If you want to avoid getting a ticket from Canadian police, just don’t do what I did.
As it is true for any expat or travel-abroad experience, you should be very careful in interpreting reality from behind the glasses of your own country way of doing things.
My mistake was basically thinking as I was driving in my country, which it is: “if you’re driving on a freeway and you don’t see any car with written ‘POLICE’ on it, then there are no police cars around.”
Simply – and tragically - wrong.
From now on, Any Latitude has its own blogroll. It is a collection of blogs / websites I frequently read or I find particularly interesting.
This page will be always reachable by following the link above “LINKS”.
Here are the four initial entries. More to be added in the future.
Earthdrifter’s
I have to be honest, although Mike’s articles about places and cultures are extremely interesting, my favorite are the ones focused on food. This guy can really whet your appetite for exotic food to the point that after reading you wonder if there is a restaurant around the corner that serves the same dish.
Apart from that, I think he has a talent for seeing people’s lives and feelings and for bringing them to the reader.
Too bad that he doesn’t write often.
“I try to pick up positive pieces of the different cultures I come across, making each of these specific cultural attributes a part of my own unique subculture.”
Expatlog
Expatlog is the blog of Aisha Ashraf, a writer, an expat, a mother. I like it because of her writing style and of the topics she writes about. The author focuses on personal life, expat life, and menthal illness. On her website you will find valuable information and reflections on these topics. Recommended for those who are interested in life challenges, expat life with kids, mixed-culture family.
Italian Notes
Italian Notes is a large, ever-growing collection of valuable information about Italy on many aspects: places, culture, food. All of this is brought to you from the perspective of a Dane who lives part of her life in Italy and knwows the country better than most Italians.
I’m constantly surprised by how much information about Italy it is possible to find on her website, including lesser-known facts that I personally, as an Italian, ignored.
The Culture Map
A culture lover, Shing not only tells the story of her experience in the places she’s been to, but also the story of the places themselves.
I know that as a former expat, she knows what I know: that such an experience can be highly mind-opening and makes your future much better.
Beware: her website can contain penises from time to time.
“I believe this wide and wonderful world is for us to explore, not through secondhand narration but by delving in for ourselves!”
During my short trip to Saint Petersburg, the most charming city in Russia, in ate only once in a restaurant.
As a result of that trip, I published a photo essay of Saint Petersburg historical center and a tip-post on a good budget hotel.
In the comments of the latter post, I was asked by Victor of Victor Travel Blog, a Russian travel blogger, to post something on Russian food.
Okay Victor, here’s the story around the only Russian meal I ever had.
I wanted that single shot to be totally Russian. It is my habit to eat local as much as I can, especially on short trips, in the belief that food, as much as language, tells a lot about a country’s culture. However, to be completely honest, I’m a total glutton.
Our hero approaches the driving school manager and hands him money. It’s a whole by-weekly salary for him.
It’s not a payment, it’s bribery. The manager will hand-over that money to the examiner (of course after retaining a percentage of it). It’s nothing unusual around there. Everybody does that.
But this time the manager seems to be unexpectedly reluctant. After hesitating for a second he says: “I’m sorry, but I know your father is a policeman. It’s too dangerous. I will take nothing from you.”
That day our hero was the only one to fail road test.
The moment we consider relocating to another country we ask ourselves whether and how that will improve our life.
If you have children, you would probably think of an improvement in their quality of life first.
Therefore becoming an expat can often be a way to give a better future to our children. Hence the question of this article: in which country should I give birth and raise my children in order to give them a better life than the one I have?
The Economist answers this question since more than two decades, with the Lottery of Life, an annual list of the best countries in the world to be born.
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