Ten Days In: School, Appointments, & Hitting a Wall Abroad

My “Expat Mom” Honest Reality

This is a long, unfiltered reflection recorded ten relentless days after my kids’ first day at their new school abroad.

School started. Appointments followed. So did confusion, exhaustion, and the kind of mental load that doesn’t show up on a calendar.

Nothing in this video is polished or resolved. It’s me talking through what the aftermath actually feels like, when progress is happening (or not), but rest isn’t.

After re-watching and attempting to shorten it, I realized this is me in a full ADD spiral. If you know, you know.

Watch in pieces if you need to.

Side note: I planned to publish this after dropping the kids off at school this morning. This side note couldn’t be more on brand for some points in my video. So, naturally, our bus was… 41 minutes late. Although at this point, I’m not even sure we can call that “late” or if a new schedule was adopted and simply never announced to the masses 🤷🏼‍♀️

When our bus (11B) finally arrived at the 41-minute mark, we got on per the usual. I immediately noticed something was off. Every. single. passenger. was getting off – this was not per the usual.

Cue language-barrier confusion.

The driver was telling us to get off the bus. Why? No idea. I just stared at him, frozen, probably looking unwell. It finally clicked. He wasn’t confused. I was.

Luckily, the 11A pulled up right behind him and we, along with what felt like a million other people, promptly boarded that one.

It was absurd. Exhausting. And somehow perfectly aligned with everything I talk about in the video.

I tried to keep this video update short.
I did not succeed.

Enjoy.

[Here is part 1: First Day of School Abroad]