Expat Vibes

Starting over in a new country looks adorable on TikTok — fairy lights, flat whites, and “new chapter” captions.In real life, your GPS cries more than you do, and the supermarket feels like an exam you didn’t study for. Nobody warns you how lonely it gets before it gets better.How the silence after a video call hits harder than homesickness.How you can feel completely invisible while standing in the middle of a packed train. Your confidence takes shots you didn’t see comin

ou know you’re becoming Dutch when you start arguing with yourself about whether cycling in the rain is actually that bad… or if you’re just being a dramatic South African with unresolved weather trauma.Spoiler: it’s both, and also, no one told your eyelashes they signed up for icicles. I still remember my first winter here: sprinting to the bus stop with frozen eyebrows, clutching my scarf like a portable duvet, thinking, “Nee man, this is not weather, this is an extreme spo