Jacque in Jakarta: Life as an Expat

The first time I traveled abroad, I was twenty years old. Five years later, I have spent more than half my time living or traveling in foreign countries. By the time I reach thirty, I will probably look back and say that I lived the majority of my twenties in a country other than my own. Through different study and work opportunities I have been able to live in Europe and Asia. I feel blessed to have had these opportunities, but my life is not what some people perceive it to be.


View from my Austrian balcony



The first time I studied abroad, I remember a family member commented that I was going on a 'vacation'. Once I arrived in the magnificiently beautiful Graz, Austria, I had twelve hours of class during the week, I had to pay rent for an apartment, I had five roommates, I went out with friends on weekends and I lived on the Austrian version of Ramen noodles, YumYum. All this is not to say that I didn't enjoy my time in Graz, nor that I didn't find it a fulfilling experience. However, it was not 'vacation'. It was study abroad. I went to another country, and I studied there. Sure, the view from my balcony was different than the view from my friends' dormrooms back home, but the point of going was to study. I also gained valuable cultural and linguistic knowledge, but that is all part of learning.

After studying in Austria, I went on to travel and study in Spain. Then, I got a

Offenburg City Hall

Fulbright scholarship so I could teach English in Germany. Once again, I remember the romanticized ideas of what I was doing in Germany. People thought I would be going to the Alps, traveling all over Europe and generally having a blast. To be honest, I absolutely loved Germany. I met my husband in Germany. I would like to eventually settle in Germany. However, my time spent there as an English Teaching Assistant was not a time filled with abundant pleasures. I was working and I had bills to pay. I did manage to travel to a few nearby cities, but any travel happened during school holidays, just as travel back home would have happend during school holidays.

Now that I'm living and working in Jakarta, I am once again experiencing the envy of people who see me as having an 'exotic' or 'exciting' lifestyle. I'm sure that there are people who would like to ask me how my 'vacation' is going. There are definitely people who wonder when I will get a 'real' job. My response to these ideas is this: I work eight hours a day Monday through Friday and I very often work Saturdays as well. I haven't had a vacation since New Year, and I won't have another one until my anniversary (1 year in July!). I eat three meals a day, sleep at night and put my shoes on one at a time. I am a 'normal' person, with a 'normal' lifestyle.

I do thoroughly enjoy living in foreign countries and experiencing different cultures, but that doesn't mean I am on a constant vacation. I am simply living one day at a time just as anyone else anywhere in the world...though every once in a while I DO have a fabulous vacation.