Tiny Expats blog is 1 year old – still tiny, but steadily growing :) Here’s a round up of what I did here during the 1st year of blogging and plans for the future:

When I originally started writing for Tiny Expats, my main motivation was to share any useful info I come across for expat families living in Pardubice, CZ. It was hard to research anything about life with kids here as there’s not much info in English online. Hence my Pardubice Directory and Everyday Life in Pardubice sections. Our travel notes and photos from CZ went into Trips in Czech Republic category, also in a hope that our reviews would come in useful for any expats moving to CZ.

What happened, though, was that I met so many expats not only in CZ, but from around the world thanks to this blog! Tiny Expats grew into something more than just Pardubice reviews – it became a collection of our expat and travel experiences.

I started writing posts for the Trailing Spouse Stories blog crawl, sharing trailing spouse experiences with other ladies. It’s been really interesting to see how others deal with similar expat issues. If you’re a trailing spouse – check out this category! In the end of each of my posts, you can find links to posts written by other participating bloggers on the same topic. The final post for this series comes up on blog tomorrow!

I started my own link up/ blog event – Show Your World. Anyone can link up their post about an interesting place to my prompt post, which I publish every 1st Friday of a month. I then share links to all of the participating stories in a round up on the 3rd Friday of a month. Check out Show Your World section for beautiful photos and stories from around the world!

Over the year, I’ve written some guest posts about relocation with kids, started writing for BlogExpat, posting there some of my own tips and those given by other expat mothers in interview for my Expat Kids section there. I thought, I should collect all of those posts in one place as they might be useful for some families, who are just planning to start their expat journey. This is how Relocation with Kids Tips section was formed.

I shared stories from our previous expat experiences in UK, Germany, China and Russia; wrote posts about our travels; posted notes sent to me from my sister living in Shanghai. To make sure that those posts are not just lost forever in archives, I sorted them and they can be all found in Posts by Countries section – just pick a country you fancy and there might be something of interest for you ;)

If there’s something I want to write about, which does not necessarily fit into expat or travel category, it’s all filed under Random Thoughts – feeling adventurous? Browse that category, who knows what you might find ;)

As soon as we started planning our relocation from CZ to UK, I filed anything written about it to Tiny Expats moving to UK section. Anything connected to planning a relocation, any random issues coming up with it, kids adjusting – all goes there. My husband lives and works in UK since August already and I’m still with the kids in CZ. How much longer that would take? No idea. Another expat issue – dealing with unknown without going mental :)

From time to time I ask other bloggers to share their wisdom with me and you can find some very interesting posts in a Guest Blogger section.

Here’s also a list of blog events and link up parties that I like to take part in – check them out, they are fun!

Expat Linky
My Expat Family
Writer’s Quote Wednesday
Weekly Small Pleasures
Everyday Mom

I think, that pretty much sums up what Tiny Expats is about – hope, you like what you can find here :) I will be very happy to see you coming back again – there’s still lots to come!

First of all, our move to UK – will I get a visa and get to join my husband in UK or will we have to remain in a trendy guest relationship? Will you read about our adventures in UK or will it be more of ‘Explore CZ’ year? (Excited laugh with some hysterical notes).

As the long term plans are pretty vague right now, let’s just discuss what you can expect in November:

– Show Your World (of course) – I will tell you why I love Regents Park in London and you’re all welcome to link up your stories!
– It will be our 9th wedding anniversary on the 3rd of November. I will tell you why we planned two weddings and why the first one was in Moscow.
– Final Trailing Spouse Stories blog crawl entry
– Holidays and events our little tiny expats have been to – highlighting our experiences and countries of residence
– ExpatKids on BlogExpat – will be posting some more tips for helping your kids with a relocation
– Letters from my sister – Singapore
– Starting the 2nd year of blogging – introducing a Throw Back Thursday and sharing a popular old post once a month

and more ;) See you around!