2009

We will miss lots of things from our US life - the boys loved HALLOWEEN here!

chitc

hat VIEWS

NEWS

REVIEWS

Pittsburgh and its people allowed us to live the American Dream for a wee while“Pittsburgh?”would come the reply from friends and family when we told them of our plans to uproot and spend a couple of years living as expats in the USA.

The implication was unambiguous. “Why would you?” Famously described as “Hell with the lid off” as recently as 30 years ago, you might have well wondered if we’d gone mad, but for us the pros seemed to outweigh the cons and on the whole I’d say we were proved right.

Uprooting with two young children to a new home, in a new country, and with a spouse starting a new job wasn’t without its challenges. We thought moving to an English-speaking country might have minimized some of these challenges but it turns out I might as well have been speaking Double Dutch a lot of the time….though as soon as we learned to replace ‘pavement’ with ‘sidewalk’, ‘buggy’ with ‘stroller’, we were on our way.

When I pictured life here I wasn’t sure what to expect. Certainly Pennsylvania (PA) appealed. It was rural, lush and the climate seemed good (it appeared to have four definit ive seasons!) We thought the opportunity would offer us the outdoor family life we loved and there appeared to be plenty to do in Pittsburgh and the

surrounding areas to keep us busy. And in some ways, at this stage in our lives location wasn’t hugely relevant – you do the same thing with young kids wherever you live. With Tristan ten months old and Ethan newly three, I had given up work to be a full-time stay at home mum. I could bring up the boys anywhere and surely it would be a great adventure for us all in another country?

Sure was! The first three months were seriously hard work. Confined to compact temporary accommodation with two little boys to entertain and the joys of getting to grips with PA’s rules and regulations for buying cars, finding houses, friends and some kind of support network tested us to the limit at times. Even finding a shop that sold both beer and wine was impossible!Eventually we found a house to rent in Sewickley, and things were looking up.

Sewickley was perfect for family life. It’s undoubtedly a “bubble”, but it was a bubble we enjoyed bursting in and out of with ease, as we enjoyed what the region and the rest of the country had to offer.

For young families Sewickley is the kind of safe-haven, archetypal American town you see in the movies. Picket fences, a main street, coffee shops and mums doing the school run or going to toddler groups - of which Penguin Books on a Wednesday was our staple! Sewickley and its people welcomed us with open arms and we loved living there.

When you’ve lived in one place for most of

your life you can’t help but take the familiar things for granted. In a new country the simple things can become monumental challenges. Grocery shopping, for example, could be an exercise in exasperation! Endless products and choices but never quite the ones you want. Asking for ‘coriander’ and ‘courgettes’, I’d be met with a vacant stare from the nearest unsuspecting grocery store assistant. But these differences are not insurmountable – and you soon learn the benefits of Google Translate!

America is huge. Pennsylvania alone is about the size of Scotland. Despite having made several trips across the country, I still find it hard to get my head around the sheer scale of the place. But for all its vastness, the welcome and genuine interest in us has been universal ly posi t ive wherever we’ve travelled. The people are endlessly enthusiastic and we’ve made some lifelong friends. There’s this sense of positivity, a sense that anything’s possible with the right enthusiasm, the right amount of drive, the right people. Coming from Scotland, where we are generally shyer, and more reserved, I must admit it’s been rather refreshing! If I could bottle one thing and take it back to Scotland it would be a little bit of this spirit. That and the climate!

Advice for new expat families? Don’t be afraid to ask for help, there are people and groups to support you and WINC is definitely one that I wish had been around when we embarked on our USA adventure. Thank you America from the Wallis clan!

Sally’s Sewickley: (Clockwise) Dirk, Sally, Ethan and Tristan Wallis meet up for a farewell lunch and chat before heading back to Bonnie Scotland and the exciting challenge of building their own home in DeesideWords, photo and design, Shona Byrne

ISSUE 1: NOV ’13

FRIENDS ... FALL COLORS ... AMERICAN FRIENDLINESS AND CAN DO

ATTITUDE ... SEWICKLEY ... CHEAP FUEL ... CHOICE OF ICE CREAM FLAVORS ...

EXPLORING THE COUNTRY ... DINING OUTSIDE ...OH, AND THE CLIMATE !