Musings of an expat mom

When expectations meet reality — the joys of living abroad

Living abroad has its highs and lows — things that I knew from having lived in different parts of the world both in my early twenties and fresh out of undergrad and a decade later while at graduate school.

But these moments of exhilaration and at times pure grace when you see the beauty of a historic and rich city like Paris as the light bounces off the glass of the Grand Palais or the sunset in Ubeda with its hues of purple and pink…snippets of time are so very different as a newly married couple or a first-time mom in Switzerland.

Photo credit: Jonathan Dumont

When I envisioned the new life that my husband and I would have when we moved to Geneva almost 2.5 years ago, I thought it would mirror the life I had in Paris. We’d sit in cafés and enjoy the taste of delicious croissants or pains au chocolats as we people-watched on lazy Sunday afternoons.

Little did I know that our reality would be overpriced rent, a horrendous landlord whose sole mission was to make our departure from her place a living hell, and long delays in trivial household things like setting up our internet to cancelling our cable.

Despite these annoyances and much to my husband’s chagrin, I am thankful to Switzerland for one very precious gift that it has bestowed upon us — our beautiful and spunky daughter.