Expatriotical

Episode 46: What Saved My Expat Life in 2024

• Chandra Alley • Season 1 • Episode 46

Share episode

Before jumping into all things "New Year's", Chandra takes a minute to reflect on the things that were truly life-saving for her in the last year. There are practices, people, and definitely everyday things that are available to anyone. Listen in and walk away with ideas for making your 2025 a little bit better!

Plus stay tuned for our first ever repeat "Chan Select", it's totally worth the listen!


Like what you hear? Text and tell me!

"Live and Travel in the Know" with Expatriotical!

Bienvenue, Benvenuti, and Welcome to Expatriotical, the podcast for expats, travelers, and other adventurous souls. I’m Chandra Alley and after living as an expat with my husband and 4 children in two different countries for 6 years, I’ve learned the arts of pivoting during pitfalls, traveling tastefully for less, and soaking in amazing new cultures without losing your own.


Join me, as we dive into the joys and challenges of travel and the expat life in every episode!


Happy New Year and Bonne Année everybody! I'm super excited that you are back again this year in 2025 to listen to another episode of Expatriotical! But I'm not kidding myself and thinking that you're actually listening to this on January 1st, when it airs. You are busy! You may have things that you're doing to start the new year off today.


And you may have stayed up pretty late last night while ringing in the new year. And I'm also going to be really honest to say that this is not coming to you live on the 1st January. It is currently the second week of December, as I record this, and I really wanted to do an episode to talk about all of my intentions for the year and things that I would like to be looking forward to.


But relating that in an Expat fashion, while I'm currently trying to juggle getting all of the Christmas stuff finished up before we head to America to celebrate Christmas, well to be honest the brain power just isn't there right now.


So, I am going to reflect back on What Saved My Expat Life in 2024 instead. As I am writing this, there are eight things on the list, but like I mentioned just a second ago my brain is not functioning on all eight cylinders, so some things might pop in later or something might just get left off the list. But it's the thought that counts.


Number one on the list for What Saved my Expat Life in 2024 is my favorite market in France, and it's called Picard. You actually don’t say the “d” in French, but Picard. I did an entire Instagram reel on going shopping there, I know I have raved up and down about it, and I actually am going there shortly, as my daughter committed me to bringing one of their delicious chocolate cakes to her Christmas party tomorrow.


And to be totally frank with you, I don't want to make dinner tonight, so I'll probably pick up some of that too. And that is why Picard has been such an absolute lifesaver for me this year. It has bailed me out during really busy seasons by providing healthy and delicious dinners for my family.


It brought joy to me and my kiddos in the summertime with all of its delicious ice cream treats, it makes it to where I can add fresh frozen ingredients into my recipes like garlic, and basil, and cilantro, you name it!


And it gives me ideas for things that I don't even end up actually buying there, but want to try to make on my own.


I truly love it y'all, and that's why it's number one on the list.


The rest of the things are not necessarily in a sequential order, that one is for sure, so let's go ahead and jump to number two on the list, which is reading.


I know that's kind of a broad category, and I actually read in lots of different forms. I listen to audiobooks, sometimes I use my Kindle, and most recently I am reading the paperback version of Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia or (DELia) Owens . It was given to me by my friend Valerie after she finished reading it while she was on Safari in Africa. So not only have I enjoyed the beautiful imagery and story in this book, but I kind of like that this awesome hand-me-down book has seen a part of the world that I have not.


Reading in this form has given me an excuse to take a real lunch break instead of paying bills while I eat, and has honestly kept me up way past when I should go to bed because I am an absolute bookworm at heart and from a young age would stay up and read by the pilot light of my gas heater, so my mom wouldn’t know I was awake (sorry Mom), and sorry if your kids are listening everyone… and I know that that's terrible for your eyes, but I would get so involved in stories.


I am happy to say that I have a book light now, so my eyes are protected, but this habit has definitely resurfaced and while I love it, I know I need to reign it in a little bit before I get too sleep deprived. But again it has brought me a lot of joy and relaxation time.


The third thing on my list is friends. For people that know me really well, friends are super important to me. I won't go into the entire history of why, but I will say that friends are people that choose to stand by your side, they don't have to do it, but they do. And in this last season of my life, that has become even more true and even deeper. Through good times, and threw some really hard times that weren’t even directly related to me.


But to share the good parts, celebrating birthdays with friends, simply going to coffee with friends, doing activities with friends, have been such an incredible blessing in my life this year, and I'm super thankful for friends that I have near and far.


The fourth thing on the What Saved my Expat Life in 2024 list, is Zumba! This happens to be one of the recent activities that I have done with friends, and it has brought so much joy and happiness and sunshine into my life! Just this past Monday, my friend Sissi, who is a Zumba instructor (and you know her too, listen to Episode 5: Language is Key with Sissi Arellano to hear more if you haven’t met her there), she held another class and it was so needed for me.


It had been one of the darkest days that I've ever experienced, days here in Paris. I don't know if there was like a double layer of clouds or if they were just lying extra low, but it was dark and cold and windy almost all day and I have been dealing with a lot of stressful things that day, so realizing that I had that class to look forward on Monday night, made me so excited and really boosted my mood.


And then, when I went, just the camaraderie, energy, and let's just call it girl power (since it's for ladies at my kids school), was so uplifting and delightful! And I can't wait for the next one that's happening in January!


Number five on my list is coaching. And I kind of want to stop here to say that these last two items, Zumba, and coaching, are something that I talked about with my friend Heather in the bonus episode of my interview with her, when we talked about building community.


I cannot take any credit for starting anything, but when a dad that was involved in the Kids’ Saturday soccer group, wanted to start basketball as well, then Heather's husband, Dan, reached out to me and asked if I would be interested in coaching, as well as Chris, we said yes.


So at least two Saturdays a month we go to the school just before 9 o'clock and get ready to coach a bunch of second through fourth graders. And my youngest, Caleb, is there too, so he kind of gets coached a bit.


I have had the privilege of working with the girls that have signed up. And watching them learn and grow and get better at their skills has truly been such an honor for me. It is incredible what giving a little bit of your time and a little piece of yourself can do in the lives of young people. And as the old adage goes, “it's better to give than to receive”, and because of this I really feel like I might be getting more out of it than they are even!


The sixth thing on my list is prayer. I know that not everybody listening to this podcast has a faith practice, but because this is my list, I am sharing things that have saved my life this year. I have gone through a lot of challenges in the past year that have been absolutely out of or beyond my control.


And honestly, that tends to happen a lot as an expat. These particular things had very little to do with being an expat, but the practice of taking my cares and worries and talking to God about them, and trying my best, because I tend to be a little bit of a control freak, to let them go, has really saved my life.


Not like this is the first time that I've prayed about things, prayer has been a part of my life for years, but I'm just trying to become more cognizant of doing it more often. Even if I'm in the middle of something just offering something up and trying to let it go. And I think that it's helping me to have a lot more peace in my life.


The seventh thing on my list is not a practical thing, it's a person, and when he hears this, he's really not going to like it- because he is extremely private, but that seventh thing is my husband, Chris.


People that know Chris and I well, usually laugh at us, because we banter back-and-forth, and some people might even say bicker, as we are both very opinionated and competitive. But in this year, I think that we also have stepped in into truly being each other's biggest fans.


He has been so encouraging to me with this podcast, and my parenting, and a ton of other outside endeavors and has really just been someone that I can bounce ideas off of, and go to for advice, although I admittedly don't always take his advice. Like I said, I'm stubborn and a bit hardheaded, but he has just really stepped into that role of being my number one cheerleader even more so than he was in the previous 12 years of our marriage. And I have really felt it.


And now moving onto the eighth thing, I almost said that the eighth and final thing on my list was an app, but as I scanned through this tired brain, I came up with one more thing that has really been saving my life. So there will now be nine things on the list.


But the eighth thing on my list is the Folio- (That spelled F-O-L-I-O) digital wallet app. I had actually been using another app to store my Fidelity cards and things like that in, but when it was taken over by a pay-as-you-can Company, I decided to get rid of that because I didn't want that company to have my information.


So at first, I thought I would use Apple wallet, but unfortunately it doesn't allow you to put certain types of cards in it. So I started searching and I found the Folio app. Under the description in the App Store, it says, “scan and organize all your documents and cards in one app. Access  your essentials wherever you go, including your driver's  license, IDs, loyalty, and credit cards.”


Now I will not be putting my credit cards in there, I don't even do that in the Apple wallet, but after almost having my wallet, stolen recently, and getting the recommendation from my friend, Kim Ross, (who you’ve heard on the podcast before) who said she had been advised not to keep her residency card for France in her wallet. I decided to try this one so I could scan my Carte de Sejour, which is the French residency card, and then put the actual card in my safe at home.


And I found that the app had no problem scanning that card, along with my Picard card, my Monoprix card, my Costco card, and much more.


And having this app, also makes your wallet so much lighter, it's the bomb! I will try to link the Folio app in the show notes for this episode, and I also want to put out there that I am not an affiliate for this, and being a little bit of a conspiracy theorist I wouldn't recommend putting my credit cards on it although I know it's supposed to be super safe. But I just don’t want to be held liable for that if I recommend it to you, so of course, please use at your own discretion.


And the final thing on my What Saved my Expat Life in 2024 list, is photos (or are photos). I actually looked through the Photos app on my phone to try to come up with things that I would talk about (a few days ago) and at first I thought these photos would make me want to put travel down as a “what saved my life thing”, but I can't really say that travel saved my life this year. I did really love it, a lot, but I wouldn't say that it was a lifesaver.


I would say, however, that looking at the photos from those travels and remembering the good times and the wonderful family and friends that I saw during those trips. Or that came to visit us, or just from our daily life, looking at photos of my kids and things we were doing, photos, those photos, have been a real lifesaver!


Actually, I think it's a family culture thing, to like photos. My mom was always really big on keeping photo albums. And though some of those albums have been through fires and floods, and the quality of the photos may not be the best anymore, I still have a record of my entire life from birth to when I left for college.


Now my mom is no dummy, and had us start doing our own photo albums when we were old enough, probably in middle school, but that definitely instilled the value of being able to see your life when you maybe can't remember all of it. So I have continued that same tradition with my own family.


And my kids love looking at family photo books. In fact this morning, my oldest son, Carson, was asking me about the “2016 yearbook”. And I asked him which school he was talking about, and he said, “No the yearbook that's here in the house.”


And I told him, “oh no buddy, that's a photo book, the word yearbook specifically refers to photos that are compiled by a school.” But regardless, that lets you know how much my kids look at them and how special it is for all of us.


And so the ninth thing on the list today actually leads me to a repeat “Chan Select”. Because if you're new here and if you didn't start at episode one and work your way through, you may not know about this amazing photographer here in Paris that I had a chance to interview last summer. Her name is Katie Donnelly and she is the owner and founder of Katie Donnelly photography.


And at the end of November, my family and I had the pleasure of taking family photos, and I took some headshots for my website, which will hopefully be coming soon everybody, with one of Katie's fabulous photographers, Maria.


Our experience with Katie and her team from start to finish was fantastic! Maria was amazing to work with, of course the whole thing was set up by my friend Mallory, whom if you’ve listened to the podcast- you know from Episode 20: Learning to Pivot with Mallory Steinbach, and she also works with Katie, and the post production process was on point!


You'll be able to see some of the incredible photos that Maria took for us, and again I just have to say that she was absolutely amazing to work with because working with three little boys and a stressed out Mom that wanted them not to get dirty, and that is no small feet and she was so chill and relaxed and joyful the whole time! Anyway, you will be able to see these photos on my Instagram page for the post for this episode. And you can also link through to Katie's page as well.


I will be sure to include Katie’s website, and Instagram handle in the show notes for this episode and as always, I am not an affiliate, just a photo fan!


And I may be doing this in backwards order, but let's jump to our quote of the day. I wanted to do a quote that had something to do with the new year, and if I'm really honest, a lot of the quotes that you find when you look up “New Year's quotes” are super cheesy. But this one I think is pretty practical. It comes from Michael Josephson, who said, “Approach the new year with resolve to find the opportunities hidden in each new day.”


And my prayer for you, for us all, is that we have the openness of mind to do just that, to look for the opportunities, the good things, that may be hidden from plain sight, but they are there in each new day.


Wishing you all an amazing start to your new year and a great rest of your day! Before I go, I just want to ask that if you happen to be on Instagram, look me up! Especially because I'm putting those photos from Katie Donnelly Photography on there and, not to brag on myself, cause I may or may not have had a great hair day, it just depends on what picture you look at, but they're pretty amazing, and Katie and her team did a great job.


And while you're there, on Instagram, if you would please click the follow button, my handle is @Expatriotical, that’s E-X-P-A-T-R-I-O-T-I-C-A-L, I would really appreciate it!


That's it for today everyone, I'll meet you back here again next week and until then this is Chandra Alley reminding you to “Live and Travel in the Know” with Expatriotical.