Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Top Ten Best Things about an Expat Summer in Ye Olde Country

It wouldn't be the expat life if we didn't do the annual home leave trip to the US for the summer. Once again, we who have no house to go home to joined the ranks of the expat faithful who sleep in hotel rooms, spare bedrooms, and living rooms with pull-out sofas for 4 to 8 weeks of the summer. Our lives were part summer camp, part nomadic herdsman (the herds comprised of small children and huge piles of luggage), and though it's nice to be in Taiwan again with suitcases stored and our heads on our own pillows, the summer in our home country was truly wonderful. So before I start blogging about another year in Taiwan, here are my top 10 favorite things about the expat summer:

10. Stocking up on Benedryl, Sudafed, Aleve, Advil, and Robitussin CF. Seems mundane but I get really excited about buying my annual rations of OTCs because it means I get to go to Target, order a Starbucks, and wander down all the other aisles between me and the Health and Beauty section.

9. Stocking up on cosmetics, which I forgot to do while stocking up on OTCs. Means another Target trip. Darn.

8. The Summer Eat-a-Thon (which will now be followed by the September Hit-the-Gym-a-Thon). We are Southerners, plain and simple, and so when we get together with family, we eat the best food known to man. Not only homecooked (thank you, Moms, Dads and Nana) but restuarants that are as good as homecooked. I feel a special salute is due to Mrs. Johnnie at the Kountry Kitchen in Eclectic, AL, who outdid herself not only at the Sunday Fried Chicken buffet but personally catered for us a potroast to end all potroasts. Honorable mentions must go to Jim-n-Nick's of Birmingham for BBQ and chocolate pie, Johnny G's (or just "The Pig" as we call it) of Tallassee for general southern buffet and peach cobbler with icecream, Veggies-to-Go of Auburn for southern veggies and cornbread, Milo's of Birmingham for tea that's sweet enough to induce a diabetic coma in an normally healthy person. I have to stop writing now. I'm drooling.

7. Finding ways to save money and pay off all the trips we took this year. Some might call it mooching off kind-hearted relatives. I call it good fiscal policy. In truth, we did find some other ways to save besides just living off the family. For instance, at both of our hotel stays this summer, I raided the breakfast area for everything from Otis Spunkmeyer muffins to a tiny 1-inch bottle of Tabasco sauce. I think I remembered to put the Tobasco in my quart-size "liquids-only" bag for the airplane...hmmm, where is it? I also drove around Houston with all my wet laundry spread around the rental car to dry in the free sunshine.

6. Having friends ask, "Wow, did you buy that sundress in Thailand or Bali?" Why no, no I didn't. It's from the Wal-mart Juniors Department. $12.

5. Being as RED as I want to be. And by red I mean redneck girl in the heart of Dixie. Lake Martin where we are blessed to spend a good deal of our summer vacations is far, far away from the preppy university campus in my hometown of Auburn or the shopping/dining venues of Birmingham where McLeod was raised. Lake Martin, and more specifically Kowalgia Bay, is the real deal Alabama, and I love relaxing in my worn-out lake bathing suit with my hair in a ponytail. True, it is hard to look very redneck when you pull up to a rural gas station in a champagne-colored Mazda minivan and step out in some mighty pricey Keen's surf/shore sandals. But if you wear your thread-bare, too-tight lake shorts that make your belly bulge beneath your tank top with the sparkly American flag across the chest, you can still pull it off. By the way, gas at that Eagle gas station was around 3.89 and falling so I would drive on fumes rather than fill up anywhere else.

4. Back to school shopping with my mom-in-law. We had the best shopping trips ever because Caroline now picks out her own outfits and Barret will wear anything with camoflage on it, which seems to be everywhere. Also, my mom-in-law has a motorized wheel chair which means free rides for the kids when they start getting bored. And when we're all going down the aisle at Wal-mart, me in front with my giant list, kids running serpentine-style after me, and Marie rolling along behind to keep the kids from doing any real damage, we are our own parade. We stop traffic. We love it! Thank you, Mom Marie, for joining us on some funny, memorable moments!

3. Impromtu children's church. Being the mobile family that we were didn't really lend itself to organized religion. So we had disorganized religion instead! The kids picked the songs from the VeggieTales Bob and Larry Worship CD, I read passages from the book of Acts (great for any traveling families), and we pulled together some pretty great applications. Both sets of parents got to join in on this new summer custom and add their own hearts and voices to our little services. By far the best props used to illustrate a lesson were the leftover sparklers and fireworks from the 4th of July. "This Little Light of Mine" was truly blazing!!

2. A special date night with McLeod. McLeod spent most of the summer doing his everyday job, hosting conference calls at weird hours, traveling away from us to log time at the US office, and trying to keep the emails at bay. The last week of the summer was pure vacation, though, and one night the parents kept the kids while we took the boat out to our own deserted island for a long, lovely evening. Honey, I'd follow you to Taiwan all over again. Hmmm, seems I've done that.

1. Being reminded that we have family and friends that love us and will pick up right where we left off whenever we get back to our home country. This was an especially meaningful summer because we got to see our grandmothers. The kids picked blueberries in my Nana's garden and played with toys at McLeod's Nanny's house. Life is sweet!

To our dear parents who hosted us for weeks at a time and our dear friends and siblings who made special arrangements to see us this summer, a heartfelt thanks. We have a collection of good memories to carry us through the year.