InterNations Blog

InterNations founder Malte Zeeck has been travelling again! This time, he visited our thriving expat community in London, where the local InterNations Ambassador Rosa had organised a splendid event in a truly exquisite venue for the occasion!

In the evening of Thursday, 26 April, I set out from Munich airport on a plane bound for London. I hadn’t been to London for over a year, so it was definitely high time to pay this exciting, ever-transforming metropolis another visit.

My enthusiasm only waned slightly when I realized that I had chosen precisely the moment when summer finally broke out in Munich to visit a city that greeted me with a freezing 11°C and non-stop rain. But you can’t have it all, and while London can be an overwhelming experience at any time and in any weather, this spring seemed like a particular good moment to visit: London is getting ready for the Olympics, and you can feel it. The pace of change in a city where new venues, restaurants, shops and art spaces pop up on a daily basis seems to have accelerated even more. Given all this, I must say I expected to find London a lot busier than I did!

Never mind the London Olympics, however. The real reason of my visit was of course our London expat community! With over 21,000 members, London is the biggest InterNations Community and therefore one of the most diverse, too. And Friday night was party time for InterNations members in London! Our London Ambassador Rosa had picked a truly special venue for that night’s event: the Kensington Roof Gardens, owned by Virgin’s very own Sir Richard Branson! Rumour has it that Sir Richard was once refused entry to the club by the bouncer and therefore decided to buy the whole establishment. I was very much looking forward to the evening!

So after spending Friday daytime talking to several business partners, I made my way to Kensington High Street in the evening. The location was truly spectacular: Kensington Roof Gardens consist of three themed gardens sprawling over 6,000 m² and a restaurant and club house. The Spanish Garden with its distinct Moorish flavour is based on the Alhambra in Granada. The Tudor Garden is filled with evergreen shrubs surrounded by fragrant lilies, roses and lavender, and is characterised by its archways, secret corners and hanging wisteria. Last but not least, the English Woodland garden has over 100 species of trees, a stream, and a garden pond that is the home to pintail ducks and four resident flamingos called Bill, Ben, Splosh and Pecks. It’s like a secret parallel world, situated on the roof top of a huge former department store and barely visible from street level!

As if by magic, the skies cleared and allowed us a glimpse of the sun just in time for the event. Rosa, our InterNations Ambassador in London who organised the evening, and her co-Ambassador and co-host Alex did a truly great job there. They were assisted by a wonderful team of volunteers helping with the hosting and at the welcome desk: Adrienn, Alecsandra, Anita, Anuja, Augustina, Cecilia, Khaled, Lisa, Mahmood, Melanie, Pedro, Robbie and Zoltan. After a short welcome speech by Rosa and Alex, I said a few words too to thank this passionate Ambassador team for their enthusiasm and commitment – and for the warm welcome I received: I even got some presents, for which I would like to thank everyone again on this occasion!

All in all, the event was a great success and everybody seemed to enjoy themselves. I tried to talk to as many people as possible but with 796 people of 89 different nationalities on the guest list, I only managed to get to know a small fraction of this huge international crowd. I am however particularly glad I managed to talk to one couple who just got married this year, as they told me that they met at the very first InterNations event in London back in 2008! It’s moments like this one that make running InterNations such an incredibly rewarding experience sometimes – when you feel that you are really touching people’s lives and making a difference.

As for the rest of my weekend, it was somewhat tarnished by the incessant rain. Saturday turned out to be the wettest day of the year so far, while I received reports from back home in Munich of scorching hot 29°C and sunshine. Oh well … I suppose that’s when one could use some of the famous British “keep calm and carry on” attitude… Anyways, I won’t let a little bit of rain ruin my London experience: I’ll definitely keep coming back to this amazing city with its wonderful InterNations Community!

All photos courtesy Carina Barbosa except Thames by Daniel J Maxwell

Filed under: InterNations News on May 10th, 2012 | No Comments »

During his past two years living in Germany, British expat Simon soon realized that one of the things he missed most about London was the monthly visits to the theatre with his family and friends. Rather slow progress with the German language and a very limited availability of English-language theatre productions in Munich have turned an enjoyable night out at the theatre into somewhat of a rare occasion for Simon – until a friend told him about the National Theatre London screenings, very popular with the British expat community around the world…

“I love every thing that is old; old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines”, but last March 29th was the first time I have enjoyed going to see an old fashioned 18th century comedy. This was the occasion of the National Theatre London’s screening of the Oliver Goldsmith classic She stoops to conquer. A filmed version of the production, still running in London, that was broadcast to cinemas all over the world, including Cinema-München just around the corner from my flat.

Much cheaper than the real thing, you can get your ticket, beer and popcorn, and still see change from €25. At these prices, it was nearly a full house, packed with almost as many posh English voices as you can hear in the National Theatre itself (“Do they seem to be Londoners? – Land. I believe they may. They look woundily like Frenchmen.”) There is even a curtain in front of the screen. I shuffled in just as the curtain was going up and found my place near the front of the auditorium, keen to get as near to the action as possible.

The play is the story of the “Englishman’s malady”. Our hero is a man of the world who is full of life and gaiety around his male friends, but turns into “a trembler” when confronted with any eligible woman of his own social standing. So it is that when the mistress of the house approaches, he averts his eyes and starts mumbling incoherently in response to her gentle questioning. Sympathetic to the ailment and eager to encourage him the young lady ‘stoops to conquer’ by dressing up as a barmaid and pretending she is a servant, rather than mistress. So attired she quickly finds herself the recipient of much more fulsome entreaties: “O la, sir, you`ll make one ashamed”.

Aside from the enjoyable language, it is not a play I would have gone out of my way to see, but with an all star cast really revelling in all the slapstick gags and the high pace of the action never waning, it became a really fun night’s entertainment. I quite laughed myself silly.

The National Theatre live broadcasts have been growing in popularity for several years, usually organised by individual enthusiasts and expat communities, in towns and cities all around the world. Now the phenomena has taken off and She stoops to conquer was screened in hundreds of cinemas the night I saw it. People were watching it in Australia, New Zealand, all over the States and Europe; even as far away as South Africa.

I think it’s a brilliant thing! The standards of the productions put on at the at the National Theatre are mega, and now so many more people can enjoy it. I didn’t find the silver screen much of a barrier to my enjoyment. The show is filmed from lots of different angles and edited to ensure you zoom in on the action and best gags. Its even fair to say you can get closer to the performers in some ways than you would at the back of a packed theatre. They also spice up the show with interviews with the cast before the show and during the interval. The next show is Frankenstein in June, a re-run of one last years productions that got a lot of praise and is sure to be another great night out. – Why not see if it’s being shown in your town, too?

Thank you Simon Goodall for your contribution to our blog.

All pictures courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Attribution: Alan Stanton (2), Andreas Praefcke (3)

Filed under: Culture Shock, The daily grind, abroad on May 6th, 2012 | No Comments »

You may not have noticed it, but we have been working hard on a new feature for your InterNations website over the past few months. Now it’s ready, and in today’s Founder’s Diary you can read all about it and how it came about.

What do you, as an expat, expect from InterNations? What can we, the InterNations team, do to make sure that we address your needs? These are questions we constantly ask ourselves here at the InterNations headquarters in Munich. To help us answer these questions, we started a major 4-part survey series last year, as some of you may remember. Amongst other things, we wanted to know your reasons and motivations for joining the InterNations network, and we must say that we walked away greatly reassured by your answers. They showed us that as far as the idea and concept behind InterNations was concerned, we were on the right path:

InterNations, as an online community for expats, addresses two basic needs of expatriates anywhere in the world: Meeting other people, and getting essential information on your expat destination. We have always believed that our expat events fulfill an important function in this respect: They offer our members the opportunity to meet people “in real life”, not just online, to make new contacts, to cultivate friendships, and to exchange valuable information. That’s why we are trying to make sure that every InterNations Community has at least one InterNations Event per month – the more the better!

However, we also gathered from your feedback that we could do more to fulfill these needs, so we took your suggestions on board:

In December last year, we first published our Expat Guides to address the need for information among expats. So now we can offer our members trustworthy information on their next expat destination in the form of editorial content – our Expat Country and City Guides. We also released an Expat Magazine covering more general topics of interest for expats, such as Family and Relationships Abroad, Expat Women, Culture Shock and many more.

This past month of April, we reached another milestone in the history of InterNations – a direct result of the feedback we received from you. And I’m not only talking about the answers to our survey questions – I also mean the direct feedback I get from InterNations members when I visit our Local Communities around the world and attend the local events. I’ve had many interesting conversations with our members on these occasions, and one thing quickly transpired, no matter where I was and who I was talking to: the monthly big InterNations parties are simply not enough to satisfy the needs of expats to meet up and socialize. Especially in our bigger Communities, there seems to be a high demand for more frequent, smaller get-togethers, maybe organized around certain activities.

This got us thinking … and after six months of conceptual work, countless (and sometimes heated) discussions behind closed doors, and many late nights in the office, we can now proudly present:

The InterNations Activity Groups!

On April 17, we launched the InterNations Activity Groups in 5 test Communities: Beijing, Brussels, Dubai, Istanbul, and Munich.

The idea is to make it easier for you to create groups that focus on a specific activity or interest, such as biking, dining, cinema, etc., and of course to enhance our Albatross membership with this new, value-adding feature. The InterNations Activity Groups have been developed for those of you who want to share their hobbies or interests, so that you can enjoy activities together and at the same time get to know each other in a more intimate environment. Group members can post relevant events (which will be called ‘Activities’) directly in the group. In the event calendar you will see a full list of all upcoming Activities in your Community and be able to choose those that interest you. Meeting up with other expats has never been this easy!

Of course none of this happened at the push of a button. When we’d finalized the concept, the real work just started for our IT team, who began implementing the new feature back in January. Having put so much hard work into it, our goal now is to have a flourishing groups scene with a wide range of activities on offer. The motto: There is something for everyone! In the long term, we would love to see Communities where our members can simply open the event calendar and pick whatever activity interests them from a wide range of events every month. So in addition to the big monthly InterNations party, there would ideally be an event or meeting to attend every other day!

But we cannot achieve this goal without you. The Activity Groups rely on your participation. Now that the infrastructure is in place, it is up to our members to make things happen. There are two things you can do: Get involved, and give feedback!

If you are a member of one of the five test Communities, check out the new Groups Section on InterNations.org, see if there is a group for an activity that interests you, and join! And if there isn’t – why not start your own Activity Group? It’s a great way to socialize, organize after-work gatherings, outings to museums and galleries, friendly soccer matches, photography excursions, and so much more! And once you’ve taken part in one or more activities, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us, share your experience and get in your own suggestions. After all, we want to make sure that everything is perfect for the big roll out in June to our top 50 Local Communities!

Filed under: InterNations News on May 2nd, 2012 | No Comments »

InterNations team member Amelie, who works in our Ambassador & Events Team, has recently visited some of “her” expat communities in the Middle East. Here is her travel diary of this amazing trip, so full of cultural experiences, fun, and lots of lovely people…

Having worked together with the Middle East so closely for the last 1.5 years, I decided that it was time to “experience” my Communities in person! I got my friend Claudia on board, booked our flights, bought sunscreen and off we flew to our first destination Dubai! End of March was supposed to be the best time to travel weather-wise. I fell asleep on the airplane dreaming of a week spoiled with sun and fun!

We landed in DXB in the early morning hours and took a cab to our hotel. Thanks to our VIP Status that was granted to us by my Ambassador Gay, we were able to check in early and were welcomed with a tray of fruits & pastry. Sipping our complimentary sparkling date soda, our vacation time had officially begun!

We spent the first day by the pool and experiencing what all tourists do in Dubai: a world of shopping. Our hotel was directly by the Mall of the Emirates. The size of the mall was impressive and the indoor Ski resort even more so. When it comes to entertainment, Dubai plays in superlatives. The Dubai Mall features an aquarium and an ice rink! Right next to the mall, we found ourselves in front of the highest tower worldwide, the Burj Khalifa. The tower was originally supposed to be named Burj Dubai, because it was mainly financed by the royal family of Dubai. Due to the financial crisis, they ran out of funds and the Sheikh Chalifa from Abu Dhabi stepped in. The tower was then completed and renamed in gratitude!

After the first days of beach and shopping fun, our travel schedule lead us further to the Sultanate of Oman. My Ambassador for the InterNations Muscat expat Community, Moamen Mansour had invited us to see and experience the “real Middle East”. With a warm welcome, he picked us up from the airport and spent the afternoon showing us around. The rocky coastline and the landscape in general were very impressive! The sun was shining and we decided spontaneously to do a quick boat tour. One of the fishermen was quickly hired and took us on a tour through the turquoise water and bizarre cliffs! The afternoon was rounded off with Arabic Coffee and later with drinks in the beautiful beach setting of the Ritz Carlton Hotel. After sunset, we were ready for an Arabic dinner feast with Tabouleh, stuffed bread, hummus and chicken skewers. Happily stuffed, we then went for cocktails to one of the regular InterNations venues where I met a few Community members.

Our next day was all planned out: A friend of Moamen, Rebecca, who happened to also be an InterNations member took us on a tour in the mountains to one of the Wadis. While driving along the bumpy road, sheep and camels flew by on the side of the road. The highlight was to jump into the clear fresh water and swim the heat away – this is something that I will never forget! Coming back to Muscat for a late lunch, Moamen introduced me to Maud whom I gladly welcomed onboard the InterNations Ambassadors Family! The day ended with a stroll through the souk stocking up on spices and scarves as souvenirs. In the late evening and in fear of an impending sandstorm we sadly had to travel back to Dubai – a big and warm “Shukran” to Moamen for having us!

The two next days were very much dedicated to the InterNations Dubai Expat Community. I met up with my new Ambassador team for an Italian Dinner. It was great to finally meet Gay, Nina, Michael and Philipp in person! With a community size of over 8000 members, I had recently extended the team there. The team had even arranged an official event for me to attend on the next day. The event took place on the rooftop of the Jumeirah Beach Hotel with a stunning view on the riverbank facing the Burj al Arab. My Ambassadors Celine from Ras Al-Khaimah and Shannon & Loretta from Abu Dhabi had followed my invitation and came to attend the event. It was a fun night full of networking & connecting. With lots of good memories, we flew out and back to Germany that very night. We will for sure be back with more time and more countries on our list!

All photos courtesy of Amelie Dinges.

Filed under: Adventures Abroad, InterNations News on April 27th, 2012 | No Comments »

If you could freely choose your expat destination, wouldn’t you opt for a place with a beach? Just imagine you can just step out of your house, drop your towel and take a refreshing dip in the cool blue waves while your children are happily building castles out of sand or running around playing with other kids. Well, it’s not always that easy of course. If you live in a big city, the beaches on your doorstep may be far from the idyll we all know from glossy holiday brochures. Our guest blogger Abu Muhammed has found that sometimes, driving the extra mile is definitely worth it…

One of the big benefits of moving to Jeddah is that the western coast of Arabia is within a reasonable driving distance from a number of beaches that overlook the Red Sea. For those who live in Jeddah, the Corniche is a string of playgrounds; restaurants, marinas and sculptures of various mediums (the city is known for its numerous public displays of international modern art) interspersed among crowded patches of beach cluttered with residents trying to seek solace from the dusty city scape. Within the city of Jeddah, the beaches along the Corniche ranged from tolerable expanses of dirty sand and asphalt that bordered trash laden waters to cement retaining walls; stained with the sludge of days and years before. Locations that hosted playgrounds are decked with litter; all seem to have equipment on the wrong side of better days under perpetual lines of kids along the same polluted coastline.

Amidst of all this are many amusement parks with carnival type rides colorfully painted and draped and lit in holiday lights with over priced concessions that often attempted to ‘hawk’ a riyal bottle of water to the unprepared tourist for 2 or 3 riyals. The whole scene took me back to the Jersey shore before the casinos took over—minus the aroma of tanning lotion that always permeated the air, food and everything else in those days.

Just outside the city limits is the small coastal community of Abhur. The district had a few quaint upscale marinas and Istaharahs (private party rentals). There are small resorts; some of which (as rumor would have it) are access free to the general public despite some formidable gating. Still, on days and times most people go to be on the beach is like trying to get on the New York ‘A’ train at rush hour. The crowds are so dense it was hard to see the beach they stood on. Why people squeeze themselves between the hordes of Shabab (unmarried boys) and other folk that congested (after trying it a couple of times myself) the beach was beyond my comprehension. The Shabab keep the water rough with their Jet Ski antics and their impromptu football scuffles make the beaches dangerous places for small children to play in or out of the water.

And there is the trash, the omnipresent bits of paper, the debris from Jeddah; that has become Jeddah. Even the big, ugly green rubbish containers meant for the discarded to be thrown in were judging from the piles of paper, cans and bottles everywhere apparently ignored for the convenience of just dropping it on the ground next to them. I finally elected just to stay away from the beach or arrange to make the effort to go so early in the morning to avoid the crowds.

I tried driving further out on the beach front only to find the walls went as far as the manageable road and beyond.

I finally gave up on a family outing to the beach except for the purposes of a workable swing or slide for my smaller children to make ‘whoopee’ on.

Until a Saudi friend told me about the beaches of Thuwal.

“Just take Medina Road until you see the signs. It’s not far past the checkpoint– about twenty minutes; then make a left and follow the road. The beaches are never crowded and it’s clean,” he said.

Now anyone who has been to the Middle East for a while knows that most people have little to no ability to give clear or complete directions. Though streets do have names, the locals tend to navigate by landmarks and as a matter of course, force everyone else (even expats) to do the same. It seemed once you were around for a while, the precise description of where to turn and how to get there became the vague geography of ‘near’ this place and ‘behind’ that—as if the rest of the intervening cityscape didn’t exist. At first, I thought this was the conversational style of the people. You ask where Mc Donald’s is; the response would be ‘Jeddah.’

‘Where in Jeddah?’

‘On Tahlia Street.’

‘Where on Tahlia Street?’

This exchange would go on and on until every detail was revealed. In the west, when you ask where something is, despite the simplicity of English compared to Arabic, the exchange is a lot shorter. In the west, the person being asked generally assumes you want to know how to get to the exact location rather than engage in a 15 minute conversation that could have taken 15 seconds. Unfortunately if you don’t have the patience to conduct this type of interrogation to get all the information for your trip, you will likely spend a lot of time lost and trying to figure the whole thing out on the road. Later I realized this had more to do with the social disposition of the people and their concept of time than the odd prospective of a peculiar culture.

So one day when I was about to take a mid-morning drive to the ‘same old, same old’, I took the route my friend told me about; convincing myself I could extrapolate whatever information he left out. After all, a beach was a beach and I knew if I went west far enough I would probably reach it.

“Let’s have an adventure,” I said to my family.

To my surprise, Thuwal was exactly where he said– approximately 87km or so outside the city limits. At the Thuwal exit, the right turn put us on one road to a sentry arch that stood half the size of the 25 foot palms that bordered and divided each side. As we drove up the road, signs directed travelers to a coast guard hospital and a fish market. Paved like a road in the US before the republicans began using public highway money to finance the bank bailout, families were waved on while Shabab were halted for a question or two. I thought this might mean the facilities were reserved for family use and the waters were Jet Ski free – though there was always nepotism of Wasta (the pull of the big shots) that gave rules the uncertainty of exception.

A two minute drive brought us to a dock where local fishermen moor their small boats. The marina gave way to a massive pavilion that showcased a fish Sooq (market) at a picturesque white sand beach lined with tree (not palms) lawns with modern small shaded pavilions where families could sit and enjoy the relatively pristine waterfront. Although there were more people than I thought there would be, there was still enough room to make one feel that he wasn’t sharing the beach with the rest of the planet.

The absence of Jet Skis apparently may mean they were banned. Shabab appeared to be monitored and segregated on a stretch of beach further down from the docks. We went back in the morning the next day and it was what my Saudi friend had said. There was practically no one there.

Compared to the Jeddah waterfront, it was Eldorado.

Thank you Abu Muhammed for your contribution to our blog.

Abu Muhammed is an American freelance journalist and technical writer who lives and works in the Middle East. He teaches at a private college in Saudi Arabia and is a contributing blogger for the Mideast Posts. To read more of Abu Muhammed’s writing please visit http://mideastposts.com/author/abu-muhammed/.

All pictures of Jeddah and Thuwal courtesy of Abu Muhammed.

Filed under: Adventures Abroad, The daily grind, abroad on April 23rd, 2012 | No Comments »

InterNations member Philip, our British expat in Tehran, is blogging about his first Nowruz experience – the Iranian New Year, which he celebrated in true traditional style.

In the west we have Christmas, Halloween and Easter. However, in Iran it is a completely different ballgame. The Iranian New Year (Nowruz) has been at the turn of spring since time in memoriam, predating the Christian calendar by eons. This continues today with the new year of 1391.

Chahar Shanbeh Suri

Coming from the Iranian day system (4 Day Feast), this special day in the calendar has the glorious mantle of being the day you jump over fires to cast away the bad omens from the previous year. Being English, health and safety warning lights were flashing in my foresight. I found that I wasn’t the only one who had concerns about this day.

The Iranian government clearly discourages people from this kind of activity due to the safety issues of fireworks going off in the wrong places and people getting third degree burns. None the less, this hasn’t dampened the local population’s spirit for the event and big parties are held all over the country to celebrate this night. In some places children will knock on neighbours’ doors to ask for candy – not too dissimilar from Halloween, I hear you say.

So Chahar Shanbeh Suri evening I willingly went along to a friend’s party and took a deep breath and jumped over the fire, forgoing the ceremonial sentence “zardi-ye man az to, sorkhi-ye to az man” – the literal translation is “my sickly yellow paleness is yours, your fiery red color is mine” – as my Persian skills still have the ferocity of a five year old. Iranian kebabs were served on a charcoal fire and we all had a fantastic night. Though, I may add people were keeping a keen eye on their kids running around with sparklers and fireworks in hand. (Breath)!

The Haft Sin (7 S’s)

The ceremonial table spread of the Haft Sin is a truly Iranian phenomenon I often relate to the brides on their wedding day in the UK, “Something old something new something borrowed and something blue”. The Haft Sin kind of goes by the same logic, with 7 items layered out on a table beginning with S in Persian.

The Haft Sin items are:

1. Mirror – symbolizing Sky
2. Apple – symbolizing Earth
3. Candles – symbolizing Fire
4. Golab – rose water symbolizing Water
5. Sabzeh – wheat, or barley sprouts symbolizing Plants
6. Goldfish – symbolizing Animals
7. Painted Eggs – symbolizing Humans and Fertility

Now I may add that any self respecting Iranian anywhere in the world wouldn’t be seen without these at the New Year and for me it is a new and exciting experience.

There are variations on the list above but this seems to be the run of the mill table spread and it seems pretty interesting. I have to admit that one of my goldfish popped his clogs the other day, which fills me with such fear of foreboding for the next year!

First day of Nowruz

The day of Nowruz is an interesting experience not to dissimilar to Christmas day in the Western World. You wake up early in the morning and greet other family members for a ceremonial dinner. Ours was kebabs, and I can say that I prefer this rather than turkey and gravy which I always experienced in the United Kingdom. People pass round a few presents and the elders of the family often give children cash or cash cheques. Iranian television makes a special effort to create special programming for this season and you will always see a few of the latest Hollywood blockbuster movies dubbed into Persian.

Time off Work

The two week holiday period in Iran is a strange event, especially if you live in one of the larger cities like Tehran. In usual times, people would either leave the city or even the country, however with the terrible state of the local economy many more people just stocked up on food and decided to sit this one out. I myself was included in this group as everything has become increasingly expensive, even villas in the north of the country have become pricey.

Siezdabedah

This is the 13th day of the Nowruz holiday period where it has been traditionally known to take your “sabz” or your grass which you grow in a pot to a stream somewhere away from your home.

This is the ceremonial time when people must spend the day out of their home. However, I noticed this year less people were bothering even to leave the residential areas.

Back to Work!

Even though the Iranian official holiday lasts a sumptuous two week period, that seems not enough time to many people. Strangely, this phenomenon seems to permeate through much of the working culture here after the holiday period. People seem to have to drag themselves back to work. So in all actuality I seem to be having a three week holiday period as this week might as well be written off! So this was my first Iranian New Year and I look forward to many more!

All photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Photo 4 by Adrianpour.

Filed under: Adventures Abroad, Intercultural Differences, Traditions and Customs around the World on April 17th, 2012 | No Comments »

InterNations founder Malte Zeeck visited our expat community in Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago in order to attend the local InterNations April Expat Event. He came back to Munich full of enthusiasm for this beautiful city, for Scotland in general and for Scotch whiskey in particular…

It was sunny outside and around 15 °C when my airplane touched down at Edinburgh Airport on Thursday afternoon. They say that first impressions count, and this is often true when visiting somewhere for the first time: There is no better start to a weekend city break than seeing the place glisten in the sunshine far below you while your plane is approaching its destination.

The positive first impression of Edinburgh was reinforced during the bus ride to my hotel Nira Caledonia, a luxury boutique hotel in central Edinburgh. From the windows of my double-decker bus, Edinburgh presented itself as a beautiful and old, clean and affluent city – an impression mainly owing to its many well-kept buildings from the past.

On this fist day, however, I didn’t have the time to delve any deeper into the city’s past or present. Once in my hotel room, I freshened up briefly and shortly afterwards I left the hotel again on foot. My destination: The Dome, where our Edinburgh Ambassadors were hosting that night’s InterNations Event. When I say Ambassadors, I mean Gregory on this occasion; unfortunately his Co-Ambassador Dino, a finance professional who grew up in Northern Ireland and worked in London and Paris, was away at the time. Gregory, who has been InterNations Ambassador for Edinburgh since late 2010, originally came to Scotland from his home country Poland in order to study; however, attracted by what he calls “the beauty and uniqueness” of the country, he simply stayed on when he finished his degree. He has worked and lived not only in Poland and the UK, but also in Germany, France and India.

At the event, Gregory did a great job welcoming his guests from around 15 different countries. This may not sound hugely impressive, but given the number of attendees (around 25), 15 different nationalities make for quite an international mix. The good thing about events in our smaller Communities is that it is so much easier to actually talk to people. That night, I met InterNations members from Thailand, Spain, the USA, Austria, Italy and enjoyed many interesting conversations.

All in all, it was a very pleasant evening – not least due the great choice of venue. The Dome isn’t called The Dome for nothing: Its central feature is a magnificent hall with arched ceilings and a coffered central dome. Originally built on the site of the old Physicians hall to host the headquarters of the Commercial Bank of Scotland in 1844, the building now hosts conference suites, several bars and restaurant. One of them, The Club Room with its crystal chandeliers and candle-lit tables, provided the perfect surroundings for this intimate and exclusive meeting of global minds.

After 5 hours of socializing with InterNations members from around the world, I headed back to my hotel room just before midnight. Just as well – after all, I still had a whole weekend of sightseeing and Whiskey tasting ahead of me!

The next day, I took advantage of the fine weather to explore the Old Town of Edinburgh and the New Town. One mediaeval, the other Georgian, both are in fact listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and thus not only stunningly beautiful in places, but also very unique in character. I followed Hanover Street and walked up the Royal Mile, past the Scottish Parliament to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, where the Queen resides during Holyrood Week (usually somewhere around late June/early July). The Palace was already home to Mary, Queen of Scots in the 16th century and is in many ways closely associated with Scotland’s turbulent past. The Parliament building, on the other hand, only dates back to 2004. There was a lot controversy surrounding its construction, partly due to the immense costs involved in it, and I must say that I wasn’t terribly impressed by the result. Later, I climbed up a hill in Holyrood Park and enjoyed the fantastic views over the city.

Some of the other sights I took in during my weekend were the Edinburgh Castle, and the many churches and old cemeteries scattered around the city. Unfortunately, however, the good weather didn’t last. Fog descended on the city and it was there to stay – the perfect excuse for me to spend more time in Edinburgh’s cozy pubs drinking fine Scotch whiskey, of which I tried many different blends and brands and which I found much to my liking.

All in all, my weekend in Edinburgh has left me with the desire to see more of Scotland: the famous distilleries, the historic castles, the rugged beauty of the Scottish Highlands, and of course Loch Ness… I ran out of time on this occasion, but I am hoping to come back for more.

Photos courtesy of Malte Zeeck and Wikimedia Commons (View from Holyrood Park by Lisa Jarvis, Edinburgh Castle by Stuart Caie)

Filed under: Adventures Abroad, InterNations News on April 12th, 2012 | No Comments »

Simon, our British expat living in Germany, spent last weekend walking through the Chiemgau with a real globe trotter. A man who has been on the road for nearly three months and two thousand kilometres, and still is only just starting. Clad in a UNICEF t-shirt and pushing a child’s buggy before him, James Thomas is walking the world!

When I joined James at Feldkirchen-Westerham he was looking much like I would have expected someone walking round the world to look: totally exhausted. He had come down from Munich the day before and got badly lost on forest paths, finding only obstacle strewn footpaths to cart his belongings over where he had expected tarmac cycle ways. He had struggled through the evening, camped where he found himself and struggled on since dawn. His expression said it all.

But fortunately, once back on smooth tarmac, he began to cheer up. James is originally form County Cork in Ireland but has spent many years living in Edinburgh where he first studied and then worked in photography. As he turned 30 he decided that he wanted to do something special. Scouting around for ideas he came across the fact that the polar opposite of Edinburgh is a place called Dunedin. Back in the day some home sick Scots recreated their capital city street by street on the exact other side of the world, in New Zealand. He soon became fixated on the idea of walking to this place. So it was that in early 2012 he gave up a career to envy as a fashion photographer, sold all his belongings and set off to walk to the other side of the world. He plans to reach his destination in New Zealand for his 32nd birthday in December 2014.

I wanted to know why. There are probably several reasons. For one he clearly wants to do something special. He says that he chose not to cycle it because everybody is cycling around the word these days (what do you know!). He wants to make a name for himself and maintaining press attention is all part of the job (he could certainly lay claim to the most socially-media-active round the world explorer, with a strict routine of four tweets a day). On top of this he is already a keen traveller, with many adventures already under his belt. I think that perhaps the main motivation though is his love of the outdoors. He clearly relishes the wild camping and total exposure that are going to be his constant way of life for most of the next two years.

There is a very altruistic motivation too. He is aiming to raise over 20 thousand pounds for UNICEF – a charity that he believes does most to alleviate the sufferings of the world’s most impoverished children and, he informs me, spend the vast share of their funds on aid, rather than administration.

The world record for walking around the world is still held by an American named David Kunst who completed his circumnavigation in 1974 after 4 years and 4 months (also in support of UNICEF). Using mules, losing a brother and falling in love along the way, his circumnavigation could have been smoother and quicker. This makes it a record crying out to be broken and James might not stop in Dunedin; he might keep going and give it a shot.

His secret weapon is the buggy. While it raises some eyebrows on first sight, you don’t have to walk with him long to realise that with the buggy he can really motor. He is packing 34 kilos of weight and yet I struggled to keep up. The buggy is a dream to push, its soft suspension system rides effortlessly across rough terrain and on the flat you barely notice the extra effort. Once you’ve tried the buggy, you’d never dream of lugging full kit around on your back again.

We got all the way around Chiemsee that weekend and it has never looked more stunning than in the sparkling Spring sunshine. The mountains looked like they were coming straight out of the lake. Traunstein was the last stop for me and we parted with a farewell beer. I offered him my copy of A time of Gifts but it turned out he already had a copy in the buggy!

I have to admit I did feel envious. While I was returning to office life in Munich, he was walking into the forest to hang up his hammock, make a fire, cook dinner and sleep in the wilderness; ready to wake up with the dawn for another full day in the sun.

I was inspired by James’s adventure. It’s not easy to give up all the comforts of modern life and pursue a grand dream, and hats off to anyone who does it. I found the weekend a reminder of the joys of outdoor adventure, a good opportunity to think about some of the adventures I would like to pursue, and a very good opportunity to donate to UNICEF.

Photos 1, 4 & 6 courtesy of Simon Goodall. Photos 2 (Stuart Caie) and 3 (James Dignan) courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Thank you Simon Goodall for your contribution to the InterNations blog. You can find out more about James’ adventure on http://www.justgoingforastroll.com/

Filed under: Adventures Abroad on April 9th, 2012 | No Comments »

Learning the local language when living abroad as an expat is one of the most important steps on our way to a fulfilled expat existence, says InterNations member Aaron. And if you follow Aaron’s tips for everyday language learners, it’s not nearly as daunting an undertaking as you may think…

Learning the language of the country we’ve moved to is one of the most impactful actions we can take to improve our experience as expats. Nothing so intimately affects daily life lived abroad quite like knowing – or not knowing – the local language.

Our comings and goings, our setting up of home and shopping for daily needs, the hope of friendship with nationals – all of these hinge on our learning the language and learning it well.

I have yet to meet anyone living abroad who would not hope to speak and understand the local language better than they presently do. And yet it seems there is little vision for making this hope a reality.

There are of course those polyglots among us who’ve mastered myriad languages, who dream in Chinese, write poetry in French and read Russian novels for fun.

But for the rest of us, for us everyday language learners, we find ourselves in need of some unknown piece to this linguistic puzzle which we hope, when found, will carry us forward to a longed-for place of mastery – or at least leave us better able to enter into the current of local life whose waters will only be plied by the rudder and sail of the local tongue.

If we wish to know those whose country we’ve settled in and in turn, be known by them, we must set our sails toward that distant shore across the sea called fluency.

And to do that we must sail not drift. We must make a plan and execute it. We must above all else, take control of our language learning journey.

There is no silver bullet for learning another language. I wish there were. There are however a great number of regular bullets which combined together can lead to a personal language learning program that will allow you to successfully learn another language on your own terms. Finding what works best for you, for your learning style and for the situation in which you find yourself is the key then to your success.

There are hundreds of methods, programs, resources and activities that will help you learn another language. Above these though are the attitudes and principles that lead to maximized language learning. Here are four ideas to get you started:

1. Stay in the Game. When I asked my wife what the most important factor was for continuing to improve as a speaker of the local language her reply was simple: Stay in the Game. Like any endeavor in life, we tend to lose focus over time. We begin to drift, to just let each day happen and soon find that weeks have gone by since we last did anything to achieve our goals. Language learning is no different and if we are to reach our language learning goals, we must continue to pay attention to putting in the time and effort to improve.

2. Do What You Love. One key to putting in the time is finding enjoyable activities and resources that you won’t tire of. Find activities that you love and do those in the target language. Do you love painting? Sign up for a painting class where only native speakers will be involved. Do you love to take photography? Join a photography club that doesn’t include other expats. Do you love watching movies? Find ten of your favorite movies dubbed in the local language and watch three or four a week.

3. Fill the Fridge. They say a dieter’s worst enemy is the refrigerator. But it doesn’t have to be. If the fridge were filled with only healthy, wholesome food, the cravings for a calorie laden snack would be null and void. If your only option is healthy food, it’s impossible to eat junk food. As a language learner, you too can change the home and work environment so that it conspires to help you succeed. Fill the movie drawer with target language movies, the bookshelf with target language books and the cd player with target language music. You will see and hear more of the language, not because you want to, but because it’s there. We all recognize that living in a country is not equivalent to immersion. Immersion is a choice you will need to make and a reality that you can create.

4. Hit it from All Sides. One sure way to improve your language is to begin to attack the language from all sides: reading, writing, listening and speaking. Find a favorite book and read it before you go to bed each night. Take fifteen to twenty minutes over lunch to journal about the happenings of your day – in the target language. Listen to podcasts, music, speeches or handcrafted audio on your daily commute. And of course spend some time every day talking with native speakers. It seems strange to encourage expats to speak the language each day, but I am certain most of us can relate to whole days that go by without a word spoken in the target language. One conversation every day – make it a minimum requirement.

Author and language educator Greg Thomson reminds us that, “if we ignore a whole bunch of problems, the hardest thing about language learning is getting started. The second hardest thing about learning another language is not quitting.”

We need not settle for just enough in our quest to master the local language. Find ways to do a little every day, to continue to move forward, to stay in the game and to not quit. Do this and you’ll soon see the shores of that distant land called fluency.

Thank you Aaron Myers for your contribution to the InterNations blog.

Aaron Myers is the author of a growing number of guides for language learners. These guides, his free Ten Week Journey course, and weekly articles on independent language learning can be found at his blog, The Everyday Language Learner. Aaron and his family live in Istanbul, Turkey.

All pictures courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Attributions: Bob Rayner (2), Shane Global (3), Recent Runes (4)

Filed under: Intercultural Differences, The daily grind, abroad on April 3rd, 2012 | No Comments »

Our guest blogger Abu Muhammed, and American expat living in Saudi Arabia, introduces himself with some reflections on the presidential elections in the US and how he used them to breech the subject of research to his Arab students.

It is election time in the States and Americans now focus their highly distractible intellects on the great race and numerous rhetorical debates on who should wear the crown of president. The rest of the world – particularly the Middle East – shares an even more enthusiastic fascination with the drama and the occasional scandal percolating the soap opera of it.

Being the lone American among several Canadians and a number of Brits, I am invariably asked my opinion. Usually the Canadians are a little more than casually aware of the players (politicians) while the young Brits appear to be a little more acquainted than the Arabs (outside some who try to impress me with a brief chit-chat to show how worldly and sophisticated they are with short sentences regarding who’s running), but consider it none of their concern. The questions I am asked often focus on ‘who do you think will win?’ or more often, “who will you vote for?”

I always get the feeling they don’t really care — the Brits being obsessed with being polite even in the wake of the most bovine offense while the Canadians, feeling some geographic affinity to Americans, appear to be just better at not showing it.

“None of them,” I said once to a group of my students at the university sarcastically.

“Oh why teacher?” they respond — especially if we are in class and work is not as interesting as it should be. This is to get me to waste away the rest of our time in a pompous reminiscence that might be more amusing than writing essays.

“Why should I?” I asked; “more importantly, why do you care?”

“Don’t you care who will be president?”

“No, not really.”

“Why not?”

“The American people no more elect the president than you do.”

This brings the ‘excuse me’ looks to the surface.

“But teacher, why are they voting?”

“I think it just to make people feel better about not being able to choose,” I said indifferently.

“Teacher, I think you are joking with us,” the Ahmed who always sits in the back said with a chuckle. Though Ahmed spoke English pretty well, arguably was one of my best students, he had an uncanny resemblance to a Mexican or two I used to know in the States. He even wore a flannel shirt; had a Pancho Villa mustache and a really bad haircut (sort of what Pancho Villa should have looked like). Although he insisted he was Bengali (which made his claim seem credible since they were everywhere and some mixed with every race you could imagine), I still could not help but think that a large sombrero would complete his picture.

“Maybe I am and maybe I’m not,” I said. “You Arab guys like to bet, right?” A few nodded in acknowledgement. “Prove me wrong and I’ll give you a free pass on the next quiz — but if I am right, tell me why and I’ll give you an extra credit grade of an ‘A’ that you can replace a lower quiz grade. First one that sends me an answer by email before tomorrow wins. Make sure you tell me where you got it.”

Hence, one of my techniques to breech the subject of research to Gulf Arab students.

Picture 1 (Andy Clarke) & 3 courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Picture 2 courtesy of Abu Muhammed.

Thank you Abu Muhammed for your contribution to the InterNations blog.

Abu Muhammed is an American freelance journalist and technical writer who lives and works in the Middle East. He teaches at a private college in Saudi Arabia and is a contributing blogger for the Mideast Posts (www.mideastposts.com). To read more of Abu Muhammed’s writing please visit http://mideastposts.com/author/abu-muhammed/

Filed under: Intercultural Differences, International Workdays on March 28th, 2012 | No Comments »