“(Wikipedia) ‘An Expatriate (often shortened to Expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country other than that of their citizenship. The word comes from the Latin terms ex (“out of”) and patria (“country, fatherland”).

This blog aims to discover people who are adventurers like me, venturing out in a new place to call home and creating memories. I have previously lived with my parents and siblings in the Saudi Arabia when I was in high school. I have enjoyed and cherished my memories in the beautiful Sandbox I once called my home. Now, I am in a new adventure with my husband and son here in Singapore.

I am featuring Expats in different countries every two weeks to share their experiences and adventures with you and me.

Today, let us meet the beautiful Amaia.”

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1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and where you are originally from?

I am Spanish and I left my country in 1998 to do a 1 year exchange with the French university. I always wanted to discover other countries and cultures. Well, I never really came back to live in Spain. My whole family still lives there so I go to visit them as often as I can, but since 98 I have lived in different countries.

I studied Sociology and Advertising & Communication has always been my passion, so I was lucky enough to work in the best advertising agencies around the world for 10 years.

But someday, my creative side was not being totally fulfilled and I decided to quit advertising to launch an accessorize brand for which I designed the bags and worked on all the different communication and marketing aspects; specially with the arrival of Social Media, blogging, internet, etc I learnt a lot about this new ways of communication and discovered myself a passion for them, in addition to all things creative and manual.

When I arrived to Singapore I started working in Online and Social Media strategies for small businesses. One of them provides sewing trainings and workshops and I thought, why not join my two passions and in addition to do their online strategy I also get the training and be able to give sewing lessons (and sew for myself on my spare time of course!). That is what I do since and my blog allows me to share my different sewing projects, and some of my life in Singapore.

I also launched The Singapore Diaries, an online magazine that sends one weekly article with a fun thing to do, discover, test, etc in Singapore.

2. What made you decided to move to Singapore? How long have you been here?

Before coming to Singapore we were lived in Paris for over 8 years and I wanted to move to a different country, specially in Asia. My husband had an opportunity to come to Singapore and here we are almost 2 years later!

3. What do you miss about your home country?

My family and friends, our Spanish lifestyle, so easy-going and full of joy. The food (although I love all the choices we have here), going out to have some tapas…

4. What are the wonderful discoveries and things you like about in Singapore?

The mix of cultures and how well they blend together. Such a huge food choice. The peace of mind when you live here with children…

5. What are the 3 advice or tips you can give to fellow expats in Singapore or those you planning to move here? Try to dig in and to blend with Singaporeans and other cultures, everybody is very welcoming here and the cultures are so rich, we can learn many things from different cultures in just one country.

Travel around Singapore, there are so many beautiful places to visit.

And get a hair treatment that will take out all that frizziness from your non-Asian hair! 😉

6. The LITTLE MISS HONEY community gets inspired through travel, food and books. Can you tell us your current FAVORITE TRAVEL SPOT, current FAVORITE FOOD/RESTAURANT DISCOVERIES & current FAVORITE BOOK?We went to Cambodia last summer and I just felt in love with the country, the people and their food. They are so humble and nice, so joyful…My favorite restaurant would be a food court with all the different choices! Like Lau Pa Sat!I am reading the saga of ‘The Red Thread’ and I love it because you can guess how Singapore was 100 years back with a love story behind that…
7. Where do you get your inspirations? Who or what inspires you?                                                                             Anything that I see and feel it is different or it is worth to be shared. For The Singapore Diaries I try to explore Singapore and its singularities; anything local or with a good Singaporean taste will be source of inspiration. For You Made My Day Blog it is more the projects that I do and that I think other people would beneficiate from reading them, whether it is sewing, blogging or lifestyle in the city of the lion.

7. Tell us more about your two blogs.

The Singapore Diaries tries to bring an inside view of the city, going deeper into the roots of the city or the things and places we normally wouldn’t visit by being a foreigner. I feel that Singapore has plenty of little gems that can be hidden for those who come here for a few years; it is a matter of digging and exploring, getting to know some people and you discover extraordinary things that you might not see in other countries.

You Made My Day – the blog  is more about giving tips and telling my readers “hey, I was able to make it, so you can too”. I try to give tips to improve my readers blogging, or to show them that sewing and DIY can be done with a little of patience. And other funny things I get to do in this country.

8. What made you interested in sewing & DIY and what is your latest project?

I love all things manual since I was little. Playing to me is building something from scratch. I always keep plenty of things that might seem non-sense and one creative day, I get them out and build or repair something with them. I started with knitting and crochet, since you don’t need that much of investment, but I got almost nowhere with those (they are in my to-learn-list) and a few years ago, I decided to buy a sewing machine and start sewing. I followed tutorials from the internet etc, but my techniques weren’t good. That is when I met Couture Nomad’s founder and she trained me with all the necessary skills to not only sew my clothes, but also start giving sewing lessons to others. And nowadays, that takes half of my week, and I really love it.

 

9. Lastly, can you share with what is your inspirational mantra in life?

Only those who try, fail.

Or, if you never try something that you want you’ll never know whether it was for you. If you don’t dare trying you’ll always have the doubt, and if you try and fail, you’ll get the experience and something different to tell your friends!

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“Thank you Amaia for granting us this interview and sharing with us your sewing projects & your inspirations.

Head to Amaia’s blogs: The Singapore Diaries and You Made My Day

If you are an expat or know any expats who are interested to be featured, drop me a line at littlemisshoneyblog@gmail.com.”