#American expat

[emotionalsupportmanteau]

View out my window

[austinausten]

10 Year Leap

From graduation to new house!

I really like commemorating threshold moments. My husband thinks it’s funny that I keep track of these so much so that I can say “Today is six months since we got married” or “Did you know that around this time five years ago I met your parents for the first time?” Facebook memories help, as does this blog –which I’ve been keeping in some format since 2011! Part of it is just me and the way I…

[sweetmesquite]

hey there fellow americans, especially my fellow american expats!

CHECK YOUR VOTER REGISTRATION. DO IT.

DO IT NOW.

this morning i decided to check and discovered i've been effectively deregistered; online databases cannot find my voter information. and BONUS, because my us address is in the state of texas, i only have two months to unfuck this mess.

to my fellow texas expats especially: there is no online registration. it must be done either in person or by physical mail to your county registrar. texas does not allow same-day registration and voting; you MUST BE REGISTERED BY OCTOBER 7 TO VOTE THIS YEAR.

your vote counts. your vote matters.

ARE YOU REGISTERED TO VOTE?

fvap.gov - resource to help citizens vote from overseas.

fvap texas - texas-specific dates, county registrar list, etc

apply for your mail-in ballot - texas-specific

texas secretary of state - register to vote

votetexas.gov - register to vote, but from a different website

[itsawritblr]

“Why The French Hate Halloween! And Why It’s So Controversial.”

What a pity.  I’d love to see MLB’s characters do the holiday.

The article’s by an American expat in France.

After having lived in France for several years, we’ve encountered plenty of people who celebrate Halloween in one form or another. However, we’ve also learned that Halloween is somewhat of a controversial and confusing holiday to the French.I would go so far as to say that many people in France hate Halloween. Here’s why.

1) Halloween is not a traditional French Holiday:

Halloween is not a conventional French Holiday like Easter, Christmas or even mothers day. Those are holidays you celebrate with a purpose and out of tradition which the average French person can understand.

But Halloween?

Fake blood, vampires, cutting up pumpkins instead of eating them and going from house to house for candy?  What’s the point?

2) Halloween is seen as an imported American culture

Despite the fact that Halloween originates from Europe, probably of Celtic origins, it’s regarded as yet another imposition of American culture on French customs and traditions right after McDonald’s and Ketchup. This association with America and Anglo-Saxon culture is enough to make some French people turn their French noses up to the idea of Halloween.

The fear is that the French identity gets lost borrowing from anglophone countries. This is silly on so many levels because so many French holidays and celebrations are borrowed from foreign cultures, to begin with.

3) French people don’t know how to celebrate Halloween

Before the 1990s, Halloween was relatively unknown to the average French person. Today, it’s well known in France however many people are confused about how to celebrate it because they didn’t grow up with it. They understand the basic concept but the idea of going door to door dressed up in ghoulish costumes asking for candy is very foreign.

4) Bad timing: Halloween steals the limelight from another French holiday

Another reason Halloween is not well received is because of timing. It has the miss-fortunate luck of occurring the day before an ancient all-important Catholic holiday called La Toussaint (All Saints Day) on the 1st of November where French people visit cemeteries and freshen up the graves and tombstones of their loved ones with fresh flowers.

5) Halloween is seen as a crass commercial way for stores to make more money.  

Nobody likes blatant commercialism but it’s a necessity which many French businesses take advantage of during Halloween and some French people don’t like that. Especially when it comes to an imported and foreign celebration like Halloween.

French grocery stores, bakeries, small shops and companies use Halloween imagery in their ads and shop windows to sell more products and drum up more business.

In the video below, the store Carrefour (A French grocery store chain) threw a little Halloween dance for customers).

6) French people can’t pronounce the word Halloween

I have had countless friends mention that they don’t know how to pronounce Halloween, almost as if it’s just another reason to hate Halloween.

In French, the H is silent, so the French pronounce Halloween without the H like this..”AAA-Lo-EEN”

7) Some French people resent other French people who embrace Halloween

Despite all the anti-Halloween sentiment, it’s not hard to find those who want to embrace it. And this is problematic for some French people who think it’s almost unpatriotic to embrace such a blatant Anglophone (read American) celebration. Not my words.

[instructorschool]

According to HSBC’s Expat Explorer Survey, 75% of respondents (21,950 respondents worldwide) say: their finances have become more complicated since they left their home country.

So to avoid some regrettable mistakes, we have put together this guide to help you choose rightly.

[resplendentoutfit]

John Singer Sargent (American, 1856-1925) • Portrait of Louise Pomeroy Inches • 1887 • Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Evening Dress • Unidentified Maker • American • Silk velvet with silk plain weave lining

How wonderful that such a well-preserved dress exists to enliven a famous portrait painting! This dress is one of my favorites for a couple of reasons – firstly, I love velvet and this silk velvet is the real deal – gorgeous. Secondly, I've seen the portrait many times at the MFA in Boston. The dress was in a glass case at the blockbuster Fashioned by Sargent exhibition also at the MFA.

I've read that Louise Inches was expecting her third child when she sat for this portrait and that the dress had been designed to accommodate extra panels as her figure expanded. She and Sargent got on well. Both were music lovers and accomplished musicians.

[vieraslaji]

minä: tahtoisin muuttaa suomeen joskus :)

valkoihoinen amerikkalainen liberaali: hahaha sama sama, mun mielestä tätä kansaa ei voi pelastaa ja meidän pitäisi paeta kun pystytään-

minä: tahdon muuttaa suomeen koska oikeasti arvostan muiden maiden kulttuurei ja jos muuttaisin amerikast nii haluaisin muuttaa positiivisista syistä, kun mua ei pakoteta minnekään eikä sua :))

valkoihoinen amerikkalainen liberaali: trump

[ineffectualdemon]

I live in England but I'm still an American Citizen so I can still vote in elections

I used to just get mailed my ballot which I would fill out and mail back

Sometime after Trump was elected things changed and got more obtuse

I had to fill out a form to prove I am still American and want to vote. But I still got mailed or emailed my ballot

Now in the year of 2024 this is how the process goes:

Get email from my electoral office saying my ballot is available through the state voter information portal

Log in

Go to my ballot information

See a message that my ballot has been mailed to me

Reread original email where it clearly states its available electronically on the portal but does not explain more

Go back to website

Spend a long time confuse

Find "request replacement ballot"

Ah! This lets me print off a replacement!

Choose "Download and Print Ballot Packet"

Download packet

Email it to my husband so he can print it off for me

The next day he tells me it's just the cover sheets and things to sign but no actual ballot

Look at the PDFs and find he's right

Go back to website and go through everything again except choose "print ballot packet"

It just brings up my ballot and nothing else

But hey it gives me the choice to download it

Download the ballot

Send actual ballot in another email

Note to self how absolutely NONE of this was explained anywhere on the website or in the email

Fume with rage

[5eyed]

another yayo just for fun :)

[agrownupgeekgirl]

I got my indefinite leave to remain approved!! I took the test back in October so have been waiting to find out.

Got the approval and my new ID within the last few days!

[partywithponies]

One of the biggest mysteries in the world is why American immigrants living permanently/longterm in the UK are the nicest goddamn people you'll ever meet, but American tourists are so often the rudest and most annoying people you'll ever meet.

[austinausten]

Beyond a Theatre Review: The Secret Garden (Shaw Festival, 2024)

[creed-of-cats]

im saying this as a queer poc in the USA, if you support palestine and are talking about moving to a third world country to avoid trump, you're being a hypocrite and need to examine why colonizing populations participated in and justified settler colonialism in the first place

[catandgirlcomic]

[darcyolsson]

watching emily in paris and there's this weird phenomenon happening to camille which i see in shows all the time these days which is technically not queerbaiting but something vaguely reminiscent of it. camille is a very important, three-dimensional character, but then when she finally gets to have a relationship with a woman (which was hinted at/joked about in earlier seasons), it's not nearly as fleshed out as the straight relationships around her. and it's not necessarily about her being queer because there's many important queer characters in the show and it's not really about it being two female characters either because at there are so many female friendships which are genuine and important, including the one between the main character and camille, which could be argued centers a man but in the end still is a real friendship which is significant to the show. so while there get to be fleshed-out queer characters who have fleshed-out relationships with people of the same gender, the second those relationships become romantic they become undeserving of the same treatment. what is that called

[resplendentoutfit]

Painted Ladies and their Biggest Fans

Frank Dicksee (British, 1853-1928) • An Offering • Unknown date • Private collection

Valentine Cameron Prinsep (British/English, 1838–1904) • Leonora of Mantua • 1873

Left: John Hubbard Rich (American, 1876-1954)

Right: Hélier Cosson (French, 1897-1976) • Lady with a Fan • 1922

Julius LeBlanc Stewart (American/active in Paris, 1855–1919) • Portrait of Mrs. Francis Stanton Blake • 1908