One of the most annoying things about living an expat life is that all the public and school holidays are different for friends and family. This is even within our group of friends locally in India and now Hong Kong, with children at different schools. But even more so with those back at home in Australia. As we are in a different hemisphere to our family and friends, we come home in our 'summer' to enjoy 'winter' in Australia. This is our annual summer holiday break from school and have 8 weeks off to enjoy the summer ???
This is really our only opportunity to travel home for an extended period and really enjoy our time with loved ones. At Christmas we only have 10 days off school, so its not really feasible for long Australia summer break. Luckily the winter in South East Queensland is the best winter in the world !! Beautiful blue skies and very acceptable temperatures during the day - even warm enough for camping out.
However, this long summer break in sunny Australia has one major downfall - we are not a full family. Mike is not able to join us for the whole holiday because of work commitments (someone has to keep the money coming in....) Being away from Mike for six weeks has been incredibly tough and, probably more so for him, and we are counting down the days until we are all reunited again. 3 more sleeps !!
Life as an expat brings lots of wonderful experiences but separation from loved ones when we are in our new home away from home and then having Mike way from us for this time, is definitely not a positive. I didn't appreciate how much we would miss each other in this 6 weeks and we are determined to now do this again (somehow!). We have never been apart for this long and it is tough on Mike being in a new place with few friends and a busy work schedule, while we swan around with all our loved ones at home.
If you're considering expat life I would seriously consider how you will cope with the separation over from your partner over the summer vacation.
This is really our only opportunity to travel home for an extended period and really enjoy our time with loved ones. At Christmas we only have 10 days off school, so its not really feasible for long Australia summer break. Luckily the winter in South East Queensland is the best winter in the world !! Beautiful blue skies and very acceptable temperatures during the day - even warm enough for camping out.
However, this long summer break in sunny Australia has one major downfall - we are not a full family. Mike is not able to join us for the whole holiday because of work commitments (someone has to keep the money coming in....) Being away from Mike for six weeks has been incredibly tough and, probably more so for him, and we are counting down the days until we are all reunited again. 3 more sleeps !!
Life as an expat brings lots of wonderful experiences but separation from loved ones when we are in our new home away from home and then having Mike way from us for this time, is definitely not a positive. I didn't appreciate how much we would miss each other in this 6 weeks and we are determined to now do this again (somehow!). We have never been apart for this long and it is tough on Mike being in a new place with few friends and a busy work schedule, while we swan around with all our loved ones at home.
If you're considering expat life I would seriously consider how you will cope with the separation over from your partner over the summer vacation.
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