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The Time of Your Life… Or a Vintage Survival Story From an Expatriate?
Frank Kelly
http://www. Info@ezmoneypress.com
It wasn’t too long ago the answer to this question would be a resounding yes… at least to the first part. The survival part is still being dealt with.
It seemed like such a short time ago, right after 9/11 That I picked up and headed to Europe . I did it in high spirits with a vision of retirement and an easy lifestyle. It may have been a midlife crisis or old age crisis. Either way I was ready. I was primed because while I was married, my wife and I owned a travel agency. We took advantage of every affordable trip to Europe we could mange. I got a taste and was exposed to the very civil lifestyle Europeans seem to enjoy.
The advent of 9/11 certainly helped make the decision. It totally blew me away. I had an office in Midtown and the most eerie and surreal moments came in the immediate aftermath. For days and weeks after the event…the phones simply didn’t ring and when dialing out there was silence. It was really mind blowing and depressing until I got a life changing call.
It was my private line and I thought maybe it was one of my kids or ex-wife trying to reach me. Surprise… it was from a buddy who I had the pleasure of vacationing with in Europe several years before. While there we fantasized about opening a bar and retiring as ‘world class citizens’ and having a business support our every whim. This was it… …Deep in my brain, I knew this was it. There was no real convincing necessary. As you just read, the combination of factors outlined above just about decided for me. I ask a few obvious questions as to where, when and how, all the while picturing myself already being there.
The events that followed can only be remembered as a series dizzying flights, endless negotiating and way too much adrenaline flowing for one person. Excitement took on a different meaning. The dream was becoming a reality. The plan took on its own inertia and rapidly gained momentum.
In truth we had no real plan… no extensive research and no business strategy. We figured all we had to do was find a decent location and go with it. We were two ex New Yorkers, with plenty of energy and chutzpa to pull this off. What we wanted was a place to party every night and money rolling in. Can you think of a better way to do this? A bar seemed to be the ideal vehicle for doing this. And it was. We settled on a location and opened on New Years Eve.
Of course the logistics of this were immense. My partner being married to a European citizen was actually there before I was. Before I could make the jump official, I had to settle my personal affairs. Part of this effort consisted of taking inventory of everything I owned. As I began I started to wonder, how the hell am I going to do this? It was amazing what material goods and junk I accumulated over the years. It’s like George Carlin use to say in one of his more famous skits called “stuff". “Stuff" is just there. It has no function, no real value and all it is doing is taking up space. All my possession with few exceptions could be classified as “stuff". “Stuff" I could easily leave behind or completely do without.
One of those exceptions was my watch collection.
So I pack the so called worth while “stuff" and headed to Europe . It was great, the first two years; all I needed to do was to show up at the bar to meet and greet folk and then take off…Take off to some wondrous European outpost. In fact I had it down pat. I would meet and greet on the weekends and take off on a Monday for my short mini vacations. What a life? This was it… an expatriate living out his fantasy. It was almost everything one could imagine, a real dream come true… a real fantasy given life by a bunch of ex- new Yorkers who would do just about anything to party and make money.
But as the saying goes ‘all good things come to an end’. For reasons which are too long to explain, my partner had to leave. This was both good and bad. The good, I now owned the business outright and didn’t have to split the profits. The bad, I now had to spend a heck of a lot more time managing the place.This was not fun, not my idea of retiring in a civil manner in Europe . The work was tedious and exhausting. Coming home at 5 in the morning every night was not my idea of living like a ‘gentleman’. Needless to say I had to move on.
Four years later, I am now semi established, have a basic understanding of the language, new friends and very much into this lifestyle…simply put I want to stay.
The problem of course is what to do now? How does one maintain his or her lifestyle as an expatriate?
As a foreigner you don’t have many choices. Typically you wind up in a city where a different language is spoken and the labor laws don’t allow you to work. So what does one do? Most of the people I met while owning the bar were expatriates and had one or more ways for survival. One of the best ways was teaching… teaching English. You either do it one to one or you teach in a school. The demand is good and the bucks are decent. Some others I know got married to foreigners and this allowed them to work within the system. I for one never liked grammar and certainly was not about to get married again.
There is another way, a way which transcends borders and allows one to work in any city in the world. It almost sounds like a cliché now… but that way is the internet. As an ex New Yorker, and one who is very familiar with the ways of survival, I had to do something. I always managed to use my knowledge of a businesses or things I had done in my past. One of those things was my passion for vintage watches. As I mentioned briefly in the beginning of this article, I had a watch collection which was not considered “stuff". This “stuff" actually helped me pay off my debts and invest in the bar.
It’s really ironic, because on my mini excursions throughout Europe , aside from the major sight seeing, I always gravitated towards watch stores and watch makers. I would get to see and sometimes purchase a watch I would never see in America . This was fantastic. So in a way I never stopped doing what I always did. Collecting and selling watches.
I now found a way to survive in Europe through a passion I had. In fact that passion with the help of the internet has turned into a steady income. Because of my knowledge and passion for timepieces I wrote several manuals on how to collect and sell watches for a profit. These guides are sold and distributed using the internet. If you have the slightest interest in watches, go here to see more of the story.
I continue to collect and sell both privately and publicly through Ebay and other sites.
Yes indeed the old cliché of using the internet should be considered by all expatriates as a means for survival.
As an expatriate and someone who has experienced both the joy and pain of trying to survive in a foreign land I urge all of you to consider what you know and what your past experiences are. Capture those experiences and shared them with the rest of us.
Here’s to surviving and having the time of your life.
Cheers.
www.classicwatchcompany.com
Article submitted Tuesday, July 15, 2008
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