In my country, language is a touchy topic. We officially have 3: Dutch, French and German. But it’s not like in Luxembourg or Switzerland, we don’t have to learn them all. As a result, even if we are a super tiny country (30.000 sq meters, but diplomats will say “a country of modest size”), thereContinue reading “Tower of Babel”
Tag Archives: diplolife
The 6 months test
Today, December 30th marks the 6 months of my blog. Why did I do it? I won’t lie to you, I did it mainly to justify myself. To explain to the people in my homeland what I was really going through. To open eyes on our position. To break some walls. I had no clue whereContinue reading “The 6 months test”
Petit Papa Noël
Seeing my daughter write her letter to Santa made me think about who I would write and what I would ask if I had the chance. In my situation, very realistically speaking, Santa, is my husband’s employer. He’s the almighty. He decides WHEN we go, WHERE we go, if they approve our choice of house we’llContinue reading “Petit Papa Noël”
And so this is Christmas…
In case you haven’t (over) heard about it, Christmas is coming. When you are an expat, this period can be tricky. In a warm climate country, even more. You are far from your family and all you can see in the (very fake) advertisements is a happy reunited family laughing in the snow. Then aContinue reading “And so this is Christmas…”
About the hard times…
I’ve been pretty optimistic in all my posts. Some people have told me I wasn’t telling the full story about the life of a diplo wife. And it’s probably true. I tell you how I feel when I feel it. But I don’t write when I’m down. Because that’s not funny and people tend toContinue reading “About the hard times…”
It’s a secret.
This won’t be a shock to you, diplomats have to keep secrets. By extension, their wives have to do too (or they are supposed to). They are dealing with a lot of info that mustn’t be revealed to the wrong person. Yes, even a small country like Belgium has intel. From the real diplomatic filesContinue reading “It’s a secret.”
Superwoman Cloak in black please.
I’m not going to lie. I came here with some misconceptions of Islam. Like a lot of Europeans, I think, the face of Islam that I usually saw [and was presented with] in my country wasn’t always lovely. Walking to work I was sometimes confronted with Islamic men and women that made remarks for theContinue reading “Superwoman Cloak in black please.”
The first come back
You have to forgive me. I haven’t written in over a month. I went back to my country. Well, not really though… I guess now the UAE is my country. I mean I went back to Belgium. People were thinking I was going back home, but it was more of a holiday in a countryContinue reading “The first come back”
Baba Zayed
Why travelling is so virtuous for us? Because it puts us in front of our lack of knowledge. It reminds us how little and self-absorbed we are. And it feels good to be reminded from time to time. The latest example for me is named Sheikh Zayed. I studied for 22 years. I went toContinue reading “Baba Zayed”
Honest or rude?
I recently read an article about rude people. Basically, the article said it was a civil obligation to tell these people about their rudeness. Because otherwise, they wouldn’t be aware of it. If nobody never tells them anything, they keep going and the society never improves itself. Amazing idea. Just very hard to apply! EspeciallyContinue reading “Honest or rude?”
