South African Embassy Friends – Over here we live like kings! …

We were based among the rolling lush green hills and mountains of South Korea. My friend from church  was from South Africa and taught at a local village Hogwon English school while I was teaching at the local university in a nearby city. She said, “Well let’s get on with it … how about skip down with us to Seoul for a visit. We can stay at my friend’s house from the South African Embassy. So my wife and I said sure and off we went. Seoul is a large metropolis of 10 or so million folks. It is an ultra modern city covered with towering glassy apartments that are quite expensive. But our embassy friend, one of zillions we would meet overseas, lived in a sprawling small mansion with a zillion rooms to spare. It was a fun visit. And she said to us, “Over here we live like kings, but back home we live just like everyone else!” I marvelled at the remark, but it pretty much sums up my life over here overseas.

Everyone has a maid, nanny or chef?

It is nice to come home after work to a perfectly clean home with a steaming hot meal and a cheerful smiling spouse who organised it all via our house nanny-maid-chef. Over the years we have gone through a number of nannies and maids. They come from all over the place – the countryside, small villages and the like. The stories they tell are sometimes idyllic or sad, but they all have been happy to come to the big city and to find their dreams. Our present helper’s husband also lives in the city as a construction worker and they rent a small place nearby. Their 3 kids stay back at the home village with grandma as they work here to support the family. She often prays with us at meals.

Every day like clock work she arrives at our home at 7:50 a.m and heads home just before 6:00 p.m. with 4 days off per month. First she changes into her cooking and cleaning clothes, fluffs and makes the beds, cleans the washrooms, washes the clothes, sweeps and mops all the floors, folds and puts away the dry clothes, tidies and dusts, and puts away all our daughter’s books and toys, runs errands to pick up deliveries, runs off to the market to pick up household items, fruits, vegetables and meat, cooks all day, and washes all the dishes and so on and so on until the clock chimes 6:00.

Our other maid does much the same but at grandma’s house where she takes care of them as the grandparents are getting old and grandpa is wheelchair bound. Nursing homes are still not quite fashionable but live-in maids are! Not bad for life as an accidental millionaire?? 🙂

How Much Does Your’s Cost – Cost Comparison Back Home

Having said all that the cost of hired help overseas is generally affordable. Our maid-chefs?    … run around $600 dollars per month and not only that, but that is regular salary for them here. They get paid more than taxi drivers.

The cost could easily hit $3,600 per month back home comparatively if you calculated 60 hrs per week at $15 dollars per hour etc … That is like 500 % more or a savings of 500 %. Wow just wow! So you can see in many cases living overseas can mean you can splurge like royalty for a fraction of the cost.

Charity Banquets

Lets just say endless chandeliers in 5 star hotels gets a bit common like eating in McDonald’s – almost! 🙂 Not to mention Christmas parties and other end of year festivities …  🙂

Teachers with Chauffeurs?

It is odd, but whether they be school shuttle buses, tuktuks, bicycle taxis, or chauffeurs with their own private cars, the sky is the limit. You name it, I or my colleagues have tried it around the world.

Indian Embassy Friends

When you work overseas in international schools or businesses, you are always working with embassy spouses or bumping into embassy dudes … who are actually just like you and me, but live even more like kings seeing everything goes on the country’s tab.

We ran into this a million times. One of my coworker’s spouse was a big wig at the Indian Embassy and so like invited us over to their embassy pad – Wow! – I mean the place was Wow! for dinner with their chefs and maids and a table long enough to entertain a soccer team or two.

The outreach opportunities for meeting folks from around the world is endless! … and exciting, I might add!!!!

Free Flights Home

One of the perks of global expats or at least for most overseas folks is free flights home. International companies and schools actually pay you to go home during the holidays and if that means around the planet, then that is exactly what they do.

Free Travel Around the World for PD

I have flown around Asia for professional development workshops and training. It is often possible to double up things by bringing family and/or getting extensions for a few days by paying the extra expenses out of pocket. This works better during holidays or weekends, but all you need to pay is the extra expenses – THE FLIGHTS ARE FREE! 🙂 … This summer I timed some PD for Berlin,  Germany! Will keep you posted!

5 Star Hotels

I had never stayed in a 5 star hotel before but when your biz or family pays for it – why not! This past summer we had the chance to do so in Tokyo and Dalian – but this time on our dime … the life is rubbing off on me. The Dalian Castle Hotel is on the Pacific Ocean and was amazing – that one was FREE!

The Sister-In-Law

I have married a wonderful wife and have an interesting  extended family – saving that for a later post! Suffice it to say my sister-in-law treats us to first class flights and holidays when the mood hits her! 🙂 They have a fleet of cars, drivers and maids! It is nice to have a Bentley or two…! 🙂

Free House

Whatttttt? Yes you have heard it here first!!! Expats, even the poorer ones are often treated to rent free housing!!!! Forget about buying or renting, like I mean it is free and a done deal … fully paid for by your company or embassy!!!

The outreach opportunities for meeting folks from around the world is endless! … and exciting, I might add!!!!

So that is it! What do you think? Maybe you have similar stories to tell. Feel free to sign and up and share right here. 🙂