Living in Tavira-

My day to day life….

We have been in Tavira for almost 6 months now.  We absolutely love living here and our lives are drastically different from how they were back in Vegas. Since I don’t have a job, I have all the flexibility I need but I still have fallen in to a basic routine. 

I wake up whenever I feel like it, but normally its by 8am. Apparently, after 14 years of working nights, my body actually likes mornings! I eventually get out of bed, eat breakfast and have some coffee and either go to the gym or workout at home. I try to get in some sort of workout every day or else I’m a very grumpy person lol. I need those endorphins! On gym days, I walk to the gym. It’s a pleasant 15 minute walk. I often joke that I feel like Belle in Beauty and the Beast because all along everyone greets each other, “Bom dia!, Bom dia!” During my walk I also listen to my Practice Portuguese podcast because I am actively trying to learn the language. If I don’t go to the gym, I do yoga and/or Pilates. 

After my workout, I do some cleaning around the house. Our apartment is less than half the size of our old house so I can clean the whole thing pretty quickly. I do laundry almost every day because the washing machine is pretty small and until recently we didnt have a dryer so we had to line dry everything. A load of laundry would take 1-2 days to dry. Now we have this handy drying closet so I can get through a full load a day. 

I shower and have a small lunch and then its time for a walk with Bodhi. We go out and explore the town and sometimes stop and have a coffee. Bodhi loves his walks every day, he gets to meet new friends and loves the attention. We also work on his training every day. We slacked off on it a little when we first moved here and his behavior changed a lot. This boy needs constant structure and stimulation so we won’t make that mistake again. We also go to the grocery store or the mercado, if we need to get groceries for dinner, or run any other errands we need to do.

Once we get home, I try to do some more Portuguese language lessons. I will also take this time to write or do whatever random stuff I need to get done. We make dinner and usually sit and watch tv for while. Its been pretty cold during the winter so unless there is something going on, we don’t go out much because I hate the cold! I cant wait for it to warm up so we can go do more after dinner. Then its bed time around 11 or so. 

We also have a lot of days where we go explore other towns and we hang out with friends a lot too. Occasionally we go out to eat dinner, but until we figure out our job situation, we try to limit that. 

I love having the freedom to do what I want here. I can wake up whenever I want and I don’t have to go clock in at a job for 8 hours. I don’t have to deal with angry customers every day. And the biggest change is IM HAPPY! I am pretty sure that my soul was black from the years of working in a casino, you really see the worst of people there and it just changes you. I haven’t been yelled at in almost a year, its fuckin fantastic!