Expat Mums Blog

Strong as steel

For all you yanks missing home, here's the latest viral video from GE. Yes, it is a joke and yes, it did eventually get a giggle.

Yummy Mummy? Not quite yet

Who knew what having a gorgeous baby could do to your body? It's amazing to watch your body grow and change when you're pregnant. There's a bit of bemusement on the day when you can't see your feet anymore. And did you ever imagine that you'd need your hubby/significant other to put your shoes on for you? After 40 weeks (or 42 for some of us!), a lovely, fantastic creature leaves your cocoon and starts to change your life in new and exciting ways.

Your body also continues to change in bizarre and shocking ways. All depending on the amount of weight you put on during your pregnancy (3-4 stone/42-56 lbs anyone??) your body will respond accordingly. There are lucky mummies who managed to turn down the 4th and 5th muffins at the breakfast table so their weight gain was mainly baby. These are mummies that are difficult to like!

The shouting contest and YOU ARE NOT JAPANESE

I went, I did my bit, I returned. I went to the elementary school to do my annual compulsory volunteering for Waku Waku Kids.

I am always a little anxious when I go off to do these things, because, as anyone else who lives here will tell you, anything like this is frought with the potential of humiliation. Not that you are going to do anything wrong necessarily, it’s just that no one can let you just go and do your thing and not mention the fact or draw attention in some way to the fact, that you ARE NOT JAPANESE.

I know I am not. I have always been aware that I am somewhat lacking in that department, but I’m ‘okay’ with that, but there will always be a little ‘thing’, a little moment, where it has to come up.
Sunshine once asked me when she was younger if people thought I didn’t know.

Little differences

On Friday I had many inquiries into what English mum's wear to drop off their kids at school.  It would be simple enough to just answer the question.  I think it needs more than that though.  It needs more explaining.  It is a cultural difference that is very subtle yet when it stares you in the face daily it becomes glaringly obvious.

First I should start at the beginning.  American school children go to school generally without uniforms (this is slowly changing throughout the country).  They can wear whatever their parents deem appropriate.  When I was growing up, it was generally a pair of clean jeans, a t-shirt, and a pair of sneakers (trainers).  Here in England, all kids wear uniforms to school.  The uniform consists of a pair of neutral colored trousers (or skirts), a white blouse or polo shirt, and a school jumper (sweatshirt), or school cardigan.

A lesson learned

Is three too young for a child to learn about losing things? I don’t think so.

Last Friday as we walked back from the shops, The Noble Child kept dropping her sunglasses. On purpose. After repeatedly bending over to pick them up (with a baby strapped to my chest and a rucksack full of groceries on my back, no less) and putting them in my pocket for awhile, I gave her one last chance to hold onto them and not drop them.

London is calling

For as long as I can remember, I have always dreamed of living in a foreign city - foreign to me, and not necessarily of a different language. First I have dreamed of 'making it' in New York City, on the little island called Manhattan that never slept. Then it was the dream of living in Paris, eating macaroons, drinking lattes, and writing by a little window whose view showed off the Eiffel Tower. After visiting Amsterdam I dreamed of living in a narrow little first-floor flat, minimal in design, with floor-to-ceiling windows that opened completely onto a canal, with little brick streets and a bicycle parked at my door.

Now it's London that's calling me.