Ask an Expat: Any questions for me?
japra | Sep 03, 2009 | Comments 19
I thought I’d start a new Thursday feature on this blog–”Ask an Expat”. It occurred to me that you all might have some specific questions about expat living that I’ve not covered on here. If you leave your questions in the comments for this post, I’ll collect them and post my answers next Thursday. Then if there are more questions, we’ll keep going.
To start things off, here’s an example of how much gasoline costs here in The Netherlands:
I was down to fumes in my gas tank the other day. Since we don’t drive very often here, I haven’t been paying attention to the price of gas. In fact, we’ve only filled our tank one other time in the three months we’ve been in Holland–and Mr. DJ did it that time. Anyway, I knew it gas would be expensive, but wow–do you see that? €89.76 for 63.93 litres! In British pounds, that’s £78.99. In US dollars and gallons, that’s $128.36 for about 14 gallons (or $9.17/gallon). Gulp! Here’s another shot of a gas pump, this time back in England in April 2007. That’s £55.64 for 59.90 litres.
I am glad that we don’t use our car very much. Though I will have to pick Roxi up from school three days a week now, so I am sure that will mean more trips to the pump.
About the Author: JaPRA is an expat Texan living in England with her husband (Mr. DJ), their 17-year old daughter (Roxi), and their dog Trudy.
Wow, that’s expensive! I don’t really know how much gas is going for here in Spain but, I imagine it’s not too far off. I do know that the price has gone up recently. Apparently, the recession is coming to an end.
Xoanwahn, I just saw an article about the motorway traffic being down something like 35% in the UK due to the recession.
I guess the other factor here is what are you driving? As expensive as gas/diesel is, I didn’t see any shortage of good sized cars around London or the South counties or thru norther Europe this year. What is the price of diesel too pls?
Both our US cars are diesel and we are now paying ~$2.59 per gallon. I get around 36mph and while I’m not sure what dh gets, we can make a looooong trip in his without filling up.Like Annapolis to Boston.
Maureen, I think diesel is about €1.39 per litre here. We drive a Volvo S80–not the best for fuel economy, but we get about the same as you on the highway. The cars are bigger here in the NL than in the UK. I had such a hard time parking in the little English spaces! Now we just have a hard time finding parking. LOL ;-)
What amazed me in London was not so much the size of the vehicles, given the price of gas, but the crazy way people drive! Jackrabbit starts seem to be required by law, and speeding up to the next red light as well. Couldn’t understand it, especially given that they’re so sensible about many other environmental issues.
Kathy, and the driving test was so strict too! In general, drivers seem pretty decent here. They’re careful about bikers, anyway, and tend to let you cross the street in front of them, which is nice. There are still some characters, though…
Crikey and I thought it’s expensive here!
Ya! Pretty pricey.
I just figured it’s about 2.5 times what we pay here. It’s about .96c (Canadian per liter) Gosh, all this conversion is another problem. I heard gas is really ‘cheap’ in Venezuela because they are an oil producer. That’s another good reason for using bikes. Thanks for the info.
I guess it’s the taxes that make the gas more expensive here? Is Canada making the move to more fuel efficient cars? I keep reading the news about the US trying to encourage gas-guzzler trade ins. It seems like the cars are more fuel efficient here in Europe as a whole.
Holy cow!
Yeah, can you imagine filling up a F150 every week? (or more than once a week)
Do you ever go to McDonalds? Or, eat “fast food”?
Ding, ding, ding! Good question. Will answer next week :-)
Another question…do you think it’s easier to live in a different country if you make friends with “natives” or find other expats?
Thanks, Julia! Another good question.
Well, it’s a really good thing that you don’t use your car that much then, isn’t it. We do – we normally somewhere outside our city every weekend and sometimes make over 200 km in a day, so we are spending a lot on petrol.
I’ve got a question for you: is it important for you to keep little traditions from back home? Like cooking dishes that you used to have, doing things the way you used to do them over there?
I love your question, Aledys! It’s near and dear to my heart. I hope you don’t mind if I wait until Thursday to answer… And I’d love to hear your answer as well :-)
I read an article once that compared the price of gas/petrol in various countries. Almost everyone pays the same money for gas — all of the “extra” is tax. And the tax on UK petrol just went up 2 p a litre.