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A special treat today – I’m joined by fellow expat author Mike Harling, whose wonderfully-funny Postcards From Across the Pond is a must-read for anyone dreaming of a life abroad, wherever you are and wherever you may be going. Mike is finishing up his virtual tour promoting the book, so without further ado I’ll hand over. Mike …
Mike Harling - author of Postcards From Across the Pond
Tags: Abroad, adventure, Australia, author, book, Britain, Canada, England, expat, Foreign, globe, life, location, Paul, Pond, publisher, Spain, Tenerife, tour, world
It’s Mardi Gras next Tuesday, and around the world people are gearing up for Carnival.
Being from England this is a somewhat alien and exotic event, conjuring up Rio, New Orleans and Venice, with their colourful processions, music, dancing, and reputation for louche behaviour.
But living in Spain I’m now getting to experience Carnival first hand. And while it has elements of all of the above – an event that has an anything-goes licence – it is more than that too.
There is certainly a lot of drunkenness that goes with the parades and the parties – and no doubt a lot more besides …
But it’s a festival for kids too. They dress up in costumes, make masks, sing and dance and throw confetti, and generally have a blast.
My bemused daughter has been caught up in Carnival activities at school all week long – wearing one of my ties to school one day, an apron the next, having her face painted the day after. And while she (and we) may not yet understand the local significance of it all, she and her schoolmates are clearly delighted by it all.
I’m discovering that Carnival, at heart, is pure celebration of life itself. And I’m sure we could all use a bit more of that.
Tags: Carnival, England, festival, Mardi Gras, School, Spain
It’s a fiesta today here in Spain, the feast of the Immaculate Conception (Día de la Inmaculada Concepción). It’s a Roman Catholic holy day, which marks the conception of the Virgin Mary, a point from which she started and remained throughout her life free of the Original Sin that stains the rest of us. Or so the Catholic doctrine says.
Having been brought up in England in a Protestant household – albeit with a Roman Catholic father (although that is another topic in itself) – it’s not a holiday I was familiar with until moving to Spain. But then so much of Roman Catholic theology and practice remains something of a mystery to me, despite it’s communality with the UK’s ‘national’ religion. Which I suppose is what makes living in Spain – or for that matter any other country – so interesting.
And I have to say, I quite like the idea of squeezing another public holiday in before Christmas too …
Tags: Catholic, Christmas, Conception, country, England, fiesta, holiday, living, Mary, Protestant, religion, Sin, Spain
As if you needed any reminding, it’s Thanksgiving in the States today.
It’s a celebration that I always viewed with a degree of envy as a boy growing up in England, something else to look forward to in those interminable months between the end of summer and the fever of Christmas. And what a great tradition – lots of hearty food shared with the family, and then licence to spend the rest of the day lazing in front of the television.
So although it felt almost like a betrayal to my nationality to be doing so, when I moved to New York at the turn of the millennium I determined to take part in the festivities. We braved the freezing temperatures with the thousands of other people to watch the inflatables bob down Central Park West, and then returned to our apartment to cook up a passing resemblance to the traditional feast that would be laid on millions of tables across the States.
Unfortunately my wife had come down with flu the night before, so it wasn’t the liveliest occasion. But just being off work and sampling the experience in the flesh was good enough.
So I can see why for the millions of expat Americans around the world this is a day when homesickness is at its keenest. It is, after all, a peculiarly American holiday that is meant to be shared with your nearest and dearest.
Still, while it’s a day to miss home, it’s also a day for gratitude for all the things you do have, right here and right now, wherever that happens to be.
And so in some small way I too have been trying to appropriate this tradition by remembering those things for which I can truly be grateful: my wife and daughters, my health and theirs, the love of family and friends, having a roof over my head and food to eat, having the opportunity to live in Spain and experience first hand and in detail a different culture, with all its joys and frustrations.
Plenty to give thanks for I feel.
Tags: American, England, expat, family, festivities, holiday, homesickness, New York, Spain, States, Thanksgiving, tradition
At last, the European Championships have got under way. Of course, as an English football fan it is with a tinge of regret … I’m still wondering how England didn’t manage to qualify! Still, this is no time for harping on about past disappointments.
Instead, I shall be focusing on the fortunes of my adopted country, Spain. I’ve put money on Spain in major football tournaments and been disappointed too many times in the past to get carried away. All the Spaniards I’ve spoken to seem to feel the same way, recognising their team as the perennial underachievers.
Still, the eternal optimist inside me can’t help but wonder if this year may really be the one. Many of Britain’s football pundits seem to think so too.
Individual talent has never been in question. It’s that cohesiveness as a unit that lets them down … and the reason why Germany always seem to do so well, even when they have a dearth of individual brilliance.
So is the Spaniards’ failing down to a lack of organisation, of belief? Quite possibly. It’s certainly something the German team never seem to be in short supply of.
Commitment? Maybe that too. There were reports in years gone by of severe divisions and antagonism in the Spanish camp, particularly between the Real Madrid and Barcelona players, who carry the burden of their great team rivalry and its political backdrop.
I read not long ago that FC Barcelona defender Oleguer Presas, a radical Catalan nationalist, didn’t want to play for the Spanish national squad and only agreed to join up with them when invited in 2005 because of pressure from the Barça president and the threat of not being able to play for his club. Can you imagine an English player being so antipathetic to representing his country?
And it is a not uncommon attitude among the wider Catalan population, many of whom refuse to cheer the Spanish national side. Centuries of centralist “repression” have left their mark!
Hopefully there is more unity and more belief in the Spanish squad this year though. And I, for one, will be cheering them on to the final.
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