Week 1

We survived our first week and am so glad to have the first week under our belt.   It is going to be quite an adjustment for us all and know that only time will help.  Adjusting to a new culture, new routines, new way of life, all at once seems very daunting at times.  I only hope and pray that our time here will continue to get better, more comfortable and that we can find ourselves enjoying our new "normal".  Living on the beach in a beautiful country is wonderful, but no scenery or way of life can replace being close to family and friends.

Some of the week's highlights:
- Getting caught in the rain and sprinting to a little resturant on the beach where we waited for the storm to pass with an order of french fries and glass of vino for me:)  Glass of wine - 2.5 Euro and Fries 1.5 Euro - that's my kind of snack.

- Doing laundry for the first time and hanging our clothes to dry on the clothes line.  We didn't think about if it rained the next day and the towels didn't dry how we would dry off after our shower (yes we used hand towels).  Guess we need to invest in more than 3 towels.  And air drying your clothes makes for some crunchy towels.  We missed the part that you put liquid fabric softener in with your laundry detergent.  We'll know better next time!

- Thursday night we had our first get together at our place.  I can't even explain how great it was to have human interaction and people over to talk to.  Not only was it refreshing for me, Annabelle was gleaming.  We could tell she loved the company and having people, other than her parents, pay attention to her.  Matt from Andy's office in the US was in town, so Andy invited Matt and two other guys from the Portugal office over for some pizza.  It was fun to entertain, although we had no serving pieces, utensils, really anything to use.  After we had gone through the 3 bottles of wine that we had to offer Andy pulled out a beer that we had purchased at the store over the weekend and offered it to our guests.  While Andy was drinking his beer, Pedro commented on drinking the local beer, and then continued to ask Andy why he bought the "non-alocholic" version of the beer.  Of course we didn't know it was the "non-alocholic" version, but guess we'll look closer at the label next time.

- Garbage Disposals - they exist, but we do not have one.  So doing the dishes is quite different than at home, where we would essentially throw everything down the drain.  We now have to clean our plates off into the trash and then empty out a sink plug that stops food from going down the drain.  Not sure how much I'm going to like that way of life.

- Hot Dog - Thursday afternoon Annabelle and I went down to Foz, the city we live in, to go to the supermarket and bakery.  It ended up being a beautiful day and knowing that rain was headed our way for 10 days straight, I thought it would be fun to go out to lunch on the beach.  And let's be honest, give us something to do to make the day pass.  I ordered Annabelle their "traditional hot dog" thinking it would be a traditional hot dog.  To my surprise, it was not an American traditional hot dog and came out as a sandwich - baguette with melted cheese, ham and a hot dog in between.  Thankfully I was able to salvage the hot dog and she knew nothing of it.

 Our view at lunch.

Annabelle running around the restaurant while we waited for our check.  They move at a different speed over here.

- Playgrounds - almost every morning this week we would walk down to the water where they have a handful of playgrounds along the shoreline.  I keep hoping that I will find another mom down there with the same thought as I, but have had the playground all to ourselves.  It's great to have an area where Annabelle can run around and the beautiful view helps!

 View from standing inside the playground fence.

Ocean is to the left and main path where everyone walks/runs is to the right, along with the main street that runs parallel to the water.

Toes in the sand

Monday was the first day that Annabelle and I were on our own.  Fortunately the weather was beautiful so we filled our day down at the beach.  We initially walked down in the morning just to poke around and to my surprise Annabelle wanted to go on to the sand.  So I lugged the jogging stroller and our 30 lbs. child down the stairs to the sand for her to play around.  The first thing she said once I put her down on the sand was "Dirty". She's her father's daughter.  She quickly found that she liked the sand and water!
We spent the our afternoon on the beach, playing in the water and eating lunch on a bath towel.  Yes, a bath towel because we don't have any beach towels.

All-in-all the first day was a success thanks to the beautiful weather!!

Trifecta - McD's, Burger King and Pizza Hut

And those were our first 3 days worth of lunch over here...sad to admit.  The first day we spotted a McDonald's and while we were trying to kill time prior to getting into the house we were thrilled to see that they had a drive through.  Well stores open much later over here, so trying to drive through at 10:45 was not an option, as they did not open until 11:00.  Although they did have a nice McCafe that served coffee and muffins, so we were able to get something to hold us over. We found ourselves back there a few hours later ordering nugs and fries for the family lunch :)

Day 2 we were at the mall and starving, so hit up Burger King for lunch.  Junior Whopper and fries!

Day 3 was the best and we dined at the Pizza Hut on the water.  The restaurant is in a really pretty glass building overlooking the sea and tasted the exact same!!  It was fun to sit outside on the balcony and let Annabelle watch the birds and boats while Andy and I had ourselves some cold beers.

Supermarket Experience

On Sunday we ventured out to do our first big grocery store run.  The supermarkets, as they call them over here, are located in their malls, so on top of the mega stores and super sized malls, you have to navigate through the hundreds of mall goers, to complete your grocery shopping.  Our first obstacle was trying to figure out where to park.  Their malls are ginormous, but you have to park next to the store that you are shopping at, as the carts are property of that store.  Our first attempt was a fail, but after 20 minutes of driving around we got a spot in the correct area.  The second obstacle was to get a grocery cart.  The carts are all locked together and you have to insert a coin into the slot to release the cart from the group.  Well what amount or sized coin was our question?  So we stood for awhile watched people get their carts, Andy tried to ask someone who did not speak English and finally figured it out.
The trip in the store was quite interesting.  While they have some brand names that are familiar like Nestle, Danon, Cheerios, it's all in Portuguese, so you are guessing in part what things are.  We left with a cart full of groceries, but not quite sure what we actually got for meals?  Some other interesting observations:
- Fresh fish, fresh fish, fresh fish = smells like fish (yuck!)
- Salad Dressing - few and far between.  No ranch (what am I going to do?) and the few bottles that they did have to choose from were a quarter of the size of our normal bottles in the states
- Pasta Sauce - comes in jars that are the size of small jelly jars in the states (We'll need 10 to make a pot of spaghetti)
- Mexican Aisle - does not exist.  Salsa, cheese dip - see you when we get back over the holidays
- Produce - produce is to be weighed and marked in the produce section of the store, not at the register (We found that out as we were checking out with a long line behind us and the clerk having to call in someone to go weigh all our fruits and veggies).  Still not sure where the stickers and scales were clearly located, but we will know for next time.

First 24 hours

We left Kansas City Thursday morning and as expected was so sad to leave. Saying goodbye was so hard, but our main focus was getting through the first 24 hours of travel and ensuring Annabelle was okay.  Surprisingly, Annabelle did such an amazing job on the flights.  Our first flight from KC to Newark she had a 5 minute meltdown - all around us not letting her lay in the aisle.  After trying to calm her down, we caved and let her fall asleep in the middle of the small aisle.  We were able to move her after she was passed out to my lap and she slept the majority of the remainder of the flight.  We had a long layover in Newark, which allowed her to run around and for us to get a bite at Chili's (it was so good - chips and salsa and ranch, we will miss you), go back through security and regroup before the long flight.  I was more nervous about the long flight and her falling asleep, but she did so great.  Fortunately, the flight was not sold out and we had 3 seats in a row of 4 and the flight attendant moved us to a row of 4 that was unoccupied, so we were able to stretch out across the 4 seats.  Annabelle was up most of the flight and had a hard time turning it off, as they kept the lights on to serve dinner/wine/coffee/dessert (they do it right :)).  Best part was we didn't have to pay for our wine, you get it for free!  

Finally she fell asleep and was out for a couple hours before we landed. We arrived in Porto around 7:30 Porto time and got through customs smoothly. Because we still do not have our visas, there was a little hesitation and fear about us moving over here, but we got through with our scripted answers.

Once we arrived to our house, we were greeted with a crew still working on a number of things.  Andy had been there a couple weeks prior, in which the house was supposed to be completed, and promised that it would be 100% ready once we all arrived.  Needless to say there were cords hanging out of the walls, NO hot water, no mattresses on the bed, no frig...the list goes on.  Our first day of only wanting to take a hot shower, unpack and nap, was filled with the complete opposite. 

 Goodbye Kansas City...we'll see you over the holidays.

 Annabelle and her new suitcase - she was the hit of the airport!

 Yes, I mean middle of the aisle...that's the only place she wanted to be.

 Let's go dad...she has no idea what's ahead.

And we are off...

The anticipation of this day has been long coming.  Today does not start this journey, rather our journey began when Andy was asked if we would move to Portugal in May.  The mixed emotions, highs & lows, mindset  have shifted over the past few months as we have prepared for this day.  Selling our house, finding Sophie a new home, me quitting a job I loved, moving all our stuff to storage and preparing to leave our family and friends who we so often spent days over days with.

Do we know what's in store?  Not quite sure...but it is now time to find out what the next 18 months will bring for us.  It's a journey.  It's an adventure.  And it's been one of the hardest obstacles in life thus far.  We hope to update our friends and family through this blog and share with you some of the experiences we will encounter living in another country and figuring out life...outside of Kansas.