Blog of the month - March 2006

Picture's Legend: It was taken last year in Tarifa Spain. The beaches are incredible down there. It's a surfer's paradise - and you can see why!

Shortcut

Shortcut is a European city & travel blog written in English. It's for people who live in Europe or  plan to travel to Europe and want to know what's going on behind the scenes. This is the blog to browse for some opinionated writing on local living and / or practical travel links. We've now got 12 cities on the roster and the topics covered range from lifestyle to business, entertainment and local culture. There's even weekly events calendar listing interesting things happening across European cities and travel guides with tips on where to stay and where to go. 

The team is growing fast, so it's difficult to describe everyone and do everyone justice. But you can find bios and photos of almost everyone on our team page.  http://www.shortcut.squarespace.com/team-and-credits/
They're all expats actually! We've got Americans, Brits, Germans, South Americans, .....When I was looking for contributors I realized expats offered fresh, irreverent perspectives, which is what I wanted for the blog. I have only met one of the blogger on the shortcut team in person: Sabine who writes about Copenhagen. I hope to meet the others some day. We're now a team of 12 regular contributors, but there's also an in house Cartoonist, Xander Mellish, and my friend Alexander who handles IT. 
It's a very diverse team, but most contributors have their own city blogs, so make sure to check them out. 

When did you decide to go and live abroad? Is it your first time or are you a "serial expat"?
I went abroad when I was 20. I left Switzerland to move to New York, talk about culture shock. Yes, I am a serial expat. Partly, that's because although Swiss born, I'm actually half Spanish and half Italian: I was born an expat! After seven years in New York I started moving again: Germany, Denmark, China.  I lived in Beijing and Shanghai. Then back to Denmark where I met my husband to be. For the moment we've chosen to live here. Copenhagen is cold in the winter, but it's a fantastically beautiful city and a great place to spend the summer. That said, we may well move. We spent half a year in Spain last year and definitely want to buy a house there at some point.

The place where you live: how would you describe it? What do you like the most about it? What do you do there (optional)? Do you miss anything from your homeland? How is/was the cultural shock?
I love the aesthetics in Copenhagen. It's a a thoughtfully laid out town. Also it's a city, things happen, but it's manageable. You can navigate on a bike and get everywhere. After living in these megacities like Shanghai and New York it's a relief not to have to fight my way to the supermarket. I don't really have a hometown, the only thing that comes close is New York and yes I do miss New York: the intellectual stimulation is what i miss most and the vibrant dance scene, which Copenhagen just can't match.

Can you tell us a little bit more about Shortcut?
I started Shortcut in early 2005. I was browsing city blogs and I couldn't find one that bundled European cities. As a serial expat I like to know what's going on in different places and optimally to get that information in one place. That's why I started it and the underlying purpose has stayed the same. I've been lucky with the team; people are really dedicated and write interestingly on interesting topics. I do spend quite some time on the blog; we just recently redesigned it and made the navigation simpler; and it takes time of course to find the right contributors (we're still adding cities, please contact me if you'd like to blog about your city). I also interview different people about once a month ( http://www.shortcut.squarespace.com/citizen-journal/ )  and we showcase photobloggers like Lars Mathiassen this month ( http://www.shortcut.squarespace.com/display/ShowGallery?moduleId=499308 )

What do you think about expat blog?
I think I registered shortly after it launched, but I can't remember when that was, sometime in 2005? I thought it was a great idea, I wish there had been an expat blog directory when I started expatting around ten years ago :-) You can get very sharp insights on life "out there" from reading some of these blogs and spare yourself unnecessary grievances!

Any 'memories of an expat' you would like to share with other bloggers? Your best souvenir? Or maybe your worst experience?
Hm. I think my worst experience was ending up working at a hair-raisingly corrupt Chinese publishing company when I lived in Shanghai. Of course I had no clue what was going on, but apparently it involved both the Beijing and Shanghai government, so definitely not good news. I thought it was a good idea to work for a local company, but in hindsight I would recommend to stick to more familiar terrain - especially in China. There's a lot of hype about it, but on the ground things are pretty muddled still. It also depends on how much energy you have to deal with culture shock. If you're  a serial expat you eventually get somewhat depleted.

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