The Unfiltered Side
The real side of living abroad- beyond the Instagram highlights.
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Does Your Language Change You?
The other day, I was chatting to a friend when our conversation drifted onto something I’d never really stopped to think about before. Do you become a different person depending on the language you’re speaking? The more we talked, the more examples we came up with. My friend told me about a woman she knew who was an absolute powerhouse in English, despite it not being her native language. Confident, outspoken and full of authority. Yet the moment she switched back to Spanish, her mother tongue, she became noticeably quieter and more reserved. We both agreed that this strange phenomenon seemed to exist. What we couldn’t work out was why. At…
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From Blending In to Standing Out: Finding Your Place Abroad
My First Experience When I first moved abroad, all I wanted was to belong. As a child, I thought that simply meant fitting in. I would eventually learn that the two aren’t always the same thing. I was 11 years old when my family moved from the UK to Germany and it felt like the biggest adventure ever -equal parts exciting and terrifying. Everything was so utterly different from what I had been used to: the language, the food, the school. Looking back, I think part of my excitement came from leaving a few things behind. Never again would I have to endure the plight of my Secondary school gym…
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What I Miss Most (and Least) About Home
I last lived in my home country, the UK, when I was twenty-one. Things have changed hugely since then — new slang, new politics, new prices — but the things I miss always seem to stay the same.
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Cultural and Linguistic Fails I Can Now Laugh About
From accidental insults to culinary crimes, here are a few of the many ways I’ve managed to confuse, amuse, and horrify people across Europe — and what I learned from laughing at myself.
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What Belonging Means to Me
Belonging isn’t always about fitting in — sometimes it’s about finding comfort in your own little bubble until the world around you starts to make space. Here’s what belonging means to me.
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How to Find your tribe abroad
Moving abroad is exciting — until the loneliness sets in. Finding your people in a new country isn’t always easy, but it can change everything. Here’s how to build your tribe — one awkward coffee at a time.
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The Day I Realised I Wasn’t a Tourist Anymore
It happened a long time ago, when I was still a child growing up in Germany.My family had just moved from the UK — not all of us kids (the older ones stayed behind). It was just my Mum, Dad and me — and suddenly everything around us was new: a new house, a new school, a new language, a new life. Before moving, my parents and I had all taken German lessons, but inevitably, they forgot things I remembered. I was only eleven, and my mind was still fresh — a sponge soaking up every word and phrase. Before long, I’d become the family’s emergency translator — the one…
