We often chat with expats on The Bittersweet Life, whether they are corporate expats off to a new country every other year, passion expats who follow their dream of living in a foreign land, or anything in between. But what about the expat spouse? What about the person who never signed up for the expat life but finds themselves living it anyway?

This week we talk with Beth M. Howard, author of the new memoir, Hausfrau Honeymoon: Love, Language, and Other Misadventures in Germany. She tells the story of her challenging years as a "trailing spouse" in Germany, how despite her best efforts, she just couldn't seem to find happiness there.

But when you're a trailing spouse expat, you can't just pick up and leave whenever you like. What happens when the success of your marriage hangs on whether or not you can tough it out in a country you don't like living in? What happens when, try as you might, you can't manage to learn your new husband's (and new country's) native tongue? What happens when the man who seemed so evolved in your country turns out to be a bit of a chauvinist in his?

Well, if you're a writer, you curl up in a cozy coffee house and write a book about it, of course! In this interview, Beth reveals the power of admitting that a place just isn't right for you, accepting that the glamorous expat existence you imagined is actually quite lonely, and discovering that sometimes the biggest adventure of all is moving back home.

You can find Beth on Facebook, on her author website, on her pie website (she makes pie!!!), or on her blog, The World Needs More Pie.

Order her book here.

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