Twenty-five years ago while I was working for the National Meteorological Center in Beijing, I hanged out with a group of American expats through my colleague David Hueslbeck. Now I am a lone American expat in Braga.

William’s school’s public relation person sent out a message for a parents gathering two days ago. Nineteen parents showed up. Anna was not in the picture as she took it.

They added me to a WhatsApp group of expats in Braga. The group was organized by an Austrilian and a Swedish. Two people happened to be in the same language class I am taking at the University of Minho. Now I am feeling a little better knowing that some of the students are not actual beginners, because I have been flundering in that class from day one. Most people are from Brazil. We talked about insurance, colleges for kids, and passing California Bar Exam.

It was the last day of William’s school term. They are allowed to wear normal clothes to school, if they pay one euro. An assistant actually walked around and collected the money, William told me.

Lower level kids were wearing Halloween costumes. William prepared a costume but did not get to use it because higher level kids did not do that.

Portugal is a nice country to be in, no wonder so many Brazilians chose to move to Porgual. Back when we were in Beijing, David told me that many Americans just hanged around in Beijing forever. They would go back to the US to make some money once their money ran out. However, a couple of months later they could be back to Beijing with enough money for the next couple of years. Those days were long gone.