Gruss dich/ Hello from the Part Time Ex-Pat

pmandel · 2005-12-09T16:48:39+01:00

Connect with fellow part-time ex-pats in the Austrian Alps! Share insights on living between Seattle and Liezen, freelance writing, and improving your German.

pmandel Member

Member since 09 December 2005

pmandelMember09 December 2005 14:48:39

Greetings all,

Every year at about this time I expatriate myself from Seattle to my husband's home town in the Austrian Alps. Since we haven't been able to settle on where to live, we really do live both places.聽 We get the best - and the worst - of both worlds!

Naturally, I blog like a person obsessed about this lifestyle (and other things) I work as a freelance writer - lots technical, some travel and sports - play the ukulele, engage in (lefty) politics, and try to improve my German. Fluent? Not by half. Plus, with 90 different ways to order coffee, who can keep up? I wrote a little book called Baked Insanity, it's a compilation of essays about life abroad - and some other stuff.

I'd love to find folks who live near my Austrian hometown - the nearest "big" town to us is Liezen, in Steiermark. Yeah, I know. Any sensible ex-pat is in Vienna, right?

The hills are alive, see you out on the snow?

Pam

Baked Insanity:

Julien Founder

Member since 11 March 2005

17 years of happy life abroad

JulienFounder09 December 2005 14:56:08

53010

Welcome Pam!

Don't forget to add your blog address in your profile > personal and locate yourself on the user map

Hey it's fantastic to live between two countries!

loloieg ViP

Member since 23 June 2005

1980-2002聽 >>听

2002-2003聽 >>听

2003-2005聽 >>听

2005-2008 >>听

2009

loloiegViP09 December 2005 15:12:55

378

Hello Pam,

your situation seems very good ... but it points me out some questions (just some small technical questions)
Do you live half a year in Seattle and half a year in Austria (or it is less equal ?) ?
Do you have two homes ? With two "furnishments" or do you move in and out every 6 months ?
But for sure, you shouldn't forget something at home (the other one )
A job of freelancer should be the lonely possibility to have this life, isn't it ?

see you

Laurent

pmandel Member

Member since 09 December 2005

pmandelMember09 December 2005 15:31:40

We are both in Seattle in the summer, then Austria in the winter, and spring and fall we are apart. How much time we spend in each place changes every year - it depends on my work and how much time The Euro-Husband can get away and a lot of other things...

We have two flats, one in Seattle and one in Austria. We own the Seattle place, the Austrian apartment is a rental.聽 I know that having two homes makes us sound very fancy and rich, but I rent the Seattle flat every winter to cover the expense. The Euro-Husband works for the Austrian gov't and we live in cost-controlled housing in Austria.

And yes, freelance work is the only way! American employers will barely give you three weeks, much less three months vacation.