Expat dictionary, word of the month: Expat wife. A woman who follows her husband abroad, often for his job, while her new job is caretaker and taxi driver. She takes care of the kids, the home / showroom, herself (as in shopping, body treatments and tennis) and the social network (as in voluntary work, lunches […]
You like potato and I like potahto
11/06/2013 by 2 Comments
Accents. Everyone’s got one. Some of us have more than one depending on the language we are speaking or who we are speaking to. Here in Luxembourg, accents are an everyday occurrence. They are a signal to others expressing where we come from. Even if physical features make it difficult to ascertain one’s roots, once […]
20 to life
14/05/2013 by 2 Comments
5 to 10. 10 to 20. 20 to life. If those numbers make you shiver a bit, they should. That’s prison talk for the amount of time someone will spend behind bars. It’s also somewhat reminiscent of the way Luxembourg’s expats sometimes speak when describing how long they have been here. „We came for three […]
Out to get you
04/04/2013 by Leave a Comment
Moving. It’s one of the more stressful situations in one’s life. Plenty of preparation goes into organizing, selling, and throwing out some of the past. Simultaneously, you’re searching, restructuring and planning for the future. It’s downsizing on one side; upgrading on the other. That all occurs before the move takes place. The actual relocation has […]
Friendship divorce
09/03/2013 by Leave a Comment
Expat dictionary: Friendship divorce. Either a two-way split-up, when friends mutually, often tacitly, agree on a divorce, or one-way, when a friend divorces you and you want her to stay, or vice versa. Separation by geography can be a contributing factor to a friendship divorce. If we stay friends with our childhood friends – the […]
Safety in numbers
04/03/2013 by 3 Comments
There’s safety in numbers. Any springbok or impala running from its predator will tell you that. Humans feel the same way. But it’s not just when we feel threatened that we like the company of others. In general, we are social creatures who enjoy interaction; with family and friends in particular. If they’re not around, we’ll […]
The Golden Cage
30/01/2013 by 7 Comments
A golden cage; that’s how Luxembourg is described at times; alluring in some ways, suffocating in others – kind of like a celestial snare. A fitting description, I suppose, if you work here. But for those who play the role of house spouse – the trailing spouse in local parlance – the cage can become […]
The Monty Python Approach to Expat Life
28/01/2013 by Leave a Comment
New to expat life (as an expat wife?) or simply still dealing with it? In the true spirit of Monty Python – here’s the bright side: 1. The Melting Pot Thingy If you knock on your neighbour’s doors, you’d easily count to at least 10 nationalities. In a crowded restaurant, you’d quickly lose count. In […]
The Expat Limbo
13/01/2013 by 3 Comments
From the Expat Dictionary: expat limbo. A condition of being between a rock and a hard place in which you might find yourself after a certain time as an expat. Your home country being the rock, your new country the hard place or vice versa. Somebody once said to us: “If you want to go […]
Expat life and second chances
01/01/2013 by Leave a Comment
We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance. – Harrison Ford. The famous second chance. Normally, we all deserve at least one, but I would say several of them. That is of course because we all need them, very few of us are superhuman. And we need […]
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