Expat Mums Blog

• An expat's view of Halloween in the UK
  Find more videos like this on BritMums
  
  
• Prejudice by a three -year-old
  I have been waiting for it for a while. We get the bus home from school and nursery a few times a week and a couple have raised the kids interest. Two high school students part company at the Bus Station and they fondly kiss each other goodbye. The question was finally asked at the weekend "mummy, is that a boy or a girl?" I chose to avoid the question....
  
  
• Homesick
  Mami has something called homesick. Symptoms: Sad eyes Sudden outbursts of crying Staring off into a distance Long telephone conversations with abuelita Repetitive speech " I want to go home" "I wish we could go home" "Can't we go home?" (Between you and me, I don't get that last one, isn't her home here with papi and me?) I've heard this illness is very common and everyone has it at...
  
  
• How to make a proper cup of English tea
  The first thing you need to do when you move to the UK is to learn to make a proper cup of tea. I am not talking Oolang, peppermint, cranberry/orange, or even the end-all cure-all green tea. I am talking about a cup of plain old black tea. With milk. If you perfect this skill, you will go far in your new home. A good cup of tea works wonders...
  
  
• When in Rome
  When the military gave my husband the assignment to the UK, I was absolutely thrilled. It was a chance to change our life and live outside our comfort zones, experience another culture and give our kids the experience of living abroad on the governments dime. Unfortunately I didn't realize there isn't a manual for moving oversea provided by the government. Basically, they buy the airline tickets, take care of your...
  
  
• Shopping trolleys: why are they so hard?
  I've been living in the UK on and off since 1990. I have a British passport. My children were born here. I can make a roast that can compete with the best of them. Why the heck can't I steer a British shopping trolley? I am resigned to the fact that "things are harder here". When I first opened a bank account, I went to the branch where I lived....
  
  
• The rite of passage known as the tantrum
  A friend told me last week that she thought the rite of passage must be having your little one have a temper tantrum while walking down Oxford Street and having everyone stare at you in disdain. Another friend said that the rite of passage is the inaugural supermarket tantrum. Did you see The Exorcist, she asks me. She goes on to describe a scene where her little cherub starts throwing...
  
  
• From a successful business career to expat mum in one plane ride!
  Yes that is what it took 12 hours in a plane from London to Cayman Islands and my life changed completely. Sometimes we think big decisions in life take time to take and you need to think and think pros and cons, evaluate, re-evaluate and then when you are 100% sure you make the move. Well actually that is not my case and if i start thinking back to the...
  
  
• Becoming Bosnian, Staying English
  Signs we have been in Bosnia for a loooong time and there may be some readjustment required before entry back into the UK: 1. When the traffic lights go green, my first instinct is now to hoot the horn, then to put the car in gear. 2. Pedestrians, what are they? (in my defence, if you take the definition of safe driving to be driving in a way that people...
  
  
• Pardon?
  I first came to the UK in 1990 for a study abroad programme in Bath. I was a journalism student and had never been outside the US except for a trip to Niagara Falls when I was a kid and the obligatory Tijuana bar hopping over the border in college. I thought living in the UK would be an adventure. I was placed with a family with two girls; an...