E007- The Journey from Portugal to the UK - Nuno Nogueira

James Doran (00:06.19)

Hello and welcome to the Expat Pod. My name is James, your host. I'm a British person living in Sweden and today I have my good friend Nuno and my colleague on the podcast who is a Portuguese man living in the UK. I don't know if you want to give yourself a wide introduction Nuno, please do. No, Portuguese, yeah, living in England at the moment, 28 years old.

Time just moved so fast I did actually have to think for a bit if I was 28 or 29. But where are you from? Portugal. I come from a little city in the center of Portugal called Tamar which is the city of Templars. One of the last places where the existence of Templars is registered. Where are you currently living? The UK. I live currently near Leamington Spa. It's quite a nice place.

very landlocked. Is this in a further point away from the beach? Yes, that I've been for a long time. I grew up on the beach, so I'm a coastal person myself. So you know the struggles? Precisely. It's like now every time I go to Portugal, like, my God, the sea, it still exists. And the sand, it's nice. don't get started.

James Doran (01:37.454)

Hello and welcome to section one of the podcast all about getting there. So this is where you know, I'll ask you some questions about what kind of methods you employed in order to find your way to the UK from Portugal, how you found out about where you were going and things. So I know you went to study originally at a very good university because I also went to it and did the exact same course a few years before. So there's no bias, but Oxford Brookes, which is at the Oxford, the Brookes College Oxford, I attached to it, but.

How did you find out about Oxford Brookes from Portugal? Because it's not a very well known university in the UK, let alone abroad. So what made you go there? How did you find it? yeah, that's a bit of a story. So I've always wanted to work with something related to cars. I guess I'll start from there. And so initially I went to mechanical engineering in Portugal, in Coimbra, and I tried to get as much knowledge as possible for me to be able to actually get a job.

the automotive but in Portugal there's not much in terms of design there is manufacturing but that's not what I wanted to do so I finished uni no even I was still in uni I was sending out CVs if I could I could either get a placement or get an interview abroad no luck finished my studies started working as an intern in a pulp mill and for as long as I was there I was still sending out CVs still nothing

not even interviews. I was like, there's probably something more that I need to do. So I started looking at courses like race engineering courses, motorsport that I didn't even know they existed. That's where I taught a two weekend course about race, race engineer. And that was my, my way in. So while still working, I applied to that course, just get a feel of things completely open -minded or whatever.

happen, might not even enjoy it. So I was still working. I left, this was during the weekend, so I left Friday, flying over to the UK to attend a course on Saturday morning. And that completely opened the world for me. It was, even though it was only a two weekend, I really got the, now I actually got the idea of how big of a world it was and how little I knew about the industry. So it was with F1 tutors and renowned engineers. Like that's where I met for the first time, Willem Toht.

James Doran (03:51.248)

Yep. He and a lot of veteran engineers, but one of them was Brazilian and unfortunately he's not not here anymore. But he was very pivotal in showing me and explaining everything to me in Portuguese and actually then helping me make the decision.

But on those two weeks, I've also met a student from Oxford Brookes and on the first, on the first weekend, he invited me to go check the uni on the second weekend and his formal student team, he was involved in that as well. So on the second weekend, I went to Oxford Brookes and I was just amazed seeing F1 cars, F2, F3, Indy cars everywhere in the workshop. They immediately, a lot of the students and also the staff there kind of welcomed me, explained me what they've done there. And this was like, I need to do this.

If I want to get into working with cars, either be automotive or motorsport, I had to go there. It's really inspirational walking in. I guess as a young engineer or student, you walk into the engineering buildings, you've got a Force India car that used to be there when I was there. It is still there. And it was exactly that feeling. Just going through the door and seeing straight there an F1 car. It was the first time I was seeing an F1 car. I remember presenting my thesis and it was in the room.

adjacent to where that vehicle was and I just looking around it to distract myself before I went in. That's also me. I just got distracted, got wow I know so little. No wonder why I wasn't getting called or answered back on the CVs that I was sending because yet then I got the notion that people that were applying there...

also really passionate, but they had motorsport engineering degrees, they had Formula Student Experience, something that I didn't have in Portugal, at least at the uni that I went to. We had Shell Eco -marathon, but on my first year that I was there, it got cancelled. So on the uni that I was there, there wasn't anything. Yeah, that's quite unfortunate. It's very useful to have that actual curricular activity. I never did Formula Student, but I did a similar thing with Brutus, picking up electric racing, because that to me was more important.

James Doran (05:50.478)

but I can understand the value of following a student. Just something extracurricular that shows that you want that, that you're passionate about it, that you're willing to put your free time into learning it. Definitely. And it's all worth it. You can go to the races as well and see the product and have the experience of traveling with these people who you spent, what, six months working with for the whole year even, but more importantly, the last six months before the race or the racing events is when you...

kind of kick up. Unfortunately, my ear got cancelled by COVID, but I'm still, I still got that moment. Yeah. Where I built my first carbon fiber piece. I was like proud that moment. I did this. You should have kept it. I didn't. It went on the car that actually didn't run. There's a museum piece now. Well, I don't know what happened to it. So, let's circle back. Yeah. To how I ended up here. Yeah. So Oxford Brookes, so you've been here for two, two weekends.

and had a taste of what it's like doing motorsport engineering or race engineering in the UK. You've decided Oxford Brookes is where you want to go. How did that application process? Yeah, not only Oxford Brookes. The course that I went also had an association with Cranfield Uni. So I was looking at both because those were both I knew. When I got back from that two weekend courses, like, yeah, I need to do this. So I started sending application or started seeing how the application process was for both of them. I was already too late for Cranfield.

to enroll in the next year, but it was still available for Oxford Brookes Uni. So that was a pretty straightforward process. I believe I sent my CV, like a motivation letter, or why I would be able to do it. And I think a couple of months or weeks after, I got an email back saying that I've got it accepted. And from that point on, I just, the cogs started turning and it was like, I'm actually going to the UK. Incredible.

You're leaving the sunshine behind. if I only knew. I knew UK was rainy, but I didn't know it was. Well, to be fair, it is less rainy than what I expected or heard, but I definitely missed the sun. It's way more cloudy than what I anticipated. So you've got your place now. It was obviously you went before Brexit officially happened. So there's no issue going into the country. But when it comes to accommodation or like actually moving across, what did you have to do to make sure you had?

James Doran (08:08.046)

somewhere to stay when you first arrived. Yeah. So before Brexit, there was no entry requirements. So it was pretty straightforward. Like just any other British citizen accommodation wise Oxford, everything is very expensive, very expensive. And I was moving with my girlfriend. So we went for the cheaper option was actually to get into a student accommodation that would accept couple. That's where we managed to get nice little studio apartment where we stayed for.

months. And this was your girlfriend wasn't studying right? Yeah she wasn't studying so she just took the leap and came with me on this adventure. It's like you held your hand out and she grabbed it and then went with you. That's very dramatic but exactly how it happened. that's amazing and how did she find it? What were her plans? I guess she didn't have a job when she first moved over? Yeah that's correct she didn't come to study she didn't have a job so it was tough because it was the first time that both of us were away from our family for so long.

She didn't have anything to do. I had studied so I started making friends, started going to classes, starting to actually see people, but she didn't have anything. So firstly, she wanted to get acquainted with the language, acquainted with the culture, and then she started looking for a job. Those weeks, months, it was difficult because, yeah, it was like thrown into the deep end and now you had to paddle to survive because of course we fortunately had a little bit of money saved up and help from our parents.

be able to survive there but that money wouldn't last forever so we needed to come up with something. Yeah and own curiosity was it expensive to go to university from Europe or were you paying the same prices as the UK students? I think when I went it was about five thousand pounds for the course or five and a half thousand pounds for the course. Fortunately we still get to pay pre -Brexit prices which is the same as British students. After Brexit it doubled it went for the international tuition for European students.

So now that's 12 ,000 pounds a year. Yeah. It's outrageous considering the cost of education in Europe is relatively cheap or free. Yeah. So just for comparison in Portugal, the tuition was a thousand euros per year. So effectively I paid, so I did my five year master's course in six years. So I paid the same in six years as I've paid here in one year. That's outrageous.

James Doran (10:30.158)

There are better countries, come on, there are countries that pay for you to study in uni. Yeah, and I'm living in one now. Sweden, Denmark. Small loans to sell, I have a loan I think. You get grants or something from the government. It's significantly better than the UK anyway. And the loan's very low and interest rates practically zero, I believe. So I know it's much better here, but I'm long past the days of paying for student loans or paying for a... I've had some, of course, being a motorsport course that accepts students all over the world. I had...

I had the two contrasts, like the two complete opposites, I would say in my friend group. But I had a Danish friend, which was telling me that he got paid to study in uni. And then I got an American friend that took out a huge loan to do his studies. And I was like, damn, yeah, can't really complain. Next level, I think, for student loans. It's an industry in itself more than it is a support for people to...

James Doran (11:47.662)

There is a difference. I knew English, but how to articulate it into conversations when I got here, it seems like I didn't knew English. But it's English, and then there's English English. Exactly. And the accents. Now I've gotten pretty good at picking up accents, but there are still some that I don't pick up very well. But what was I saying?

It was just about anything else you needed before you arrived? Anything you thought about other than accommodation and your tuition and your place at university? Yeah, when moving countries I kind of think about everything. So what are you going to do after finishing? What are you going to do while studying? So I kind of before moving started seeing prospects of work.

staying there. What could I do? Where can I apply to? What are the companies there? Where can I move to after finishing uni? Can I sustain myself there? How is pay compared to your fixed expenses? Can you make a living? Can you save up some money? Which is also important. Even though the dream is bigger than earning money, you still don't feed off of air and you still have some, yeah, more on the practical side. Yeah, my girlfriend is an actor.

And she says that you can't get paid in exposure, but you can't pay the bills with exposure or you can't eat exposure. You need to obviously balance the books as well. If you're leaving everything behind, you need to make sure that you're going to be better off where you're moving to. That was my way of thinking. And that better off is not necessarily financially, it's also the metrics of happiness as well, I guess.

This is obviously a point where those two cross and one becomes more valuable than the other. It's wealth or income. And that's different for every vigil. And if you reach a point where it's not worth it for you, then just move back.

James Doran (13:35.694)

Hello and welcome to section two of the podcast, all about being there. So, you know, as we discussed before the show, this is kind of hopefully a opportunity for you to give some insight into your first impressions of when you landed in the UK, how it compares to day to day life in Portugal, what it was like studying here compared to back home, and then what it was like, you know, looking for a job and working here. And then I know you also have a really cool story about bringing your pet over. So.

We'll start off first with your first impressions. So what was it like when you landed and you came? What did you first do? Obviously you'd been before, but how was it different this time? Yeah, first time I landed, panic. Because even though I've been, I think things were different. So first time I've been, I rented a car and it was pretty safe forward.

go from A to B, then be at the next place where it was, of course. This time I was responsible for somebody else. So I was responsible for Joanna as well. So everyone, Joanna's girlfriend, by the way, just... Yes, I felt responsible for her as well. So we landed and it's this whole new world. We're starting a whole different life and we needed to get to the bus immediately to catch a bus to Oxford.

I remember we landed in Heathrow and we were catching the airline, I believe. It's basically just get in and you get out in Oxford. Yeah, it's really good. I've taken it before to Gatwick because it goes, it's the airport express and it goes from Oxford to Heathrow to Gatwick and back. Quite a good bus. I recommend all my family members that eventually land either in Heathrow or Gatwick. Just take that bus. That bus is cheaper, it's faster, it's more convenient. Yeah. It's pretty.

pretty easy easy to find I'll just pick them up in Oxford which is not too far off from Leamington. That's a good point I need to remind Evie about that because I keep forgetting she goes just straight into London and goes out to Leamington that way you just reminded me of some really good tip. My parents are visiting me two weekends and that's that's basically what they're going to do they're landing in ETHRO then taking the bus to Oxford and then it's two or three bus stops train stops.

James Doran (15:53.71)

Sorry, from Oxford to Lamingdon, so it's fairly quick. But yeah, first impressions. Everything's just so big. I know there's generally the idea that America, everything is just oversized. Coming from Portugal to the UK, I had that feeling that everything was big, crowded, lots of cars everywhere, lots of cars everywhere. And for someone that's a bit more used to calmness, less people, less movement and...

Combine with that feeling of being responsible for another person now. I'm like the head, I need to make sure we get safety. Everything went quite quick, but also quite well. Yeah, when you say big, for me I just think like super -sized things, but I guess you mean busy and population was so big and it was just a... And also super -sized. So just getting to Heathrow Airport, you get those massive...

massive parking lots, multi -story parking lots all of a sudden this is huge you've been joined by a double yeah you're checking out on me go go go go forever on that's Nuno's dog he was incredibly cute and we'll but so just back to your first impressions of the table it was big everyone was busy car box a huge i guess so now you're you're in your house you're in your flat you've got the keys you've walked in how was your first night like

It's always quite important, I think, the first time you sleep somewhere, what it's like. So it was definitely scary. So it's like one of those moments where all along here, we don't know anybody, if we're getting into trouble, we don't know who to call because we don't know anybody. Nobody is near. So the first couple of nights, they were hard. I still remember, yeah, on the first night that we arrived, we had the classic first dinner on every country that we visit. We went to McDonald's because we saw...

We saw one on our way to our accommodation and he's like okay we have a dinner sorted let's go to McDonald's. As soon as when you and I were in Sweden it would work and you were like I need to go to Flory. Now it kind of became a tradition for me every new country that I visit I want to go to McDonald's just to see how different it is because the first there you go the first meal I was shocked to know that not every burger is offered on a menu like in Portugal you can buy any burger you want and get

James Doran (18:17.966)

fries and a drink with that and not here in the UK so I wanted a certain burger and I wanted fries and a drink and it wasn't available. What do you mean? What do you mean you want a menu with that? You don't have it. It's like okay just toss them on the side then. I'll still have them but that's that's sort of the first dinner but yeah definitely the first nights were were complicated in terms of...

isolation feeling. And how early did you move before starting your courses or your freshers week? We moved two weeks before. So we had, sorry, one week. So we had one week to settle and then it started freshers week and then I started classes on the third week. And was the many people living where you were living when you first arrived or were you one of the first people or couples to attend or move into Harcourt Hill? It wasn't many at the time. I believe on the second week.

There was a pizza party and at the reception of the accommodation, me and Joanna went there just to get to know people. We were a bit, I wouldn't say shocked, but disappointed because everybody that seemed to be living there was just going to the reception and picking up their pizza and taking up to their own places. They weren't actually making connections, meeting people. We ended up, we ended up going there hoping to meet people or meet our neighbor.

a lot of people and in the end we just ended up chatting with the staff that was there. So we still got to know the staff but we didn't get to know any of our neighbors. That's quite unfortunate. In the end we did get to know a couple of them which was alright but we were there only three months. Didn't develop much further than the acquaintance. And what was the catalyst for your move? Why did you only spend three months living in the accommodation you had to begin with? So we only spent there three months.

because halfway through that month and a half in, Joanna found a job in Oxford and we just stayed there but it wasn't on a field of study so after three months this coincided with Christmas so on the first Christmas we didn't go back because she didn't have holidays on Christmas but she managed to get a job on her field and she was starting after the New Year's so she still managed to quit her job and

James Doran (20:39.534)

before Christmas and we surprised everybody going back to Portugal for Christmas, which was quite nice. Also very lucky, because that would have been Christmas in 2019, right? So lo and behold, the last chance you'd have had to go back for a few years. Yes, exactly. Because of dreaded COVID. The next Christmas we had in Portugal was last year, I think. So three years without Christmas in Portugal, 2022. So she found a job on our field of study in Banbury. So we moved.

took the chance and we moved to Banbury because her commute was okay but she would spend too much time and I didn't really mind getting a car and just commuting to where I study. It would certainly beat an hour and a half bus per way so it was two to three hours a day on the bus for me to get to Harcourt Hill to Wheatley so I would definitely be better off and she would as well because she could walk to work so that's what catalyzed our move to to Banbury.

It's much cheaper usually as well. I lived in Banbury when I first moved down south after I graduated with my bachelors. It's a nice town, there's not too much going on. There's a smell of burnt coffee, but I played hockey for Banbury for a long time. Fortunately we lived far off from the factory, from the coffee factory. It smelled sometimes, but only when the wind was blowing our direction, which it wasn't most of the times. That's really cool. So you've kind of talked about accommodation and things.

What was getting into you finished your degree and you've kind of spent the first few months living in Oxford and doing that. And in the next kind of nine months living in Bambri and commuting back and forth to weekly. well, I guess not because of COVID. So maybe you do three months of commuting to weekly and then six months at home. Yeah, that was basically it. So once we moved to Bambri, I believe everything started to close down in March. So it was three months of commuting. It wasn't too bad.

I would still do the rest of it. Everything kind of closed down, but for most students, it was still going somehow or in very limited numbers. So I would still go once or twice a week and two weekly just to get some work done. But eventually everything got closed down and it just stopped. That's quite hard, don't you? It's because you're only what, six months into living in a new country and you've worked really hard to make some friends and integrate yourself in society and then everything just...

James Doran (23:04.429)

shuts down. You know, what was that like? Because obviously your your family all back home, both yours and your Anna's family are back home. What was that like? What was it like to be in a situation where you was? I don't know what was going on. It was terrifying. It was that big bad virus COVID was affecting everybody. Nobody knew what it was like stay away from people, the crazy super supermarket runs.

where everybody was just stocking up on toilet paper. I still don't know why. Do people eat toilet paper or something? I just ordered mine online from a sustainable company. It was a box for the company's worth. We started doing that as well. I was like, it's better anyway, it's cheaper. And then I had loads because I bought it before it all happened. So yeah, it was quite little. We started doing that at that time because of it.

So it was a good change. But yeah, definitely scary because Yeah, completely new country tried to avoid people stay indoors stay isolated We hear all these messy things our family is back in Portugal We are here alone and did you ever consider going back was that a question you both were asking each other? Should we go back to Portugal? I went back home I was living in a small flat in Lemington at a time when there would no garden and no real outdoor space and

My housemate at the time was a key worker and this girl was a doctor in the NHS and I didn't really fancy being exposed so much to the virus. So I went to my parents house up north where there's a beach and there's a dog and there's, you know, things to do outside. But I guess, did you ever think about going back to Portugal? yeah, definitely. So I still wanted to finish the course there in case anything was needed. If we were, if we needed to go there in person to finish anything, it would be much easier to be there.

Joanna still had her work. She was also considered a key worker because she works in the food industry. So she was still working throughout the pandemic. But definitely if it wasn't for her, we would have gone back. Well, like, what would be the point? I didn't have a job. Joanna wouldn't have a job. We didn't have our dog. We didn't have family there. So...

James Doran (25:24.845)

What would be the point of staying? So then you kind of mentioned it before, but I'm going to keep teasing in a way until I want to ask you a question about, so you graduated your, you know, you finished your course, it's still COVID, right? When you finished your course, how was it finding a job during COVID? It was really hard. People, or companies were making cuts everywhere. So it was really hard to find an engineering job. People are being made redundant everywhere. So.

Motorsport and Automotive both being hit, having to pivot away from what they're doing, but I wasn't only looking there for a job. So my first job here in the UK was actually delivering cars. So there are companies that have a fleet of new cars that OEMs, they don't give it to them, but they manage the fleet, the demonstrator cars, let's say.

People want to test drive it for long periods of time, a couple of days a week. And my first stop was exactly that. A company near Bambri, I would get in or go in at five in the morning. They do start quite early because clients want to have their cars before either going to work or leaving somewhere. So we needed sometimes we needed to be at the south of England by eight, eight AM, seven thirty AM.

to deliver a car and to be fair since I do like cars and I do enjoy driving it was quite a nice refresher because I've ended the course in December and only got the job in March but I was looking for a job since August because that's where I started writing my dissertation so I started looking for a job way earlier so it was almost nine months looking for a job yeah that's that definitely took its toll

Because, yeah, as we said previously, what's the point? I finished the course, I don't have any job, why am I still here? If it wasn't for Durana, we would have definitely gone back. So I got that job, fortunately, doing something that I do enjoy, even though it's not my field of work, and it was still COVID. So delivering cars was pretty good, let's say, getting out of our tiny flat that we had and we were confined for so long. So...

James Doran (27:39.981)

actually got me the chance not only to drive cool cars but also see a whole bunch of England. And the roads are empty as well right? Yeah exactly because also the roads are were a fraction of what they are usually. Let's say I went through the M25 which is notoriously famous for its traffic on Friday evenings and Monday mornings completely fine or almost alone at certain times which is

unheard of, but that was a pretty good experience to be fair. And once I got that job, I got a steady income. I wasn't just relying on Joanna and everything started falling into place. It seemed like after I got that first one a couple of months earlier, I got an engineering job and from there on everything went smoothly. And it's still going smoothly you think? Yeah, definitely still going smoothly. I moved to work in aerodynamics. That was my dream and I started working at

as a CAE engineer in an automotive company, Yasa, that's now a Mercedes or now owned by Mercedes. I was still, I was still doing something I enjoyed. I do enjoy quite, do quite enjoy working in CAE and simulation, but it wasn't entirely what I wanted. And yeah, after a year of being there, it all, I think it was almost the date or the month, the month that I'd made a year in Yasa. It was the month that I gave my notice because I got a narrowed dynamics.

engineer job at Polestar. It was quite a coincidence and really good. After Covid, after leaving my country and after being through such hardships of being away from the family and going through this pandemic to finally land the job that I wanted to do. And how did you feel then? What was your, what was your, did you call your family when you got that job and things? Champagne.

It's like a podium celebration. Yeah, you're going to do a Norris and jump off the step and smash it. I wasn't that exotic, let's say. And it wasn't a massive champagne bottle, it was just a tiny one. It's all the same celebration that matters. And yeah, it's great that you've managed to achieve your first goal, I guess, or an early goal in your life. Obviously, there's still many more to go and you still have aspirations to keep achieving, which is great. And then lastly...

James Doran (29:55.117)

as you kept teasing it you have a special family member who you got reunited with after covid after you've been living here for how long? two years and a half? and do you want to indulge the listeners? yeah so i have now an eight -year -old he's now eight years eight years old labrador that i raised since

Me and my family raised since he was three months old and when I moved here into the UK I had to make the hard decision of leaving him with my parents. Of course, I know he would be fine, but it's still a tough decision. One of my immediate goals was after I left uni or that's the accommodation, I would try to find a place that I could have him. I just didn't know it was that hard to find a place that accepted dogs.

here in the UK that you can rent. Yeah, it's hard. Of course, at the time I didn't have enough to buy a house, but it was so hard to find a place. It took us more than two years of constantly searching because then I would renew the contract and I was locked. I couldn't leave when I had the chance of leaving. It was so hard that I had to renew again on this place that I was that happened two, three times. So I had three months windows where I could.

where I could leave my place and find a new one per year and we just couldn't find a place. So after two years finally we found a place that would accept dogs and we finally were able to bring him over and after two years we were reunited and it was like okay it's done we are a whole now we are a family again. Ash came over after Brexit right so did he need a passport? Yeah he is he's an European dog so he has a Europe

passport but yeah post -brexit. He's got more rights than I do. I'm not sure if it's still the case. Yeah he can free travel around Europe. I mean I can now only because I've got work permit. Yeah now you're a hybrid you're semi -British, semi -European. He needed some documentation. What documentation did you need? So he needed... it's not his passport because it wasn't valid to get into the UK. He needed certain documents signed by a veterinarian.

James Doran (32:18.509)

saying that he was well, he was fit, he had his deworming, his flea treatments up to date, and the whole process was, well, I would say fairly smooth on our end, because we also pay the company to bring him over and deal all of the paperwork, because we were...

afraid of sending them over when a paper would be missing and then he would be stuck in quarantine for six months or something like that. So we basically paid the company to make sure everything was right and bring him over. It's worth doing I guess because the other side is not worth bearing thinking about. Yeah definitely. So on that day my parents left him at the airport with the company at six in the morning. His flight was at midday so he was in a crate from six a until I would say

4 o 'clock in the afternoon because his plane landed at 2 then he went to an inspection center where they would check everything and we only got him at 10 p which is when he got released and he's a very special kind of dog he only pees in grass and he didn't have access to grass so after he saw us of course he did a message party of seeing us and the moment he walked out the door there there was a grass patch and he

did the longest pee I've seen doing in a long time. I'm gonna have to put this in an explicit part. What's wrong with saying that the dog made a pee? There's nothing, I'm joking. What a great way to end the segment then, with such a happy ending for the three of you, I guess. Yeah, we're very happy now together. We have our freedom now, let's say movement, movement freedom because of COVID, we can enjoy our new place, enjoy.

England finally and we're enjoying our jobs as well. I'm doing what I wanted to do. Joanna is also working on the field she studied and she wants to and we have our little boy here.

James Doran (34:22.445)

So welcome to section three of the podcast, which is, I haven't let you name this part. I shouldn't name it because you were like something there, something there. This is a kind of a recap of your experience so far. And it's a good thing in the comments. If you do have an idea of what to name the third part, please let me know and we can do a little poll or something. But yeah, so, you know, I guess my first question for you is, have you, have you enjoyed your time in the UK? Yeah, definitely.

Even more after what we've been through, like having the restrictions that everybody had, it kind of makes us value it so much more now that we have our own freedom. We were able to actually enjoy the country. Of course, there are still the downsides that we, the downside that we don't have our family here. That's still the main bit because time still goes on. And every time I go to Portugal, I see my family getting a little bit older, little cousins getting not so little anymore.

Seeing my brother recently have recently she's now one year old a daughter and not not really taking or seeing her too much I guess it's difficult because your brother lives in Madeira, right? So it's not mainland Portugal either. So yeah, but it would be easier to visit him and he does go I wouldn't say quite often but he goes often into mainland. He doesn't go he doesn't come as often to the UK. That's for sure. It's a fair point.

Yeah, but it's been great. I feel like, I don't feel like it's true. Portugal doesn't, it's not a country for young people. It's so much harder there to actually progress in life, let's say like that. And here, if you put yourself to it and if you persist, you can end up doing what you want to, having the right opportunities. Because this is also something I didn't mention, but I've...

landed my first engineering job after 350 applications sent over nine months. That just shows a bit of how persistence can go a long way. You'll eventually get it. That seems crazy to me. And on that topic, a lot of your friends from university in Portugal, they do engineering jobs now or are they doing other jobs? Most of them are doing engineering jobs. So my close circle of friends, I would say 50 %

James Doran (36:39.853)

are still in Portugal doing engineering jobs, but not something that they always wanted to do. Let's say it like that. I have one friend that went to Spain and another one to the Netherlands and most of them, yeah, are. Because I know when I was choosing my degrees and what I wanted to do, it was always, are you getting 98 % rate of employment after this course? It's a good reason to take it. And that usually meant in a field that you wanted to do in engineering, whether it's a grad scheme or something. And...

To me, I just took that for granted, right? I'll get a degree in engineering and I'll get a job in engineering because engineers are heavily needed in this country. That's basically why it also happens in Portugal. So mechanical engineering, that's also something that we looked at. It's mechanical engineering and at the University of Coimbra, it has a really good employment rate. And because of that, it's also a very wide course. So once you finish it, you...

can do a whole bunch of engineering jobs. And all my friends kind of got spread over the categories that a mechanical engineer can do. So one even went to programming, some went to logistics, others went to industrial planning, whole diversification of jobs, really. What was, what advice would you give to someone who would leave Portugal to live anywhere in the world? Ooh, that's a tough one. I guess I can.

I can speak from my experiences if you think it's worth it to pursue what you actually want to do even if it's just having a better life not only in professional terms but financial or fulfillment then just yeah go ahead and do it I feel like I've grown more in two three years here in the UK than what I've grown while I was in Portugal it's just a whole different level of independence that you're a bit forced to grow up and you just

take so much from that experience. And then I guess just to go to the lighter side of it, what's your favourite British saying? I do have a favourite British expression, but it's only one word. But like expression, sentence, nothing really comes up to my mind. Twat. I've heard it before, but it stuck with me when I was walking Ashie once. And he gets really excited when he sees other dogs. And of course, living in a village that has tons of dogs.

James Doran (39:04.845)

I'm quite friendly with a lot of the owners and Ashy got distracted once. He wanted to play with the other dog and he was just jumping around and he went against one of the owners which is I would say a very old lady but it's an old lady and she just turned around to Ashy and like you effing twat and I just loved it because I know her she's very pure let's say or she's very straight to the point but

She didn't mean that with harm. She meant it in a friendly way, let's say. I just found it so funny the way she called him a fat. I mean, I think in English, a lot of words are very versatile. It's all about how you deliver it. definitely. I also do quite enjoy when old ladies call me love. It's like so endearing. here you go, my love. Does it make you feel very warm inside?

Yeah, it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. here you go, darling or sweetheart. that's so cute. what a lovely way to kind of go into the next bit, which is more, would you, if you could go back in time and kind of relive your experience in the UK, would you change anything and what would it be? I would. You can't choose COVID. Yeah, I was trying not to because that took away from the whole experience, but it also gave other things.

I would say just probably being aware that it's just so hard to find a place that accepts dogs. I would say that that would be the main takeaway because I love my family of course, but they know I'm here. I can have a chat with them. I can video chat them. It eases up a little bit missing home, but that feeling that I had that I left my dog and he doesn't know where I am just kept...

eating me inside until I actually got in here. So I would say definitely that. That's a very good piece of advice for everyone listening as well. If you do want to move with a pet, do your research and understand what you need to do in order to bring it with you or to understand how, where you can live and do some research on accommodations. As Nuno said in the UK, it's very common to have accommodation which doesn't allow smoking inside and also no pets. It's very common you see that on advertisements.

James Doran (41:30.413)

I've even seen in some cases that they say no children. really? It's like no children, no pets. Okay, that's very strict. It is very strict. I wasn't aware of that at all. and lastly, is there anything else you want to kind of recap or give to the listeners? You can say no, you can just say no, I've done my bit. To be fair, I don't think so. I might be missing for sure. And some detail.

that got lost along the way but I think most of it is there. I'm sure we can do a recap episode with you in the future when you've had more time to spend in the UK. Well thank you Nino for joining me or indulging me in this explorative podcast where I'm still very new, you're my I think fifth guest on so thank you for... yeah thank you for...

for agreeing to it in the first place and letting me try and you know, navigate my way through the world of podcasting. And on that note, if you have enjoyed this episode and you have enjoyed Nuno's many tales of lockdown and you know, bringing pets across and navigating his way from Portugal to the UK, both for studying and for work, then let us know in the comments and let us know if you have any more questions to ask.

I'm sure Nuno is willing to indulge them as well and provide more feedback. If you have any more information you want, then yeah, just please get in touch with us on socials. We're across all of them at the expat pod. And yeah, if you really enjoyed it, please share it with your friends and family and leave a five star review on Apple podcasts. Cause that's, I believe how you can get the ladder and become visible for people who also may gather some Nuggets information from this. So.

Thank you and thank you, and yeah, we'll see you next time.