Summer Heat, Studio Beads, and Bureaucratic Battles

SPEAKER_02 0:04

Welcome to As the Dinaston's Turn, where we chronicle the adventures of the Dinaston family, a seemingly ordinary family from Iowa who decided, hey, you only live once. So let's move to Portugal. And now your hosts, Jason and Tracy Dynaston.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Are you gonna talk or am I gonna talk? You do the intro, probably. Why is this a question? Welcome to another episode of As the Dinason's Turn, first time in like two and a half months.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

It's been a crazy time, but it's there's been a lot of exciting things that are going on. You can tell right now we are in the middle of heat wave, so it's a hundred degree air temperature, like 105 feels like. So we have everything closed off and portable air conditioners running. So we're hanging out today inside.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

The air conditioners don't keep up very well, I don't think.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

I don't think you can. When it's that hot and muggy out, it just doesn't work very well. And it's just it's just hot. So we're living on ice and ice cream and anything that can be eaten um quickly because you can't use the oven or make a whole lot of stuff because it's just too hot. You don't want to make it hotter.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

So well, June in Portugal came and went.

SPEAKER_00 1:20

It did.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

And you had your surgery, so you were kind of out of commission much of the month of June.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

Yeah, I had uh surgery to repair some hernias, everything's going well. Um, I feel much better. It's amazing because they found that I had a congenital defect where there was a hole in my diaphragm. Um, and most now they find that through ultrasounds and things. The fact that they didn't, I guess it's a miracle that I'm alive, that kind of thing they tell you. Um, but I have to say that now I can finally like I didn't know I wasn't getting deep breaths or full breath. So I can get a full breath now. And that's just it's amazing how much that will do for a person. That's so horrible, but it's true. It's I feel much better now. So hopefully that's the last for quite a while.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

And then you had your pottery residence.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

Yes, two weeks of pottery residency. I am telling you, anybody who wants to come next summer, this is two weeks for art that's totally worth it. I learned so much. I took the residency on um jewelry making. So it was called beads and alternative firings. And I loved all the alternative firings. Um, I love Raku. Um, I'm always gonna love that. It's just magic where you take it out like when it's piping hot and then you throw it into something where it's burning and you try and get all this reduction and shut off all the oxygen, you get really cool colors. So um I learned how to do that on a small scale in a microwave kiln. So got a microwave coming. I hope you guys are ready for videos. You can follow me on Kendall Magic on Instagram for more things. But I learned mono printing, which is where you paint, reverse paint something on um newsprint or on um acetate paper, and then you print it onto the clay, and that's become like my whole thing now. Like I love it. It's it's just awesome. And so I'm sitting on the couch um this evening and making beads, rolling beads, so I can just keep making more because all the metalwork and everything I learned. I learned how to make all of my own um fittings and all of those things. So I've got I've got lots of stuff to do. I'm excited. I even have I made so many beads during my residency. I already went into the pottery studio and made a whole bunch more of different things, some Halloween things and some sardines, because we live in Portugal and you must have sardines in your jewelry repertoire. It's a requirement. Um, so and I've been making spoon rests and all kinds of other things. So I'm getting ready. I'm starting with some Halloween stuff, and then really next month I have to start with all the Christmas preparations. So I'm gonna be busy. I'm excited.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

And I've been busy with dinos and media stuff. So dinosin media is kind of taking over a lot of the other things that I used to do, and it's being very successful, I guess. Um, and we've got Dynason Media Portugal in the works that hasn't started yet, but there's an attorney in Portugal working on that, and that'll house Portugal Chronicle, which we've started already, that tells basically English language stories for interested parties, whether you're in the US or Canada, wherever you are, you can consume English language content about Portugal, or if you're Portuguese and want to brush up on your English and have something produced in Portugal, we've got Mafalda, who's an excellent. Um, I guess we could call her a reporter. We're technically not in the journalism business. Did you know that in Portugal you actually have to have a license to do journalism? So we're not doing the news reporting type of journalism. It's more telling stories.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

But when we talk about Portugal Chronicle, the thing that we really wanted, and the reason why Mafalda is such a wonderful addition to our business is that she is somebody that is part of the culture that can actually give us some cultural understandings and that can make connections in ways that we can't. Um, some of the stories we will bring you in the future are all um immigrant types of stories and expats or collisions of culture topics. Um, but she's been able to make some amazing um connections. She has a great wealth of knowledge and she's a fantastic writer. So I think that we're really excited for that to take off. Um, and there's a lot of exciting things with that. Like we've got, you know, Dynason Media is doing great, and we're working hard and bringing new content. And I think that there'll be some good um updates of things to come.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

We're working on getting a world headquarters set up in Portugal for Dynason Media Portugal. Yeah. Um, and we'll have some more about that soon. We've got a couple, got Jason in Portugal that's finally going to launch.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

Yeah, he gets to get started this next week. We've got a list of errands, things that need to be done, and he's taking them on. And we're also in the middle of our um residency renewal, which is a disaster as it is, because they tell you things after the fact, and then everybody runs to solve the problem that they tell you about bureaucratically, and then it causes another one. So we'll see how that goes um and how long it takes. But um, I'm glad that we made this move and I feel very happy with where we are. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Yeah, I feel pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

And it's amazing that, you know, um, it's too hot to live anywhere right now. Like it's just too hot.

SPEAKER_02 7:21

It's true.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

It's and we're also at the point of time in our town where L emigrants come back and visit family. And so our town goes from like maybe one-third or half of its population to full. And um, it's overwhelming. Like the amount of people is overwhelming.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

So in August of 2023, we talked about this, and we said we would revisit it in a year, but then that was one of those stretches where we didn't do any podcasts for like six months, so we didn't actually revisit it in a year. So I guess we're revisiting it in two years now. Um what our thoughts are about uh how busy our town gets.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

I'm over it and it just started. Like what? It's like August 3rd, and I'm ready for August and the first two weeks of September to be done. That lets you know how lovely it is in town. Um, yeah, it's just crazy. It's back-to-back traffic, it's people, um, more people not following road rules or following um customs. Um, I think that you see that a lot in people who are coming back. Um, and everything's just a lot busier because this is people coming back to visit family or in houses that they're in for only holidays. And now's the time of year to get a lot of work and renovations done because it's hot and you know, the weather is nice, so you can do a lot of things. So there are people hauling things and the hardware store is crazy busy. I don't know. It's just the grocery store parking lot is it's literally like an episode of Survivor.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

You see a lot of things that you don't normally see. Um the other day we were driving home and traffic was back to back, and some guy just started walking across the street, not at the not at a crosswalk like you're supposed to, and someone started inching their car forward, and he was like gesturing and knocking on the guy's window.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

You know, I'm like, you're in the middle of the road, crazy person. This is not even it's not even close to a sidewalk.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

Oh, and then today you almost got run over standing in a pedestrian walkway.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

Yeah, we're standing in a pedestrian, like in a pedestrian area talking to a friend, and we saw that I'm just so glad that we have more friends in town, our uh lovely Canadian friends.

SPEAKER_01 9:43

Um they listened to our podcast, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

I know we need to have them on. I think the four of us in an episode would be fantastic. We would have a great time. Um, you might have to listen to a lot of cathartic bitching, but um, I have to say, because we go through a lot when it comes to school, maybe we're I had a remark, but I'll I smiling on my head. There you go. Um, no, I have to say that um they're backing up and they're backing up and they literally couldn't move forward. They don't need to back up anymore. And they're almost running over our friend's child, the 12-year-old, and like putting my foot out to hit the back of their car so they don't hit the kid. We're like, what is wrong with you? That was crazy.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

And then right after that, someone almost backed into the grocery store worker who was g pushing the carts back into the store from the cart stall thing.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

I know they just decided they were gonna keep going when like over half of the cart line was all the way back. It's just nobody's looking or paying attention. It was crazy. I don't know. I I have said this before, um, and I probably will say this every year. Um, I would be happy to just rent our place for the month of August. If somebody wants it, you just let us know. We'll work out a deal and we'll go elsewhere. But the problem is, is in Portugal, I don't think there is an elsewhere that's habitable this time of year.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

You're not making we're not making a good sales pitch either, though. I know people want to come here.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

It's so pretty outside. Most of the time it's too hot right now. But um, it's because everybody is coming to the mountains and the river beaches, and they're escaping from the city, and we live in a smaller town, and so it's fantastic in that respect. And that's why we like it, right? All year round. We're those people. So when other people come, it's like, whoa, I forgot. Like this is the reason why the continent had to put gates up, and so you have to park, like get a ticket to park in our parking lot, because otherwise, people who come and stay in the apartments um that are right there will park in the continent parking lot and you can't like the shoppers can't use it. Like, so it's just things like that. We're learning um how to deal with those things. But I don't know. I think that it's a beautiful place and I like it. I just wish fewer people had discovered it.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

Well, in a few more weeks, the holidays will be over and it'll be school time.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

No, no, no, no, we can't even say that word yet. No, that's not until the middle of September, the 12th, like through the 15th. We we can't don't don't tell your children. We have too much to have, like too much fun to have. So, and we have a we have work to do before then. So, like I I am by work with our children, I mean um, I'm taking them to the movie tomorrow and we're meeting friends to go to the see the Fantastic Four and have lunch at the mall because it's too hot to stay home. So that's what I mean by work. We need to go and do some fun things. We haven't done fun things, we've been working a lot. That's true. So at least there are some times during your schedule over the month of August. I try and make sure his schedule is lighter so that we can actually take advantage of that time and do a little day trip here and there. Um, but we'll see how that goes.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

Well, it's hot, it's dry, it hasn't rained in like two months.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

I miss the rain. That's crazy to say because there will be like two months of straight rain like in October, but I do miss the rain because everything's turning brown, and that's sad. It's not usual. Um, I keep waiting for it to break, right? So I don't know. Um, what are the things that you have on your list that we need to do in the month of August while it's still summertime?

SPEAKER_01 13:41

I think we should go to Spain. All right. At least a day trip, even if we don't spend the night just go up to Ego or something.

SPEAKER_00 13:48

Yeah. Be nice to get out there. Like it's funny, we were talking about um there's this restaurant in Guimaraish called Un Museo de Presunto, which is how you say the ham museum. And for those of you who have traveled with me or gone to Madrid, you know there's a Museo de Camon, which is their ham museum. So we have one up here. Um, it's got completely different menus, it's not like the same kind of thing, but I have to tell you, I was telling the kids about it and they were like, well, that sounds interesting. I might need to do that, mom. So I might have even convinced them that a road trip is good. Okay. We'll see.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

Sounds good.

SPEAKER_00 14:25

Yeah, I really just uh I want us to spend more time together. Like we've been so busy, and I, you know, I think that we did a really good job at the beginning of making sure we weren't working 24-7 seven days a week. And then life gets busy and gets in the way, and then you have to like grind while like all of the deals and things are coming in. Um, I think that we need to make sure we take a week um at least to just decompress and say, okay, we need to kind of reinvigorate and rebuild. Because my residency did that for me, like was two weeks of amazingness, even though it um made my back flare up from sitting so long. Um, but you need you need that too. And there's not, it's not like there's like a radio residency or something like that in Portugal. I'm sorry. So we need to make sure you do something to fill you fill you up so we can grind again and get through it all. I don't know. I I think that it would be interesting to see what questions um our listeners have for us. So if you have questions, put them in comments so we can actually address those. I have to say no regrets. I I really wish we'd been able to do this sooner. I'm so happy with where we are. The kids are doing great. Both boys did really well. They passed all of their classes. Um Jack's average is what you would consider like a B B plus average, B plus average, actually, um, which is fantastic considering he's still a beginning level of Portuguese. Um the fact that he can do all of that and do all of his work in Portuguese at that beginning level and still get really high grades is fantastic. Um, like his mom, his lowest grade was gym, and I'm okay with that. And Tyler had a great year and finished strong and now is moving into eighth grade and has learned that studying. He learned this year that studying is something you have to do. So hopefully um that will carry over because the moment he started studying, then those uh struggle classes of math and science weren't struggles anymore. It's amazing how that happens. So I don't know. I think that life is good. We're spending a lot of time driving between here and Guimaraes. You know, I do that for pottery, and you know, we do that like this is where Mafalda is, and that's where the language institute is. I still haven't really decided if I'm not gonna teach. I know our lives are too crazy for me to teach. That's the part that I think I'm sad about because I loved these kids. I do. Um, and if I could hand pick my next class, I would totally be all over it. So I don't know. They they might be able to convince me. I think it depends on needs. Um, but yeah, you're gonna have to keep keep in tune, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Yeah, let us let us know what your questions are and we'll uh try to address them. We're here on a digital nomad visa, so our experience is a little No, we're not we're not on a digital nomad visa.

SPEAKER_00 17:43

We're actually no, we're not. We we came on a D7, which was a passive income visa because we had enough money in the bank account, and that doesn't prohibit you or didn't before prohibit you from working as long as your money wasn't earned within Portugal. Um, so that I'm I am actually on a family reunification visa. So um I can work, um, which has been good to get us a little bit of money in. And like, but we're not digital nomad visa. Our experience has been very different though, um, than anybody who's been applying in the last couple of years. So um I'd say that renewals and applications are, you know, in the month of August, don't even try it. Um, September, there's still gonna be a big backup. If you have decided you want to um apply for a visa or any of those things, get your application in in October and know that you might hear around January the way things are backed up right now. Um, because apparently with Houston in particular, they just canceled everybody's appointments for the month of August and September and rescheduled them for November. So I don't know what's going on. I don't know if they know what's going on. Our online renewal system has launched, um, which would be great, like we had said before, except now they say everybody who is an adult has to have a social security number, which we didn't have to have a social security number before. And they had changed the law that you can't get a social security number unless you have a job. Um, and um, I applied three times and got rejected. And now I'm applying for the fourth time. And hopefully I've got all the paperwork sorted out correctly. And there's now a fine print that's in there is you can only get a you can get a social security number now if another agency requires you to get a social security number. So Jason has to get one, Jack is gonna need one because of internships, he will be paid for those, so he'll have to have that. So we uh I applied. I did we didn't get rejected right away, so that's a good sign, but we'll see. That's the thing we're waiting on for our renewal, and that's the thing everybody's waiting on for the renewals because anybody who came here on a passive income, nobody needed them. If you don't work for Portugal, you you can't get one. So we are not a digital nomad. Um, that was a D8 that didn't exist quite yet. We had already been D7 processes, but um I still recommend it. The bureaucracy is all crazy. But speaking of bureaucracy, Jason in Portugal's got some duties he has to do over the next week, don't you?

SPEAKER_01 20:31

Well, we'll see. I'll do it with with you as my backup. No, I we'll film the what we have to do and talk about it.

SPEAKER_00 20:42

Uh-huh. So Jason in Portugal attempting to set up um electricity, water contracts, internet contracts. Oh, this is gonna be fun. I hope you guys are gonna tune in for this because he's been dying to do this. What if what have you been saying about Jason in Portugal? What's your mantra? He doesn't even know. Like, what are what are you attempting? It's just a good old Midwestern middle-aged white man from Iowa. Navigating Portugal, right? Um, and with your bare minimum Portuguese.

SPEAKER_01 21:22

See, now it sounds better in theory.

SPEAKER_00 21:24

Oh no, it's gonna be great. I can hardly wait. I hope that you all tune in for all of those things too, because that's gonna be fun to unpack. So while life has been crazy and we were finishing up school year and surgeries and residencies and all of those things, um, it looks like we're gonna have some good content coming up. I can hardly wait.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

All right, stay tuned. As the dinosaurs turn, there's never a dull moment.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

Never.

SPEAKER_02 21:54

You've been listening to As the Dinaston's Turn, a podcast presented by Dinaston Media Ventures. Don't forget to like and subscribe and catch us again next time for another episode.