So You Want to Move to Portugal? Here's My Story & My Advice, Then You Decide.

*Interested in learning more about Portuguese food and wine with me? Check out my An American In Portugal Tours, and my blog's new home!*

I've been thinking A LONG TIME about how to answer the several emails and comments I've gotten over the last couple of years about people interested in moving to Portugal.  I know in my blog and for those who know me on Facebook and Twitter, that I have created a beautiful picture of my life here through my photos and experiences here.  And let me say for the record, I do like living here, but I went through hell and back to get to the point where I could enjoy all the lovely things this country has to offer.  But life has not been and still is not always peaches and cream people.  You can't move to a foreign country expecting everything will be perfect (obviously).  As I said below, this is a seriously complicated issue for me and I haven't really been in the mood to address it at all, but the questions keep coming so I have to finally give you an answer.  I hope this will be the last time I'll need to address this.....which hopefully after you read this you'll know why. And PLEASE don't ask me any more questions until you've read through this entire post!

First, a Warning:  DO NOT ATTEMPT TO MOVE TO PORTUGAL AND GET LEGAL THE SAME WAY I DID.  I am still here and legal only by sheer luck with timing and circumstances, this is not something you want to bet your life and money on people.  I unknowingly made a big mistake trying to do it the way I did and luckily I was able to make it through in the end but now I know better.  Read on and you'll know why.

MY STORY:
If you haven't already read the first couple of posts I did on this blog, which explain why I came here in the beginning and how I initially got started, then please go back and read: "And What Do You Mean By That?" http://www.americaninportugal.blogspot.com/2009/02/and-what-do-you-mean-by-that.html

January 2008- So to summarize what I said in my earlier post, I moved to Europe on the idea I could get started by teaching English.  I came only with my passport-which for US citizens here automatically puts you on a "tourist visa" for 90 days, however I bought a return ticket for exactly 90 days after I came, with the intention of finding a job that offered a contract because I had found more job postings for English teachers.  But when I there and went on interviews, NONE of them were offering contract positions, only work on recibos verdes or "green receipts", which is Portugal's way of paying hourly, non-contract workers, essentially the legal form of paying "under the table".  But in order to work on green receipts, you needed a NIF (numero identificação fiscal) which is like the equivalent to a Social Security number in the US (but not as important) and in order to get that, they told me I needed a residency or "be legal", which I had no idea how to do that without a contract!

February 2008-I went to talk to someone at SEF (Serviço de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras- "Foreigners & Borders Service" aka "The 5th Dimension of Hell") to which they just told me "No, you need a contract, go back to the US", which really disheartened me.  Then one employer told me they heard that if you got a Portuguese citizen to sponsor you that you could get a NIF and iniciar actividade or "start working".  This proved to be true when I went with my Portuguese boyfriend to the Finanças (Finance Office) and they gave me a NIF under his sponsorship.  This was enough to allow me to start working, teaching English with a school, but I still needed to get green receipts so I could get paid at the end of the month! So we went back to the Finanças, but they said "no".  This was the beginning of the realization that every person we would talk to at a govt. agency was going to tell us a different answer, even if it was the same person but on a different day.  So we tried another Finanças branch, another "no".  Finally, on the third one (a branch away from the downtown-this helps) the guy seemed to have been in a good mood and decided to give me the green receipts hooray!  But he it told us this was because my sponsor was also working on green receipts, though if he changed to a contract job, I would have to go on them alone and be a resident. (He did a couple months later, but they didn't seem to care at that time when I went to change over on my own.....see a different answer each time!).  Around this time I also managed to set up a bank account, using my boyfriends permanent home address (his parent's place) and presenting a signed "declaração" from my employer just stating I was currently working for them. (*Note: According to another American friend's recent experience, it's much harder to open a bank account here now, you need far more proofs of your residence and job).  I also found an apartment to rent, again under the sponsorship/cosigning from my boyfriend, (this is basically required for all places to rent on your own, renting a room is easier).

April 2008- The date of my return ticket at the 90-day marked had arrived, but I already had a job, making money (legally), had my own bank account and my own apartment.....to me this seemed like I was on the right track and I could just apply for my residency in country with these things.  So even though I was losing money from a non-refundable ticket, I decided to pass it up and continued on with my new life!

June 2008- By this point, I had settled in well and had been working steadily, so I decided start investigating how to apply for residency in Portugal.  I was afraid to go back SEF at first, after what they told me before so I thought maybe the US Embassy in Portugal could give me some advice so I went there.  Turns out, this is the last place (your native country's Embassy in general) you want to go for help in immigrating to another country (which kind of makes sense when you think about it)  and of course they told me I had to back to the US (you think they wanted to be responsible for an illegal immigrant there?).  I Started freaking out then ( like most Americans do at this point), trying to figure out how I was going to save myself from having to throw everything away that I had gotten in the last 4 months.  But then it got worse: most of my classes stopped for summer vacation and I was left not being able to make enough money to pay rent....and since I had wasted my return ticket, I couldn't afford to even buy another ticket back home if I wanted to!  Of course I could have always asked my parents to help lend me the money but that was the last thing I wanted to do, it felt like it would prove I was complete failure at this endeavor.  So I spent a depressing summer of 2008 struggling to survive with the help of my boyfriend and "hiding" from the immigration police (just paranoia, the police here hardly ever do that stuff).

September-December 2008-Classes started up again and I looked for other schools that might possibly offer contracts....none of them really did, only quasi-contracts between you and the school, none of them govt. sponsored, which is what you need. By the end of the year, classes stopped again for Christmas holidays and I was left again almost broke and not being able to spend the holidays with my family and friends back home-this sucked.  My parents told me to make an ultimatum, that if I didn't get a real job and a residency by the time a year past living here then to come home.  So I remember crying one night before Christmas, pleading to Miguel to try to call SEF one more time and explain my situation to see if there was ANY way to get legal from here.  He had really lost hope that I could stay here and reluctantly made the following Monday.  To his surprise, he spoke to someone who told them there was a way.  HALLELUJAH! I KNEW IT WOULD WORK!  Well, or so I thought for the next year......

January 2009: SEF had told us that I could apply for residency as "trabalhador independente" which is essentially a "freelance worker" and to start, I needed to register with Social Security and start paying it every month.   So I did, and I still pay a ridiculous amount to this day...ugh but this also gave me a chance to obtain a national healthcare number so I could use the health services (really good to have) and then I had my actual Social Security number (not used the same way as the US SS#) to use for my residency application.  I turned in the application and they told me they would let me know when they were ready to interview me and complete the process.  I waited 6 months......

June 2009: Finally got the notice, I had 2 weeks to get the rest of the necessary forms (original of birth certificate, notarized, copy of work declaration, copy of tax declaration-yes, you still have to pay taxes in Portugal whether you're legal or not! etc.) went to the SEF office and waited hours for my interview which my Miguel helped me out with, paid the expensive application fees PLUS the racked up penalty fee for living here illegally since my tourist visa ran out (so about €600-700 for a little over a year's worth of illegal living-don't let this happen to you!!!) and was told they would call me when they made a decision, which could be anywhere from 3-8 months.....

December 2009: I was desperate to be able to go home this year for the holidays to see my family, but still hadn't received a decision from  SEF.....I had asked Miguel to call them back in October to see if I was allowed to leave the country since I was now in process but they told him no.   This time though, after my parents' persuasion, a week before Christmasd I decided to make another trip out to the SEF office myself to try to talk to someone to see if they had made a decision.  The receptionist there told me no they hadn't, maybe in January, and I started crying, telling him I had really wanted to visit my family for Christmas.  But then he told me "well, you can travel outside the country if you want, as long as you bring your papers that say you're in process".  I couldn't believe what I just heard, and I wasn't sure whether to jump for joy or to strangle someone there for telling me no before!!!  But what mattered is my family got a happy surprise that year when I made it home the day after Christmas to spend the rest of the holidays with them.

January 2010- Not soon after I returned to Portugal from my holiday vacation, sure enough I got a letter from SEF telling me to come to their office for their decision.  I waited 3 hours just to have some lady sit me down in her office and tell me that my application had been rejected.  They told me my English teaching job didn't qualify enough for their "highly/special skilled worker" exception, to which apparently this whole "trabalhador independente" application is based on and most people get rejected in the end. She told me I had 2 options: Apply for an appeal, which she even advised me that this is usually just rejected as well in the end but it buys me more time for option 2- try to secure a contract job.  I had 20 days from then to do either of these things or get out of Portugal.  When I heard this news, surprisingly I wasn't sad or upset, I was actually angry and determined, I had been living, working, paying bills and taxes, essentially doing everything in Portugal that citizens do for almost 2 years yet they still wouldn't consider me legal?!?!  Talk about confusing as hell.  Well, finding a contract job in that short amount of time was impossible, I had been applying to both teaching jobs as well as hotel/restaurant jobs or any job I thought I could do off and on throughout the time I had been living there and the only ones who ever responded were for teaching and of course none offered a contract.  The appeal just seemed as well, I didn't want to go through the whole process again knowing I was already terminal! I talked everything over with Miguel and a third option came up that we had thrown out before: being recognized in a "união de facto" or a civil union which would then make me eligible to apply for residency under "Familiar de Cidadão da União Europeia, Nacional de Estado Terceiro" or "Family of a European Union Citizen".  The thing is, we couldn't use that before since you had to have been living with that person for at least 2 years.....but now that 2 years was approaching in less than 2 months!  So within my 20 days time granted, I returned to SEF and re-applied under this type of residency!

June 2010- After applying for a "civil union" residency, we had to prove we had been living together for 2 years of course, this meant tons of papers showing our address being the same (which we used Miguel's parents' permanent address from my NIF as a backup), bills in our name, all of the same proofs of identity I needed the first time around, re-notarized and photocopied again....and finally filing taxes together for the first time.  This last one was crucial, if the IRS accepted us as a civil union then is was almost inevitable that SEF would have to follow suit.  And we were right, thankfully at the same time we were getting our tax return, I got a letter saying I had been granted residency FINALLY!!!!  Though it took SEF another two months to make my crappy folded paper residency card (which I had to pay another fee for), I was officially legal after 2 1/2 years of living here and have a residency valid for 5 years before I have to renew.

Conclusion: So as you have just read, you now see that the only reason I am legal and still living here today was by sheer circumstantial luck.  Words cannot describe the amount of stress and anxiety I lived with during that whole time, which seemed to have  fueled some chronic health problems that I have spent a lot of money recovering from.  I have been eligible for citizenship since I passed 3 years in a civil union, but I've been quite hesitant to start the whole painstaking process all over again just yet.  So please understand when I repeat, do not attempt to go about living in Portugal this way, though I'm happy to have gotten through it and glad I'm still here, if I had known a quicker and better way to have done it then I would!!!

Not to long ago a friend came a across a video clip from a documentary about the legalization process in Spain, which is just as long and complicated as in Portugal.  Check out this amusing clip, which is basically a summary of what I went through in my story above: 

To this day, I still teach English as my main "day job", still on green receipts without a contract.  I teach both for schools and privately but schools are the worst because they NEVER pay you on time.  I still struggle to make decent money and have no job stability.  Fortunately though, there has been another hope and motivation that helped me to survive throughout this time, thanks to Gabriella and Ryan Opaz of Catavino, in which I've had the opportunity put my food and wine education into a new outlet by starting to write about Portuguese food, wine and travel over the last 3 1/2 years on their website.   It has opened up a world of opportunities,  including a temp. contract job last year with Fodor's Travel to update their Portugal 9th Edition guidebook, which produced my first published writing work!   Now that Catavino has ended, I will continue to write on this blog (as you see) and continue to look into new opportunities, which I hope to post about here :)

Now, back to YOU.   You've read my story and hopefully you'll heed my warning, but if you don't, then at least take the time to ask yourself these questions below.   Assuming those who have asked me about moving to Portugal are not of Portuguese decent, let's start by narrowing things down and going from there.   Here is my questionnaire to you: answer these with either a "yes" or a "no" about yourself and please be as honest and as realistic as possible:

MY QUESTIONS TO YOU:
1. Have you ever been to Portugal?  More than once?  (just passing through the airport doesn't count)
2. Have you ever heard of the IMF?  Are you aware of the current state of the Portuguese economy?
3. Do you currently speak or know any Portuguese?  Are you willing to learn it?
4. Do you currently speak or know any other Latin languages (ie. Spanish, French, Italian, Catalan, Romanian)?
5. Do you know anyone (preferably native Portuguese) who lives here? (I don't count)
6. Do you plan to live in Portugal more than 6 months to a year?
7. Are you fluent in more than one language?  (German, Dutch,Chinese, Russian, Arabic, Norwegian etc.)
8. Do you have at least €5,000+ in savings to use for "survival" money? (not counting the money you would need for flight to move here)
9. Are you willing to be away from all of your family and friends for a long period of time? (not being able to go home to the US for at least year or two)
10. Are you willing to wait in extremely long lines, humiliate yourself trying to communicate with people, go to whatever agency they tell you to go and return as many times as they tell you to, obtain, fill out, make copies, get notarizations and possibly pay several hundreds of euros in fees to do whatever it takes to make it here and be a legal resident?

So... I think you know how this questionnaire evaluation works, basically, if you answered most of the questions with a "no", then I seriously think you'll be wasting a lot of time, money and energy moving here.  And of course if you answered most of them or even certain ones with a "yes", then I think at least you have your head in the right place for starters.  Now let me explain why I asked you each of these questions:

MY REASONING:
1.  Well, this one should be obvious, but I've actually met someone who decided they wanted to move to Portugal without ever having visited the country!  Which I thought and still think that it's just absolutely nuts to move to another city or state, let alone a foreign country that you've never been to before!  But they did, and to no surprise, after about 3 weeks living here they decided that they they didn't really like it (well except the food & wine, which they loved, but that's a normal reaction ;) ).  But surprisingly they didn't return home to the US, they moved to Madrid instead and have been there for almost two years now and loves it.  So actually a happy ending to that crazy idea but that doesn't mean it will turn out the same way for you!  I think they'll agree with me in the end that this is not a good way to go about it.
Ok now let's say you're like me, you've visited Portugal before, maybe even more than once....that still doesn't mean you should move here.  I had been to Portugal before, took two vacations here before and absolutely loved it.  This is usually the way it starts......but have you ever heard the saying "Don't crap where you eat?"  Well I got one like that from what I've learned: "Don't live where you vacation".   Because living in Portugal, living in another country or even another city in the US is always going to be different than what you see and feel when you vacation there.  Think about it, when you go on vacation, the stress of your job, bills to pay, rent or mortgage etc, is left back at home and everything of course seems great in a place where you don't have a care in the world.  But then if you MOVE there, you'll be bringing those things with you, and they might even be worse!   I had already done this once before, in 2006 I decided to move to Miami Beach (South Beach) after taking an awesome vacation there with my friends in college.  And even though after moving there I still tried to get my share of the beach and nightclubs and fun that I had on vacation, I also had to deal with the stress of maintaining a job, a place to live, paying bills etc.  A year and a half later I was broke, jobless and miserable after struggling with the failing Florida economy and restaurant industry at the time and I just couldn't take it anymore.  You would think I would have learned from that but I decided to try my luck again, in a foreign country of all places! :p And as you just read above, it hasn't been easy here as well.....but every situation is different, take this as a cautionary reminder, love at first sight doesn't always last!

2. So if you do know about the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and how BAD the Portuguese economy currently is then you know what I mean when I said the stress factors like maintaining a job, a place to live, paying bills etc, could be worse.  Worse than when I came 4 years ago.  Not only does Portugal have the IMF here now, but they got the whole "troika" as they call it, which also includes the European Commission and the European Central Bank.  Why?  Because Portugal IS IN DEBT UP TO THEIR EYEBALLS.  And now due to this, taxes are going up, prices in general are going up, unemployment is going up and salaries are going down etc......yea you get the point.  Ask yourself now, if this really a good time to move to Portugal?

3. This should be another no-brainer, it's a good idea to know the language of the country you're living in or at least make a good effort in learning it!  If you're searching for a job in Portugal, you're going to have to search on Portuguese job sites, which yes, they're going to be in Portuguese!  And yes it's true, a lot of Portuguese speak, or at least understand English well, especially in Lisbon (I should know, I teach them), but that's also bad for you if you're competing with them for a job.  Many companies here want their employees to know English, but speaking fluent Portuguese is a given.  So if you can't do that but they can, and on top of that, you're a foreigner trying to get a job in a country where currently natives are struggling to get one, who do you think they're going to choose for the position?  Also, you'll definitely have a hard time getting around outside of big cities if you don't know Portuguese, even some local neighborhoods like mine in Lisbon have very few people who can speak English well.  And if you've never been very good at languages then (Portugal, not Brazilian) Portuguese is definitely not a good language for you to start with, I've said it already in early blog posts that it is HARD.  This is coming from someone who's already studied French, Spanish, Italian and Catalan and believes to be good at learning languages AND I'm still telling that that Portuguese has been the hardest language to learn so far.  Granted I've never had any formal Portuguese lessons but after 4 years of living here I'm nowhere near fluent.  I thought I knew some Portuguese from reading books before I moved here but in reality, I couldn't understand almost a damn thing for at least a year of living here.  And that in itself, is a very stressful thing to live with daily.

4. If you know any of these languages, especially if you're fluent, this should help you in the long run for learning Portuguese well, and maybe more quickly.  If not, I think it's going to be really tough for you.

5. Having some friends here always helps, they can definitely help get you more accepted into society and knowledgeable in the culture, and of course introduce you to more people, hopefully people who speak English well for your sake to begin with haha.  If you don't know anyone, it can be a lonely life....Portuguese people are friendly in general but are very hesitant in letting outsiders into their "circle", especially Lisboners. There are always exceptions but don't be surprised if you feel like people aren't really making an effort to be good friends with you.

6. If you answered no to this then I hope all you plan to do is study or vacation here, otherwise it's not worth the hassle of starting the residency process if you don't intend on living or working here for that long.  The best thing to do is apply for a student visa or an internship with a company, these are normally a lot easier  and quicker to get than a regular residency.

7. Ok so you may not know any Portuguese or another Latin-based language but you do happen to be fluent or at least conversational in let's say German or Dutch- this can be helpful in getting a job if you want to work in the hotel/restaurant/tourism industry.  Portugal gets plenty of European tourists so to be knowledgeable in a European language that most Portuguese would not know may help you push out your competition for getting a position.

8. I think this is also a given, you always need to have some money saved up when moving to another place as you never know how long it will take you to get settled and making steady money, regardless if you have a position lined up already.  Also, all the little fees for getting legal and such can really add up, and if you're still not officially legal after a year, YOU STILL HAVE TO PAY TAXES IN PORTUGAL.  I ended up paying almost €800 Euros in taxes my first year here as an "illegal resident" so beware.

9./10. Portugal, and southern European countries in general are notoriously SLOW when it comes to processing.....well, anything.  (Think of your experience when you have to go to the DMV, but times ten.)  This is because most of their government systems, especially Portugal, are overrun with ridiculous bureaucracy that turns even the simplest of things into a complicated , drawn-out issue.  I have spent hours and hours waiting in lines only to be told I was missing one little "fine-print" thing or  a photocopy of something (which most won't make for you there) and had to come back another time and wait in line all over again.  And don't assume that most of these govt. workers speak English (most of them don't or won't) so you either have to bring an interpreter or play the "monkey miming game" with them, which can obviously get very embarrassing as well as frustrating.

What it all comes down to is having enough patience and perseverance to get through all this crap so you can get that residency card.  And according to what I was told at the time, if you stay in the country (or any EU country) over the 90-day time allowed on just a tourist visa (just coming on a passport), you are not allowed to leave the country until you are granted residency, otherwise you may be rejected or penalized with a large fee.  (There is a similar rule for immigrants applying for residency in the US, with much harsher consequences I must add so nothing new)  Now it's also true that to this day, I have never once been asked to see my residency papers in Lisbon airport when traveling to and from the US directly, and I know other people who have made trips back and forth while still "illegal" and they didn't have a problem. (*Note: if you have a stopover in another EU country in between, such as France or Germany, they may ask to see them or check your passport thoroughly to see if you have been stamped recently leaving the EU and if they have a problem, you might risk getting extra penalties from them as well).   However, none of these people I knew ever completed the residency process here and when I finally did, they made photocopies of every page in my passport which was checked thoroughly to see if I had left the country, which I hadn't in the 2 years I had been here.  I had decided it wasn't worth the risk of completely screwing my entire application process as well as pay a ton more fees (which I couldn't afford), and I guess it paid off.

 But yes, I had been stuck in Portugal for 2 years without ever leaving and yes, it was very tough not being able to come back home to visit all that time, but I had made a decision to move here and I was going to stick to it.  My parents were able to come visit me in the first year which helped, as well as a couple of friends, but most of my family and friends just couldn't afford the time or the money to come visit ( and maybe some just didn't want to).  But as I pointed out above, immigrants in the US have it far worse in the waiting process, I have friends who literally waited almost 10 years to get legal and they were stuck there the whole time without being able to leave to go back to their country to visit their families, so don't act like you're the only victim in this mess.  There are a lot of people I know back home who still can't understand why I'm still here, no one believes an American would want to live outside of the US for a longer period of time.......but I'll have to leave that for another post, maybe with the title: "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly about Living or not Living in the US".

MY ADVICE:
You are in charge of your own life and destiny.  I can´t make huge decisions for you like whether to get married, have children, change careers etc, and I also can't be the one to make the huge decision for you about whether to move to another country or not.  I can only give you my opinion, however you see it, based on my observations and the experience I've had here, which very likely wouldn't be quite the same experience you would have.  At the end, you can take it or leave it, because sometimes no matter what you are told, I know some people (including myself) will still have to follow what their heart wants, regardless of the possible huge pile of shit they might end up under :)

 And honestly, if you really want to do it, the simplest, correct way to move to Portugal (or any foreign country) is:
-Find a Contract Job. one that will offer you a govt. sponsored contract to come work there, which you have to take to their consulate in the US to get the residency permit BEFORE YOU MOVE THERE.  I know people who have successfully done this here so it's possible!!  Probably the best job sector to look into is the hotel/restaurant industry, there are plenty of international hotel chains that have locations both in the US and Portugal.   I also know there are several US companies that work within Portugal because I've met people from them working here, (unfortunately I can't remember any company names though) but they're usually only for a 6-month to 1 year time period.  However it's an option you might want to look into.

-DON'T move to another country without a job lined up, especially in the current world economy. Assuming that you'll find a decent job, let alone a job at all, before your time and/or money runs out is a big mistake.  A compromise, like what I tried to do in the first place, is take a 90-day "holiday" there, apply for jobs and if you're lucky enough to get an interview then a job offer with a contract then return in time with that contract and submit it to their local consulate.  It's all about doing it right the first time, and preventing the nightmare that I, as well as many others have been through!

THE BEST THING YOU CAN DO FOR PORTUGAL RIGHT NOW IS JUST BE A TOURIST!  Portugal's economy is a big mess at the moment and the best thing they have to help boost their economy and start making more money is TOURISM.  Come to Portugal and spend your money enjoying the delicious food, wine and country hospitality that I've praised so much about in my Catavino articles and Fodor's Portugal 9th Edition guidebook and that I will continue to praise and showcase here on my own blog!  Stay in gorgeous boutique hotels in the mountains or along the endless coastline of beautiful beaches, wonder in awe at all the ancient castles and monuments scattered throughout the country and be amazed by the breathtaking vistas that their incredible geography has created!  And you can come back to visit as often as you like!  I encourage it!  And I will be happy to help plan your itinerary to make the most out of your experience here!  I already have 10 Delicious Reasons Why You Should Visit Portugal here, and you can come experience these things with me on my An American In Portugal Tours and if you're still not convinced, check out Portugal's awesome 2011 tourism video below:

If you have any other questions that I haven't addressed in this post then please please write a comment with

it below and I'll try to answer them as best as I can in a timely fashion.  Whatever you decide to do, I hope

it's the right decision for you in the end :) 

New Year, New Decade and Still Loving Lisbon! A Look Back On How My Life Changed Here in the Last 2 Years

So didn't manage to get any new posts in before the end of 2009 as I had hoped to.... but now I am entering 2010 feeling very refreshed and energized after my first visit back home to the US after 2 years of not leaving Portugal!

Now I exaggerate a bit when I have told people I have compared myself to Tom Hanks in Castaway after being stuck in a foreign country for 2 years was like being on a desert island but there is a bit of truth in it in the process of how you feel about a place as time passes by. Originally very excited to move to Portugal when I first came in Feb. 2008, that almost immediately started to vanish when I had immense difficulty getting a job, an apt, electricity and hot water for my apt, and getting around Lisbon without ending up lost in the ghetto. Then as things started to smooth out and I was settling in, the whole issue about legality reared its ugly head and I was in fear of getting kicked out of the country! All of a sudden I wasn't as unhappy about the difficulties of settling here and after all the work I did to get where I was, I was desperate not to have that all taken away. So I lived in fear and almost in "hiding" while searching for the right information to fix my situation. This lasted until the end of 2008 when I found out how to fix it and got started with the process in early 2009.

But my new-found relief and happiness was short-lived when the economic crisis started to really sink in here and I had very little to no work for the first 4 months of the year........I was again living in fear, but the fear of not having enough money to survive now that I could stay here! Every time I got down, I kept asking myself, what the heck are you still doing here?? Is this really worth it? Am I just doing this now because I don't want to admit defeat? Maybe at that time, that was the only reason....but then work started picking up by mid-April and by May and throughout the summer, both my work and my residency process were moving along quite well. I think this was the first time I was starting to really feel that I was finally fitting in here, especially since by then my understanding of Portuguese had gradually developed over time from a thick fog of bewilderment to seeing it starting to clear and being aware and comfortable about what was going on and being said around me. I didn't feel lost anymore, both in speech and finding my way around Lisbon, in fact I know the city better now than many natives!

Towards the end of 2009, it looked as though yet again, I would not be able to leave the country to finally go home and visit my family and friends. This was the hardest for me the year before, as I still felt like a complete foreigner, an outsider who had no business being there and didn't have the support of her own people to get her through the lonely days. This past year I thought it would be just as hard on me but it was actually quite different.....I now felt like I was a part of the Portuguese community, I worked, I had my own friends (not just my boyfriend's friends) I could carry on a conversation in Portuguese and my neighbors actually knew me and knew I was American, not the Ukranian (hooker) they may have once before regarded me as :p I felt that, despite not being able to come home for the holidays, this time I felt comfortable, content and in the end I was so used to living here this long that it was enough for me to enjoy the holidays still.

But then 2 weeks before Christmas I went on a whim to SEF (immigration) to check on my status and found out that I actually could leave the country! Of course I didn't believe it at first because they had been telling me the exact opposite the whole time but after confirming it with 2 other sources, I quickly got online and bought my plane ticket back to the US for a two week trip! In a way now, I was glad I found out at the last minute because I ended up spending Christmas both with my "family" in Portugal and left the day after to go spend it with my real family in the US, so I got the best of both my worlds actually :) It was still scary though to fly on a plane for the first time in 2 years (and the day after the attempted terrorist attack along with my 8hr flight being quite turbulent!) and when I got into Newark, my first stop before another short flight to Washington DC, I came to realize just how long I had been away! I almost felt like a foreigner in my own country; my clothing style had become distinctly Euro when I saw how differently I was dressed to Americans and I was also turning my nose up at some of the ways Americans were behaving that I used to do before! But I think my biggest change was having to stop myself from saying "excuse me" in Portuguese if I bumped into someone going into the restroom :p

Though I liked the way I had developed "culturally" in my time away, I still loved being back at home, enjoying my mom's cooking and lots of fresh-baked Christmas cookies :) But there were other outside American things which I used to love that ended up not being so exciting, especially when I knew I could get almost the same thing in Portugal at an even better and at a cheaper price(even with the exchange rate!). Don't get me wrong, there are many things I love about America, but when it comes down to certain things that are very important to me, Portugal has it better in my opinion. For example, it is so much safer here than in most of the US, with TV news shows actually reporting about things other then murders, suicides, accidents and everything else horrible that American news shows report in gruesome detail non-stop. And Portugal may not have perfect health care but it has certainly been better to me financially than in the US!

Overall it was still a much needed vacation home but by the end of my two weeks there, I was already ready to come back to Portugal. And when I got off the plane here in Lisbon, even in the pouring rain, wind and fog, everything seemed sunny to me and I felt like I truly belonged here. All the little things that I loved about this place which got overshadowed by stress and hardship, came shining through and I I appreciated them once again and much more. I was so happy to be back at my home away from home. Yes home will always be where my family is but now I can finally say that when I come back to my apt everyday after work here, I am coming home as well :) I know now that I made the right decision in coming here 2 years ago, and I am looking forward to things getting even better this new year and on :)

"Writings On The Wall"- Lisbon Graffiti In Style

When I first came to this country, I was surprised at how much graffiti there is around Lisbon and most cities. To most people who aren't affiliated with graffiti in some way, it usually is a symbol of a poor or rough neighborhood and shameful that they are vandalizing and defacing public or private property. But as I've passed by a lot of graffiti here many times and began to look at it more closely, there is a significant amount that is not bad at all and actually quite artistic. When you think about it, there are so many extremely old buildings and walls here that are brown and gray and disgusting with age that they really could benefit from some color!

Take this one long wall near my neighborhood in Lisbon, that starts right after Amoreiras Mall and winds up into Campolide; this wall is where it seems the "Style Wars" take place. Or at least that's what I've come to conclude from what I've observed over time. Every year the wall is painted over and various graffiti artists or groups come and take a large section of the wall which they do up an impressive work to "represent" their people. Each one is like a puzzle, trying to figure out the hidden message or symbol of their words and illustrations with what is going on in their world. Some seem to have references to world issues while others represent loved ones that were lost or something completely abstract in itself. As I strolled down the sidewalk along the wall checking out each section and taking photos of some of my faves, it was like walking through an art gallery....with the best part of it being free! Below are some of the most memorable from this year's wall, some are a bit silly while others are quite moving:

Cool Dragon



Not sure what these little guys represent but I found it funny that the railing hit just the right spot from where I was standing to take the photo to censor a certain part on one :p
Somehow I believe they meant "humor", which is common to find misspellings here when people try to write in English..... though I could be wrong since the face does resemble a bit of a known Simpsons character (but with 3 eyes?)

The Shell gasoline sign caught my eye in this one
I like the bright colors and the shininess of this one.

"Poison" This was the largest mural on the wall, an obvious memorial to a member of this team who died....

“Even far away, you continue to be present, you woke up who was sleeping, to see the future that was in front. You drank from your own name and raised it so high that you have become impossible to reach….”

“Down here we continue to wait, we scream really loud that I wish you could be here! But what is time after all? Small fragments of life, at any moment everything could end. You lived it well, to everyone you touched, your magic lasts, your voice won’t shut up!! Thank you Miguel”


Well done and well written guys.

Fun Times Around Town and Country!

So it's been a little bit of time again but I have been out and about more (yay!) for various things so I've decided to recall some of the highlights from the past couple weeks :)

Another Crazy Tuna Night!
It had been awhile since we had gone to one of the tuna gatherings, mainly because of poor weather, but we finally got out late last month for a "Fado Night" hosted by the tuna's university-NOVA. There were actually no tuna performances, supposedly local fado groups, so the tuna went to their usual watering hole hangout- the restaurant across the street from the school, to drink and eat bifanas (pork cutlet sandwiches, typical ballpark food here). We met up with them there and joined in the beer drinking and "box" white wine shots? (first time for me, quite odd but tasty) and by the time we arrived at the NOVA's courtyard, they had already finished the fado and brought in a DJ which turned the whole place into a hoppin' open air club haha. And man, did that place get packed! We continued our beer drinking there while enjoying the music and the cool night breeze and then all I can remember is falling asleep on the way home and collapsing into bed....always the same ending after a night with the tunas :p

Reaching New Heights, with Great Views!
We've been exploring a lot of the cliff areas on the coast here, mainly around Guincho again, up on Serra da Sintra. During the past couple weeks, we found another little restaurant in Azoia with by far, some of the best food and service around! We decided to take Gabriella and Ryan Opaz, my Catavino bosses there while they were visiting Lisbon last week and we had an incredibly delicious lunch :D Afterwards, we took them to another cool place we found, just down the street actually; a Mexican-themed cafe/bar with a funky decorated interior and a beautiful outdoor garden seating area overlooking the ocean. Great place for afternoon coffee, cocktails and scones (yes! another scone place!) which we enjoyed outside in the crisp, mountain air. We also enjoyed an impromptu visit from a local stray dog, looking for love....or maybe food? hahaha :p



Then last weekend, we packed a picnic lunch and drove over to the southern shore to check out the cliffs near Sesimbra, which are a lot more remote than the other, with some pretty rough dirt roads to go up, but once we got to the top it was worth it! We parked near the edge and feasted on homemade pasta, salad and garlic bread with a bottle of wine that we spread out in the back seats of the car (was waaay to cold and windy to dine outside hehehe) while overlooking some spectacular ocean views :D

Cheap Beer Alert!
Last Friday night, I went out with the boys down to Santos, a great Bairro Alto alternative with tons of little bars/clubs to explore. We all had been around there plenty times before but this night, we just so happened to come across a little back alleyway with a couple bars and a jazz/rock club and right at the very end was a sign hanging out of a bar for 50 CENT BEERS! Ok, I'm by no means a beer-chugging hoodlum (but the boys are haha) but during the midst of an economic crisis, this is totally my kind of thing!!! And by beer, we mean draft beer, Portugal's Sagres, Superbock or Tagus straight from the tap into half-pint plastic cups, called "uma(1)Imperial" (plural: duas(2) Imperiais) here in Lisbon (in Porto it's "Fino"). So chilled out there in the alleyway, drinking our 50 cent beers while listening to the quite decent rock band inside the club playing covers from Pearl Jam and other 90's hits. By the way, the 50 cent beer "mini-bar" had an awesome DJ as well :)


Ok, so that's some of the cool stuff that's been happening here in my life lately and glad things are continuing to improve, promise to update this thing more often again, cheers!

Interesting Little Cultural Differences

It is probably assumed that the Portuguese culture is quite different from American culture; being a European culture in general, things go at a much more relaxing pace than the fast-food pace of the American world of course. Like most Americans, I grew up with the impatient tendency of wanting things done now, right away or even yesterday haha, so naturally, I had to adjust a bit when coming here, knowing that I would have to wait a bit for things. However, I don't think any American could ever be prepared enough to realize just how much WAITING you have to do here! And I mean for everything and everyone, but since I have slowly become adjusted to these slower things, waiting is not always bad.

"I have to PAY to piss here?!"

A perfect example is going out for a meal, which what would normally be 30mins-1hr for lunch and 1.5-2hrs for dinner in the US converts to 2hrs for lunch and 3-3.5hrs for dinner here. I normally enjoy these much more leisurely meal periods to begin with, being able to savor my food and wine as well as digest it properly by sitting longer. Though there are also times when meals exceed my patience limit, for example when the server is always nowhere to be seen when you are ready to ask for the check (keep in mind they will never drop the check at a table here, you must always ask for it) or when the company I am with have been sitting and chatting so long after even the drinks are gone and the check paid that I'm thirsty again and my butt is so sore I could scream, but maybe that's just me haha.

But enough about the waiting, there are other cultural differences that are actually quite nice to have and make us Americans seem quite rude! For instance, whenever you enter a building, shop, bus, even an elevator, you greet the people there with either Bom Dia (Good Morning), Boa Tarde (Good Afternoon) or Boa Noite (Good Evening/Night) and you do the same when you leave. This can also apply when just passing people in the street or going through a door at the same time. In many situations, an added Hello and Goodbye are used with the greeting. Now I must say, it has been a rare occasion for me in the US to get on an elevator and have everyone greet me and say farewell when they got off, and if you do something like that there, many times Americans will kind of look at you weird and think you want something from them, how sad is that?! Though I admit, I did feel a bit the same way when I first encountered that here and hadn't realized it was custom, and I also thought at first to be quite annoying to say hello and goodbye to strangers all the time. But now I've come to appreciate such politeness and many times it comes off more friendly than just polite and makes me feel a lot more welcome :)

But to add to this, one thing I still find odd and unnatural here is the custom of saying Com Licença ("Excuse me") when hanging up the phone after talking to a business or after when someone comes to my apartment door, be it my neighbor, servicemen or solicitors. It still makes me want to say "Excuse you for what?" like if they had just bumped into me or something, but what they mean out of politeness is that they are excusing themselves to leave/hang up. Americans only seem to do this when getting up from a table with a group of people to excuse themselves to go to the bathroom or take a call, etc, but it is meant because we are interrupting something. I guess I never thought I was interrupting someone hanging up the phone at the end of a conversation or going back inside my apt, and I will probably always find it strange but hey, it's never bad to be polite! hahaha.


So even though another country's cultural customs can be new and "foreign" and hard to adjust to at times, there are always good things that should be embraced. They have made me realize how much of a "typical American" I could really be, and glad to have my opened my mind just a bit more ;)

TUNAS! And I don't mean fish!

As a former HS band geek from back home, I felt that I had to present Portugal's equivalent to our marching bands. These musical groups are called Tunas, found mainly at universities all over Portugal as well as in Spain (where they first started) and all of Latin America. Their origins seem to date back to between the 10th and 13th century, from medieval troubadours and minstrels who had to sing and perform to make money to live on or upon their return home after a long journey or vacation. The name name "tuna" then supposedly comes from the French roi de Thunes or "King of Tunis" which was the title used for leaders of such vagabond groups. But there are still several other argued theories as to the origin of the name, even specific to the Portuguese tunas. The first Portuguese tunas were organized in the 19th century in the famous university city of Coimbra after a visit from a Spanish tuna of Salamanca. The tradition of traveling university tunas (to raise money for survival) eventually spread to the rest of the country. Virtually every university now has an organized tuna, usually representing a specific major. There are non-university tunas for older members or alumni but they are a lot less common (more predominant in Spain).

The traditional Tuna "uniform" is definitely more formal than a marching band uniform but can range from very classic medieval attire to a more modern black suit from the 16 and 17th century Iberian students attire. Portuguese tunas mainly use the modern version with a white collared shirt, skinny black tie and long, narrow coat. Instead of pants, girls wear either knee or ankle-length narrow black skirts with black stockings and conservative black pumps. The outfit is always completed with a large, ankle-length black cape wrapped around the entire body like a vampire or folded and slung over the shoulder when warmer out. Others like to proudly display their badges from previous Tuna festivals all over their capes for some added color to their black ensemble.

In Tunas, you won't see any of the musical instruments played in a normal marching band, string instruments are actually the main ones used, consisting of classic acoustic guitars, lutes and bandurrias for most Tunas around the world. However, Portuguese Tunas normally opt to use mandolins and a special Portuguese guitar (used in Fado music) instead of the latter two as well a tall bass. Tuna performances are usually done in an auditorium of the hosting university for the Tuna festivals or competitions scheduled all throughout the year or outside on the streets when raising money for the group. There is no marching involved but the groups will mark time together swaying back and forth to the music in a semi-circle with a someone usually banging on a rope drum or tambourine to keep everyone together. All tunas sing in their performances as well as incorporating flag work and rhythmic tambourine dancing, which makes is easier for students to join with no musical instrument experience.

My boyfriend Miguel happened to be one of these students and did the flag work for his Economics Tuna, called "ForTuna" which was the first Tuna I was introduced to on the first day of my first visit to Portugal 2 1/2 years ago and have been following and learning about them (Tunas)ever since. Now I know what you band geeks are thinking when you read about a "straight" male doing flag work or color guard hahahahaha and trust me, I gave him enough crap for it in the beginning :p But I came to learn that it's not really like color guard at all here, most Tunas only have one flag person (for holding their Tuna flag) and it's normally a male position and they can do some pretty challenging moves performing solo in front of the circle. Girls usually opt to practice the rhythmic tambourine dancing instead along with guys as well and these dances can be quite skillful and impressive to watch! The music Tunas play in general ranges from upbeat classic and modern songs to slow and moving Fado lullabies with vocalist and instrumental solos.


One of the most entertaining part of Tunas is the social celebrating involved before and after festivals and throughout the year and at Tuna dinners hosted at some (unfortunate haha) local restaurant. Though unlike regulated marching bands, drinking is a big part of the Portuguese Tuna culture hahahaha, combined with lots of wild singing and chanting toasts. But it's all in good fun and very rarely are there any problems caused by their celebrating. Beer is the Tuna drinking staple which flows like water at festivals and dinners. Some Tunas are found already half drunk (or worse) by the time they get on stage to perform. This may not make for a very skillful performance but it's certainly an entertaining one! Some "rules" are involved with drinking during Tuna dinners such as "Right Hand is Penalty" meaning one can only hold their drink in the left hand and if caught in the right, they have to chug the whole thing. Members will also be randomly singled out and are chanted on by the group to chug their drink with a traditional "initiation" song for being a part of the group. The drinking continues then after dinner and after the festival is over to celebrate awards and normally goes ALL NIGHT, the stamina that these kids have is incredible hahaha :p

After attending many dinners and festivals of my boyfriend's Tuna over the past year, I've grown to love and appreciate the unique differences these musical groups have compared to my background in marching band. At the same time though, I can also relate in their excitement and anticipation when waiting to perform or waiting to see if they won an award, especially since their Tuna is a smaller one like how my HS band was so I've come to share in their common experiences of triumph as well as loss and/or frustration when judging was believed to be unfair. I recommend to every American, especially you band geeks, to find a Tuna performance to watch if you visit Portugal, as an experience so significant to Portugal's culture is something not to be missed!


You can find a lot more detailed info about the history and traditions of Tunas on Wikipedia or in Portuguese on Wikipedia:

Portuguese. It Isn't Just Like Spanish.........

A linguagem e a vida são uma coisa só / Language and life are the same thing
Originally uploaded by Laura Klemz

Portuguese is not an easy language to learn, in fact I repeat from an earlier post, it's pretty frickin HARD. After studying virtually every Latin-based language out there, I still find Portuguese to be the most difficult to get a handle on....and I've lived here over a year now! I am referring to Portugal Portuguese of course, yes, there are 2 main types of Portuguese, Portugal and Brazilian (not counting the African Portuguese from Angola and Mozambique and all the island dialects) like British and American English but even more distant from each other. The main difference between the two when you hear them spoken is that Brazilian Portuguese is a lot more relaxed and exaggerated, almost sing-songy in the voice (makes for great music) with their 'd's pronounced like 'g's (ex. "bom dia"="bom gia") while Portugal Portuguese is very closed sounding and almost muffled at times with many words clipped at the end or shortened for quicker speaking. This closed, "stiffer" way of speaking makes Portugal Portuguese infinitely more difficult than Brazilian to understand and speak.

Like most Americans, I myself had only heard Brazilian Portuguese spoken (in Miami and lounge music) before I came to Portugal, which if you are familiar with Spanish, one can easily tell that Brazilian has similarities to it in its sound. The assumption is made then that Portugal Portuguese will sound a bit like Spanish as well. HAHAHAHA....not at all folks. In fact, I believe the first way I described how it sounded (and my friends agreed when they heard it too) was like a TV that had gone fuzzy with the snowy screen. :p Others have also described it almost sounding a bit like "Russian", especially when people talk faster than normal (which is still fast). And English-speaking people are not the only ones who have a hard time understanding Portuguese, both Brazilians and Spanish find it difficult as well, most of them don't even try to make an attempt to speak Portugal Portuguese when in Portugal. Yet the Portuguese people can easily transcribe into Brazilian when in Brazil and can also speak mix of Portuguese and Spanish (called "Portañol" by them) when in Spain that is understandable to most Spanish speakers.

But even with the big difference in pronunciation here, I still thought I could transfer most Spanish words into Portuguese, by the same silly way many Americans try to make English words into Spanish by adding an "el" at the beginning and an "o" to the end, like purse to "el purso" (a favorite of mine hehe). So I thought all I had to do was change the "el" for the Portuguese "o" and add an extra "o" sound to the end to make the common Portuguese "oo" sound at the end end of words. Well, I was half right there, and that's where it ended for easy transfer hahaha. This is because Portuguese is actually more closely related to Latin than Spanish is, with many words in Spanish deriving from Arabic actually, due to its history of Arab rule, while Portuguese remained more isolated and refusing to adopt new words from other language influences. You can find then more similarities in Portuguese with French (both use verb+infinitive for continuous form) and Italian (both use an article and possessive to preempt a noun ex. "il mio Italiano" and "o meu Português") with all three having many cognate verbs.

But I was still stubborn in my learning and after much trial and error, I found that there are cognate nouns in both Spanish and Portuguese with just a small root change. An easy one to remember is:

-If the first letter(s) of a noun in Spanish is followed by an "l", it will be an "r" instead in Portuguese (normally). Some examples: playa >> praia (beach), plata >> prata (silver), obligatorio >> obrigatorio (obligatory)

There are other somewhat simple, ES-PT root changes such as "-n" in ES to "-m" in PT (en=em, con=com) but are not as straightforward since they tend to be mixed with the "ie" in ES to "e" in PT (quiero=quero, quien=quem, bien=bem).

This all may help you out for reading and writing in Portuguese but the pronunciation of these words after the root changes is quite significant and much more difficult to even come close to saying the word correctly! I am still amazed at myself for having managed to get to at least an intermediary level of Portuguese without any classes within 1 year of living here. I credit this from just literally being forced to use the language everyday for sheer survival, and I've also come to believe that's the only way one can ever learn well-enough such a difficult language. You will surely read more about future adventures I have with Portuguese and hopefully if you ever decide to visit (or move! *gulp*) here, you will be better prepared than I was and LEAVE YOUR SPANISH at the door! ;D

And What Do You Mean By That?

Of course there are various reasons within that answer, but they all have that common denominator. The main ones though are: food and wine, language, culture and love. It all started from my background in culinary arts and hospitality management with a special interest in wines and spirits, when I had first become interested in Portuguese wine during my work as a Master Tutor for the Wines and Spirits classes while attending school at The Culinary Institute of America (CIA). I had actually been inspired by the teachings of one of the Wines professors there, Professor Michael Weiss, who had a special emphasis on the region of Portugal in his classes. This was also the most difficult region for his students to learn, as both the language and the predominant use of unknown native grapes proved to be daunting, as I found out also when trying to tutor them on it. It challenged me then to become more acquainted and knowledgeable in the area of Portuguese wine so that I would be able to answer better the questions students posed to me in my tutoring sessions. Along with doing a thorough reading of the chapter about Portugal in our Exploring Wine textbook, I searched the local wine stores for inexpensive (being on a college budget) Portuguese wines to try. This proved to be both difficult and easy at the same time, for out of the couple bottles I found, all of them were some of the most inexpensive European wines you could find in stores. To my satisfaction also, these wines turned out to not be "cheap" at all in their flavors, with both the flavors and colors of them being quite unique and distinct to other European wines using common grape varieties. I had vowed after college, that I would attempt to learn the languages and go to work first-hand in the main wine-producing countries of Europe, with Portugal being one of my top choices.

Finding a job in Europe and trying to move here is very HARD. Repeat, H-A-R-D, like kids, don't try this at home kind of hard. It took me almost two and half years after college to make an attempt come to Europe and stay here (and legally). During that time before I came here, I spent a year and half in Miami Beach, which I believed to be one of the most international cities in the US and the closest I thought I could get to "living and working in another country". I worked various jobs there in the hotel/restaurant business with all of them never amounting to anything, either because of economic failure (new restaurants closing all the time) or poor/uneducated management. After being overworked to death and under appreciated (underpaid usually), I decided to finally cut my losses and return back home to Washington DC where I spent 4 months saving up money to go take a TEFL course in Barcelona the following January (2008) to become an English teacher. Not only was English teaching advertised as the quickest way get a job and live in Europe, but I also wanted to take a breather from the restaurant industry for a bit, I had had so much frustration and resentment built up already from failed opportunities that I didn't feel it would be wise for me to continue at that time. My original intent had been to stay and work in Barcelona, to explore Spanish wines first, but I realized that I had already fell in love with Portugal; both with the country and a special someone, after taking 2 vacation trips there the year before while in Miami.


Through the immense help and support of that special someone, who is currently my boyfriend, Miguel, I moved to Portugal in February of 2008, got a teaching job, an apartment, bank account and finally, after a long struggle to find the right information, a residency permit in process. I had begun studying Portuguese on my own back in college and by the time I moved here, thought I had had a decent enough understanding of the language, BUT BOY WAS I WRONG. Portuguese is REALLY DIFFICULT to learn guys, and I'll tell you more about that in a later post. After living here for a year now though, I have at least finally managed to get to the decent level in Portuguese that I thought I had originally, and without any classes! That's probably one of the best things you get out of living in a foreign country long enough, free language lessons everyday.