Americans Abroad: Holiday Edition

Meet Sarah: Original from North Carolina, moved to Madrid and is now living in Denmark. Hear her story about being an American living abroad for the holidays.

Around 5 and half years ago I moved from North Carolina to Madrid, to work on a 2 year project for my company. Having studied Spanish in college and living a semester in Santander, I thought this was the perfect solution to scratch my travel itch before returning to the US to “settle down”.  It would give me the opportunity to really experience life in another country, travel throughout Europe, perfect my Spanish, and in general just have a great adventure.  Although I achieved all of these goals, I found myself very homesick over the holidays, making up for cozy family filled thanksgiving dinners by surrounding myself with expats in the same boat, and finding whatever distractions I could around Christmas time, with other expats who “didn’t have anything better to do” over Christmas. I still remember sitting on the metro in Madrid, riding to a friend’s home for Christmas dinner having tears stroll down my cheeks as I mustered up memories of random Christmas time memories, like my father’s bowl of oranges and pecans for which no one ever really bothered to use the nutcracker he left suggestively next to the bowl to crack open and enjoy.  Essentially, as I knew my time in Madrid was limited, even though I adapted to the language and culture quite easily, I never thought of myself as truly residing there, but rather, as a visitor who would be leaving shortly.

To read more visit: Sarah’s Blog