Things I've learned

So we decided to do this whole expat thing for several reasons….the biggest being the life experiences for our kids.  In the process however I thing I have learned some things along the way….so I am going to share them with you.

1.  Australia is called "The Land Down Under" because we are literally down under everything else.  Look at it on a map.

Never did I say these would be earth shattering lessons…none the less, moving on.

2. I have grown a lot more cautious about things since getting older and having kids.

3.  There is no rhyme or reason to my organization.  Some days I am uber organized and other days I just throw caution to the wind and hope things work out the way they are supposed to.

4.  I miss teaching…but when if I go back to teaching I would change somethings in the way I teach.

5.  Being an expat is hard.  Certainly for the obvious reasons, but for me in the beginning of this experience, it really made me doubt myself.  I always thought I was a pretty friendly, easy going person that made friends easily.  When we first got here, it was hard to make friends with the locals.  They already had their lives established, their bonds formed….trying to break into that was not easy.  MANY days I would come home from dropping the girls off at school and want to crawl back into bed.  I started to think that maybe I was not the person I thought I was.  Maybe people back home really didn't like me, they tolerated me.  Then I realized I had to stop trying to make myself into what I "thought" people wanted me to be.  And just be happy being me.  It was okay to spend time by myself and find things that I liked to do.  And in reality, people that I made friends with did not expect me to be a certain way….they did like me for me.  Also, I had this expectation that I would have the close friendships with people like I do with people back home.  In reality, this is rare.  My best friend and I have been friends for 20 years…. It takes time to foster friendships.

6.  Making friends with another expat is MUCH easier.  The stages of your friendship grow much quicker than a normal friendship would.  They become your extended family, where you spend holidays with them, you celebrate traditions that are not celebrated in your new country, you complain about the things you miss from home, you get excited about the new things you are learning together, you share "how tos", and "what NOT to do".  They become lifetime friends that you may not see for a while, but you will always have that "remember when…"

7.  I am still very much in love with my husband.  He is not perfect and I am not perfect, but we are perfect for each other.  After 14 years of marriage, we have both changed, but we have GROWN together.

8.  I have become more interested in life's EXPERIENCES than life's THINGS.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE purses and can find any excuse to buy one.  But in all honesty I have enjoyed doing things with my family more.  Seeing the expression on the kid's face when they stepped in the Indian Ocean for the first time, or smiles on my parents' face when they pet a kangaroo, or the look of terror when they drove  in the car with me for the first time.  On the left side of the rode ;)  Or how much fun my inlaws had visiting Freemantle on the train.  They were all experiences that money could not buy and that could not be replaced.  Let's be honest, when my time is up, I can't take my purses with me…but I can take my memories.

9. I do not like to share my french fries or gummy bears.  I am mean like that.

10. Music can really put you in a good mood.  It makes my kids SOOO happy and fun to be around.  I need to make a playlist for my life.

11.  I have the BEST family and friends.

12.  If I sweat because I have exerted energy I will not die.

13.  Koalas are heavy.

14.  Raising girls is HARD work….raising my two is even harder.

15.  I DO NOT like Pate.  At all, nothing about it.  Seriously has to be one of the worst things I have tried.

16.  I miss queso….

17.  I am HORRIBLE at saying goodbye.  It goes back to that whole getting too vested in my relationships.

So that's it right now.  I will add more as I think of them or learn new things =)