Tally-ho!

I’m writing this post on my third day in London.  I had to be here for work today, so I figured why not make a weekend out of it?  It takes about as long to fly from Dublin to London as it does from Buffalo to Cleveland.  Now, nothing against Cleveland, but which destination would you prefer?

One of the biggest reasons I wanted to move to Europe was because once you are there, the rest of Europe is just a short jaunt away.  I love that I can fly to Paris for the weekend.  I have a friend who went to Bratislava for 36 hours.  That’s right, Bratislava.  Why not, right?!  When you actually live in Europe, all corners of the continent become accessible.

But we expats need to remember to take advantage of this incredible opportunity.  It’s very easy to become “settled”.  We may be expats, but we still have work and responsibilities – and that can still be exhausting.  Even in the short time I’ve been in Ireland, I find myself sticking close to my neighborhood on the weekends rather than venturing out and exploring Dublin, which has so many amazing things to see.  When you’re a tourist, you have a list of what you want to see and do, of what you must get done in the limited amount of time you have.  When you live someplace, those things are always a possibility, so somehow one becomes less likely to do them.

But I’m going to do my best not to fall into that trap.  As an expat, I’m constantly reminded that I am in a place that isn’t my own, that isn’t familiar.  But I need to remember that that can be a good thing as well.

Again, no disrespect, but I’ve got London, not Cleveland, less than an hour away.  And that, my friends, kind of rocks.