Welcome To My Expat Life
“Experiences like these teach us who we really are. If we never test our boundaries, we never discover what we’re capable of. I’d rather arrive at the end of my life with a few scars and a head full of stories than play it safe the whole way through. To me, a life well lived is one that leaves you sliding into the finish line thinking, ‘Wow, that was incredible.'”
— Eva Hamori
Welcome to Expat Eva Hamori, formally known as My Expat Life – That’s Hamori.
What began as a family blog documenting our move from Canada to France, then Hungary, and eventually back home again to Nanaimo, British Columbia, became a record of an entire decade of transformation.
Originally, I started journaling to collect information, preserve memories, and make sense of the enormous changes we were making in pursuit of a different life. Along the way, the blog became something much bigger. It became a place to document our successes, challenges, travels, businesses, friendships, cultural discoveries, and the countless moments that shaped our family.
I am a wife and mother first. Over the years, I have worked in business management, commercial property management, education, hospitality, and entrepreneurship. More recently, I have returned to my first love—writing.
I was born in Surrey, British Columbia, spent much of my childhood in Duncan on Vancouver Island, and later raised my family in South Surrey near White Rock. Our children were just five and seven years old when we left Canada for what was supposed to be a one-year adventure. That year became ten.
My husband, Alfonz, is originally from Hungary and immigrated to Canada in 1988. We met in high school and became friends long before we became life partners. Where I tend to dream, he tends to plan. Where I leap, he builds the bridge. Throughout every chapter of this journey, he has been my rock.
Our original goal was simple: spend more time together as a family, slow down, and experience another way of living. What I didn’t realize was how profoundly the experience would change me.
Have you ever dreamed of living in Europe?
Have you ever wondered how ordinary people manage to create extraordinary changes in their lives?
If so, you may find inspiration here.
This website contains more than a decade of stories about travel, family, food, language, entrepreneurship, culture shock, reinvention, and the pursuit of happiness. It is also the foundation for the books I am writing today.
In many ways, our story is about stepping away from the life we were expected to live and creating one that felt more intentional. We left behind the familiar, embraced uncertainty, learned new languages, built businesses from scratch, and showed our children a world far bigger than the one we had known.
The miles were significant, but the personal journey ran deeper still.
Whether you’re planning your own adventure, dreaming about a different life, or simply curious about what happens when a family decides to take a leap of faith, I hope you find something here that resonates with you.
Welcome to the journey.
To navigate through our website headers,
Our Journey: Is the chronological account of our journey through journal entries. We talk about how we sold everything in Vancouver, packed up the kids and moved to Europe. We wanted to buy a Bed and Breakfast in Southern France, and show the kids another kind of life; one based on time currency, learning new languages and living a balanced life! Follow along as our family adventure unfolds.
My Expat Life Series, FRANCE: Meeting fellow expats who find their best lives in the Languedoc (Occitania) inspired me to write a series. Creative, interesting and thought provoking, I hope you enjoy reading about the people who move to the region and what they do for a living, as much as I enjoyed writing about them. I hope they inspire you to live your best life too.
My Expat Life Series, HUNGARY: is my latest writing project. I am in search of fellow adventures like ourselves who have started a new life here in Hungary. I meet so many fascinating people and have one very interesting person from America to kick off this series! If anyone is interested in participating, please contact us at info@expatevahamori.com
Food: Do you love food? Gluttony is my favourite sin! I find myself eating my way through Europe, and recreating the recipes and sharing them with you! Our Facebook branch off page called Travel, Eat, Repeat follows our culinary adventures! Our daughter Angelina has picked up the foodie name and loves to cook too!
Lists: Writing for years, it must be a natural process to make lists while accumulating so much information. Here they are in all their organized glory. For the listophile, listoholic and listomaniacs among us.
Inspiration: This is where I babble about my silly epiphanies, the problems I have worked through, my random thoughts and my aha moments. The journey brought up a lot of unresolved issues which I needed to work through. The act of writing eventually got me to a very good place; I found it very therapeutic.
subheader 40 Before 40: When the monumental 40th birthday approached, I decided to make a list of the forty things I wanted to do before my milestone occurred. It was fun, and I think I learned a lot in that year. Will there be a fifty before fifty? I did stat to write one, just seems like I did most things I desired already. Perhaps a destination blog? I still have time.
Under My Expat Lives are:
Hungary: Our lovely home in Budapest Hungary is the complete polar opposite to our rural life in Capestang France. Our apartment was in Elizabethtown in the dynamic 7th district in Pest which is teaming with life; operas, theatre, nightlife, shows, festivals, music, restaurants, history, monuments and it never ends. I share my other love, our other home; Magyarország.
Our home in Solymar is freshly built and another adventure in itself. We bought it half built for a song and renovated it. Close to work, nestled in the hillside, here we host Language students studying the English language through our unique immersion program; LivEnglish. I loved this home.
Vancouver: Here I share experiences and things I love about my home and native land, Canada. During visits home, I love to write about the differences about living in Vancouver and Capestang France or Budapest Hungary, how different the cultures are and what I miss the most.
France: New to France, here we shared our experiences with culture, language, food, business, local sites… For those of you who are thinking about travelling with children, we have a few tips. For those wishing to move to southern France, we have some advice. Pursue your happiness, reach for your dreams, and I promise life just keeps getting better.
subheader Capestang: Capestang is the little village nestled up to the Canal du Midi that we decided to call our home. Southern France is beautiful, with the sun shining 320+ days a year. We were located 2 hours from the Spanish border, 20 minutes from the beach and also close to Beziers, and Carcassonne airports. Other nearby cities include Montpellier and Toulouse. For us it was the perfect place to set up a new life, and work in the tourist industry.
