Running My First Half Marathon

Leave a comment December 8, 2018 littlemissexpat

This time last year I set myself a goal: I was going to run a half marathon before 2018 was over. No doubt it was an ambitious goal, but I achieved that goal on December 7th 2018, when I ran the Dubai Creek Striders Half Marathon!

Yesterday morning I woke up bright and early (well actually not so bright, because the sun hadn’t even risen yet) at 3:50am ready to go run. I run competitively for high school cross country, but I never race any distance greater than 5K, so this was something I was not used to.

The whole week I had been holding in my nerves and telling myself that it would be okay. I was more excited than nervous to be doing something that was so out of my comfort zone, and I would be doing it alongside some of my teammates, but I still had some pre-race jitters. When I arrived at the athlete’s village at 5am, I’m not going to lie, I kind of felt like I was about to throw up, but I was also super hyped to run! There were so many runners, and I’ve never been at a race that big in my whole life. It was amazing and terrifying at the same time.

When I crossed the starting line I hadn’t even really computed what I was about to do. I was about to run 21km. What. There were so many people around me and hardly any space to run in, I was kind of panicking, what was I getting myself into?

However I didn’t let this deter me, I just thought to myself that 3 years ago I wouldn’t have even thought myself capable of running a 1km race, let alone a 21km race. I was proud of how far I’ve come, and I knew I had the strength to finish this race, however hard it would be.

And I’m glad I adopted that mindset because it was one of the most beautiful races I’ve ever run. I’ll never forget the view as I ran into my second kilometer: I turned a corner to see a hill, and above the hill was a huge bridge with thousands of runners moving gracefully above me, I had never seen so many people so dedicated to achieving the same goal, and it was really inspirational.

If someone were to ask me what I thought about while I ran, or how I kept myself occupied for such a long time, I wouldn’t know. I think I was just enjoying the run so much myself, that I didn’t think of it in a negative way. We ran across the Dubai Creek which I’ve never been to before, we ran across bridges and saw the sunrise, and we ran through the souks of old Dubai. I was truly inside my own head, having a good time.

When I crossed that finish line with my family, friends, and teammates cheering me on, I felt like I was about to cry for a second and started tearing up. I know, weird right? It’s something a lot of runners experience when you cross your finish line, you’re so emotional in many ways that you just feel like crying. I was so proud of myself for achieving something like this at age 16, I was so happy with my time, and I was also surprised and relieved that I had finished the race.

It was honestly the most draining, tiring, exciting, fun, and memorable day ever, and I am so glad that I got the opportunity to participate in this. It reminded me of who I am, and what I can achieve. I ran this race for myself. When I ran this race it showed me what I am capable of. Thank you to my family, my coaches, and the race organizers, for allowing me to achieve my goal and enjoy (almost) every moment of it.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my race experience. I know it’s a little different from what I usually post, but this was an experience that I really wanted to share on here, and I hope it inspired some of you guys!

Tune in next week for some Christmas content,

Little Miss Expat

The ‘I can’ mindset – #ExpatWisdom – Sixtina

2 Comments December 2, 2018 littlemissexpat

Hi everyone,

This weeks blog post is another from the Expat Wisdom series! I’ve been working with Sixtina from Six Miles Away blog to share her expat story. Her blog is a heaven for any traveler or expat, as it’s packed with travel tips and stories, I could honestly spend hours reading it all! She was even kind enough to interview me, and write about my expat story on her blog, incase you wanted to take a look at that!

Her story, like many of the others that I’ve shared in this series, is one that I can relate to. However, the advice she gives is something that I really wish I had thought of during my move, and perhaps it will help you as well!

It’s all about the “I can” mindset, right focus, and positive attitude!

The travel bug had already been awakened in me in early years. Growing up in East Germany (former DDR), my parents didn’t have much freedom when it comes to traveling like us nowadays. As soon as the wall came down my parents, especially my mother started traveling like crazy, of course, taking me everywhere with them. I’ve basically visited 2 new countries every year since I was 1 years old, but I don’t even remember them all!

The first time I moved abroad, I was only a teenager myself. Wanting to learn English, my grandpa helped to finance a year in an American High School, so I ended up in Kentucky, USA. Around Christmas time I got very homesick, which I guess was normal for a teenager being far away from home for the first time and for a long time in a foreign country, where things were different. However, instead of locking myself up in my bedroom, crying and complaining about things, I focused on the positive points, such as my lovely host family, lots of new food to try, fun entertaining games, and I also called my family back home. I had a great time, and my mum booked a flight to come over for my birthday.

After studying for 4 years in The Netherlands, where I also got to spend one semester abroad in Mexico and one in Spain, I moved to Ireland shortly after I graduated. I have been living here for 4 years. Being an expat is not always flowers and roses or as easy as it may look online. There are downsides for sure, including organizational, situational and also emotional things.

The first 2 years in Ireland were super hard for me and I was very upset; I didn’t go out, I gained weight and I was simply miserable. Yet it was my own choice to be there, right?

Why was I upset?
I was in an unhappy relationship, I lived in a dirty apartment where I didn’t even want to return to, I had a call center job I hated, I found no hobbies I liked to practice, I had no friends/people I liked enough to hang out with, neither did I have a great social life. On top of that public transportation and weather were bad as well.

After being miserable for around 3-6 months and constantly complaining, at some point I woke up and realized that nothing is ever going to change if I continue complaining. No new job will appear by itself, no agency will come to me offering a new apartment, no social club is going to ask me if I want to join and so on…

I don’t remember what my exact wake-up call was, but in the end, it all comes down to the “I can” mindset, right focus, and positive attitude. First of all, I focused on the things I could change quickly. That included getting rid of that boyfriend, joining social clubs and start hanging out with people that are my cup of tea. A new apartment and job came later on by itself, as I was full of energy and most importantly with a positive attitude.

What am I trying to say?
It really is up to us, how we handle situations and what we make out of them. My advice is to get up, focus and change things that are within our reach and stop complaining. Be positive and try to perceive new things with an open mind, rather than find the “wrong” bits and pieces of it. After all, there is always something to learn from every negative and positive situation. You might not see it right at the start, but it will become more clear eventually. All you have to do is stay positive, focus on the things that you CAN do/change, and have an “I can do anything” mindset. The rest will happen by itself, you’ll see!

I hope you enjoyed reading Sixtinas story, and that you can take something away from it! As always, be sure to take a look at the other posts in my Expat Wisdom series, or if you’re interested in being featured feel free to reach out to me at LittleMissExpatBlog@gmail.com!

See you next week,

Little Miss Expat

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Morocco – some highlights – more to come…

Leave a comment November 24, 2018 littlemissexpat

I just spent one of the best weeks of my life traveling across Morocco with 10 other students in a rickety old bus, taking photos and capturing moments.

Two weeks ago at 2:00 am I was struggling to do my last minute packing, and I was stressing out because I didn’t know what to expect with from trip. I was traveling somewhere 8 hours away, with a small group of people, with no device except my camera. Something that was very out of my comfort zone.

But I shouldn’t have worried because it ended up being one of the best trips ever, and I enjoyed every moment of it. I traveled from Rabat, to Chefchaoeun, to Fes, and to Casablanca, and they were all beautiful.

This trip centered around photography, and I learned how to use my camera to its full potential, and I got some pretty cool photos! I spent a week capturing moments on my camera and immersing myself in the culture, and I’m excited to share my full experience with you guys!

I’m going to be writing about each city, my trip as a whole, and my photography tips in separate posts, but for now, enjoy these highlights of my trip to Morocco. I honestly had such an amazing time, and I think that can be seen through these photos. Consider this a teaser of what’s to come…

Enjoy!

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The most delicious healthy snack recipe – the ‘cake’ pop

5 Comments November 3, 2018 littlemissexpat

A few weeks ago I was scrolling through my Pinterest feed and all these photos of freshly baked muffins, granola bars, and the most mouth-watering salads I’ve ever seen kept popping up. And maybe looking at photos of food when you’re very hungry (as I always am) isn’t the best idea… but I thought it got me inspired to start cooking and baking again!

I wouldn’t call myself a ‘pro cook’ I can make my regular favorites pretty well, but when it comes to following recipes I usually get too impatient to follow the recipe exactly, or I’ll get bored halfway through and kind of wing the rest of it (can anyone else relate?) and end up with something that sort of resembles what I was going for.

I was inspired to create this recipe by something I saw on ‘The Wooden Skillet Blog’ which I stumbled across on my Pinterest feed, and I tried to create a recipe sort of similar to this one, and a few others I’ve seen before. So while I did create this ‘cake’ pop recipe myself, a lot of the inspiration did come from other baking blogs (so I give them credit as well).

I remember feasting on cake pops when I was younger, they were those things that were just so fun and festive to eat, and for some reason, the cake always tasted 100 times better when it was on a stick, am I right? So I wanted to create a healthy version of cake pops that were very simple and quick to make, and trust me if I can make it through the whole of this recipe, it must be easy to follow!

Ingredients:

6 pitted dates

1/3 cup of raw cashew nuts

1/3 cup of raw almonds

1/2 of flax meal and chia seed mix

3 tbsp of honey

1/2 cup of peanut butter

1/2 cup of dark chocolate

Salt

Method:

Take your almonds, dates, and cashew nuts and blend them in a food processor until they are a coarse, chopped mixture.

2. Take your nut and date mixture and add in the peanut butter, flax meal, and honey.

3. Use your hands to evenly combine the ingredients, until the mixture starts sticking together.

4. Line a tray with greaseproof paper. Take your mixture and mold it into small sphere shapes, and stick a popsicle stick through the middle.

5. Place the ‘cake’ pops in the fridge for approximately 20 mins.

6. Melt the dark chocolate in the microwave and coat each of the ‘cake’ pops with the melted chocolate.

7. Place back in the fridge for 1 hour.

8. Sprinkle some sea salt on top for extra flavor.

9. Enjoy!

This recipe made me around 10 of the pops, and they were all devoured within a few days! This has to be one of the simplest and tastiest things I’ve ever made, and I’m so happy with how it turned out. It’s a nice alternative to cakes and other pastries and it’s a tad healthier and much easier to make at home. I can not explain how good they taste, especially with the sea salt on top! Let me know if you try them, and tag me in your photos if you try them (@Little.Miss.Expat)

I hope you enjoyed this recipe!

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The different ‘English-es’ we speak

2 Comments October 27, 2018 littlemissexpat

“Language is the road map of culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.” – Rita Mae Brown

A few weeks ago I was assigned some reading homework for my English class, and I found myself dying to write about it here! It was a piece called “Mother Tongue” written by Amy Tan, and I found my brain going crazy making all these connections… because I could relate SO MUCH to this piece of writing, as I’m sure any other expat can.

This passage highlighted how different people from various cultures use the English language in their own ways. In the narrative, Amy Tan described the way her mother spoke a ‘broken’ English and gave many examples of how sometimes this held her back as people didn’t take her as seriously. She highlighted a really important issue for me, does the way we speak hold us back?

As an expat, I hear people with different accents, speaking in different languages, and different in dialects every day, but I’d never really thought about what this means to them. Does the way we speak ever hold us back and is it an indicator of who we really are? When I first moved to Dubai, a lot of people commented on how ‘posh’ my British accent was. I’d grown up in London my whole life, so I had never known anything different, I thought that the way I spoke was completely normal. However, in my first international school, I became so self-conscious of my accent, that I even looked forward to my language classes, because I knew that was a time where I didn’t have to speak with my ‘accent’.

But this was not a one-way street. Joining an international school gave me the opportunity to meet people from many different parts of the world, and to hear the way they talked. I distinctly remember in my first school in Dubai we were put into ‘sets’ based on ability and most of the children in the highest set for English, were the English kids, the ones who spoke English in what seemed the ‘perfect way’. There are so many examples of this: I recently heard the story of a friend who’s originally from Taiwan, but moved to school in America for a year, and was not allowed to take the AP English class, because the teacher didn’t think she could speak ‘real English’ even though she was one of the highest scoring students in her school on the AP exam.

Before putting all these pieces together, I had never really thought of language as another barrier we have to overcome, or as another means of discrimination. Just because someone doesn’t speak the same way as you, what deems them less than you?

Our world is becoming increasingly global and if we still have these old ideas stuck in our heads that there’s only one ‘perfect’ way to speak and one perfect ‘dialect’ then we’re going to be holding a lot of deserving people back.

We’re all from different places, and perhaps English is not our first language, but the way we speak it and our own variations are what makes us unique. The subtle differences we share make the world interesting. So next time you hear someone speaking a different ‘English’ from you, don’t be so quick to judge, because we all speak in different ‘English-es’.

Have you ever experienced something like this? What are your thoughts on this subject? Let me know in the comments!

Little Miss Expat

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Multiple Moves – #ExpatWisdom – Elina

Leave a comment October 20, 2018 littlemissexpat

Hi everyone! Welcome back to another post in the Expat Wisdom series! This week I’m really excited to share the expat story of Elina (@justsoelina), which is quite similar to my own. Her experiences are raw and real, and I think her advice could be very useful for any other teenagers going through a move. Here’s a piece that she wrote for the Expat Wisdom project, I hope you enjoy it!

New Town Funk

I may not be an expat (though maybe one day, you never know!) but I do know what it’s like to move away from your home town and deal with homesickness. I recently moved 3,500 + km from the only place I had ever known to the other end of Australia. It was the scariest, happiest, and overwhelming and definitely the most forefeeling thing I have ever done.

But before we get into that lets back track a bit. I am now almost 16 and up until May of this year I had grown up in small country towns in north east, Victoria. I had moved many times before that, but all had been within an hour radius of each other. I loved growing up in small country towns and I wouldn’t have changed it for the world. But I had always wanted to move somewhere, bigger and different.

So when the opportunity arrived for me to do just that I jumped on it. I was so excited for the new adventure my Mum and I were about to embark on. I counted down the months, weeks and days until the day finally came that we left. I was so excited to leave that I didn’t really think much about how I was going to miss my home town and of course the people I was leaving behind. That is until the moment I said goodbye to my best friend and I actually left. Needless to say the first hour or so of the trip I was a total mess. And then the following days of our road trip I felt really strange and super anxious.

But after a while the excitement built up again and I couldn’t wait to get to my new home! The day FINALLY arrived that I made it to the place I would now call home. I was so happy and excited I thought I might burst. But I also had this overwhelming feeling as everything was so new and daunting. As everything around me seemed ginormous! The shopping centres, the city area, the schools etc. You name it, it scared me!

I had gone from this massive high, to a really bad low. I was missing my friends and the familiarity of my old town. And of course I felt awful for feeling this was because It was something I had wanted for years.

After a few days I started to settle into my new house, We started to explore our new town, spent time with our family and got to know some of our neighbours. Slowly my funk started to fade and I loved every moment of my new life.

Fast forward 4 months, I love my new home and everything feels more familiar and less daunting now.

The top things that helped me get out of the new town funk where:

Make my new room my room: This was such an important thing for me as my bedroom is my safe space/chill zone. So by adding my own touches to it, helped to make it feel homier.
Walk the dogs on a new track each day: When we first moved I was too scared to go off on my own as I was certain I’d get lost. But from walking my dogs in a new area each day, everything became more familiar. Now I know our area like the back of my hand, I may not be able to remember the street names (real life dory right here haha) But I am no longer at risk of getting lost anymore yay!
Face Time my friends: This was a complete life saver for the homesickness. As I knew that even though there may be distance between us, We still had each other’s back.
Explore Your New Town: Again things don’t seem so scary or daunting fi they are familiar. Go for a drive with your fam and take the time to explore your new town and maybe even do a few of the touristy things available.

I hope this post was able to help anyone dealing with the New Town Funk!

Feel free to check out my blog justsoelina.com

Or my Instagram @justsoelina

JustSoElina xx

3 breakfast spots to try in London

Leave a comment October 13, 2018 littlemissexpat

During summer I always go back to London for a few weeks, where my days are filled with exploring new quaint stores and restaurants. One of my favourite things to do during summer is to wake up early and go out for breakfast. In case you didn’t know, breakfast is my favourite meal of the day, so I’m always down to try new places. London is home to some of my favourite breakfast spots in the world, and in this blog post, I’m going to share 3 that I think you should try.

Granger & Co

Granger & Co have a few locations around London, but I’ve only ever visited the Notting Hill one. It’s one of the most popular breakfast spots in Notting Hill, so be sure to get there early if you don’t want to wait in line! All of the items on their menu are so fresh, and they have a lot of imaginative options. My all-time favourite, is their ricotta hotcakes, I’m drooling just thinking about them right now.

Andina Bakery

My family and I discovered Andina this summer, and we fell in love. Andina is also located in Notting Hill (although they do have other locations). It’s filled with the smell of freshly baked bread, and they display all of their baked goods on the counter, they look so inviting, you can’t help but try one. What I like about Andina is that their food is different from your regular breakfast options; they have a Peruvian inspired menu, and some of my favourite options are their corn cake and their artichoke and swiss chard pie, they’re so good! Whatever you order off the menu at Andina, you can see it being baked right in front of your eyes.

Farm Girl Cafe

Farm Girl Cafe is one of my go-to breakfast spots. Their light and fresh breakfast menu is perfect for the summer, but their wide array of lattes, such as the matcha latte, rose latte, charcoal latte etc… are the perfect fix for a cold autumn day. I’m slowly making my way through their drinks menu (my goal is to one day try them all!) and I would strongly recommend the charcoal and matcha lattes! I’ve visited their cafes in Notting Hill and on Carnaby street and I love them both. Be sure to try one of their smoothie bowls, or their avocado toast topped with strawberries!

Those are three of my favourite breakfast cafes in London! Be sure to let me know in the comments if you’ve tried any of these, and what your recommendations are!

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