Expat Mums Blog

The parents have arrived

Wednesday I was sitting in the arrivals lounge of Heathrow's Terminal 4 waiting for the Northwest Airlines flight from Minneapolis. My parents would soon be landing. I was grateful that they weren't on one of the early morning flights--driving around the M25 during rush hour is grin-and-bear-it experience at the best of times (usually without the grin, no matter how good the CD collection).

I checked the expected arrival time of the Northwest flight in the morning before I set off: the 'scheduled 12.15' had turned into an 'expected 11.40'. I needed to get my skates on and I mentally crossed off a couple of last minute jobs around the house. I always liked having the house ready and looking nice before they arrived--the child in me trying to impress, 'see how tidy my room is!' But I hated being late for my parents and had only been late once or twice in the 19 years they've been visiting, so I convinced myself that their jet lag would prevent them from seeing that I missed a couple of jobs. Of course the reality is they will not even care because I know they aren't coming for a room inspection but for a good visit and a chance to see how my world is getting on.

Ill-fitting shoes

If you're not a seasoned ex-pat who moves from one country to another as a matter of course, or young and reckless without any baggage, making a significant move for the first time in your life can be a very interesting process.

I knew in advance that logistically moving to Russia would be a challenge; simply sorting out the paperwork is proving a bit of a marathon. And I have been both experiencing and anticipating the emotional fall-out for a while now.

Missing the UK? Follow Alexander McCall Smith's new online serial novel

Ooohhh, how fun! What better way to fill in my time, now that all the girls are all at school, than to be involved with an online serial novel. How cool! And I thought all my mummy friends living abroad may like to be involved as well...

Corduroy Mansions 2 -- The Dog Who Came In From The Cold, by Alexander McCall Smith (best known for the Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency) starts Monday. Sign up, and every weekday over the next 13 weeks a new chapter will be sent to your laptop or iPhone. Did I mention this was free? (thank you The Telegraph).

McCall Smith, who got the idea for digital serial genre at a party while talking to Armistead Maupin (Tales of the City), only writes the first 40 or so chapters and likes to get feedback from his readers before he goes on with the plot. So you really do become part of the story. How Web 2.0!

Want to understand the UK? One easy graphic explains it all

I found this over at Almost American. Have no idea who created it (but I can guess their nationality).

This post was written by Susanna, an Expat Mums Blog founding contributor. You can read more at her blog A Modern Mother.

Expatriata! Ruminations on coffee morning etiquette

Blimey! What a day. After a whole summer of absence, ladies from all over the world are back in Almaty. Today was the Almaty International Women's Club coffee morning at the Intercontinental Hotel (great hotel but = can of diet coke, only 9 dollars! ha ha). The coffees provide a chance for people to catch up and for new girls to meet a few people then mill about alone for a while wishing that they did not have to go through this version of personal hell, but hopefully knowing that this feeling doesn't last forever. Coffee mornings leave me baffled. I don't understand why women do them. Does anyone? What about the men who have to go to these events? The amazing bunch of male trailing spouses who find themselves in a form of Girls World, but not in the way that they may have fantasized about when younger!  Why do we women do it to ourselves and how do you put up with it? 

Big Thursday, Big Idea

It’s our second year at an American school and I’m so glad the awkwardness and confusion is over.

Last year I felt as though I was in a fog the entire year.  Didn’t know where to go, what was happening, what each school event or protocol was.  At their last school, I was on top of everything.  Dates were scheduled in my diary, costumes for plays made, meetings attended.  I knew the layout of the school year and what happened when.

This year, I seem to have missed everything.  Deadlines have gone by and I’ve been oblivious.  Events have come and gone and I’ve not known what they were.  For someone who’s normally organized and early for meetings, it’s driven me crazy.

We were asked at the beginning of the last school year about volunteering to be Room Moms.  That sounded quite interesting to me so I put the question out on Twitter:  What do room moms do?  One response was, ‘Run, don’t walk, run away from being a Room Mom.’  It seems that they organize class parties and events, generally help out the teacher and it’s a lot of work.

Cracks, hindsight and voluntary exile

Sometimes I wonder if I had known what I know now, would I have done things differently, made different decisions. Of course it's futile to indulge in what-ifs, what with the benefit of hindsight and all that. And yet.

I've always been fascinated by languages and other countries. As a consequence, teenage me, from the age of 15, took every opportunity to travel. It coincided with asserting my independence - and travel, learning languages, plus to a certain extent music and literature, both linked to the countries I was crazy about, became synonymous with developing my independent self. It was part something that is aptly called "Abnabelung" in German, the process of cutting the umbilical cord. In my case it was more than just independence of my rather controlling parents, it was also about establishing my identity amonst my peers, gaining confidence as a not so confident, slightly overweight teenager who was always at the edge of being bullied.

When distance seems far

Most of the time the distance between England and America doesn't bother me much, but sometimes it hits me hard. This month I'll have missed my ten year high school reunion and my cousin's wedding. However, most often it's not the big things that set off bouts of homesickness, it's the little things.

It's baking a pie and not being able to get the crust quite right. I can't just call my Mom and find out what I did wrong because there's an 8 hour time difference.

It's realizing that the pyrex pie plate I've bought in the UK is smaller than 9 inches, and not knowing where to find one the size I'd really like to have in this country.

It's knowing that the Corelle Livingwear plates we brought with us from the US take up one forth the amount of space in our cupboards of the ones we bought here, and not being able to find more anywhere here.

Craving summer

It's September.  A fact that has weighed on my mind a lot over the last few weeks.  September is Fall...or Autumn...or whatever it is you want to call it.  It seems final.  Like Summer is gone before it was even here. 

I know, stereotypical Scotland-blogger.  Complaining about the weather. The wet, endless rain, grey, swamp I have been living in for weeks upon end.  Sure, there have been breaks in the grey, but not many and not often enough to be called Summer.  I even had the heating on for 20 minutes on Saturday night ... in August.

Raising your children bilingually: A Carnival

Bringing up children bilingually raises all sorts of issues: Where do you speak which language? Will learning 2 languages simultaneously cause children to fall behind in language development? How can you encourage the child to speak the 'weaker' language? What happens when your children can speak a language that you can't?

Mummy Do That (a German living in Glasgow, Scotland) is hosting a carnival packed full of posts from people bringing up children who are learning to speak two (or more) languages. She has pulled together a dozen posts about all sorts of aspects of having bilingual children in her post It's A Carnival! Raising Children Bilingually.

This is the first of a series of carnivals gathering together posts from people raising children bilingually which provides a unique opportunity to read about the real life experiences of parents with kids who can (or can't!) speak more than one language.

If you would like to contribute to further carnivals then please visit bilingualforfun to see further information.