Civic integration in Portugal: in addition to the renovation of our house, that was the main goal for us in the first few months. Having a chat with the fellow villagers of course is difficult, but we soon learn the simple things by saying goodbye (‘Bom dia!’) and asking how it goes (‘Tudo bem?’).
The busy Dutch December month is a bit quieter here. Sinterklaas is unknown and the Portuguese have never heard of Boxing Day. Catholic Portugal does have many other holidays and we noticed that when there was a procession in our village Arelho in early December. Pieter went there to film something for the vlog, but suddenly got a completely different role, when the neighbor promoted him to one of the processioners. Civic integration successful !?
Christmas, for the first time without our family, was special. Certainly because of the beautiful weather: a Christmas lunch outside in the sun with 15 degrees! We celebrated New Years Eve with Kim, Patrick and Milou and they were not the only friends and family who came to Portugal. Piet & Cobien (parents of Pieter) and René & Ria (brother of Jeannette) also came along. Good times!
And so we slowly get used to our new Portuguese life. Of course we miss things from the Netherlands, but what we get in return makes up for that a lot!
More about this subject? See these clips (sorry, they are in Dutch):