Rachel: Bom dia!
Sou a Rachel, e sou Professor de English em Tavira.
And Hi, I'm Rachel, and I am an English teacher in Tavira, Portugal.
Tavira is in the south of Portugal, so if you look down
at my hand, it's on the bottom.
And it's in the region called the Algarve, and I work in a town called Tavira.
It's about an hour 45 minutes east of Faro.
I work at your typical brick and mortar school in international school
called Collegio Santiago International.
And I work with years one, two, year four with all different subjects.
But I was hired to specifically promote literacy in this program.
I found this job basically by emailing literally every
international school in Portugal.
I knew I wanted to live in Portugal, so I just kept emailing
until I got a positive response.
So keep trying.
It can happen.
Okay, so I wanted to quickly break down the cost of living before I
start taking questions from you guys.
So the cost of living, it's, I get about 1100 euros a month as my salary.
That's typical for the Algarve.
In other parts of Portugal, like Lisbon or Porto, you might get paid more.
My rent is about 500 euros a month, and I'll give you an apartment
tour later, I think in Portugal.
The amount that you spend, you get a lot.
I lived in Germany prior to this and sometimes the apartments give
you a lot smaller for not that much, even though it was a city.
Um, so I'm very happy.
So, I'll show you my accommodation later.
So for groceries, I spend probably 160 Euros a month, maybe a little more, maybe
a little less, but typically around there.
Groceries are quite cheap.
Just like in other parts of Europe.
Um, you have seen an increase due to inflation.
I even see, you know, prices still going up, but that's
just typical for everywhere.
I spend about 10 euros a month on my phone bill and I spend about 10
euros a month on public transit.
For public transit, I don't usually take it on a daily basis.
This is it just, if I wanna go to Faro or a bigger town or travel
around, it's like 3 Euros and 40 cents for an hour train ride.
So not too bad.
Um, it's a good way to explore the Algarve, which is quite nice.
So in terms of going out, typically a typical meal will go
from anywhere from 8 to 15 euros.
It can run less.
It can run more.
Some places you can find it for six.
Some places you can find it for more.
So it just depends on what you want to eat.
There is every single type of international cuisine
here, which is really cool.
Especially in a small town, so I love that.
Um, in terms of live entertainment, there's always concerts going
on, especially in summer.
It's been a bit quiet now, but in November there's even, well late November,
there's, um, festivals coming up.
Um, I'm trying to think.
A typical beer will run about two euros, a glass of wine, two euros, so it's
very, very cheap in terms of going out.
You can spend as much as you want, but honestly, you could probably.
Spend 20 euros and have a nice dinner and a couple drinks and see a free
concert and have a wonderful evening.
I think by the end of it all, I usually have about 200 euros that I
save each month, but I save to travel.
So basically I am always exhausted when it comes to the weekends typically.
But I try to travel whenever we have school breaks.
So most recently I went to Spain.
I am hoping to get to do some more traveling at other breaks that we have.
So I try to save my money for them.
And go on smaller day trips throughout the Algarve or maybe a weekend trip.
But, um, if you wanna travel or if you wanna save money, you can
definitely save money to travel.
Maybe not to travel in the most extravagant way, but definitely for, to go
see Europe and see many different places.