Portugal. Low cost, a vast mix of 1st and 3rd world stuff, English is widely spoken and they have generous investment and eventual citizenship requirements. Or you can live as an ex-pat.
I mean, you could also come here to South Africa (prices are on par with Portugal) but our own domestic politics* are way more dramatic than the USA. We just don’t feature in international news.
Apologies for the off-topic post.
* for example, a local politician and presidential candidate seized his bodyguard’s AK-47 and let off a few rounds into the air at a rally. He has not been prosecuted despite video clearly showing him do this.
The home of the most indulgent sandwich I have ever heard of. I want to try one someday. I’d make one myself but it sounds like WAY too much work for a single portion.
My ex lives in Porto. I will ask her if she’s tried one.
On the other hand we have… the gatsby.
Thanks scudsucker. I’ll add Portugal to my short list of countries. I’ve heard good things about it, but never visited there, although I have been in Spain a few times on business. Lots of rich history, and the coastline is apparently spectacular. I even know a few words of Portuguese having been to Brazil a few times.
I’ll look into their immigration policies versus being an ex-pat. Are you from Portugal? Do you live in or around Lisbon, or somewhere else? Names of specific cities to investigate would be helpful. And being located somewhat near a major airport would be a real plus.
Utterly off topic, mods forgive me, I will not pursue this.
I’m not Portuguese, my ex is (well, she is now, by marriage, she is also Zimbabwean like me)
Porto and Lisbon are the big cities but they tend to be quite expensive and have little accomodation near the city centers. You probably don’t want that; I did as a tourist.
The Algarve (the South, Mediterranean coast) has lots of pockets of cheap real estate, and some quite expensive areas driven by investment by English retirees. It is glorious. Certainly worth a fact-finding holiday.
Lisbon itself is a “must see”, secondly the eccentric town of Selma - be early everywhere, tourists tend to be late and thus need to queue. I traveled there with a two year old… I had no choice but to be awake early. But it was really worthwhile. I mean, 5 minute queue with a two year old at 08:00 vs 5 hour queue at 11:00?
Also a very welcoming culture, and great cuisine.
I don’t really like the beer, but you can drink in public. Some of the wine is sublime, and that praise comes from a country (and region) where I live that makes damn fine wine.
The first time Trump won, i subscribed to newspapers. Lots of newspapers and other news vendors. I felt truth, especially news reporting was under attack, and this was a small thing i could do to help.
I subscribed to
NYT
The economist
The guardian
NPR
Reuters
Al Jazeera
And i already had subscriptions to the WSJ and it local newspaper.
Some of those are paid and others are free.
I’ve since dropped the economist and picked up AP and the Washington Post. I’m told Reuters has started asking for money. They haven’t asked me, yet, but i intend to pay them when they do. I should probably look into CNC and BBC.
It’ll be a while before we know the results, because some important swing states (I’m looking at you, Pennsylvania) have broken polling systems, and won’t report results for ages.
Gift link:
When to Expect Results in Each State on Election Night, and Beyond When to Expect Election Results in Each State - The New York Times
That article is a little out of date, in that it repeatedly says that Democrats are more likely to vote by mail. That doesn’t appear to be true this year.
Maybe it’s not obvious why that link supports my claim that early voting isn’t predominately Democratic this year. You need to poke around and look at various states, as each state publishes different info about their early voters. But some, like Arizona, where most early voting is by mail, list the breakdown among Democrats, Republicans, and other, and currently, the Republican ballots significantly outnumber the Democratic ones.
The Quaker who writes on this site https://mailchi.mp/e147d6c17dee/grounding-resources-for-election-day?e=34db89892c has some useful ideas on how to be an election volunteer and keep cool, ways to chill the agita, and, again, a link to the how to prepare for a Trump victory exercise. It assumes one is a political activist or has a high interest in politics, and that this election is particularly crazy-making. It may be of some help to those who are beset by crippling anxiety around this election.