My interview with expatfinder.com has been published on their website! Hindsight is really 20/20 – when I spoke with them, our international family had made our fourth (4th) move to another country.
We’ve been living in Canada since the Spring of 2017. My Irish husband and I had been living in London, England for two years, where we were working, exploring and socializing in one of the world’s most vibrant cities before a baby came on the scene. Prior to our adventure of becoming parents abroad, we had spent five years living in Ireland and Australia where we were footloose and fancy-free.
We experienced firsthand what it’s like to live as an international couple in Europe: with mixed access to freedom of movement rights; expecting a baby in a foreign city without the support of having family nearby; using the public health system, including a team of midwives, to prepare for the arrival of our first child; navigating the cities public transit with a baby and buggy in tow; working on a startup idea with my son; and learning how to be parents, while still maintaining a sense of self, away from the comforts of our home country.
Please have a read of the interview if you’d like to hear my thoughts on:
- Why I made the move out of (and we moved back to) Canada
- Our time spent living in London, England
- How my family is adjusting to the expat lifestyle and coping with homesickness
- Thoughts about the locals, making friends and meeting people
- Cost of living and banking in England compared to Canada
- Our experience with government paperwork, including Visas and Permanent Residency, as the spouse of an EU National and Irish Citizen
- Healthcare in England and having a baby in London
- The packing process and challenges we faced as expats
- The positive and negative sides of living in England
- London tips and recommendations for future expats
It’s a whole other story/post/interview for another time, but we chose to move to Canada with our young family in order to set up something resembling a home base, live in a smaller city closer to nature and still have easy access to Europe for family travel.
The plan is still unfolding but we have now experienced the Canadian Immigration system from the outside, are currently experiencing the public health system’s pre-natal services as we’re expecting our second child this summer and are learning and re-learning how to settle into life in Canada.
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Notes From Another Land 
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