proud to tell you that I had a full conversation with a guard at the Portuguese Social Security office recently. I never spoke a word of English, and he only speaks Portuguese. Granted, I'm not anywhere near fluent, but I knew what I needed to say and was able to explain that I'm learning to speak his language and what I needed to accomplish there, and he completely understood me. When he responded, I was able to ask him to please speak more slowly, which he graciously did, and I was able to understand him. I was so proud of myself.
Elections were held in early March and the results were surprising but not as horrible as they could have been. In Portugal they have experienced low voter turnout for quite a number of years however this year well over 50% of registered voters came out on Sunday, March 10, to vote. The Democratic Alliance won 80 seats, the Socialist Party 78 seats and Chega, the far-right party, won 50 seats in Parliament, up from 4 they held previously. Then we have the Liberal Initiative Party winning 8 seats, the Left Block with 5 seats, the Unitary Democratic Coalition with 4 seats, the FREE party with 4 seats and the People-Animals-Nature party with one seat. A lot of people were shocked by the outcome, but then we heard that young people who feel shut out of the housing market and make low wages were making a statement by voting for the far right. The newly elected officials are being sworn in today, April 2nd. No one party won a majority so it's a patchwork of members from the various parties who have agreed to work together (except Chega, who will most likely fight everything) and the country will have not one, but two Presidents; the first one from the Democratic Alliance party will serve the first two years followed by someone from the Socialist Party for the following two years. Apparently many people don't think this new government will last two years let alone four years, so we'll have to see what happens.
There is a huge push to get expats registered to vote in the U.S. Surprisingly, many expats don't realize that they can still vote in the U.S., so there are many events being held across the country to get those folks registered. We got registered to vote immediately upon moving here.
For those readers who are living in Wickenburg Ranch, our favorite former waitress from Jake's Spoon, Christy, was here in Porto last week with her husband Fred and two other couples. They came to visit Portugal for the first time and were spending most of the time in Lisbon and the southern part of the country but took a day trip to Porto to see us, a bit of the city and have lunch. We had a great time with them, rain and all.
