“It must be nice being an expat wife. I mean, you get to have like a 2-year vacation, huh?” I was surprised and a little more than hurt to hear these words from a South African I’ve gotten to know. But I tried to imagine my life from her perspective: she sees me several times … Read more
The continuing adventures of June Finnigan, her Man, and Farty Barty the cat. Benvenuti to all my Loyal and New Followers Big fat juicy grapes, noisy tractors and trailers thundering past the villa, the air full of the smell of grapes being crushed and the smoke of bonfires burning the debris. That just about sums … Read more
I’ve been living in the middle of China for almost a month now. It’s my second expat posting, so while I’m not a newbie to “expat life”, having bandied about the term ‘culture shock’ on this column many times, I’ve got to say, in all honesty I had rather naively forgotten how confronting moving to … Read more
I made it through the first year and my hair still hasn’t gone grey. My son was one last week, it’s amazing how the year has flown by, but at the same time I’ve learnt loads being an expat Dad. A lot of what I was worried about before the birth was true: we had … Read more
Here in Stockholm, when Swedes start discussing the ‘changing seasons’ we ex-pats look at one another knowingly and have a secret giggle. Why? Seasons in Sweden are broken down into ‘cold’ and ‘not so cold’. Not to say that we didn’t just have one of the most fabulous and lengthy summers in memory, because we … Read more
On 25 July, news of the death from Ebola of one Liberian man in a private clinic in Lagos sent shockwaves through the country. The Liberian had withheld from the medical staff the fact that he had been in contact with Ebola sufferers in Liberia. As a result, several medical staff were contaminated, the hospital … Read more
I confess I’d never heard of Terry Fox before we came to Canada – yet another reminder of just how distinctive cultural identity is (even within broadly similar societies), that something so significant to one nation can be relatively unknown to others in the same hemisphere. Expatriation exacts a steep learning curve in return for … Read more
After nine years living in rural Burgundy, we are philosophical about paperasserie – the French equivalent of red tape. French bureaucracy has an appalling reputation, but some French paperasserie is actually easier to deal with than British red tape. Let’s have the good news first. John makes our joint tax return online here, thanks to … Read more
Let me be frank: repatriation is harder than you think. I’m learning firsthand that when it comes to repatriating, there are many hurdles to be faced: some are expected, others not. We’re busy building a new life in what is assumed to be a familiar place in which it’s easy to navigate supposedly known social, … Read more
“Repatriation is a bitch,” I’d been warned. Somehow I suspected it might be. After two and a half years in Las Tablas, Panama, my husband and I and our two dogs arrived back in the US. It wasn’t something we really planned on doing, but some opportunities opened up, the stars aligned, and here we … Read more