Category Archives: expat

Pinterest & Place Pins – Travel & Expat Bloggers

I love Pinterest. It is perfect for creatives like me when planning upcoming photo shoots. With the holidays approaching Pinterest is wonderful for planning out ideas for holidays like Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas. There are just so many ways Pinterest can aid people in their life with their specific needs. As of yesterday Pinterest has added a new aspect to pinning that is just perfect for those who travel and people with wanderlust. I introduce you to a new type of pin called Place Pins that enable you to map out the locations of all the items you share on your pinterest boards.

What does this mean? | So let us say for example you are traveling and you take a photo of the museum you visited. As an expat or travel blogger say you post about that trip and you pin images from your blog to your pinterest board. You can now add the museum’s location to a map on your board connecting to the photos from your blog post! Pretty interesting, yes?

Planning a Future Trip? | Even if you are not traveling and you are just fueling you wanderlust addiction you can now create better pin board for your trip planning. Search for the locations you want to visit and then you can find pins and add pins to highlight the specific ‘must-see’ spots!

SEE ALSO: Pin it Forward UK with 16 Tips

What You Can Do

Add a map to a new board or to a pre-existing board on Pinterest
Add the pin’s location through a Google-type search bar.
Share your pinboards easily with friends on Pinterest
Get Help! If you run into trouble search the help section.

How to Make a Map & Add Place Pins | I have made a map this morning and I would like to show you all how easy it is to do!

First log into your Pinterest account, go to your boards, and select the board of your choosing. If this is your first time to create a map you will be greeted with a lovely notification showing you how you can add a map to your board. Whether or not you get this notification all you have to do is select ‘Edit Board’ and you are on your way to completing your task!

Once your Edit Board form is open you can now look for where it says ‘Add a Map?’. It will say ‘No’ and all you have to do is click it so that is says ‘yes’.

As seen in the image above it now says ‘Yes’ and is highlighted in red. You can also choose to edit the board further at this time if you need to make any updates or corrections. Remember if you decide to delete your board, your actions cannot be undone.

Your map is now created! You will see this notification to let you know you can go on to the next step.

Pinterest may also let you know that you can now add a place to your map. Why? This is so you can search for pins from specific locations.

You will see that your pins in the board are now moved over the left of the screen and the map is to the right. But wait! You do not have any Place Pins created or added to your board! Go to the top of the screen where you see the grey pushpin with a + symbol next to the text ‘Add a Place’. Click this.

Now you can add a place. You do this by simply searching in the What’s this place called? text field and locations will start popping up. Choose the one that best fits the location you want. You can even change the city later if you need too.

Since I am an expat located in Bath, England I have decided to add this as my first pin location. As soon as I add this in I find a long list of places, so I select the one I want from the list. Really simple! It will now show up on your map as seen to the right of this image.

You will also start seeing all the photos of pins from that location on the left of your screen. You can start adding to it immediately from this page! I decided to add a photo to Bath from my photos taken at the Royal Crescent with my heart shaped umbrella. Scroll down to the image below to see how it has bee added:

My new pin with my photo is now added to the location. However remember that this is added to your board. So for example I added this one to my ‘Autumn Holidays’ board which would not be the right place for this pin. Case in point be selective to which boards you add maps too and what pins are going on the map. The rest is simply all about having fun pinning! But do not take just my word for it. Here what another Expat & Travel blogger has been saying about it on Twitter today:

While you are at it, why not follow me on Pinterest too!

Q: What do you think of Pinterest’s new Pin Maps? Will you be adding this to your boards? If so which ones?

Advice to My Pre-Expat Self

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Q I: What advice would you give to your pre-expat self?

The advice that I would give to my pre-expat self would be to above all else keep positive. Life is about how we tackled the challenges in our life and it will not always be easy. Since becoming an expat I have had to deal with finding employment, getting approved to rent from a leasing agent without credit in England and not having a guarantor, and cultural issues with co-workers The most stressful being this time last year when my husband and I were both without jobs, a lease ending soon, not knowing how we would afford to live two months down the line, and our kids were all the way back in the US with grandparents. It was a stressful time. However in the end my husband got the perfect job in just the nick of time, we found a new place to live, and we moved to Bath with our sons that joined us just a couple of days before Christmas. Of course life is always easiest to view in hindsight. However, things work out the way they are meant to be and it is better to remain really positive than to let the negative affect you.

Q II: How do you reconcile what you thought life would be like in your new home and what it is in actuality?

I thought we would be able to have done a lot more traveling than we have now. Granted, between my husband and I we have traveled to four different countries outside of the UK. However I thought my sons would have seen several countries in Europe by now and so far they have only been to England and Wales. Traveling is just a lot more expensive when you have a family of four. While my passports are not collecting stamps we are taking advantage of the area we live in with country walks and visits to see nearby towns. Technically we will not be able to travel out of the UK for about six months anyways since our passports are with Ryan’s current ILR visa application. I am looking forward to finally traveling with my boys outside of the UK and reliving the childhood my parents chose for my sister and I.

This was a link up for the Expat to Expat:

Q&A with Bailie and Belinda

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Horrible Histories Spies – Imperial War Museum, London

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It is Tuesday and so you know what that means: Travel Tuesday! I have really enjoyed looking through all the links up this past week. I was homesick by by Louisa with her P is for the Perfect Pacentro, learning about how Kate’s Dad Lives in Kenya, and having my wanderlust fueled further by Lindsey’s travels to Thailand. I cannot wait to see where you are all sharing travels and stories of wanderlust from this week! You all make this link up so much fun and inspiring!

For Travel Tuesday I take you to the Imperial War Museum in London, England. We had the opportunity to visit this summer with my family. The reason for our going was to visit the limited time Horrible Histories Spies exhibit that was going on at the museum. My boys love the Horrible Histories television programme and so we left it as a surprise until we arrived at the IWM.

Horrible Histories is a British children’s television series based on the Terry Deary book series of the same name. It aims to provide entertainment while also informing its audience about history, thereby making a stereotypically boring topic fun – Wikipedia

The exhibit was very hands on and geared towards kids and the child in all of us. In fact I am not sure who had more fun: my sons or all of the adults. The boys got a special new Horrible Histories book and a special stamp sheet that they could use through out their experience at the museum. In different stations they could get an embossed stamp to signify they had completed that part of the journey.

In typical Horrible Histories fashion they were able to provide the truth of spies with real artifacts coupled with gruesome tales and sometimes disgusting things you as an adult would not really want to know. They had pictures and videos and many interactive areas where they could engage with computers to learn more about spies through out history.

Of course at the gifts shop they had every gag spy item imaginable as well as their book series for purchase. They even had quite a bit of books and films for the adults in the fiction and non fiction genres of war and spies.

One of the most fun activities we enjoyed was becoming spies and making our own faux passports to fit our secret cover identity. We then had to memorize our cover story and get questioned by the passport control to see if we could stay in the country. It was all quite fun and the whole family was entertained.

The Imperial War Museum is a great museum to visit when you are in London, England. After we visited the Horrible Histories Spies exhibit (and had a break for tea, of course) we went to see other areas of the museum. They have a pretty impressive area about war and spies geared more for adults though my children had almost as much fun as before. Even if you have young children like mine I would recommend taking them because we found it to be a great home education resource. It opened up dialog for more conversations about history, war, and spies. My boys were most impressed with all the artifacts they had that spies really used in this part of the museum.

Here were some favourite captures taken from the day:

More on Horrible Histories

Want to know a little more about what Horrible Histories is all about? I definitely recommend checking out their website below and you can find plenty skits and songs on youtube as well. My family’s favourite is the RAF song as we have history with the USAF and the RAF. It definitely brings in a lot of memories of my dad and I think he would have thought this song was so hilarious. I think you will too so I have shared it below.

horrible–histories.co.uk/‎

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Share your Travel stories and wanderlust addictions.

HERE IS HOW IT WORKS:

1. Share a post about travel! From road trips to trips abroad and from past travels to dream vacations. You can write about travel tips and tricks, favorite places to stay, or anything in between! Just make it about traveling somewhere!

2. Grab the lovely button. If you run into trouble, just make sure to mention Bonnie in a link! 😉

3. Linkup goes live every Tuesday at 9 am GMT.

4. Hop around and meet new travel loving bloggers! Link up will be open for a few days, make sure to check back to visit some of the newer travel posts!

5. Please only one linked up post per blogger. Save other posts for future linkups!

6. The First Tuesday of every month will be a themed prompt if you want to join in!

London Blogger Tea a Success

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Today I had the amazing opportunity to go to London for an awesome London Blogger Tea arranged by the beautiful Selena. It was so great to meet so many of my blogger friends in person after following their blogs online. I met and made new friends and the event flew by so fast. I want to post on it properly in a few days once I get my photos online and share more about the event. Until then make sure to check out all the wonderful bloggers who attended and send them some encouraging shout outs. I know my life was made better having met each and every single person tonight. Thank you for a perfect night out in London.

Melanie from Melanie Fontaine

Selena from Oh, the place we will go!

Gina from Sweet Serenity

Mandy from Emm in London

Erin from Erin Out and About

Sarah from The Experience Collection Project

Sarah from The Wanderblogger

Tina from Girl Meets Globe

Jacintha from Urban Pixxels

Anna from Eat, See, Do

Emma from Adventures of a London Kiwi

Janelle from The Halfpenny Diaries

Jaklien from Passport and Toothbrush

Kara from Pen Plus Passport

Sarah from The Secret Life of an Unknown Housewife

Shobha from NYLon Living

Annie at Sew Graceful

Kelly from Around the World in 80 Pairs of Shoes

Samantha from To the Days Like This

Bonfire Night, Batheaston 2013

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Saturday night we had our first round of Fireworks in the heart of Bath, England in preparation for Bonfire Night 2013. Last night on (Remember, Remember…) the 5th of November we celebrated in typical English fashion with a Bonfire, fireworks, warm food and mulled wine. The USA has their firework displays for their Independence Day from England in 1776 and the UK burns effigies of Guy Fawkes, a man who failed the Gunpowder plot of 1605. After celebrating Bonfire Night last year in Lewes, I honestly favour the UK holiday. If you are ever going to be in England for Bonfire night I highly recommend heading to Lewes for it is the biggest celebrated Fifth November Event in the world. In fact there are six different bonfire society’s all celebrating the Fifth in various parts of the town. Each has their own processions, traditions, costumes, fire sites and fireworks.

My History with Bonfire Night

When we lived in England, when I was a young girl, I loved going to Bonfire night. Even when we moved away from England my dad will still take me to celebrate it. I have fond memories of when we lived in Italy and getting together with the RAF families to set fire to the Guy and watch the bonfire burn. When we moved to England in 2011, this was one of anticipated ‘firsts’ that I wanted to experience with my husband and sons. There was a bonfire society near where my kids went to school that year and the school was involved in the procession. This meant we got to hold up banners and march all around the town of Lindfield, waving to the crowds of people watching. I even got to hold a flaming torch which was probably the most exciting part of that night for me. As we were part of the procession we got a prime location to watch the bonfire and fireworks from later that evening as well. It was our first Bonfire Night together as a family in England and a very memorable one indeed.

I hope you enjoyed our photos from Bonfire night last night. I did not blog in the month of November last year and so I have not yet shared photos from Lewes on ACR. Will be sharing those soon, so please check back.

Q: Did you celebrate Bonfire Night last night?

November Fireworks – Bath, England

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This past weekend we kicked off the holiday season with fireworks here in Bath, England. For those of you who do not know, November 5th is Bonfire night here in the UK. Since the 5th lands on a Tuesday this year the city had fireworks going on for the weekend. We had the pleasure of watching the show with our theatre community and had an amazing view. It started pouring rain half way through so we caught the last half inside the Drama Hut. It was a great local to see the firework show. We just found out there will be something in our town for tomorrow night and I am hoping it includes a Bonfire complete with Guy Fawkes!

Just to recap the rest of the weekend, we had a lot of rain. However despite the showers we kept ourselves busy. Friday we went into Bradford on Avon for a country walk, I had a committee meeting with the Bath Drama group that night, followed by drinks at the pub. Saturday we watched Arsenal play Liverpool at the pub followed by the Fireworks. Sunday I caught a secret engagement going on on at the Pulteney Bridge on my way to Panto rehearsal. It was really romantic and all the people watching from across the way cheered the happy couple on. It was a great weekend and now that it is over I am looking forward to my trip to London next weekend!

Q: What were the highlights from your weekend?

Halloween in Bath England, 2013

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It is the day after Halloween which means we can now start getting excited about the upcoming holidays. For us in England that begins with fireworks this month and ends with fireworks in the new year. Before I start making my blog about how much I love this time of the year, let us recap over what it is like to celebrate Halloween as an expat in Bath, England.

For a few months we had been talking about costumes with the idea that our whole family would go as one thing together. In the end it turned out that my husband would not be home in time from work to participate and I did not have much in the way to pull off what I wanted to do either. For our first Halloween here in 2011 my boys had costumes mailed over from the US, last year they celebrated Halloween in the US, and this year it took us all of five minutes per kid to get ready to Trick or Treat. My eldest went as a mummy in a judo uniform and strips of muslin and my youngest as a Frankenstein monster with green face paint and some make up from my kit. It was the quickest we have ever prepared for Halloween. But to to be real it is not really that big of a thing here in England. Only a few shops in town will have a few select halloween items. Most of the kids costumes I have seen in England have always been in the genre of: witch, mummy, werwolf, vampire, etc. The more common themes of Halloween.

We almost did not get to carve pumpkins this year, but managed to find three large ones left the day before while we were in town. On Halloween my boys and I had fun carving our pumpkins. I decided to try an owl and I kinda like the way he turned out this year. You should see the pumpkins we painted and carved last year while stuck in the US.

I had not bought any candy in town because I saw how expensive a tiny bag with maybe 12 packs in it would be and it did not seem worth it. Especially when I did the comparison of candy buying in the US. So we ended up making cookies on Halloween with homemade sugar icing and handing those out to the kids who knocked on our door.

For trick or treating we knocked on a couple of doors where we lived and then walked the forty five minutes to where one of my boys goes to school and trick or treated on maybe twenty different doors. This was way more active area then where we lived before. I believe in 2012 we only found two doors to knock on and a pub that was giving out candy to the kids. My husband some how found us in the darkness and was able to join in on the Halloween fun.

To be fair Halloween is not one of my favourite holidays. Some how even with that fact mentioned I got a little bit of ‘culture shock mixed in with homesickness’ creep up on me while we were out. It was really strange to me when it happened because I do not really have a home to miss. As an expat it can be very unsettling when this happens and you never know when it can strike. Luckily as soon as my husband met up with us he was able to help me feel much better and it soon but all dissipated. Which I have to say if you ever feel that way while living abroad…let your family love on you. It can make all the difference in the world.