And I’m back!
Our new keys!
It’s been a while. Sorry about the wait! I got distracted with house hunting… I was hoping we’d have some guest writers on here in the meantime, but they are tricky to convince! If anyone would like to share their own experiences in healthcare (or other industries), what it’s been like or was like making the decision to leave and what they’re doing now, please reach out! Send me a message. I’d love to share some more perspectives, and I’d really love to share some more positive stories on here. Figuring out what to do next is daunting and I didn’t know where to start looking. I imagine there are lots of other people in the same boat. Sharing your story could provide them with ideas and inspiration. Plus, it’s the season of giving. Go on, write the blog post. ;)
So, here we are. Life goes on after medicine. I’m still teaching English online and I’m still enjoying it. I actually miss my students on the weekends, which is a great feeling! We are in Portugal and the big news is… we’ve bought a house! I reduced my teaching hours these last couple of months so I could sort out the new house and clean up the old one. We have handed back our keys to the rental apartment and we have moved into OUR new home. It’s still hard to believe. It felt like another rental when we moved in, to be honest. I said it’ll probably only feel like it’s ours when we paint the walls. I’ll report back on that!
The next step is to start renovations! We’re going to try to do as much as we can ourselves, and I’d like to share some of that with you, here. If you’re interested in following along in real-time, you can check out our new Instagram page @another_portugal_renovation.
Just to set the scene a bit for you. We live in the north of Portugal. We’ve bought a two-storey house with a bit of land. Currently, the entire house is on the second floor. It is completely livable as it is, so we’ve moved in and tried to make it functional for our needs. The downstairs is a big empty garage at the moment. No finish, just bare concrete block walls. Upstairs, we have 3 bedrooms, a full bath, a half bath, a living room, a kitchen and a tiny utilities. We have the floor plans designed for the whole house and we intend to start downstairs. Once that’s done, we can move down there and renovate the upstairs.
There’s a tiny bit of structural work to be done by professionals - which we have yet to organise - and then we can get started on everything else. I am super excited to learn some new stuff. I’m going to share as much as I can over on Instagram, mostly as Instagram Stories I think, and I’ll try to put some posts together for this blog, too. For example, I’ve painted some more furniture using chalk paint and stencils and I’ve improved my technique since my last attempt, so I think I’ll throw up a post about that on here. Hopefully soon.🙂
This blog was intended as an account of my ‘life after medicine’, so I think this stuff is still in keeping with that idea. I would, however, love to hear and share some more stories about the process of leaving healthcare for you, so please please please let me know if you’re interested in writing a post for the blog. <3 I’d love for it to be a resource for other healthcare professionals trying to fly the nest!
Happy New Year!
Isabella
