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10 Tips on How to Love Expat Life
When I was 19 years old, I left my homeland to live in a foreign country. For a year, I said, to work as an au-pair. Then I met my husband… on my very first day in Germany, but that’s a whole other story! 25 years later, I’m now back in the place where my adventure began, in a small town in Bavaria. In the intervening years, we’ve moved home 8 times, with four international moves and we’ve gathered a whole lot of experience. Here are my top tips on how to love expat life.
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What You Need to Know Before Moving Overseas
‘Steve and Mary from Nuneaton are following their dream, of buying and renovating a period property in rural France. The cottage we are showing them needs a bit of work, but we think that with a bit of updating, it could be stunning. Neither of them speak the language, but they came to this area on holiday last year, and fell in love with the natural beauty and the carefree lifestyle. Mary is an artist, and Steve is a graphic designer, and both hope to set up thriving home businesses in France.’ I quite like watching property shows, particularly A Place in the Sun, but usually spend the episode shouting, ‘NO! Don’t do it!’ at…
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The Joys of Expat Life
Ok, forgive me my self-indulgent and whiny post yesterday. The sun is shining in Geneva once more, my friend is on her way to a new adventure, who knows what the next year will bring both her and my families. There is change coming, and it cannot be stopped. Today, I am going to concentrate on the good sides, the sweet side of life. What I enjoy about living in Switzerland. In Geneva. Chocolate – this is a given. Switzerland has a lot of chocolatiers. Here in Geneva we can chose from Martel, Rohr, Auer and many others. We went to the chocolate festival in Versoix this spring to see how…
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Saying goodbye, au revoir, auf wiedersehen…
No matter in which language you do this, it is a bitch. And if you are living the expat life, then it is something that you have to do occasionally. I have had acquaintances come and go but today was the first time I have said farewell to a true friend. And it hurts. So I did what I do when I hurt. I baked. I cried. I drank wine. And I sat down to write. While I pounded the dough for the pizza we shall eat later, I considered this side of expat life. The side that no one tells you about, when they extol the fantastic lifestyle, the mind-broadening…
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Happy Independence Day
Happy 4th July! Today I am doing something that I have never done before. I am hosting a 4th July party. Actually, it is the first time that I have ever attended an Independence Day party so I am not quite sure what I am letting myself in for. As a Trailing Spouse, I meet a lot of women from other countries and cultures, many of them wives or girlfriends of my husband’s colleagues. Some of us meet once a month for a night out and this month we decided to have a BBQ to celebrate Independance Day. I fear I got off to rather a bad start when I…
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The Swiss Apartment Rules
Did you know that the Swiss have rules that restrict many activities that most of us would find totally normal? The Swiss apartment rules are particularly strict, so we’ve always been thankful that we live in the countryside with no direct neighbours. Today my husband was preparing for the big 4th July Party that we are hosting on Monday. Part of this involved a bit of garden work – we have a large linden tree in the garden, it’s yellow flowers are pretty for about 30 seconds before it sheds the flowers onto the grass. Raking the flowers and leaves takes a lot of time and effort so we bought an electric…
