I went to CybHer blogging conference in London yesterday and met a really lovely blogger who told me she has two friends who are expats in Britain—one loves her life here and is full of the spirit of adventure while the other is struggling, picking holes in her host culture and not at all enjoying her life overseas. It makes me sad to hear this. I know there can be a hundred and one reasons someone isn’t enjoying their life—no matter where they live, abroad or in their homeland, but it seems such a shame to have the opportunity to live overseas and not take advantage of that time by looking for all the good things and making the most of it.
The expat book I am working on is for people who are struggling to enjoy their life overseas. I’m writing it because I know there are a lot of people like this and I know that whether you’re overseas for a year or a lifetime, you’ll have a much better experience if you can find strategies for enjoying it.
One thing that helps me a lot when I’m feeling a bit down about living overseas is reading other people’s enthusiastic, passionate blogs about their life overseas. I also like to share the positives I have found about my life overseas (sharing helps me focus more on the positives!).
I recently wrote a post about my house—it’s locally well known for two reasons, and it’s one of the things I think is fun about my life overseas. I haven’t always loved where I’ve lived in Britain, and there are things I don’t like about my current house but I have found some aspects that I can focus on to make my home a much more entertaining place to live in.
In my expat round-up I much prefer to focus on specific posts but in this round-up I’m going to make an exception. Fergus Miller is a new discovery of mine and reading his About Me page alone is enough to feel the energy of this expat. This New Zealander has lived in Britain and now Switzerland and loves living overseas, loves taking advantage of his location to travel from his home.
One of the fun things about living in another country is discovering the things they have that your home country doesn’t have, even if they’re kind of scary/odd (let’s hope these are never needed). Check out the unusual extra rooms in Swiss houses at Three Years and One Stone then Home.
Another blogger who has a passion for her host country is Julie Dawn Fox in Portugal. She has discovered the best hot weather food in the world (in my opinion, and very likely hers) and I can almost guarantee that she won’t find anything like this in her home country!
Now I’m back to recommending a whole blog. This time it’s because it’s a brand new blog! A Vicar’s Wife is written by an American married to a vicar—no she will not make you tea and scones, but yes, he will entertain you with her funny, honest writing. Go check her out and welcome her to the expat blogging community!
One of the best ways to love living where you do is to find something beautiful about it—whether it’s the little flowers that take root in the cracks in the pavement or the majesty of a wild coastline. Take photos of it, paint or draw it, or simply write about it. And if you have a blog, share it with the world as Crumpets in Camelot has done in one of her recent posts, celebrating the beautiful coastline in Cornwall.
How do you find ways to love living in your host country? Consider this a post prompt! Write a post on it and come back and add it to the linky below—or, if you’ve already written on it (no matter how long ago) leave a link below.
Oh, and before I go, if there are any expats reading this who are attending the BritMums Live! Conference 22-23 June, there will be an expat dinner on Friday 22nd June, after the Brilliance in Blogging awards party and ceremony, at about 8.30 pm. If you’re interested in going, just contact me and I’ll add your name to the list! My twitter handle is @Michelloui and my email is theamericanresident (at) yahoo (dot) com.
Next month I’ll look at the more frustrating aspects of living overseas.
About Michelle Garrett
Michelle Garrett is the author of The American Resident, where she blogs about making a life overseas, raising a blended family, herding cats, chasing chickens and attempting the Good Life in Essex. Michelle is a freelance writer and BritMums editor.
Thanks for including me, Michelle. Our ‘extra room’ certainly is an unusual feature. I’m so sorry that I’m not going to be at Brit Mums otherwise I would definitely have tagged along for the dinner. Looking forward to hearing all about it afterwards.
P.S. Glad you stumbled across Fergus. He recently found me and vice versa and his tips on food and restaurants are brilliant.
Perhaps next year for BritMums? It would be love to meet you one day after all I’ve been reading on your blog!
Yes, I’ve enjoyed Fergus’ reviews–now if only I could get to some of those places…
A great round-up with lots of brilliant blogs there! I look forward to reading a few that I haven’t yet heard of!…. I want to come to Britmums and the Expat dinner
*stamps feet*…
I hope you enjoy the blogs! Perhaps next year we’ll see you at the conference…? It’s always fun to meet more expats
Ah, adjusting to a new country, such a great topic — and a moving target! It seems like every time I reach a stable point, something happens to tip me over the edge once again.
But having an open mind and really celebrating what you love does help. And blogging! Blogging helps! Anyway, thanks for the shout out to Crumpets in Camelot, and I’m looking forward to checking out the other blogs you mention. Have fun at the BiB celebration!
Monique you are so right, the adjustment is indeed a moving target. But yes, for sure the open mind (and sense of humour!) really REALLY helps!! You seem to do that very well
Great list of blogs there, some of which I wasn’t familiar with so will have to check out.
Hope you enjoy them! I’m really enjoying discovering new expat blogs, and sharing them.
Thanks for the shout out! Just getting the hang of blogging and juggling life with a new baby, so thank you for your kind words!
Well you are adjusting very well it looks like!!
Great prompt! I’ll certainly give it a go :0)
Great!! Looking forward to reading the result…
Oops! Just got carried away with the idea of a house you love and added a post to the Linky that would have been better suited to Things I Miss From Home. Sorry, wasn’t going for blatant self-promotion regardless of topic
Hi Michelle. I just wanted to congratulate you on a great post. It’s good to celebrate the positives! And thanks for including me.
This blog is extremely good! How can I make one like this ?
After 11 years in the USA I am well and truly adjusted. The only problem I have is keeping up to date with UK politics – I kind of feel out of touch even though I get the Guardian weekly.
Regarding one’s happiness in adjusting, I think it usually depends on whether the country you are living in is doing better economically than the one you left. At the moment the US is doing better than UK so it makes me feel I have made the right choice although it could well go the other way at some point!!