BootsnAll Travel Community

(Using the term 'expat' loosely here, folks!)

I called my mother earlier today. Not for any particular reason, other than I was slightly buzzed, in the mood to deal with her, and aware that it had been a while--ages, actually.

Anyway, the one question that caught me off guard was "so you are calling me because it must be mother's day in Europe, right?".

Oh, shit. Opps.

OK, I've never been really good about birthdays, let alone holidays. Moving overseas has been such a great excuse for getting out of soooo many standard commitments. Like Mother's Day card and phone calls. It is all so much more sophisticated than the time-zone confusion excuse.

Anyway, so while Mother's Day does occur on different days around the world, as do other days...these days don't fluctuate nearly as much as my mother thinks they do. I'm halfway to the point of telling her that her own birthday actually occurs a month later just to see if I can swing it!

Horrible, I know. But do any of you also pull these "Little White Expat Lies" too?

Nope, been overseas since 1989 and haven't used that one.

Most email accounts - Yahoo is what I use - have excellent calendar functions and you can literally send yourself email reminders even a couple weeks ahead of time and again ten days or so ahead of time - and on that day as well.

Use that and get Skype so you can call cheaply and easily anytime - and no problems at all.

Your Mom deserves better.

Sure I have:

"I'm from Canada."

does rounding up the time that you've been living in a country count as a "little white expat lie"? (I know, not quite the sort the OP was talking about.) I always round up or down to the nearest half-year, because I feel stupid putting it into months!

Sorry, Rose Mary...that does not qualify in my book.

This thread has go me feeling a bit bad about my little white expat lies. 1) I'm the only one admitting to it, 2) I admitted lying to my mother about mother's day.

Bad, Stoo. Bad.

OK, I fess up. I blamed a lot of things on the goings on in Istanbul in '99. "I'd meant to...but things got a bit crazy here with all the terrorist attacks (Spring), the earthquake (Summer), and moving internationally (Fall).

I also never called anyone in my family from 1996 to 2000 because my phone didn't have out-going long distance -- there were a couple dozen international call centers within a mile of my apartment.

BUT, I never neglected to send my mom a Mother's Day card.

oh, well, if people are fessing up...

I don't usually send my mother cards on mother's day even when I'm home <--since there's no blushing-with-shame icon

she always says it's a hallmark holiday and she doesn't care about it.... she doesn't send mother's day cards to her mother either....

oh no, what a bad daughter I am! Stoo, hope that helps.

Okay, Stoo. I've got you topped.

I made up an Italian train strike so as to avoid visiting family members when they were on holiday in...wait for it...Switzerland. The strike had, in fact, ended some weeks before. When asked if I could drive there, I relayed the (then recent) Gotthard incident and implied that I did not trust the Swiss tunnel system and that "the roads in Switzerland are horrible and littered with drunkards." Then, to make matters worse, they relayed this remark to a somewhat annoyed Swiss-Ital tour guide who apparently took great offense to the slight. But, since it was their trusted nephew who told them this, my family members insisted to all the other fellow package tourists that said tour guide was wrong and "probably didn't know because he's not really Swiss. He's Italian." Classic.

So, yes, I impugned the entire, admittedly excellent Swiss transportation network, invoked a recent tragedy, and called a strike just so I wouldn't have to congregate with relatives for 48 hours.

I see your bad son and raise you a bad nephew/cousin.

Stoo. I used the EXACT SAME excuse last year. Though, truly, my mom thinks as I do. Mother's Day is a Hallmark Holiday.

I figure any Mom will know that when their kid is out in the world somewhere, that things are different and they don't get the HUGE headsup that they would get in North America for these pending days. Don't sweat it.

Sure! Every blerry time someone asks me "do they have (insert your favorite brand name) over there, I answer "no", because I'm a mean, nasty person.

At first I dutifully provided explanations that liquid fabric softener works just as nice as the sheet kind when someone asked me about Bounce, or that there are local varieties of cheeses that are way better than Velveeta.
Now I just say "no".
Do they have vanilla extract over there? No.
Do they celebrate Mother's Day over there? No.
And so on.

Anna, I do the same thing. Even going from state to state in the US will bring up opportunities to lie horribly about the quality of life where you are/where you're from. Right now I'm in Texas, and I tell EVERYONE all the stereotypes are true (I'm in Houston--they ARE true!). Just because it's fun.

Have I used being in a different country as an excuse to get out of things? Well, I blamed my time in Thailand for five YEARS of depression. Does that count?

When approached by certain tourists in Hiroshima and asked for directions, etc., I would look at them and say, "Cok ozer delirim. Ingilizce anlamiyorum." (Turkish for "I'm really sorry. I don't speak English.")

I also used to tell students who asked me why I never visited the US that I was wanted for a murder I hadn't committed.

quote:

Originally posted by Haci Richard:
When approached by certain tourists in Hiroshima and asked for directions, etc., I would look at them and say, "Cok ozer delirim. Ingilizce anlamiyorum." (Turkish for "I'm really sorry. I don't speak English.")

hah! You bad bad bad!!!
I used to do the same when I lived in Nara, but in Japanese.