It’s the last day of November and I thought it would be the perfect time to pop in and give you guys a little life update on what I’ve been up to. The past couple of months have been a whirlwind of moving back to America, settling into life in a new city/state and trying to make our new (rental) townhouse a home.
It hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows, there have been highs and lows, as would be expected. So let’s jump in and chat about it.
Finding & Setting Up Our New Townhouse
One of the best parts of moving to Portland has been the rental market. After living in NYC and SF I’ve had some pretty terrible apartment hunting experiences. In New York you literally have to apartment hunt with tons of paperwork (tax returns, bank statements, letters, etc) and also tons of money (one time I had to pay first months, last months and 3 months security just to rent a tiny studio apartment!). If you saw a place you wanted you had to apply on the spot or it would be gone. And in SF it was easier to rent an apartment, you just had to pay basically your life savings, the rent was so out of control.
Here though? We saw a few places (way bigger than anywhere we’ve lived), had time to think about it and after touring around town, negotiated prices down and then picked a place. Just like that! How refreshing. We chose a 2 bedroom townhouse in a cute neighborhood and have been getting settled, buying new furniture and also getting ready for our first guests to arrive. I’m excited that friends and family are starting to book flights to come out here.
Job Hunting
Probably the least fun part of moving to a new city–the good old job hunt. I had to go through this when we moved to SF and was dreading having to do it again. But here we are. There are great companies based in Portland and opportunities to be had, it’s just about finding the right one, meeting the right people and landing those interviews. And as I go through that process, you can find me doing…
All of the Side Gigs
I’m no stranger to side gigs. I’ve been teaching fitness part time since college and I picked that up pretty quickly upon our move to Portland. I’m currently teaching rowing classes and circuit training classes at Firebrand Sports. The circuit training class is new and I’m consulting on designing the daily workouts and training the other instructors which has been a fun new venture for me. If you’re in Portland, come take class with me!
I’m also doing a bit of freelance writing, dog sit via Rover and am selling clothes on Poshmark. The majority of my clothes were in storage for the last 10 months. When I got them back I realized I didn’t need/want so much of it. It’s amazing how much excess stuff we have that we don’t truly care about or even need. Living with a small fraction of my belongings while abroad definitely taught me that.
When we were in Spain, though I wasn’t working, I was never bored. I filled my time by exploring, entertaining our visitors and planning/taking trips all over Europe. Pretty quickly here I started to feel a bit bored. I’ve been working to combat that with all these side gigs and getting out to explore.
The in between jobs sitch is definitely a tough one. If you’re looking for ways to fill your time, check out this blog post I wrote while we were in Spain.
Moving to a new city is a mix of emotions. It’s fun to explore and exciting to experience a new part of the country. And then it’s stressful trying to find your footing (and a job) and can be a bit lonely at times. I loved living in Spain and really miss it. Part of me was excited to be back to the US. Though moving to a city you don’t know and where you don’t have any friends isn’t exactly the homecoming I envisioned. Yes, I’m back in America but it doesn’t feel like I returned “home.” It’s helpful that I can speak the language though!
It’s not our first time going through this and I’m not sure if it gets easier each time, but I do know it takes time to settle in and you can’t rush the process.
I’ll keep you posted throughout the journey. In the meantime, hope you all had a wonderful November and have a great December ahead!
