July has been something of a month for milestones.
It was the month in which Milo, our intrepid black lab and travelling companion from the UK to here, turned nine. Well on the way to becoming an old man, he has grown a chin full of white whiskers and an increasing paunch to boot. He has excelled in the Aussie environment, even after the passing of old man Murph, and I am ever happy that he came with us to this far-flung land.
It was the month which saw my wife and I celebrate eleven years since our first date. Set in my hometown of Basingstoke, England, the date included a ‘no expense spared’ meal of lamb shanks straight out of the freezer bag followed by a lively pub quiz – and all hosted at my ‘local’. Those were extravagant days.
It was also the month in which I reached a personal expat milestone. I have now lived overseas for more than eight years. If I’m honest, the time has flown and, in no small part, due to the number of moves we’ve made at different stages in the adventure. But it is a significant milestone and one which has been hard won and high on the emotional stakes.
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| Photo credit: Ross Haddow / FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
Much has changed since I left the UK in 2003 but one of the things that has transformed my expat life over this period has been the technological advance in communications, allowing me vastly improved contact with loved ones back in the UK and around the globe.
Social media applications, such as Facebook and Twitter, have also altered the technological landscape for us expats. Friends and family at home are able to keep up-to-date with my whereabouts and activities through regular tweets and the frequent posting of pictures online. The reverse is also true and I feel more connected with my peers than eight years previously when occasional emailing or letter writing was the norm.
These advances have also given me a new found respect and admiration for those expat pioneers of a time long past who left their homelands not knowing when, or how, they would communicate again with family and friends.
While we may complain about poor Internet speed or whine about ropey Skype connectivity, we’ll never have to deal with the lengthy Kangaroo Route facing 1950s immigrants to Australia or uncertain ship crossings endured by post-WWII war brides to Canada. And, for that alone, I am grateful.
Has technology improved your life abroad? Do you remember when the telephone and letter writing was the only way to communicate with loved ones?
Are you aware of new technologies on the horizon that may further improve an expat’s deal?
Thanks for this post. Life overseas has definitely become a little easier due to the technology advancement. I was born and raised in Africa and returned to the Netherlands to study when I was 19 years old. I remember the days of waiting for the mail man, hoping for news from abroad. It’s funny but there was a time when there was no internet or email, these have made digital information quickly available (nearly) everywhere. I actually just wrote a blog post on this subject too.
I’m glad I found your blog. I’m a Swedish girl living in Sweden with my Aussie boyfriend. We’re planning to move back to Australia where we met back in 2009 next year and I love reading other expat blogs.
I totally agree that technology has revolutionised the world for expats. I remember living in the US for a year back in 1999/2000 and using one of those hard to understand international phone cards as well as writing and receiving normal letters. I checked my email a couple of times a week only. Now we have Skype (which is awesome), FB, twitter, email, blogs and as you say the connection with loved ones far away is a lot easier to keep up.
I agree that expats now have it easy – and I’m grateful! My parents used to travel quite frequently for business in the early 90s, and I remember as a little kid being so sad when the phone line made it near to impossible to understand the goodnight or good morning phone call (I still have a grudge against Ecuador, in particular, for this).
Hi DrieCulturen, I will go and have a read of your post now. Things must really feel like they’ve changed given your experience of living overseas. It’s odd to think that the Internet and email is still relatively new in the grand scheme of things. I remember working at IBM as a student 20 years ago and using the black and green computer screens – there was no Internet or email then. How on earth did we survive?
Hey Anna, thanks for visiting the blog. Have a look at my blog roll section on this site as there are a number of other expat blogs you might be interested in.
I have almost taken the arrival of this new technology for granted, which was one of the reasons for writing the post. Skype is revolutionary in my mind in terms of being able to hear and see my family. And Facebook increases the contact in terms of watching lives develop, even if you’re not physically in the same location. I just became a ‘Facebook friend’ with my good buddy’s new baby daughter in England. Sounds crazy? Maybe. But I’ll be able to watch her grow without actually being in the UK… and I get to avoid the tears and hissy fits 🙂
Hope to see you back here again soon!
Hey Emily, all the way over there in Chile 🙂 Must have been difficult as kid dealing with that. I remember spending two weeks in Germany with my grandmother and calls home from a country not two hours away from the UK were hard enough. Ecuador would be a whole different kettle of fish!
It’s true, technology does make it easier to stay in touch those back home, it does however, have it’s downsides. You can convince yourself to go longer between visits home as you still speak most days, it can get in the way of you fully embracing your new home, as you are still living with one foot in your home country and finally… aaaaarrrrrrrrgghhhhhhhh!!!!! the agony when the internet is down!!!!
Hi expatlogue! Interesting you make that point about convincing yourself that you can go longer away from home. That happened to me over the past few years and I found I wasn’t needing that visit home quite so much as I was getting the online contact regularly enough. The living with one foot in your new country and one foot in your home country is an ongoing issue… and one I’ve started to get used to. I believe it will always be that way for an expat – a life of two homes and two existences, unless you are able to truly forget your previous life. Nice blog by the way!
Hi Russell – when I think back to my first time abroad not a huge distance, UK to Madrid but my contact with my family was only via telephone, no skype, no internet, no facebook in those days. Now I skype regularly and so do my kids – its great to see their relationship with cousins/grandparents develop even though we are not there in the physical sense. My parents in law were abroad in Kenya, Brazil and outback Australia in the 70’s – one visit home a year if that and generally letters inbetween… makes me think!
Hi Louise – what interesting experiences you’ve had overseas!
It’s funny but my wife’s uncle and aunt live in the UK. They have two children – one lives in the US, the other in Australia. The US-based son has a toddler who communicates with her grandparents by Skype, having only seen them in the flesh a couple of times. She’s now getting a bit older and associates her grandparents with the computer and Skype.
When she recently came face-to-face with them, she was confused. This wasn’t granny and grandpa on the computer. These were much more daunting, real-life people. I found it funny and interesting how the use of technology is also changing the way youngsters view their distant families.
Anyway, thanks for visiting the blog and hope to see you here again soon.
Cheers, Russ
Like many of your blogs, I can only agree once again: Technology surely has made this far-away existence so much easier. Media writes how Facebook & Co. have negateople neglect face-to-face contact but I say “thank god for it!”. Now I can keep up with friends and family perhaps even better than at home. Sure, it’s nice to remember those hand-written letters and long-distance calls ()time & date always fixed in advance and the eternal wait for the phone to ring) but I would never give up the internet!
Thanks, Peteriina.
Technology has revolutionised things for me. Even this past week, I’ve found new apps on my iPhone that allow me to leave messages with family on their mobile phones for free, allow me to text and share video over our phones (again for free), and Skype continues to improve.
I’ve replaced letters with emails – it’s probably not so nice to receive an electronic email over a lovely handwritten letter but it’s faster and much more reliable 🙂