Expat marriage is a blog that addresses the unique stresses and challenges that married couples face when living and working abroad.
Jumping Over Family Hurdles
Let’s face it; having any relationship, never mind an intercultural one, often means having to learn to jump over hurdles. You have to clear the ‘meet the family’ hurdle, the ‘get the family’s approval’ hurdle, make a culturally acceptable proposal hurdle’ and get...
How to Change Negative Relationship Patterns
What’s your favourite Bible verse? Well, there are a lot to choose from but ironically I like a particular verse that Roy used to quote a lot! Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife. Proverbs 25:24 (NIV) He was pretty good at...
He was foreign
When I first met Roy I have to admit that some of the appeal was his accent. He was the foreigner in the midst of sameness and I liked that. I liked the fact that not only did he sound different but it was apparent he thought differently too. I enjoyed talking to him...
Húsvét, a Hungarian Easter
Húsvét known to the rest of the world as Easter is one of the times of year when we feel a little lost. On Easter Monday morning it is not unusual for girls to be 'sprinkled' with water, sprinkling isn't a word I would usually use for having a bucket of water thrown...
Parlez-Vous Woman? Communication in Marriage
Language! One word which could strike fear into the heart and soul of an expat. That is unless you are one of those supremely gifted in the art of language learning. Unfortunately, I fall into the category of not gifted, and Hungarian is certainly a language which...
Removing the Grey in Marriage
Hair Dye In preparation for the beginning of a new term, I had the satisfaction of checking off a number of items on the list. Accomplishment is a great feeling especially when you have to jump through the hoops of doing all of the usual things but in a different...
A New Perspective
After a number of months struggling with headaches, I finally decided to find out what was causing them. There were many natural circumstances including the stress of living abroad that I thought might be contributing to the problem. The weather also received the...
Running out of steam
Depleted Energy Running out of steam means to suddenly lose the energy or interest to continue doing what you are doing. The big question that races through our minds is "Why bother"? This is true of the expat who is tired of fighting against bureaucracy or the...
Simplify, simplify, simplify.
We have been battling to keep all the plates spinning and, frankly, we have been doing a poor job. It seems that over the last number of months one job gets neglected because another shouts louder, then the next area of neglect starts screaming for attention....
Mosquito Bites
Following the floods in Hungary and army of mosquitos seem determined to plague the inhabitants. Stand still for more than a few seconds and an ominous high pitched buzzing soon lets you know that another is seeking you out. A tranquil evening turns out looking like...