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• Acknowledge the blogger who nominated you. 
• Share 11 random facts about yourself.
• Answer 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you.
• List bloggers.
• Post 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate and let them know they have been nominated.

11 Random Facts (of my life as an expat)

1. I have not driven a car in a two and a half years, since moving abroad.
2. I am technically a dual citizen living in the country where I am an expat. 
3. I have more books about travel, languages, or that take places in other countries than I do anything else on our book shelves. 
4. I get my food delivered to the house from local organic farms. Which means I’ve swapped waiting in long queues and maneuvering around busy grocery stores for cleaning the dirt off of my vegetables and enjoying raw milk. 
5. I do not like Starbucks.  I have never liked their coffee because I grew up drinking ‘real’ espresso in Italy as a teenager, and find the taste to come off like burnt coffee beans.  I find their drinks that contain syrups way too sweet.  With that said I used to go there all the time as our ‘meet up’ place with my military wife friends.  I used to love getting their ice tea in Hawaii but now that I live in England I would rather go somewhere for tea where I feel like I am treating myself to a nice day out with service that includes sitting down with a menu.  I will say I appreciate people who go there so much they bring their own reusable cup to help the environment.  I have my own Starbucks reusable tumbler from Hawaii that I still use at home. 
6. I dread package slips. Before expat life a package slip was exciting and it was followed by excitement over who it is for, who it is from, and what could be inside.  If I am excited now it is because solely it made it to us and did not get lost in the mail. However a package slip now means that it was delivered while we were out of the house and either too big to fit through the mail slot in our door or that it has to be signed for and so it went back to the post office.  While we have a post office on our high street in town, a mere five minutes away it is not where our packages go when they need to be picked up.  They go into town and that involves either a forty minute walk into town or I need to shell out the £ for bus.  A taxi is about £10 one way so to just pick up one parcel is not worth that option. So that is why I dread package slips.
7. I miss my american sized dryer and being able to dry my clothes quickly. It is the one thing of my specific expat life that I would change if I could.  The last three places we have lived at here in England have had a washing machine (small like an american dorm sized fridge) but no dryer. Which means if it is sunny and warm enough we dry our clothes outside and if now we dry them inside. This involves clothes on our radiators at all times and on clothing racks that take up a lot of space in our house. The laundry is never completely finished and I find myself fantasizing about throwing in a large load of laundry in a dryer to have it dry within the hour. 
8. I never liked ‘domestic’ beer in the US but would drink imported beer from Germany or Belgium.  Here in England I still like a good beer or ale but I tend to drink cider more often.  It is my favourite weekend treat!
9. I love planning new trip and journeys. At any time I have several trips in the planning stages. Some nearby in England and others in the world. I am looking forward to Christmas 2014 where my family has talked about going to Austria or Munich, Germany. 
10. I can always find new things to document and take photos of where I live in England. It makes being an expat always exciting especially living in a place that has seasons.
11. I am fluent in English but have known Italian and German at different times in my life. I am now trying to work on German with my boys with the hope that one day I can say I am fluent in two languages.