Having grown up spending every summer in Portugal, as well as attending Portuguese school and university courses at the U of Lisbon from 1998 to 2000, Mark developed an interest in one day living full time in Lisbon.  Having also just completed a semester in southern France at the IAU in Aix-en-Provence, France, he was even more inspired to make his life not in the US, but yes.. in Europe.  Thankfully it was not difficult for the US born son of Portuguese immigrants to claim Portuguese citizenship, which he did around 1999. After that, getting a social security number, health card, and bank account followed.  By the time 2001 rolled around, though the exact date of his move was not clear, the idea was firmly in the back of his mind and the groundwork had been laid.

During a long summer in Portugal in 2001, following a personal life crisis, these plans seemed to come ever closer.  He was also to spend christmas of 01 in Portugal with his family.

During the events of September 11th, 2001, Mark was employed as a cater waiter in Manhattan.  The work was primarily at night and location varied from museums to private homes in and around Manhattan. Not usually anywhere near the World Trade Center.  At the same time Mark had just completed a 4 month research job as an unpaid intern at the Village Voice. His work was for the city/state politics section, as a researcher for senior editor Wayne Barrett.  Barrett was among the last true freedom fighters at the Voice, constantly challenging authority and obsessed with exposing corruption, especially the kind that originated in city hall. The job was nonstop adventure, with most of his time being spent driving around Staten Island and New Jersey hunting down ex colleagues and neighbors of known mobsters and corrupt businessmen.