It wasn't a bad year. In fact a lot of it was really great.
But it was challenging.
Life in this new country was not quite what we expected.
We did not realize that the husband would be required to work elsewhere for 56% of his time. (I know this because one boring day I did a pie graph...as you do)
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It had an effect on our marriage. Only for a short while but there was tension.
I felt stifled. Single parenting on weekdays in a compound I could not easily escape from....not fun.
I do not drive here, nor have a car. There is no public transport out in this part of suburbia. The local police decided to stop the residents from traveling to the local shopping centre on our golf buggies and I did not want to put my two year old in a taxi without seat belts.
It took a good 10 months for the tension and anxiety to settle. To start to love my surroundings. To finally want to venture out and see more of Thailand.
Thankfully our children are very happy, our marriage is even better than it has ever been and 2013 is going to be a wonderful year full of travel, adventure, gratitude and more regular blog posts.
Happy New Year to you my Family, Friends, bloggers and lurkers.
Being expats your strongest team is your hometeam, i.e. your family. Being sent abroad you either "make it" or "break it". But then again, sharing is so much more fun!
ReplyDeleteYou are so right. I just expected it to be as easy as our move to Europe but it wasn't, it was so much more challenging. I am glad this was not our first expat experience but I am also really exciting about experiencing more
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