Travel Adventures of an Expat Cat
If you are like me you fall in love with animals everywhere. I constantly want to adopt and care for animals that I meet, but obviously can’t take them all around the world with me. One cat however, won my heart and has travelled with me. When I lived in Turkey I met and quickly fell in love with a stray cat. I named her Sultan, which is a regular female Turkish name. She was a nervous cat and was scared of me and of anyone who came to visit. It took weeks of actively avoiding her before she felt comfortable and calmed down a bit. We soon got used…
The Aussie Way – Part 4
A new perspective on a familiar place
Have you ever met someone who introduced you to a whole new way of seeing and understanding a place? It is easy to only see the world through your own eyes, but sometimes looking at things differently can be truly eye-opening. Living in a small town in regional Australia brings one enormous benefit; there are no crowds. This applies in lots of places. For example the nearby beaches are stunning and you often have them either completely or virtually to yourself. Parking is always available, usually within a few metres of the shop you wish to visit and people are, for the most part, friendly and familiar. However, isolation is…
Why expats need local friends
It is easy for expats, especially in a country that speaks another language, to form friendships with other expats. While fellow expats can be enormously supportive and fun, if you want to really understand your new home, it is also important to befriend locals in your host country. One place I am especially fond of is Turkey. It is somewhere that I quickly felt, and continue to feel, at ease. I am indebted to my Turkish friends for their help during my time in Turkey, especially at the beginning. I was young when I first fell in love with the country and I was clueless about Turkish culture and knew nothing…
Tips for Expat Success
Life as an expat offers challenges not faced by those living in their home countries. Of course these challenges vary depending where you are from and where you move and many things can have an impact on how successfully you adapt to expat life. These are my tips for expat success. Explore Getting out and exploring your new territory should definitely be a priority. What do the locals have that you don’t? Local knowledge. It is invaluable when trying to fit in somewhere new and granted, it does not come overnight, but at least if you know the names of local places and make your own observations you at least…
A year away
Time passes quickly these days. I have been away from the UK, my family and most of my friends, for a year now and here share the emotional journey of my expat year. Escaping or exploring? Firstly I ought to explain that I was not unhappy in the UK. Despite a fairly vagabondish life I am familiar with things there and surrounded by people I know in the UK. I was however, sick of London commuting, the endlessly grim news reports about the recession and I was definitely over the weather and the perpetual greyness. With Australia as an option, we decided to see what it could offer us. Whilst…
The Aussie Way – Part 3
The longer I spend downunder the more I notice. I feel I have graduated a level in understanding Australian ways recently, as I have noticed more of the subtler differences in everyday life. Have you always wanted to be a fireman? Australia likes to think of itself as a land of opportunity and in the volunteering field it most certainly is. There is a vast array of activities carried out by volunteer teams, such as fire and rescue services, marine rescue, community event management and environmental activities are just a few. Compared to the UK where fewer organisations are operated by volunteers it gives people the opportunity to commit to…
Mother’s Day – the ultimate expat trap
Living overseas can be difficult for many reasons, but it can also be fraught with danger as I discovered this week when I almost fell into the ultimate expat trap: forgetting Mother’s Day. Despite the 9,000 miles distance currently between us, my mother and I normally communicate two or three times a week. She is often in my thoughts and there is no way that I would ignore Mother’s Day. For a start, I have a clear childhood memory of asking “Mum, why isn’t there a Children’s Day?” and her response “Every day is children’s day.” Point taken! Why all the dates? Most countries celebrate Mother’s Day and Father’s Day…
When do expats become locals?
A stranger stopped me in the supermarket yesterday and asked me “Are you a local?” I am English and currently living in Australia in a town where it is generally believed that you must stay at least ten years before you are considered a local. Having been here just under a year I wasn’t confident that ‘yes’ was the correct response. Remembering that I was in the supermarket that I visit weekly to restock the fridge though, I hazarded a ‘yes’. “Oh great,” he said “Can you tell me where they hide the bacon?” Of course I could, so to that extent at least, I am a local here. But…
Consumerism and Travellers
Are you a shopaholic? Go on admit it. You just can’t resist all those lovely shiny things, right? Well, if you are not, you will perhaps be more aware that consumerism is rife in today’s world. It lurks everywhere, around every corner, ready to ambush you and to part you and your cash. Travelling takes you out of your routine however and I think strengthens your resistance to the pressure of consumerism. Pressure Most people are constantly exposed to consumerism in all its glory, especially in the Western world. Advertising is consumerism’s weapon of choice and we are all exposed to it while commuting, shopping, reading the paper, watching TV…
