Yeah, the perks of expat employment are too good to ever give up. I have a $3000 per month apartment overlooking one of the best city views in the world and all utilities covered, my child’s $15,000 per year private school is going to be fully covered, we get our flights home paid for, 6 weeks of annual leave, and…

“table of seven”

Problem with that is the “NFL” did not generate revenue of $15b. The teams generated most of that and are only tangentially part of the “NFL” which is nothing more than a governing body and not a for-profit enterprise.

I was a customer in a Mexican restaurant many moons ago and watched as the Worst Day Ever of a server’s life unfolded before my eyes. First - she went to the restroom and came back out to the floor with her Mexican floucy skirt tucked into the back of her pantyhose so she walked through the entire restaurant with her…

My true red wine story: (And why I flinch whenever someone orders red wine in a restaurant.)

BIG tangent, but related to horrortears. I was on vacation with my family in Ixtapa, Mexico when I was about 13. My younger sister was 10 or 11. We spent about 12 hours a day boogie-boarding and then would crash, sunburnt on the foldout couch watching Mexican tv and drinking 1,000 delightful Mexican beverages that we…

Theme resto - picture serving “wenches” (I freaking HATE that term) carrying laden platters through an overcrowded dining hall in order to serve at the table. The person at the left side table stands up and knocks into me, causing me to stumble and tilt the platter which I am carrying over my head. There was nothing I…

As a 17 year old hostess I was expected to bring customers’ drinks on a tray from the bar if we were on a wait and they got a drink there to hold them over. I once spilled a full glass of red wine on a woman’s white fur coat and immediately burst into tears. The restaurant paid the dry cleaning bill and were nice…

Then the question is, how do you think of yourself if you don’t fit the connotations, if you’ve lived somewhere a few years? Honestly curious, I’d love to know! Do you consider yourself a local at a certain point? An immigrant? Would you just say “I live here”?

Hey least everyone else thinks you are massive snobbish cunt.

When I waitressed, the Sunday after-church crowd was the worst.

Seriously. Who WASN’T addicted to that site in 2001? Genius.

Does anyone else remember “Hot or Not” on AIM in the dial-up days? Even as a 14 year old I knew that shit was messed up.

This is the first time Behind Closed Ovens has made me almost weep with ‘my God, they’re not all assholes” joy.

And again no. I identify as an expat because there is no better word. I’m not quite an immigrant as I probably won’t stay forever and I visit “home” once a year. But I live a local life, have a healthy mix of local and foreign friends, rent a local apartment in a non-expat area and make a local-ish salary (I’m…

Yeah no, I’ve lived abroad for a decade now, and I still refer to myself as an ‘expat’, because I don’t intend to get citizenship here or stay *forever* - I will leave someday. I may not go home, but I probably won’t grow old here. Or maybe I will. I don’t know. But I’m an expat for want of a better word.

Nope. That Guardian article was full of shit. An expat intends to go home someday. Doesn’t matter where they’re from or what color their skin is. An immigrant intends to stay forever.

There are socio-economic issues of privilege and inequality that make it so that more expats tend to be white (we have prosperous…

I suppose I’m a “well-financed and apartment-supplied corporate brat” form of an expat, then... eyeroll...

The term “expat” connotes wealth & status. I think of someone who chooses to relocate for lifestyle reasons, rather than an immigrant, who usually moves for more desperate reasons. My family were immigrants due to financial hardship, and it was very hard on them. To this day they still miss their home country. They…

How can they be discreet when they’re so drunk all the time?