expat life

After years of living as an expat in the US, I still have trouble subduing my inner Dutch girl with her opinions and judgments and directness. So if you’re an American, you’ll want to stop reading, because here’s my list of 7 American things I don’t do . . .

If you’ve lived abroad for decades and you’re a foreigner in your own country, where do you go when you want to grow some roots? Greedy, I went in search of paradise.

My store of expat life patience is exhausted. It’s not only the chicken, the water, the electricity, the tiny fridge, the heat, the dull knife, the lack of kitchen drawers, the dead rat in the garden this morning, but . . .

How to have a cheek-kissing orgy? Move to France, invite the neighbors. But be warned: hugging is taboo.

Certain things you do in your expat life don’t seem so strange at all until you stop and realize what you’re doing. And then it hits you: What a crazy life! What am I doing? Here’s one such mad moment I experienced while living abroad.