Inspiration

05/11/2009 in Information | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Soul inspiring?

A video sent to me by my friend Guillaume who lives in Seattle Washington, USA. He is a soulful man from the region of Normandy in France. We met in Lyon.

The international vibrations and voices move me. The power of each voice singing one song in different cities.  Is this what makes for an inspiring city?

The inspiring cities website suggests it it’s a matter of culture, but not just the arts.

Culture: everything that makes us human, everything that is passed from one generation to the other, everything that makes life in cities a positive experience.

I have three things that inspire me in Lyon France where I live and three that are not inspirational.

  1. The VeloVs inspire and the métro does not. There are not enough trains.  I’m a human being not a sardine.
  2. Les Berges du Rhône green inspiration. (Check out Mayor Collomb’s blog) The increasing areas of obscene ugly graffiti and trash depressing.
  3. Play areas for children bring joyful inspiration. Not enough crèches and the economic disincentives to create them irrational. How can you have such a high demand for a service that goes unfulfilled because of the disincentives to run them as a business?

The inspiring cities’ website is based in Amsterdam.  It’s no surprise.  What do the Dutch know in Amsterdam? They suggest searching for the soul of a city to find its inspiration.

What is the soul of Lyon and the city where you live? Is it a positive experience? Are there incentives to be entrepreneurs no matter your nationality, gender or ethnicity? Can you move about and navigate the city safely with enough breathing space. Is there beauty or trash and tags?

Let’s be soul inspiring and always expat-friendly!

A Dog

01/11/2009 in Social Networks | Tags: , , , , | 2 comments

miniature-pinscherI’m thinking about my dog. Why? Having a dog brings an enduring friendship and an abiding contentment. This is worth more than the disgust of scooping his poop.

My faithful Minpin always looks forward to my turning the key and entering the house. He begins to sense my return before I reach the door. I hear his joy, his rapid breathing, his doggie conversation, and his tail that wags his entire little body.

He never stops his whole body and soul greeting until I sit down, give him a hug some touches and a kiss.  He snuggles deeply into my arms and makes a sound of deep fulfillment.

I miss my dog. But thinking of him is easy in the present tense.  I can feel his life in my mind. He lived a long life and I have not replaced him.

If you love pets and are now moving to another country your pet is a relocation essential, don’t leave it unless it is impossible. It’s like leaving your only child behind, could you do it?  The unbridled love a pet gives can be the difference of settling in quickly or not. Why?

Moving ranks at the top of list with other life-changing events, death and divorce. Not pleasant company those two, death and divorce.

According to health experts, the body’s “pre-programmed” response to stress includes:

  • increased blood pressure
  • increased metabolism (e.g., faster heartbeat, faster respiration)
  • decrease in protein synthesis, intestinal movement (digestion), immune and allergic response systems
  • increased cholesterol and fatty acids in blood for energy production systems
  • localized inflammation (redness, swelling, heat and pain)
  • faster blood clotting
  • increased production of blood sugar for energy
  • increased stomach acids

Pets not only buffer the physiological impact of a stressful life event but also enhance you sense of well-being, dog owners in particular.  Why?

Dog owners in comparison to owners of other pets spend more time with their pets and feel that their pets are more important to them.  Dogs more than other pets provide their owners with companionship and an object of attachment.

Expats who have pets also have more opportunities to meet and interact with their neighbors.  Pets give you social capital because they are associated with values of warmth and friendliness. This is another way pets exert their influence on cultural adjustment. They make you expat-friendly.

Sure do miss my dog. Thinking about getting one soon.

Expat Meme Overload

28/10/2009 in Social Networks | Tags: , | Leave a comment

The British scientist Richard Dawkins introduced the word “meme” (pronounced /ˈmiːm/, rhyming with “dream”) in The Selfish Gene (1976) as a basis for discussion of evolutionary principles in explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena.

This is what advertisers rely on in selling catch phrases, clothing, cars and even water. Consider the Evian Roller Babies, the commercial became a YouTube sensation in a week! In only a few days the video had over 2.6 million views and is currently at 10.8+ million views and climbing.

Memes are a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation. This is how an entire society can quickly adapt to new rules and rituals.

When you arrive in a new culture you are bombarded by a salvo of new memes.  Expats are often in meme overload. You cannot learn them fast enough, or even appreciate them. Oftentimes you have no idea why you feel like a misfit or an alien from another planet.

For example, I’m an American, we eat any time of the day, that is any time of a 24-hour day. In France, the eating hours are generally fixed. I’ve lived in France more than three years and I’m still shocked to go to a restaurant at 2 pm (daylight) and to be told the kitchen is closed! They look at me as if I am a social idiot and I look at them with hunger in my face to no avail. My money not welcome after 2 pm nor pity because I hunger.

The most annoying French meme I shall not get accustomed to is the amount of personal space in a line at the supermarket or anywhere else. At times it is so unnerving I turn and say, “Back up just a little, you’re not Justin Timberlake!” Maybe if they were cute, sexy, and a fabulous dancer, it wouldn’t matter. I doubt it. I’m from the land of “don’t fence me in.”

Learning and adapting to all these different behaviors and finding ways to incorporate them without losing your identity is the challenge. It is one of the key reasons expatriates need to network with other expats and globally minded locals.

Perhaps this is why you find expat expos springing up all over the world.  They are little islands within a place where an expat can relax and celebrate being themselves, different than the host country. Most expats don’t want to live in nativeland ghettos. Many are open to being infected with expat friendly memes of a welcoming host.

Next time in line maybe I’ll turn and say, “Wanna dance? I’m bringing sexyback!”

Comfort Food

27/10/2009 in Sevices | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Living in France food rises high on the food chain of importance. It is trite to say the food is good in France. It’s like saying the obvious. But no matter how good the food is in France expats have their nation specific comfort foods. It’s one of the reasons the services provided online by the magazine Southern Living is one who’s tweets I follow. I love southern cooking. I have a family filled of great and wonderful southern cooks, halleleujah, amen, PTL!

I have lived a major portion of my life in the South, sweet Dixieland. Part of my family originates in this cultural rich area of America. Don’t believe all the stereotypes the people of the South are a great and grand people. The food traditions steep in the simplicity and the majesty of the region. Food, uhmmmmm southern comfort, I can smell the delicious fragrances just thinking about sitting at any of my family or neighbors’ tables.

Pizza Spaghetti Casserole

Destined to become your expat 3rd culture kids' new favorite meal

Today Southern Living tweeted 20 one-dish dinners. They may be just the recipe for any homesick US expat or an adventuresome international needing a quick but delicious change in menu. While life is laid back and alot slower in France than in the USA, saving time in the kitchen is still valued. Perhaps even the fastidious French or other international gourmet taste bud might find these 20 recipes worth a try. They’re expat friendly so tell us what you think especially my friends in the gastronomic capital of France, lovely luscious Lyon.

Being at Home

27/10/2009 in Information | Tags: , | Leave a comment

I feel home,
when I see the faces that remember my own.
when I’m chilling outside with the people I know.
and that’s just what I feel.
Home to me is reality,
and all I need is something real.

lyrics by O.A.R. (Of a Revolution)

What is realilty when you move? The need for the creature comforts that reassure you. Researchers are beginning to understand more clearly the things that help people settle into a new place. Being at home anywhere takes preparation, implementation and integration of how you have lived and what you will face in a new place.

Expat Friendly Faces

Face of Global Mobility

The face of global mobility is you. You, the intellectual capital of the world, are not often talked about in the news, but you move silently alongside and are intrinsically linked to international trade and capital. You represent globalization’s free movement of professional, technical, and student talent.

What is certain when you move is the search for information, services and social connections that will help you be at home anywhere. Being productive in the global economy begins when you feel at home and settled.

If you want a clear discussion of the personal and ROI dimensions of expatriations, you have safely landed. We’re expat friendly.

Expat-Friendly Day

March 2010
S M T W T F S
« Nov    
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  

Expat Friendly Archives

Expat Friendly Comments

Liz on A Dog
elizabeth eitt on A Dog

Expat Friendly Categories

Expat-Friendly Tweets