I'm Moving Where?

When I first found out I'd be moving to the Azores my response was, "Where is that?" I'm not a geography master, but I had never heard of it. I even misspelled it when I tried to "Google" it. Then, when I finally found it, it appeared it was right off the coast of Portugal. I imagined myself taking a little ferry over to mainland Portugal twice a week where I could shop and wander around the downtown wearing fabulous European clothes and heels. Then I was at a furniture store and looked at a globe. Apparently much like mapmakers like to stick Alaska and Hawaii at the bottom of the page as if they're south of California and within yachting distance of each other, the map I saw was off...900 miles off. There is no way to take a ferry from the Azores to Portugal unless you have a death wish. So I found out the cruel reality that I was going to live in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

As for me wandering around downtowns in cute outfits and shoes? The downtowns on the island have hills and cobblestone. I, who once only owned one pair of sneakers (a pair of Sketchers I only bought because they were cute), now live in a pair of sneakers. I watch in amazement as the Portuguese women navigate the cobblestone streets in stilettos. It had become a sick goal of mine to walk the streets once in heels without breaking an ankle. The initial goal was to do it without breaking or spraining an ankle, but I'm a realist.

So I hope you'll check in to see how I'm handling island life.