Tag:

food

How Not to Be the Jerk Back Home

by Crista Lindberg September 5, 2021

There are obvious, predictable downsides to living overseas.

You can brace for homesickness on a level that feel like a chronic stomachache. You’ll romanticize all the missing comforts of home — in my case, the smell of Downey fabric softener. You’ll count the days until your holiday visits or permanent repatriation.

But, nobody tells you about irreversible personality shifts you must balance with the utmost care when you do get “back home,” to avoid coming across like an arrogant ass.

I have behaved like a jerk — a big one, at times — when returning home after a cumulative six years spent abroad for my husband’s career with Nike. I’m going to share some of my unfortunate missteps with you, as a cautionary tale to help prevent others from behaving as poorly.

Book Club Expat Experiences

Locked Down? C’est La Vie

by Brigid Keenan May 7, 2020

written by Brigid Keenan

Brigid Keenan, British author of the best-selling Diplomatic Baggage: The Adventures of a Trailing Spouse, accompanied her diplomat husband around the world for nearly 40 years — which, she says, turned out to be good practice for being locked down while far from home.

On February 26 — about a hundred years ago, or was it in another life? — my husband “AW” and I put our car on a cross-channel ferry and drove through France to a place called Elche, in Spain. We chose this destination, an extraordinary oasis probably planted by the Carthaginians, because AW is writing a book about date palms. Afterwards, we headed back north into France, to our little house in a village not far from Montpellier.

We had planned to stay about a week: sort out the small garden, clean the rooms, get it ready for summer and then leave. AW was booked on a Buddhist retreat in Scotland; I had to concentrate on the monthly column I write for The Oldie magazine. (I was looking forward to interviewing actress Sarah Miles, the long-ago star of “Ryan’s Daughter” and a rumored sequel in which she will play a grandmother.) But Fate had other ideas: within a few days of our arrival, the whole world turned upside down, with all travel, commitments, appointments and engagements abandoned.

Almost two months later, we are still here — locked down, with one change of clothes each — in our French valley.

Expat Experiences Trailing Kids

How Expat Life Prepared Me for COVID-19

by Crista Lindberg April 27, 2020

written by Crista Lindberg

Social distancing, digitally connecting, stockpiling supplies, wearing masks, homeschooling, working from home? My expat friends were the first to settle into these new norms, and are now seemingly unfazed. Meanwhile, my American friends who’ve never lived overseas were panicked or in denial from the start of this global coronavirus pandemic — and, weeks later, are still resisting new routines.

This has made me pause and ask: What really sets these groups apart? What critical skills have expats — trailing spouses, especially — mastered that are just now being learned by others facing unprecedented uncertainty for the first time?

Career Transitions Driving Distance Expat Experiences Trailing Kids

Comfort Food, Luxury Food, Phantom Food

by Nicole Neroulias Gupte February 4, 2020

written by Nicole Neroulias Gupte

It’s one thing to leave family, friends, and employment opportunities behind to accompany our spouses when their careers require a relocation. But when the move also means giving up our favorite foods? Yikes.

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

As a tourist or business traveler, I’ve found myself saddened by two edible extremes: discovering amazing new foods that I won’t be able to find again back home vs. managing the absence of a dietary staple while on my journey.