In this episode of Two Fat Expats we chat about living inside an expat bubble.

This article written by Alyssa Abkowitz from the Wall Street Journal focuses on expats need to live in an expat bubble.

Kirsty talked about her recent trip to Dubai and being in the expat bubble because she was really just living her every day life. There is a huge difference between travelling through a country and acquainting yourself with the locals and settling in a country and rasing children when you know that eventually you’re going to go home.

We talk about the importance of trying to find the right balance between assimilating with the local culture and not getting so lost in that culture that you cannot return. The flip side is that often times you will meet expats who have made absolutely no effort to get out of their bubble.

We looked at this blog post from Bosmosis and talked about a comment made by John Connell:

“Speaking French uses every bit of glucose in my brain. When it’s over, it’s kind of soothing to turn on satellite radio in the car, if I drove that day, and come back to my bubble building. Most of the people here are students or medical residents that speak English, usually from Anglophone Canada, Arabic-speaking countries, or Asia. I know my French would get better and I’d get more of a cultural exchange if I lived in a Francophone building, but it’s sanity-restoring to not have my cultural translation engine on all the time.”

This was a really interesting article written by Elizabeth Roberts in the Telegraph last year on asking Brits how many local friends they had in their expat world.

Sarah’s Podcast: Love + Radio – definitely one to listen with your headphones on and not suitable for kids. It’s been called the Sundance for public radio. Features in depth interviews from the seedy to the sublime. If you’re new to the podcast you’re best starting with the episode called “The Wisdome of Jay Thunderbolt” (he’s a strip club manager). It’s currently #3 on the iTunes chart. My favourite episode is called “The Living Room” and you can listen to it here.

Kirsty’s podcast: New Tech City, “we talk about hearts and minds not bits and bytes” A Tech show about human stories. Parenting Strategies for the Digital Age, podcast about how children interact online while sitting together.

Sarah’s Instagram: @garypeppergirl Nicole Warne is an Australian blogger who travels the world. Her food, fashion, travel photos are brilliant. She’s living my dream life.

Blog follow: Kayte Murphy from Woogsworld. A very funny blog out of Australia. Woogsworld is about making the most out of the mundane.

We’d like to give a very big thank you to Karen the Truckie from Tom Price who drives a 250 tonne haul truck for 12 hours a day and has been tuning in to listen to us. Also a big thank you to Sonia Cahill who loves the show and sent us a really lovely message.

As usual at the end of each show we like to beg our listeners to jump onto iTunes and give us a rating and a review so that we climb those charts. Thank you.

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