#expat problems

[oneeighth]

Like is there a fucking candy corn shortage or something?

[readyfortigers]

Happy Juneteenth❣️

[kyreniacommentator]

President Ersin Tatar received British Residents’ Society officials

President Ersin Tatar received officials from the British Residents’ Society (BRS), where discussions were held with regards to the issues faced by the expat community in the TRNC. The delegation was headed by BRS Chairman Julian Mawdesley,  Mike Diplock, Hakan Redif and Peter Wilkins. Also in attendance from the Presidency were Special Representative of the President, M. Ergün Olgun, and Foreign…

[eastasiansonwesternscreen]

Here are some of 2024’s most anticipated new TV shows featuring Asians on screen. Which show are you looking for?!

📺 THE BROTHERS SUN (@netflix): 1/4 📺 EXPATS (@primevideo): 1/26 📺 MR. AND MRS. SMITH (@primevideo): 2/2 📺 ONE DAY (@Netflix): 2/8 📺 @AVATARNetflix (@netflix): 2/22 📺 @SHOGUNFX (@fxnetworks@hulu): 2/27 📺 3 BODY PROBLEM (@netflix): 3/21 📺 @SYMPATHIZERhbo (@hbo@streamonmax): TBD 📺 THE ACOLYTE (@disneyplus): TBD

*List based on TV shows officially confirmed for 2024. Premiere dates subject to change.

(via capeusa on IG)

[prussianmemes]

the glassy eyed 1000 yard western euro stare you get when you tell the people sitting in you and your visibly ill girlfriend's seats that they're in your reserved seats and they go "ach... ja but your reservation is not written here there is no r-"

excuse me you germano-frankish beady eyed cocksucker, we're on a čd train and my čd ticket shows us as having these seats, and your rootless ugly white and black deutschebahn fart app doesn't even have seat reservations because despite your national stereotype you have the same organization and respect for order a gypsy does.

don't give me your "mon dieu et iz not written here" - the train is chronically overcrowded because your third world national rail company can't book properly, you've been sitting for 3 hours from shitggart and have only been looking at your insta stories while pretending to study pierre von shittenlips. i have a visibly ill and weak passenger with me but beyond the former iron curtain, despite your supposed cosmopolitan love for all, you're like the rats in the paradise experiment who actually just viciously serve themselves first above all.

and the nerve to snicker and chat amongst yourselves once we get off... after very clearly sitting in our seats...: TOTAL WEST EURO CONTINENTAL DEATH.....

i believe now in celto-slavic racial superiority

[vieraslaji]

minä: tahtoisin muuttaa suomeen joskus :)

valkoihoinen amerikkalainen liberaali: hahaha sama sama, mun mielestä tätä kansaa ei voi pelastaa ja meidän pitäisi paeta kun pystytään-

minä: tahdon muuttaa suomeen koska oikeasti arvostan muiden maiden kulttuurei ja jos muuttaisin amerikast nii haluaisin muuttaa positiivisista syistä, kun mua ei pakoteta minnekään eikä sua :))

valkoihoinen amerikkalainen liberaali: trump

[partywithponies]

One of the biggest mysteries in the world is why American immigrants living permanently/longterm in the UK are the nicest goddamn people you'll ever meet, but American tourists are so often the rudest and most annoying people you'll ever meet.

[aechlys]

Part of me half wonders if the "tourism problem" in japan has been a real thing, or is just a brief amnesia to what actual tourism levels have always normally been since covid restrictions have worn off and isolation is over.

I also believe that, due to renewed freedom, travelers have forgotten what it's like to be a guest while on vacation because of covid and that that could cause some bumps in the road.

I pulled up some live cams just now, mostly because I want to see what everyone's wearing these days, and while shibuya looked 100% business as usual, there was a kabuki-cho cam that had foreigners walking around. Which both is and isn't weird since it's a neighborhood that tends to love trouble, but it was also 5:30am. And then I recalled that that's when everyone gets booted out because the trains come back on- even one japanese girl walked out of a place clearly wasted after saying bye to her friends lol. But there was a gaggle of foreigners dressed cringe, whatever, and they were also a bit loud but IF they had also been out the whole night I kinda can't begrudge them too much? (because me and my friends were also fucking loud leaving karaoke wasted at 5:30am in college lmfao) They didn't look drunk tho lol.

Idk...like I'm trying to examine this as objectively as possible. I always always blend in as much as possible, and the cringe gaijin are always a fucking embarrassment, but they've *always* been there and *always* been a problem, especially in Tokyo. Japanese folks aren't saints, they also get up to crude and cringe shit- some of it the same as the foreigners, some of it just a different flavor but no less embarrassing- and the usual mariah carey "I don't know her" double standard has always been a cultural problem. So i dunno......

[oldnightcollage]

Fly Away Home

[mishkakagehishka]

You guys don't even know how many people i pissed off on my old blog [takes drag from a cigarette]

[mariocki]

Patrick O'Connell does his best to get rid of Simon Templar, as villainous henchman Rogers in The Saint: The Persistent Patriots (5.15, ITC, 1967)

[poffertjes]

Something that bothers me as a person who is currently not a migrant but was a expat/family are foreign migrants right now is this weird interplay that happens between being in my home country and my parents/brother not bring in my home country. Like. My extended family is largely in the US and my immediate family is in China. I'm in the US. So if I want to introduce a partner to my family they'll probably meet my aunt/uncle/cousins before they ever meet my parents or brother. There's even a non-zero change that they'll meet extended extended family (in the Netherlands!) before they meet my parents.

I love my extended family but like they aren't exactly people I like or want to be around very often. I would very much not like a partner's first introduction to my family to be my beloved aunt and her crazy husband. I don't want introducing a person beloved to me to be a stressful experience and that's just when I introduce friends to my uncle for only 5 minutes! I can't imagine how horrible it would be to introduce a partner to them for any period of time, especially something longer than an hour. Doing so before meeting my parents and sibling? Honestly heartbreaking. I don't have a partner right now so this isn't an issue. I just realized it while I was visiting and now I'm smad (sad and mad).

[blogworldinbetween]

Zen and the Art of Travel

What else do you bring to Paris? It’s Saturday, April 1st and my grandson, Jack, is about to board a plane. Pat and I flew ahead last weekend. We are waiting for him on the other side. In Paris. Our apartment is set up. Our jet lag is diminishing. The neighborhood is ready. We stay in an area called Oberkampf. When we first started coming here, it was referred to as near the marais. Today, the…

[octuscle]

Expats

Gabriel was quite a freeloader. Of course he didn't come to Dubai as an expat because he was stupid or lazy. But he also knew pretty well that he would have had a much harder time in France affording the life he could afford here. Life in Dubai was luxury, pure luxury. He had a cool house with a pool, a gardener, a housekeeper and a chauffeur, and he earned a huge amount of money. He didn't necessarily work nine to five, but he didn't necessarily work himself to death either. In short, for him, life here was pure paradise!

Gabriel had heard the news that the climate had turned a little against the privileges of expats. But he wasn't interested in it. He would do his job here, he was saving a lot of money, which was safely invested in Switzerland, if necessary, he would be on the plane back to Paris tomorrow and look for a job in Riyadh or Kuwait. The United Arab Emirates were not the only place on this planet where he could make money. And besides, he didn't really care about it today. It was Saturday. Tomorrow he would have to sit in the office again, today he wanted to work out at the gym and then hang out with a few friends at the beach club for the rest of the day. A few cocktails, lobster for dinner and then to bed. The only problem was: his driver had the day off. And even though Gabriel had been living in Dubai for several years, he couldn't drive a car himself! He had forgotten how. That's why there were drivers. So he ordered a taxi.

The porter at his community had announced the driver. Gabriel took his sports bag. A quick check in the mirror: yes, he looked good. He opened the door. The brand new Toyota taxi was parked in front of the door. The driver got out and asked in English if Gabriel wanted to put the sports bag in the boot. Gabriel barely looked up from his phone and just shook his head. He didn't feel like having any more contact with the driver than absolutely necessary. The driver opened the back door for him, Gabriel got in, repeated his destination once more and continued playing with his cell phone. The driver remained quiet at first. But then he started talking. First in English. About the weather, about football, where Gabriel came from, whether he liked Dubai. Gabriel simply didn't react. The driver just kept talking. That he had fled from Syria. That he had been in Dubai for four years. That he had two children. He showed Gabriel pictures in his wallet. His English became more and more incomprehensible. A mixture of English and Arabic. Gabriel continued to pretend to be deaf. The driver kept talking. In Arabic. He was ranting about the expats. About the arrogance of the infidels, who thought they were better than everyone else, even though they were dependent on the mercy of Allah, who had given the Muslims oil.

Gabriel was annoyed. He wanted to work on a few e-mails and not talk about politics. What did he care about politics? So he snapped at the driver, "Rakkiz 'ala al-siyaqa, ana mashghul!" The driver smiled. He looked in the rear-view mirror. God's plan was working.

The taxi driver's language began to change again. Arabic with a French accent. Gabriel sat in the back on the worn imitation leather seats of the old taxi. In the front, Ayoub couldn't stop getting worked up about the last few games of Olympic Marseille. Djibril grinned. He knew the feeling. When Ayoub was in a rage, he was in a rage. Fortunately, they were almost at the wholesale market, then his brother would let him out. Ayoub would drive his shift to an end. And Djibril would see what kind of job he could get. He and his pals ironically called themselves the expats. It was true in a way… His brother and he had immigrated from Morocco ten years ago. They had family in Marseille. Djibril had really tried hard at school, but at some point he stopped going and started working as a day laborer at the wholesale market. He was doing well. By now, Djibril had his network, he knew his way around. And he was strong and fast. He saved what he earned. He was proud of his brother Ayoub, who made it to get a taxi license and his own taxi, which was also Djibril's goal.

He checked his messages. It was still dawn. Ayoub was on his way to the banlieue to sleep. It was good when he drove the night shift, then he and Djibril didn't have to share the small bedroom. So far, no one had contacted him to request Djibril's services. If necessary, he could help out in his aunt's café in the kitchen. There was no money for that, though. But a café and a lunch. Life as an expat wasn't so bad.

[welcometotheravenclawcommonroom]

(South) Indian Harry Potter Headcanons:

Harry knew he was Indian (mostly because the Dursley’s used to say racist shit to him) but he didn’t know where in India the potters were from until he went to Hogwarts. He finds out from the Patils, who were close with the potters because desis stick together.

The Patils are from the north and use Hindi to speak to each other. Neither of them knows Telugu/Tamil/Marathi/Malayalam/insert Southern language of choice here (I personally headcanon Telugu because it’s the only Indian language I speak and because there’s a huge diaspora of telugumandi in the west, but feel free to choose whatever you’d like). So Harry has to rediscover his heritage language on his own.

He also studies Sanskrit, and it opens up a HUGE world of spells that they don’t teach at Hogwarts (because of course Indian wizards don’t do spells in Latin). He and the Patils know a bunch of spells that nobody else does.

Harry’s pleat game is ON POINT. It makes sense, since he had to do all the chores at the Dursley’s and that includes perfectly folded and ironed laundry with the edges aligned neatly, or else he would risk being punished. But the result is that if you want your saree drape to pass the inspection of even the most judgemental auntie, you go to Harry to help with your pleats.

Even when they’ve graduated and all have their own homes, it’s a pretty regular sight for the Patil twins to come through Harry’s floo, half dressed, to have Harry pleat their sarees or their lehenga dupatta for them.

Harry LOVES spices. The dursleys only liked bland food, but Harry has always liked flavorful foods, and has no problem with (hot) spicy food either. He uses lots of spices in his own cooking now. His food is very flavorful, but when he’s cooking for himself, it’s too spicy for all his friends (even the Patils). So nobody can eat his leftovers unless he was specifically cooking with other people in mind. Ron learned this the first time he rummaged through Harry’s fridge after a night of drinking. Now Harry labels all his food as to whether or not it’s “Harry spicy”.

James LOVED to buy Lily sarees. He’d order them with custom, wizard-themed designs from weaving villages in south India. The women who made them assumed he was just very imaginative, so he wasn’t violating the statute of secrecy since saree patterns are often vibrant and unique. Harry finds some of them in the old potter manor, and they still smell like the perfumes and scented oils his mother would wear when James took her to the local temple for Hindu holidays.

Indian witches often store extra magic in or enchant pieces of their copious jewelry with spells that can keep them safe if they’re ever in a situation where they don’t have their wands. stuff like, each bangle can function as an emergency portkey that can take you to different safe locations if you say the activation word, or ones that create an instant magical shield when you tap them. Harry finds some of his mothers gajulu, gives them to his female friends.

He ties Rhaki on Ron and Neville, and all the weasley boys. Ron was the first person he ever tied it on, because Ron was the first person who he ever bonded with, and his closest brother.

Harry always cooks idli sambar or dosa for his friends for breakfast the next morning after a night of drinking together, and it’s the perfect hangover food because it definitely brings you back to full alertness/knocks the last bit of post-hangover grogginess right out of your system.

Harry’s parselmouth abilities are valued in his native culture because of the sacredness of snakes in Hinduism, and it comes to be something he’s really proud of (personally I think the ‘parselmouth connected to the horcrux’ thing is dumb, so I’ve always imagined Harry was just naturally a parselmouth).

As the number of Indian immigrants/expats continues to grow after they graduate, Harry helps some of his students (he’s the DADA teacher) start the Hogwarts “South Asian Student Union”.

He always has snacks out for his students when they come to visit his office hours, and they’re all Indian snacks and sweets. His personal favorite is kaju barfi, but he always has a good variety of both sweet and spicy treats, especially for stressed out owl and newts students.

He collaborates with Hermione, who works in the ministry, to make it mandatory for Hogwarts students to a “foreign magical language” course so they can broaden both their minds and their spell repertoires. Padma Patil becomes the “Sanskrit Spells” teacher, and Seamus teaches “Irish Gaelic”. (It took him a little longer to get his course started, since it turns out that at least 40% of Gaelic spells are just increasingly complicated and violent ways to repel the English).

Hermione and Harry also work together to make sure there are employees in the international magical cooperation department who specialize in post-colonial relations, because the magical world also has its issues with that colonialist mindset towards countries that were formerly part of the empire.

Just south Indian Harry embracing his heritage, learning about what was ripped from him, and using it to enact meaningful change in a multicultural magical society.