Doom and gloom has been the name of the game since March, so in an attempt to flip the script, I turned to Instagram. I wanted to put a positive spin on what seemed like a hopeless 2020 and a sea of negativity, so I asked my followers who live abroad to share anything positive that’s come out of this pandemic in their lives. Here’s what five of them had to say.
Living abroad: Sharing the pandemic’s silver lining
1. Laura in France
The pandemic has caused me to think about the things that are to come in many more ways than just how to save money.
Since March 2020, the world has become a different place. There are people whom we can’t see, places that we can’t go, or things that we can’t do. Heavy losses and suffering go on every day.
I am a positive person and try hard to see how a situation can serve me, even if it’s been difficult. There are examples along the route to how I came to live in France that, at the time, were difficult to bear and hurt a great deal — but being here almost two years later I see that they informed how I think about my life and the process of moving to another country.
When lockdown began, we thought it might be for a fortnight. Here in France, the rules were strict — carrying our paper justification detailing the reasons that we might have to leave home was mandatory and delinquency incurred heavy financial penalties.
Looking back, I could not have imagined that we would still be here, months on, no longer under lockdown [has resumed since this was submitted] but certainly very limited in how we live.
This curtailing of our outward lives turned my focus inward as it did many people. My kitchen was clean, and the garden had never looked better! However, I was also thinking of ways in which I could improve the way that I ran my home to support my frugal lifestyle.
One of the significant changes which we implemented was having our basement insulated on the French government’s 1€ scheme. Another was meal planning and working out longer-term preservation methods to reduce unnecessary shopping trips, which at the time — and sometimes even still — felt quite risky.
We cleared out our storage areas at home and installed a new 300-litre chest freezer, so that with this newfound time on my hands I could cook and bake frugally and freeze batches of food for future months which I envisaged being leaner on either time or money. It also means that I can now pick up short shelf-life items which are price-reduced in the supermarket, and store them for future meals and treats.
The pandemic has caused me to think about the things that are to come in many more ways than just how to save money. But for now, using this unexpected time to adapt has been a useful and frugal silver lining.
-Laura Harley of Frugal France
2. Marie in the USA
Despite not getting to France this summer, the kids have made giant progress in French and they now switch to French more easily.
I’m Marie. I’m French and I’ve been living in Michigan, USA, for over 15 years. I have two kids ages six and four and I’ve been speaking to them in French since birth. It turns out to be quite the challenge because my husband doesn’t speak French well and the whole community around only speaks English. So French has become what is commonly referred to as the “minority language.”
Being the only one with the responsibility of passing on French, I often feel suffocated by English. It’s a struggle. Even though both kids understand me, they often reply in English. They also have way more vocabulary in English than French.
When everything shut down in March, I suddenly found myself with the kids full-time and without my day job. As my husband continued to work, the kids’ language exposure shifted and French began to take over. Despite not getting to France this summer, the kids have made giant progress in French and they now switch to French more easily. I’m cherishing this benefit as we continue on the French journey.
-Marie of French Bias
3. Amy in France
Exercising six days a week has changed my life. It has helped not only my physical health but also my mental health.
I was never one to exercise as an adult. I never understood people when they said how good they felt or how they HAD to exercise. A friend died this spring, someone younger than me. He was such a bright light and such a giving person. He also made unhealthy choices in his diet and exercise. This made his recovery very difficult.
My father died in March while in hospice. My parents were married for 60 years and they had a wonderful marriage. They traveled, talked, went to happy hour, and held hands.
I want that for my marriage, but I know I’m not going to get it if I continue to make my unhealthy choices with diet and exercise. We moved in mid-February to a small village where there is no fast food. When I lived in a bigger city, I would often “treat” myself with burgers, pain au chocolat, and fries but now it’s not possible. With the pandemic, there is no eating out so I cook every meal we eat.
The biggest change came when we put a home gym in our home. My husband had surgery and wanted to be able to rehab. When we moved, we knew there was not a gym close. We had an extra room, so we made a home gym. Then when the pandemic happened and going to a public gym was not possible, we were able to exercise at home.
Exercising six days a week has changed my life. It has helped not only my physical health but also my mental health. I work out with my husband and we really love starting our day together.
-Amy Speers
4. Claudia in the USA
I’ve chosen to enjoy the present. Yes, to enjoy the happiness and the love that I already have, because it’s better than any future I could imagine.
In January, I told myself that “2020 will be my best year EVER!” And it started off great. I did bold things, I was pumped and then, the pandemic began. But I refused to give up on the idea that this would be a great year. I had decided to take action and pursue my dreams.
And there is the catch! The word “dreams” can be very vague, so the first step was to embark on a personal discovery journey. With things as they were, I had a lot of unexpected extra time on my hands. So I took a ton of courses aligned with my personal interests. They were a good distraction from the pandemic, but in a silly way, my self imposed workload became quite stressful. Meanwhile, my mood and well-being were taking a bit of a toll.
October arrived and I was feeling down because this year is “almost” over, the pandemic continues to run and “my dreams” still aren’t clear to me. I know it’s about the journey and it’s been fun and great to get to learn so many subjects, but I’ve felt overwhelmed and I wished I could just take a break…
And then it hit me! Of course I can take a break!! What am I fretting about? I’ve got health and I’ve got all the love my heart ever sought out, so why not take a pause and let go of hard expectations and pressure about the future? I finally came to my senses.
To answer your question my dear Diane, YES something positive has come out of 2020. I’ve chosen to enjoy the present. Yes, to enjoy the happiness and the love that I already have, because it’s better than any future I could imagine.
And on a fun note: I’ve been calling 2020 the Year Of The Dog, because after seven months of pretty much constant observation, I can say with a 100% certitude that my pets have been the most happy residents around the house. They are and always have been so sweet and funny and now they are totally spoiled, getting love and attention 24/7. If they could speak they would say that 2020 is THE BEST YEAR EVER and that brings me joy as well.
-Claudia Arriagada, @claudia_a_arriagada on Instagram
5. Christine in Italy
Though this year wasn’t positive in any respects, the silver lining of it all is that we saw our guests happier, more relaxed, and saw that reflected in ourselves and at home.
I’m Christine, originally from the USA (northern NJ/NYC) and now I live in Monterosso Al Mare in the Cinque Terre National Park of Italy.
My husband and I own and operate (translation: live in) a small restaurant on the beach in a world famous village. Our summer season has always been hectic, 16-hour or more days, six days a week, for eight months a year.
It takes a toll physically and mentally on you, and since I work with my husband, it’s even more challenging. The restaurant is our passion, and it encompasses all aspects of our life. His parents own and run a Michelin-rated restaurant next door to our more informal bistrot, so it’s truly a family business.
We are so lucky that we always have a line out the door, people waiting to sit down, but it is a lot of stress to keep a restaurant full and our guests happy. We’d talked for years about slowing down our pace. Eliminating tables, changing our hours, but it always seemed absurd for a restaurant that is popular and busy to decide to be less so. With the birth of our vivacious little girl 21 months ago, our life priorities started to change, but we still kept going on like we always had in the restaurant.
Covid changed that for us.
With the social distancing laws in Italy, we wound up losing half our tables. We couldn’t have any type of assembly in front of our restaurant, so we started taking reservations. And because tourism dropped so dramatically, we had time to stop, breathe, and chat with our now mostly Italian guests (as opposed to the North Americans and other foreigners that have always been attracted to our village).
Our “farm to table” approach didn’t need to be explained to tourists that didn’t understand why we don’t have peaches in the winter or broccoli in the summer, how you can “run out” of a locally caught amberjack, and why not all restaurants serve pizza.
Italians started exploring their own country more, and we have never had such positive feedback from customers who appreciated all the hard work we put into locally sourcing our products.
Though financially we have taken a huge hit, we had to make some serious decisions that have positively changed our lives that we might have never had the courage to make otherwise. Less business, yes, but we can spend time with our baby girl, family dinners at home, and we have less stress at work and in general.
We even took a vacation this summer and went to Tuscany for a few days, our first vacation during the summer time — a period where we normally don’t even have time to eat, let alone take a few days off and relax.
Covid has decimated the restaurant and tourism industry in Italy and we are still uncertain what the future holds for us, but next season we are going to keep some of the changes that Covid forced us to make. Less tables, a calmer service, and an emphasis on explaining what goes into every plate rather than trying to turn a table.
Though this year wasn’t positive in any respects, the silver lining of it all is that we saw our guests happier, more relaxed, and saw that reflected in ourselves and at home.
Christine Mitchell of La Cantina di Miky
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Thank you so much for sharing, ladies! Tell me below, has anything positive come out of the pandemic for you? Are you staying hopeful?
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That’s a lovely series with great (yet realistic, which I appreciate) messages.
I haven’t been one of these people who “found themselves” through the lockdown but positive moments have been:
1) Spending part of the summer in France with my son and without my husband for the first time (we weren’t sure he’d be allowed to travel to France as a non-citizen when we bought the tickets). It was a unique experience because it was a true French immersion for Mark and it brought us closer. It’s cool when Feng is here too but dynamics are different.
2) All these moments of support with friends, clients and perfect strangers. People can be suprisingly helpful.
Still… I want it to end at one point 😆
If one must absolutely keep track on the subject of which countries are winning the Covid-shot Game, then this is the best link in the matter:
https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?
One must scroll-down to the list of countries.
France is doing OK, better than the US in terms of who has had two shots – France 69% and the US 58%. Both are in the “top-Ten” in the listing. (The colour-code distinguishes partial and total two-shot coverage.)
The source (Our World in Data) is highly genuine in its data tracking and is (imho) the best there is.
Still, France is now suggesting that we all get a third-shot, which should be available in December.
I am so glad I live in Australia with zero new cases today