Two-Year Anniversary

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Welcome to As the Dinason's Turn, where we chronicle the adventures of the Dinason 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 Dinason.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Alright.

SPEAKER_03 0:27

All right, welcome to another episode of As the Dinason's Turn, our two-year episode, two-year anniversary episode.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Well, you know, I went back and listened to our one-year anniversary episode because I didn't want to say the same things. But I think it's very interesting because it was right after that one-year episode that life kind of exploded for our kids. It got to be kind of touch and go. Um, if Jackson was going to be able to pass ninth grade or not because of national exams. There was a lot of worry there. Um, and it worked out well in the end. Just so you know, for other parents that might be watching this, that are going through this now, they make it sound like the national exam is the determining factor on if you get to move on to the next grade or not. It is um, was it one-third or one-fourth of their grade? One for one-fourth or one-third. It is not the entire thing. They make it sound like it's two-thirds or three-fourths of their grade. It is not. The rest of it is their schoolwork. Jackson did pass all of his exams. He is in the tenth grade now. Okay, Tyler is in seventh grade, but it was a lot then. Um, I also know a year ago we were still debating on if we were gonna try and extend visa or things or not, or if we were gonna have to move back in summertime. So those are I took me back to that place. What about you?

SPEAKER_03 1:51

Yeah, well, we're still here, so we are still here. No, it's good. It it's strange, like two years doesn't feel like two years, and yet it also feels like we've been here for ten years.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

It's interesting because it feels like it's been a minute and it feels like it's been forever at the same time. And I have to say that I mean, we talked before about moving back and exploring possibilities, but that's that's off the table for me at least. How about you?

SPEAKER_03 2:25

I think I'm happy here. Yeah. Really?

SPEAKER_00 2:28

At first there was kind of the question of we were gonna be able to or not, but quite frankly, moving around the world, just like you do any big move, it takes a while for you to kind of find your stride. And so I think that we're happy, like we're we're good with where we are. So visa renewal will happen this summer. Um, they're unraveling all of the AMAC disaster. Um, people have been getting their renewals. So hopefully by the time they get to us at the beginning of July, things will be on a normal, even queue. We shall see. But so what reflect on your two years, Jason. Like what makes it different? Because last year we were still kind of wishy-washy. What kind of makes you feel at home? What's changed?

SPEAKER_03 3:16

I don't know. I guess I feel like we've settled in, we have a routine. I think that sometimes I work too much still, so that sometimes it's like we just transplanted pieces of our lives from America to here. But I think that overall there's a quality of life, and it's always hard to talk about without sounding insulting or whatever to where we lived before. It I think a lot of what we say about quality of life and such is more our own internal struggles, and I think it gets back to what I've said several times that we needed a drastic change of kicking the ladder out from underneath us and being in a completely different situation than what we were in, and it wasn't something where it was just like take a day or a week off, or you know, maybe we moved to some other state or something. We needed we needed a transcendental experience, I think.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

We needed all the philosophies come out.

SPEAKER_03 4:27

Oh maybe that's not the right word. We needed forced change.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

Well, and there are things here that that make that change much more feasible, like um, and yes, so I started teaching English in the fall. Um, I teach 10 and a half hours a week, or I did now I've picked up an individual, so it's 12 and a half hours a week. Um, it's in Guimaraish, so I'm gone every afternoon. And when that started, like I really missed teaching and I missed the pieces of it. Um, but I teach from 11-year-olds to, and then I have an adult, um, but my other classes are, you know, 15-year-olds, 11 to 15. Um, I've realized that anything under 14 is not my bag, um, which is is something for me to learn, um, mainly because there's a lot more classroom management and in different ways. So I'd say the classrooms here are like the US maybe 10 years ago. Yeah. So really just trying to, particularly when it comes to classroom management types of issues that I would see. It was things that I saw way long ago that I wasn't dealing with back in the States. And if anything, it gotten to the well beyond that point, and that there were a lot of other things to deal with. So that's been very nice. Um, but at the same time, um, I think that there's a maturity level of content and interest. Um, but I've always liked the more complex grammar things too. And so when you're 11 and 12 and we're working on the past simple and past continuous, it never gets beyond that. Whereas I like all of the crazy things that are going on in J4. So I think I found a good level of what I really enjoy. And that's nice. I don't know if we'll do it next year because our lives then in January, everything kind of exploded and our business has really taken off, and that's a good thing. And we've got multiple different projects, as you guys have seen. Um, but for me, I think that starting teaching actually really solidified this was home for me because I had my atelier community already in Gameraj. And now I've got a teaching community and a group of friends that I see on a daily basis, and I have contact, and all of that made a huge difference. And I think that um it also, yes, it gave us routine, but it also forced us to make sure people were more independent, like the kids were more independent as a part of that because you were working and I was gone, so nobody could pick them up. So public transportation has ensued and Jack loves it. So it'll be interesting to see what he thinks it's been like after two years. But I do feel like um we have a we have a community and we have a routine, but there are pieces of every single day where I still marvel at the places I live. Um and it feels like home. It feels like it does, it feels like home, but it also has got that kind of splendor of like, oh my gosh, I'm I'm walking on a Roman road, or huh? Yes, this is a building, I work in a building that's been there since the 1500s, or you know, like things like that. You're just like wow. And I love those pieces of it. I also really enjoy the mountains or hills of where we are. Hills, they're not really mountains for those of us from Colorado, they're they're just not that. They're what they call mountains. Um, I really enjoy living in that type of foothill area a lot. Um and there are pieces of living in Portuguese culture that like it's a cafe culture, it's a conversation culture, it's a take-your-time culture, it's not try and like run from point A to point Z in 30 seconds flat or get 25 zillion things done in a day. Um and you see somebody on the street, even if you're late for something, you're expected to stop and have the conversation. Um, you can't just say hi. You have to stop and have the conversation and catch up and all of those things, and then you can move on. But it's not easy all of the time, you know.

SPEAKER_03 8:43

We need to go back to Olivera because it's just five minutes that direction.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

And we haven't even been there since we moved.

SPEAKER_03 8:50

And see the um so Olivera is where the 300 square foot stone house was that we lived in when we first moved here, and Lady the Cow in the field next door, oh yeah, and uh Cesar and some of the people who I, you know, I can't talk to because they don't speak English, and but you know, we'd wave at each other.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

So well, and I think that we probably could have more of a conversation now. We should go when the river beach opens up in the evening. That's true. Everybody goes down and has their beer and hangs out down there and has a bifana or something, and so we should do that. That would be great. A bifana, by the way, is like a roast beef sandwich with like with like a very saucy kind of sandwich. I don't know, it's it's it reminds me like a cross between a roast beef sandwich and like a bivia taco because it's got like that type of aju that's gotta be in there on the bun. So that's a a bifana, that's what everybody eats. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 9:52

Um but I think that we also have found our direction a little more, also.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

I agree with that.

SPEAKER_03 9:58

And what makes us happy and what we want to do.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

Yeah, I mean, I'm excited for growing the artistic side of life more and having more time to do that. And we know like the business is just doing amazing things, and we're I mean, we're working on all kinds of stuff for um for you all to kind of understand what the people that we have intercountered and the place that we live, um, because there's a lot of powerful stuff going on in the dinoson.

SPEAKER_03 10:30

Yeah, I think some of you have seen this, but Dinason Media now has the Portugal Chronicle that we have started, which is like an English language hub, that's what I call it. Um, a platform for telling stories about Portugal. We have Mafalda, who's a wonderful Portuguese colleague of Tracy's. She is, yeah. She's become a friend, and through that, um her partner. Her, I mean, we yeah, her partner's gonna do some video and editing work for us. So it's just kind of feels like kind of fate because if you had not started teaching, you wouldn't have met her, and this business idea would have just stayed up in my head. I've had this idea for a long time. I started in the fall thinking about because where my heart really is, and I know I have a lot of clients who listen to this, but you know, this is the truth. My heart is not in preparing tax returns. I'm sorry, it really isn't.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

We do it, and you it's interesting.

SPEAKER_03 11:37

Um, it's interesting and it's fine, but you know, audio work, broadcasting, that sort of thing is really where my heart is. And so I started thinking about that and I thought, well, I've done soccer play-by-play before, and soccer is big here in in well, in any country other than America, soccer is big. Um, and so I thought, well, because you know, 20 years ago when I worked in radio, I actually was the main play-by-play guy for the local access cable channel in Harlan.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

That is true.

SPEAKER_03 12:17

Actually, there were two. Both of the utility companies in the area had their own local access channels, and I did stuff for both. So I did football, basketball, a little bit of soccer, volleyball was actually a big thing. I've done volleyball play by play. So I thought, well, let's do soccer, and La Liga is the big, that's like the NFL in Portugal. And then I started thinking more about you know, broadcast rights would probably be just a little bit expensive for La Liga.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

So we've actually also talked about what are ways we can go ahead and incorporate sports, and there's a like we have a league here in our own town for Maria the Font that's you know very, very well respected and very, you know, well known, and especially when it comes to basketball, they're a basketball really heavy program. Um, but then Povo Lonoso also has its own, you know, soccer team. So I think that it's a good idea. It's just getting those connections.

SPEAKER_03 13:24

Well, and and so the uh I mean there's still some sports things, some kind of like podcast or something with a Portuguese person talking about Portuguese sports is is still in development, I guess. But then it kind of morphed. The idea did, and and it became an idea of let's do things in English for the English speakers here, the Americans and the Brits and so forth. But also, you know, we talk to a lot of Portuguese people, you go to the doctor's office, the doctor will say, Oh, I speak English, but not very well. Or the our favorite pharmacist in town.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

Hey Nelson.

SPEAKER_03 14:11

Nelson is his name. And Nelson says, you know, he watches Netflix in English. He seeks out American Netflix. A lot of people do in Portugal because they want to improve their English skills and especially learn like the slang and how people really talk. Because a lot of them are professionals who know the textbook English, but they might not know all of the way that people really talk. So they watch American TV shows. So then the idea became what if we do things in English that are produced in Portugal? So you could actually say you're watching something produced in Portugal that gives you English language content, and that's where we are now. So Mafalda is actually going out and covering things that are happening and talking to interesting people, and we have so many other ideas, not just my sports podcast idea, but um a lot of other ideas of things that we want to cover and things that we want to do with this.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

Well, and I think that the other piece of it is we wanted things to be really authentic, and so we want we want to tell the storytelling. So I love stories, as many of you you know. Um, Jason is definitely a writer, director, broadcaster, and that's where his heart is. And so this gives us an opportunity to get to know our community um in a deeper way and have purposeful conversations with the people we have connections with, but also um to expand that network and expand um our circle and tell you the stories of the people here, the people we know and what life is like really. And um we didn't want it to be um like a TikTok 30-second Instagram type of thing. We wanted to give you something authentic, and so that's what we've been working on, and we always have the best of intentions, but it's not easy when there's two of us and we're working multiple jobs and getting this stuff done too. So I think that that's where we're growing, and that's what we want to do is have a lot of those conversations and bring you more. And so I think that moving ideas, like we've gone through the whole burnout phase, we're now into our entrepreneurial feeling solidified and solid where we are. I miss pieces of the Oliver House, like I miss the patio in the backyard. Um, I miss the neighbors, I don't miss anything really other than that. Um, because uh we needed the space. I'm curious to see what the boys have to say about that.

SPEAKER_03 16:52

Should we go get them?

SPEAKER_00 16:53

Yeah, so I think that we're gonna have each one of them. I think you should have the conversations with them. Oh, okay. All right, so let me go and get Jackson. He's gonna get started with us. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 17:03

All right, Jackson is with us, our 16-year-old. Almost 17.

SPEAKER_02 17:12

That's crazy. Oh well, you you actually remembered.

SPEAKER_03 17:15

Of course I remembered.

SPEAKER_04 17:17

He was there.

SPEAKER_03 17:20

So, what do you think about the two-year anniversary?

SPEAKER_02 17:24

I mean, it's it's been nice. I mean, school's been going great. Um, I mean, it's been tough, but all in all, I think it's been going pretty well for most of us.

SPEAKER_03 17:40

How is tenth grade in Portugal different from what uh like high school would have been like in the US? Um. Or is it about the same? It's much more like a university. Some days you have really long classes, don't you?

SPEAKER_02 17:58

Yeah. Like four hours. Yeah, I have really long classes most days.

SPEAKER_03 18:03

And you go, it's like you go to work every day, right? I I do, yeah. 8 till 6 or 8. Yeah. What about classes? I mean, they're they're fun.

SPEAKER_02 18:16

What are some of the things you study? Um, I study technological multimedia. So web design, um, media, all of those kind of things.

SPEAKER_03 18:32

So you'll have to do internships at some point. Does that start this year? Is that next year? Um, I'm pretty sure it's next year. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 18:42

And how are your language skills? Um, they've they've been improving. I can now explain questions to people. Well, you're farther along than me. Mom wants to know if this feels like home. Uh, it it's starting to, yeah. It it definitely is starting to feel that way.

SPEAKER_03 19:00

Are there things that you miss from from back in Iowa, whether it's big things or little things like stuff we could get at high V or G's or something?

SPEAKER_02 19:10

Yeah, certainly. But that's just par for the course when you make a big move like this. It is. Do you want to move back? Um right now? No, not really.

SPEAKER_00 19:29

Maybe in the future.

SPEAKER_02 19:30

Yeah, i in the future, maybe, but right now. No.

SPEAKER_03 19:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 19:38

Alright.

SPEAKER_03 19:39

Well, it's been two years, and I think that the interrogation is over. So we can get your brother. Okay. Alright, so who are you?

SPEAKER_04 19:51

I am Tyler. I am your youngest child.

SPEAKER_03 19:55

Oh, okay. Alright. Alright, so it's our two-year anniversary. What do you think about being here two years?

SPEAKER_04 20:02

I can't believe it's already been two years. It only feels like it's been like one year or something.

SPEAKER_03 20:08

I know, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 20:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:10

So you're in seventh grade, right?

SPEAKER_04 20:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:14

And so how is seventh grade here different from what seventh grade would have been like in the US?

SPEAKER_04 20:22

Uh well, they teach they teach things with like a complexity of like one year ahead, usually. Like, I I'm learning math that you would normally learn in the US in like eighth or ninth grade.

SPEAKER_03 20:37

Wow. Big brain.

SPEAKER_04 20:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:41

And so your your daily schedule varies too, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_04 20:46

Yeah, some days I'll get out shorter than if I was in the US, sometimes it's longer.

SPEAKER_03 20:53

That's right. Some days you get out at what 1.15?

SPEAKER_04 20:56

Yeah, other days I get out at like 4.15, 525.

SPEAKER_03 21:01

So that makes things a little different because in the US we always you always got out at the same time, and then you and your brother and I would go to High V, wouldn't we?

SPEAKER_04 21:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:11

And we'd buy we'd buy all kinds of stuff because I was a big softy. We could go to Continent, I suppose.

SPEAKER_04 21:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:21

Continent is the grocery store kind of like that's probably the closest to High V, isn't it?

SPEAKER_04 21:26

Yeah, we have Hive like items, they have their own bakery, they have a bunch of goods. Of course, it's a grocery store.

SPEAKER_03 21:34

That's true. Alright, so what are your plans? You have any big plans? Have you thought about that? What you want to do as time goes on here in Portugal?

SPEAKER_04 21:46

I'd really like to s sort of like find more passions I have, because right now I don't really have that many passions. I like to have a small variety of foods. Like I would like to have more foods, definitely. I would like to try some more things.

SPEAKER_03 22:09

Okay, so you started taking trombone lessons, didn't you?

SPEAKER_04 22:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:14

And the fire department has something to do with that, right?

SPEAKER_04 22:17

Uh yeah, it's run by voluntary firefighters.

SPEAKER_03 22:22

And so eventually you'll be able to play in like the firefighter band or something, won't you?

SPEAKER_04 22:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:28

Oh, that'll be exciting. So this year you didn't get to march in the the parade thing. But maybe in the future you will.

SPEAKER_04 22:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:40

Yeah. Alright, well. Two years.

SPEAKER_04 22:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:49

Already. Does it feel like home?

SPEAKER_04 22:52

Kinda. It kind of feels like home.

SPEAKER_03 22:54

Would you want to move back?

SPEAKER_04 22:57

Um, not right now, no. I feel like I'm still finding my footing here.

SPEAKER_03 23:03

Yeah. Me too. Anything else you think people should know?

SPEAKER_04 23:09

If you're going to enroll your kids in school, you've been make sure that they're going to understand the concepts well enough, definitely.

SPEAKER_03 23:20

That is a very key thing.

SPEAKER_04 23:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:24

Alright. Tyler Dinnison.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

Alright, so they've they've had their peace, they've said their stuff. Um, I think it's funny because, you know, I thoroughly expected them to want to move back. Um, I appreciate that Tyler feels like he's still finding his footing. He is our ultra-perfectionist child. I don't know where he would get any of that. Um, and so he wants to make sure that he can do everything as well in Portuguese as he can in English. Jack's comment that um school here is much more like going to college. I think is definitely true. Um, he does have internships coming, they will be paid, and he's got a professional exam at the end, including um additional, on top of that, additional exams to get into college that will happen in another year or two. So I don't know, it's hard to believe.

SPEAKER_03 24:23

It is.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

So two years, what's the thing you feel like you've learned the most? Like the the things that you think, oh, you need to know. I like Tyler's advice of make sure your kids understand the concepts. Meaning, don't just throw them into school, mom, but that's okay. What do you think?

SPEAKER_03 24:42

Um I think it's do it, but I think some people maybe are a little naive about and it's gonna be harder than you think.

unknown 25:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

We see people moving back after six months or a year, and I I'd say like a year ago we were still considering it, truthfully. Um, but we're not there anymore. We've worked through all of that kind of stuff, so it's harder than you think. Um you have to build a community, and so if you're working outside of the house, that's a lot easier, and then that leads towards um having more people to interact with and making sure you have that because you need a community, and becoming part of community within a small town in Portugal is not easy. So I think that that's why some people who move to smaller towns have issues, but then we have a very active group of you know fellow immigrants um in the Braga area, and we even have a growing community right here in our small town now, so of English speakers, so it's it's growing, yeah. And Canadians and British, yeah, and so that means that Jackson's got and and Tyler now knows them too, but he's got Jackson's got people that he has classes with every day that are going through things about a year behind him that he can be there for, and I think that was really empowering for him. That's made a big difference in how we view our life and how he views life. That and we're taking care of the things that I think we put off taking care of as far as physical and mental health for all of us, and so I think that that's also been helpful. Yeah, I don't know. I'm happy.

SPEAKER_03 26:35

Yeah, I think it was a good decision.

SPEAKER_00 26:39

Yeah, the honeymoon period's over, but it still feels warm and fuzzy. That's the way I describe it. When I feel like our place and I feel like where we are, and I feel like, you know, I wish that everyone could come and see us and see it and be a part of it because yeah, it's a good home. Come see us.

SPEAKER_03 27:01

All right, join us again in another episode of As the Dinoson's Turn.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

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