I am a 30 something global soul, a perpetual expat. I was born in the Netherlands to a Dutch/Irish Family. Since then I have lived in Norway, Nigeria, Turkey, Venezuela. I went to school and university in the UK and settled there for some years, married an English man and had very normal English life for a while.

Then we decided to have an adventure and took our children and the dog to live in Kazakhstan. Life as a 21st century expat is very different to my life as a child; we have mobile telephones, the internet and skype so the world is a much smaller place, but some things remain the same. There are things you cannot buy away from home, normal everyday things you suddenly hanker for or cultural expectations that lead to strange situations. This blog is about how we muddle through daily life as expats in Astana and how things have changed from the adventures of my childhood.

1. Why did you move abroad?  
I am a perpetual expat.  My family is Irish but we were living in the Netherlands (my mother’s native country prior to marriage) when I was born.  After that we moved to Norway, to the UK, Nigeria, Turkey and Venezuela with return trips to the company home office in the Netherlands. 

From about 11 I went to boarding school in the UK with visits to my parents in various host countries and to my grandparents in the Netherlands and Ireland.  I went to university in the UK and married an Englishman.  We settled in the UK for some years until work called us out to Kazakhstan. 

I have never lived in Ireland and it has been many many years since I lived in the Netherlands, the country I thought of as home when I was a young child. These days I identify mostly with the UK although there are still aspects of life there that I find very strange.  

2. How do you make a living?
I am a lawyer (a commercial litigator) by background.  Litigation is not particularly family friendly so since the children were born I have been working as a management services contractor and as a mediator in the UK. 

When we were first in Kazakhstan I commuted back to the UK on a two weekly basis.  Recently I have found a job here in Kazakhstan providing website management services for a tri-lingual website (English, Russian and Kazakh) and working as a librarian managing an English Language Library.  

3. How often do you communicate with home and how?
Most of our family have skype and we try to call each other at least once a week.  We also update our facebook posts with photographs so that aunts/uncles etc can see how the children are getting on.

4. What's your favorite thing about being an expat in Kazakhstan?
We love living in Astana.  It is a bright, vibrant, modern city with a fantastic atmosphere.  Because of the extreme weather (from -40 - +40 degrees C) it is almost as though we live in two different cities – a fragrant garden in the summer and a beautiful winter wonderland through the colder months. People are very friendly and willing to help you learn to communicate.  The city is safe to walk around, even for women alone at night and there is a good range of restaurants and entertainment available.

5. What’s the worst thing about being an expat in Kazakhstan?
In the winter the weather gets very cold, this is not a problem in itself but it makes it very difficult to leave the city as the roads and rail routes can be blocked and unsafe from time to time. After five months you can develop a little cabin fever.  

6. What do you miss most?
I really miss ginger ale – I have never yet found any here in KZ.  

7. What did you do to meet people and integrate in your new home?  
Our neighbours are incredibly friendly.  When we first moved in many of those who shared our stairwell came and introduced themselves to us.  Many will share small gifts with our children for festivals or special days and we try to reciprocate this.  We have many friends, both local and expat, through work.  We also try to accept every single invitation we get to go out and meet with people or join them in their homes.  

8. What custom/ habits do you find most strange about your adopted culture?  
I find the food very difficult.  Kazakh food is very meat based but I am not fond of mutton or horse.  I rarely enjoy dairy which plays a large part in the cuisine (particularly fermented camels and mares milk which I find extremely unpalatable).  Of course I will eat any food to be polite but it is more of a challenge for me here than in some other countries.  

9. What is a myth about your adopted country?
Anything to do with Borat!

10. Is the cost of living higher or lower than the last country you lived in and how has that made a difference in your life?  
The cost of living is strange here in Kazakhstan.  Some staples such as bread and milk are not expensive to buy but fresh vegetable are very expensive in the winter.  Anything that has to be imported comes at a huge cost – cars, for example, are very expensive to buy even second hand.  Luckily they do not depreciate so we expect to make our money back.  Our previous posting was in the UK where staples are expensive but cars are not!

11. What advice would you give other expats?
Accept that five months of the year will be cold and learn to love the snow and ice – it is all part of the adventure.  Try to learn Russian and at least some Kazakh – this will go a long way towards improving your relationship with locals and helping you to integrate.

12. When and why did you start your blog?
I started in January 2013 – a lot of my friends  were repeatedly asking me for tips on how to make things work abroad ie how to cook certain things or do without home staples.  This is why the blog was called ‘Ersatz Expat’.  People then started asking me to write more about Astana as a destination – it is a beautiful city and a wonderful place to live but very little is known about it.  

Blog, Ersatz Expat

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