The Canadian Expat Mom Blog
Privilege, Culture & The Super 8
They knew about butlers, first class lounges and turn down service. They were experiencing things that blew my adult mind, but it felt perfectly normal to them. Hotels would spell out their names in foam letters in the bathtub, or have monogramed cookies on their nightstand, awaiting their arrival as if they were royalty. It was very different from the life they were about to know in the developing world they were moving to…
Borrowed Time
We were back home in Canada for a ‘pause’, as they say en francais. Contractually speaking, we were supposed to be packed up and moved overseas in the next few weeks. Clearly that’s not the case. We’re still knee deep in maple syrup, working on our hockey stick handling, while we shout ‘eh’ across the backyard. So what does that mean for us, our passports, and our lives?
Reflecting on Life on the Move
As I sit here reading the final proof copy of Life on the Move, I can’t help but be brought back to my expat days. I can’t stop myself from reflecting on what has gone on over the past year…
Wine, Women & Well-Being
Here in Calgary I wasn’t sure where to land. I wasn’t a foreigner to the country, and my kids were beyond baby-group age, yet I was longing to be a part of the women’s groups that I’d become accustomed to. There were women’s brunches, and markets that I attended and I started making friends that way. But I still wanted community, and new people arriving in Calgary were starting to message me about where the ‘women’s group’ was. If you build it, they will come. I thought to myself…
Bonded by Ice
My kids struggle with the layers of snow-gear that they've never had to deal with before and I may have uttered the words, "Why are we living in this uninhabitable corner of the earth?"...more than once since winter hit.
BUT, (and there's always a but) if our life overseas has taught me anything, it's that we're all adaptable!
The French Connection
I'm certainly not French, but I have humbly and awkwardly earned that French passport that will eventually come my way (...French paperwork can NOT be rushed!). So, there I was in October, at the wine festival in Calgary, only one glass in at this point, and I walk up to a booth and start chatting. Turns out they are a boutique, family-run winery from France. “Wait, what? Where in France?”…
