The Irreverent Expat

This promotion is, in fact, long overdue. Robin Pascoe's Expat Expert website has tremendously helped me during my fledgling days as an expat spouse (not that I consider myself an expert now, far from it...just slowly getting into the groove). I have read many articles in her website that prepared me for life as an expat spouse (not trailing, mind you - it's as much my decision as his, truth be told) that is clearly not for everyone.

What I really want other expat spouses to read at Robin's site is the segment 'Irreverent Expat' that had me in stitches. Although fictional.....sometimes oh so true. The characters and events are just so very much like our lives, you can't help but name them after some people you actually know.

I personally like Robin's approach to expat spouses' real or perceived problems - very positive and diplomatic. I hope to one day get her books and meet her in person. For the moment, I enjoy lurking in her site and learning all I can from it.

Here's an excerpt from her 'Irreverent Expat' that I find particularly apt (sometimes) and funny:

Expat Etiquette

“Have we met before?” one expatriate woman asked another, a cocktail glass in her hand.

“Only on about seventeen other occasions,” answered the second woman, trying hard not to throw the contents of her own glass in the woman’s face.

“Really?” said the first woman, nonplussed. “I can’t seem to remember your name.”

Before the second woman could supply the information that seemed so difficult to commit to memory, the first woman spotted someone whose name was obviously worth remembering and moved on. Feeling abandoned, the woman of no apparent importance gulped down her drink and went looking for another. She found one, as well as her husband, who was standing conveniently next to the bar.

He was chatting amicably with another man, so she chose to just stand self- consciously beside him like a fountain, albeit one with liquid pouring in rather than out, and watch the expatriate community swirl around her. It was like a ballet, she thought. Everyone knows their moves. They stake out their territory to ensure no interlopers cross the invisible lines. Oh what the hey, have another drink she told herself.

Continue reading here.

I must admit that I thank the high heavens that I run with the crowd that I do. The Danes in particular are helpful and supportive. The Diplomatic Corps, NGOs and International Organizations are themselves in tune with the real world, therefore down-to-earth and very open.

These fictional characters could therefore be easily based from those within the private sector...or maybe not, hard to say but I do have some run-ins every now and then. Very few but nevertheless notable.