I have no idea what I should write in my Blog tonight, nothing much happened. Actually that is not a bad thing since I could enjoy lots of leisure time. Sometimes that is not a good thing either because it makes me feel restless. I always like to do something. We don’t like to eat lots of sweet stuff, so baking was out which is one thing I like to do. Oh well, tomorrow I will be busy gain.
I was just thinking about the 4 years we spent in Indonesia. Like most Expat families we had a maid and a garden boy plus somebody to look after our raft on the ocean. The Expat women could not work outside the house because that would take jobs away from the locals, so we had lots of free time. Usually our poor husbands went to work really early and later in the day we women would get together for games of bridge or other card games. We actually had a lot of fun. Every year we had one 2 week holiday and one 4 week holiday. We usually came back to Canada for the long holiday and took trips to different countries for the 2 week R&R. I did a lot of shopping in the local market. I used to take the maid in my little rag-top Suzuki and we both walked around the market. It did not take me too long to get used to driving on the “wrong” side of the road. I bought a few thin, long dresses that I loved wearing because it was very hot where we lived. Lots of my friends did the same thing and we wore them when we went shopping. Later on we found out from one of our Indonesian friends that those dresses actually were house dresses and that the Indonesians were chuckling about us wearing them to the market. Live and learn I guess. Our main footwear was rubber thongs. It was a real carefree time but in the end I was happy to get back home and do my own house work again. Now I don’t know what I was thinking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe I’ll dig out some pictures to put in later Blogs. I have to scan them though because no digital cameras in those days.
Well, I guess I did find something to write about after all.
Good night everybody
Am just wondering what 'Expat' means??
ReplyDeleteExpat is short for "Expatriate" and Wikipedia says it better than I could:
ReplyDeleteAn expatriate (in abbreviated form, expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing or legal residence. The word comes from the Latin ex (out of) and patria (country, fatherland).
Great story, Vera. Like Al, I didn't know what an ex-pat was either so I'm glad he asked the question and not me!!
ReplyDeleteNothing wrong with asking questions. I am so used to using the word Expat that I did not realize other people might not know it.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great experience. My hubby had an expat in Vietnam. What a great blog.
ReplyDelete