Being Abroad

I will soon move abroad again, below is an image from a sketchbook project where people submitted their sketches on living abroad, liked the idea!

Image from BeingAbroad

From my previous experiences living abroad I have my diaries, and it was drama and stuff happening all the time. It might have to do with me just becoming single after a seven year relationship but also the fact that when you are abroad you are more open to new people and new experiences. I really had so many things that happened during my years abroad that has changed me and has affected how I live today. I would never have the job I have if I didn't have some sort of international experience and got mature by the way you do when you see yourself and your society from the outside. I would never have married the amazing man I did if we didn't happen to meet in that little town in the UK. It is scary to think how much in our life is due to happy incidents - serendipity!


 
Here are some thoughts from an Englishman in Norway - it explains pretty well the differences between the two countries. I thought we had a more similar culture than we actually had, even if it was an easy country to live abroad in. It was a bigger challenges to live in Hungary, I was working late nights in a stressful job and with a totally unknown language. I will never forget the time that me and my Turkish friend were trying to mime 'egg' in a grocery shop - believe me, not easy! I think what I struggled most with in Budapest was that I didn't know what was going on around me, suddenly there was a big demonstration or a festival in the town centre and I had no idea, there were a English newsletter but that didn't capture many things, only general expat stuff.

The language thing will be easier now that we are moving to the US, my husband got transferred with work, he has gotten his dream job so it is very nice for him! I will just be a 'desperate housewife' for one more year, even if I could work if I wanted to, we work for the same international company that has many offices in Houston, but we want to see how we like it, and when I just take an extended leave with my job we can come back easier.

We will also keep the house in Norway, we have now lived here since 2006 and I don't know where the time went! It goes so quickly, OK we have bought and renovated a house, gotten married, travelled and had a baby - pretty decent I guess, and of course both of us have had good jobs that we have enjoyed and gotten promoted in. Can't complain really - the life is pretty good at the moment. I really just need to focus on that and try to enjoy the moment more, and that is something that I know I will do when we move abroad - have more focus on experiences and enjoy life!

SoMe

One thing that I have been getting really into these days are various social media, from Tumblr, Path, Twitter to the newest fun thing - Pinterest! It is brilliant as now I am using various computers and are planning to buy a new one so all my favorite pictures and links can be stored there, it is a online bookmark and folder tool that is shared with others and you get inspiration from what others pin as well. I thought that it seemed quite unnecessary at first as I have plenty of accounts now and feel like my online life is soon living its own life! I've had a clean up and hope I have somewhat control, as mentioned before I like to keep my life a bit separate for different purposes.

So my Twitter account is linked to my Pinterest account now, I posted a tweet today about an interesting article that I found on Pinterest - it explains why it is so popular even if we have all these other Social Media to keep us occupied, has something to do with that we show who we want to be - not who we are trying to be perceived as via Facebook or Twitter.