I've Moved to Portugal

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Podcast Transcript

Please note: This transcript is auto-generated, so there may be spelling and grammar mistakes.

Hey. Hey. Michelle here with the Magic podcast. I am popping in with a five-minute update on what's been happening. I think it's been like two or three months since my last episode that I recorded in Miami about something about ideas being the master of your ideas. And now it is March, and we are no longer in Miami. We've moved to Porto, Portugal, and lots have happened. Lots has happened.

And I think that's why I haven't made a new episode, because I was thinking of, okay, I got to give the big update. We moved to a whole new country. Here's everything that's going on, and here's what it's like. And I just realized that that kind of felt like a lot to talk about. And things are so busy that I didn't have it in my mind to be like, okay, when am I going to sit down and talk about everything? And I realized I could just sit down and talk for five minutes about something which feels a lot more doable and just real. So right now, I am literally in my bed. My four year old is about to fall asleep on my knee, and I just wanted to let you know that we are in Porto, Portugal. We are absolutely loving it.

Porto reminds me a lot of Paris, actually. I think it's because of just the feeling of a European city and the access to the metro, being able to hop on the metro and go anywhere and all the little stores and boutiques and cafes galore. And there's a bridge in Porto because there's this huge river that goes through Porto, and there's this bridge that actually is designed by the same person that designed the Eiffel Tower. So that's another reason it feels a lot like Paris. And I love Paris, but I think I love Porto even more in a different kind of way, because it just is so family friendly here. It's like the family friendly version of Paris. And when I say family friendly, I mean it's incredible how people just love children here. And I feel like everywhere we go, people are just delighted to see my two kids.

And one example is I took my two-year-old to this beautiful store that specializes in fragrances and soaps. They've been selling beautifully packaged soaps for over 100 years. And I went there because I really wanted to get a nice perfume for myself. I was like, I really want to be intentional about my purchases. So I was realizing, you know what? I need another perfume. I don't want to just get anything. I want to go somewhere special. And I Googled this really nice, beautiful place with tons of history and tons of beauty, and we went there.

And so I had my two year old with me, and the sales clerk was we walked into the store, and he saw Mateo, my son, and he gave him a little bar of soap just as a treat, and said hi to him. And it's one thing for the person serving you to notice your child and say hi, but this guy practically played with him the whole time, was always trying to make him laugh. And Matteo is really sad, so he spent the whole time trying to get on Mateo's good side. And it was just so unique because I realized I'd never experienced that before. Yeah, people will acknowledge my children if I walked into a store sometimes. But here in Porto, it's like they really just truly enjoy children. They are playing with them, talking to them. Other things I've noticed from the day that we got to Portugal, I just noticed little things, like people would and this kind of sounds creepy, but people would touch my children.

Like, they'd walk past and pat them on the head or pat them on the arm. We cannot go to a metro without someone just trying to make eye contact and be friendly with my children. In another setting, it might be kind of suspicious, like, why are you so friendly? What's up? What do you want? What are you doing? What's the game here? But because we know that Portugal is kind of known for this, or at least the parts of Portugal that we've been to, that we know that people are very family oriented here. And it never felt weird. It always felt really nice to know that the children are a part of society, they're a part of life. They're not just to be seen and not heard. They are truly, you know, they feel I can see how, from a child's perspective, they feel more a part of life. It's not here's the kids world and here's the adult world.

It's just all together. And it's because the adults here bring the children into the conversation, bring them into the experience. Another example is, even just going out to go eat, the waiters will consistently, every time, want to talk to the kids. And even though they're not speaking the same language, it's hard to explain. It's like they truly want to have fun with the kids. They're not just trying to serve you your meal and get you out of there. They're enjoying your children. And it's just my favorite thing about this place is that my kids can grow up in a place where they feel respected, they feel appreciated, they feel seen, and it's just so unique.

And I'm sure there's a hundred more examples I could share if I could remember them, because every single day I see something that just stands out to me. Another example I can share is I was on the metro with my two year old, and it was a busy time of day, and there was no place to sit, and there was no place to hold on to any railings. And when the metro is moving, you can fall over if you're not holding on to something, but I had nothing to hold on to. And I had my little kid, and it was amazing. Everybody around me kind of put their hands up to keep me from falling, and they did that during the whole ride until I got off the metro. It's like people are just so aware of other people. It's not like, okay, we're all in this metro, and we're pretending. Like it's like when you go into an elevator, you just pretend you don't know how to interact with people.

When you're in an elevator with other people, it's different here. When you're around other people, people are talking to you. They're interacting. They're protective of you. If my backpack, I walk around with a backpack, and sometimes I leave one of the zippers open because it has my water bottle in it. And every time I do that, someone will come up to me and say, your zipper is open, and they will close it for me. They will close the zipper on my backpack to make sure that I'm not, like, an easy target for pickpockets or something that can fall out. Like people are watching out for other people.

So that's one of my favorite things about Porto or Portugal in general. We started out in the Algarve, and then we went to Porto Mao, and now we're in Porto, and we just really love it here. We are in the middle of house hunting or apartment hunting for a place to stay long term, and then we're going to look for a kindergarten for the kids and just make life home here. And I guess that's all I wanted to come on and say in this episode. And I'll be sure to come back and do more quick episodes about life in Porto and what's going on in the business, what's going on in Life. I'm just excited that the podcast, I'm sure I'm going to be sharing more and more about just life, about enjoying life, about enjoying Europe, enjoying Portugal. It's something I've been wanting to do more with. The podcast is talk a little less about business and talk more about life.

Because I think that when you really live a well-lived life, your business is an organic byproduct of the life that you are truly living and truly enjoying. And I just wanted to bring that more into the conversation. So stay tuned for more episodes, and I will see you in the next one.