#expat things

[maybeamiles]

I was researching cycling regulations in the uk like the anxious boi i am and discovered yet another strange turn of phrase in britain

Idk about you, but when I read the phrase "giving your wife a backie on your bicycle," i did not think that meant "letting your wife ride on the back of your bike"

[gnometrotting]

Could I Live Here? Njivice edition

Is Njivice in Croatia a good place to live or just a good place for a summer holiday?

Njivice is a small resort town on the island of Krk, probably not on most people’s top 10 places to visit in Croatia. However, the town is undeniably charming and makes for an absolutely lovely relaxing vacation. How well would that extrapolate if I lived in Njivice? Does it feel like an idyllic paradise all year round or is Njivice better as a summer destination. Atmosphere My impressions of…

[clairikine]

Writing this post specifically because I know I have followers and mutuals in Canada, the US, Germany, the UK and Sweden—we have Nouveau Front populaire candidates qualified for the French legislative runoffs in nearly all districts abroad and they all have a serious chance of winning, including in these districts:

1st district (Canada, US): Oussama Laraïchi

3d district (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, the UK): Charlotte Minvielle

7th district (Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia): Asma Rharmaoui-Claquin

Each campaign needs all the help they can get! In addition to voting for them in person or online this week (see below), French voters abroad can get involved in the campaigns via the info posted on their websites. If you live in an area where the NFP scored high in the first round, such as Berlin, you can also help out in other cities!

To vote for these candidates in the runoff, if you're registered to vote at your consulate, you have the following options:

in person: Saturday, July 6 (American continent/Caribbean) & Sunday, July 7 (all other districts) - bring a form of ID, no carte électorale necessary

by proxy (procuration): best way to find someone is to reach out to the campaigns directly, as they make sure to vet the folks who will go vote for you

online: Wednesday, July 3 at noon to Thursday, July 4 at noon (Paris time) - if your email & phone number were up to date by June 28 here

The outcome of this election is not written in stone and it is truly down to a smaller number of votes than you'd think. A lot of us abroad simply don't know we can vote or don't think it counts, and I'm here to tell you we CAN and it DOES! See you at the polls!!!!

Official voter info for French voters abroad / French legislative districts abroad / Legislative elections 2024 - 1st round results abroad

[niteshade925]

Combed through the drama and found a few (major) translation errors. Will be putting the worst ones in the post as well.

The thing about shows like these is that how a non-Chinese speaking audience will interpret it almost solely depends on the quality of the translation. When I said the translation for this show is okay, that's compared to other truly bad translations out there, and doesn't mean the translation for this drama is great by any means.

[gothicprep]

"you were an oops baby" was such a common insult that i remember from elementary school. but in reality, both of my parents have told me multiple times that i was "planned down to the month" because they wanted me to be old enough to not fuss on an international flight when everything was sorted with a US-UK job transfer. and that's significantly weirder than being the product of an accidental pregnancy. thank god the bullies were not sophisticated enough to connect the dots on that one.

[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

[twinklecupcake]

It's almost father's day what did Chenguang and Mei prepare for Red Son

Chenguang hears about Father's Day thanks to some tourists and one of her daycare classmates having a US father.

When Red Son picks her up that day, Chenguang is in a panic, blurting out that they have to give him presents and she almost forgot to. He has to explain to her that she doesn't have to do that, and that it's okay, they don't really do Father's Day. And besides which, she honors him every day, just being herself and existing.

Which does make her happy, but she still goes to Mei later and asks if they can still do something for him.

Mei and Chenguang end up working together to make dinner (calling Pigsy and MK to help) and Chenguang draws him a picture.

[weepycat]

What do you think of the US american thing as an "American" in south america?

do you mean referring to people from the USA as USAmericans instead of just "americans" ?

i wasn't aware there was discourse surrounding it.

personally, i think it's appropriate, especially during online discussions where foreign readers would benefit from that context. not all americans are from the US, and not all people from the USA are US americans.

however, living in latam as a (white) US american, i just say i'm from "estados unidos" and there's no need for clarification.

[tbh-entp]

I'm starting to realize that my Ne-Fe loop turns on when I'm too social. I start going out, get a little addicted to being charming and how people respond, and then I forget myself and my Ti, and drain myself on saying the right (or hilariously wrong) things at the right moments, and I'm so aware of how people respond to me but idk how I'm responding to myself or how I even relate to what I'm saying-- only that it's clever and well timed and wow I feel terrible. I need to go home and find my Ti.

[cosmogyros]

I gotta say this is one thing that annoys me about Germany: inter-library loan costing money.

Back in the US, all I had to do was get a library card (which is free) and then I could take out any book the library had... and if they didn't have it, I could get it through ILL, meaning that it would be shipped to my library from whatever other library in the country had it, and then I could pick it up at my local library (also for free) and read it.

In Germany, a library card costs 10 euros - although I don't mind that at all, in fact I'm glad about it because I'm happy to support the libraries. But here's the annoying bit: even in Berlin, the local libraries rarely have the book I want, so I would have to order it through inter-library loan - which costs between €2.50 and €4.50 per book! AND it then takes up to a month to arrive!

This seems kind of ridiculous, seeing as I could buy the same book from AbeBooks or whatever for likely the same price or even cheaper - I bought three used books online the other day, and none of them cost more than three euros. And they usually arrive within a week or two.

I'm kind of surprised that Germany, with its emphasis on public services (still not great, but generally better than the US) and obsession with academia and intellectualism, would not set more government funds aside to support the library system.

[tennessoui]

Considering I type it in so much, I’ve been wondering: what inspired your username?

i'm from tennessee and decided to overshare about my personal life to strangers on the internet from the very beginning

[gnometrotting]

Getting a driver’s license in the Czech Republic

Getting a driver’s license in the Czech Republic is an experience I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. Here is everything you need to know about the process so you can be prepared.

I usually rush to the defense of Czech people and systems when it comes to a lot of things, because the reality is almost never as bad as people make it out to be. But after spending the better part of four months trying to exchange a valid US driver’s license into a Czech one, I can safely say that getting a driver’s license in the Czech Republic is legitimately worse in every way than people…

[a-dream-deferred]

kind of losing my mind over the semantics of expat vs immigrant

[ekingston]

Hello Mrs Kingston!

You mentioned languages and your love for them on a post about American accents sounding movie-like to people. I also love languages and your tags had me wondering about your languages - you mentioned changing/removing your accent in your mothertongue. What is your mothertongue and why did you remove your accent? Your tag also seems to imply that you live somewhere that English is taught as a second language, yet your surname sounds English - is that by marriage, by chance or because you/your family moved?

Sorry for the many questions!

hello anon! my username is fully an alias! when i married my (american) wife we chose to hyphenate, but even her last name doesn’t sound particularly american, whatever ‘american’ is supposed to be in this context, hahaha. my primary language is dutch! i’ve lived here my whole life, my accent was regional/generational and i got rid of it because my ten-year-old self heard it on a recording and decided it was ugly (she was right)

[deus-ex-mona]

fresh out of hoots to give

[silverfox66]

Sometimes wish that Dutch leftists could stop taking over USA views, standpoints, and problems 1:1.