{"id":5288,"date":"2026-11-04T17:19:04","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T16:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/?p=5288"},"modified":"2026-11-04T17:19:06","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T16:19:06","slug":"surfing-the-blue-wave-from-abroad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/surfing-the-blue-wave-from-abroad\/","title":{"rendered":"Surfing the Blue Wave From Abroad"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you’re going to move to France from a state in the US, you can’t go wrong with Massachusetts. Not only do they have drivers license reciprocity (saving me all sorts of time and money), they also let you vote online if you live overseas.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Watch Party Tech Setup<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Sure, your vote will just get added to the pile of Democratic ballots, but at least it’s an easy process! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I applied online via the MA Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office<\/a>. My application went to City Hall in Malden (my last residential address). I had to print it out and sign it (theoretically, they compare it to a signature on file), then scan it and email it to them. I then had the option to receive my ballot online, via fax, or in the mail. I chose the online option. A couple of days later, I got a couple of links that I used to login to an official website where I got to vote from the comfort of my computer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was quite a bit of chatter among the Americans here about difficulties mailing ballots back to the US. Apparently, the American and French postal services are in a bit of a standoff over tariffs. If you ask for a stamp to mail a letter to the US, they will sometimes tell you no. The solution? Ask for a stamp to mail a letter to Canada<\/em> (the rates are the same) and then put your letter in the postbox outside. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can also send your ballot back via DHL, but it costs an arm and a leg and takes forever<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MA had nine ballot questions this year, and some of them were somewhat confusing (I’m not above thinking that might have been intentional). I was quite happy to fill out my ballot with it on one screen and information about the questions on another. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s a large American community here, so a friend organized a watch party for us to watch returns come in together. Another friend recently opened an English-language caf\u00e9<\/a>, so we all met up there. Me being me, I setup the technology so we could watch an American news feed projected on one of the walls. I’ve been helping the caf\u00e9 out with their social media, so it was nice to pick up some new followers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in 2004, my Dad and I went to a bar together (Toad in Cambridge, MA) to watch the results come in. They didn’t normally have a TV, but they dragged one in for the occasion. In my memory, it was just me, my Dad, and the bartender. He (the bartender) was marking states on a paper map, but eventually he got too depressed and he stopped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watching the election from a quarter of the way around the world, in a cozy caf\u00e9, eating pain au chocolat? Well, that was pretty much the exact opposite experience. I’m so glad to have found community here (although it would have been better with my dad there too!). I’m not above going to a bar, but I do love the caf\u00e9 culture here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Pain au chocolat speaks for itself.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We spent the morning cheering as the various races got called and chatting about life and politics. I love how it’s so much more socially acceptable to talk about politics here. A French man who joined us was telling me that the Communist party here in France had a huge share of votes after the war. The party was strong, because the French knew and appreciated that communist Russia played such a huge role in WWII. Even now, the words “Communist” and “Socialist” don’t have the same reflexive reaction that they do in the US. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m sure there are some folks out there wondering if this change in American politics will affect our future decision to leave or stay in France. The answer? Probably not. The toxic political situation was pretty awful, but we were here for a plethora of reasons. Ask me again next spring (Marine Le Pen is currently up in the polls). But for now? I’m sticking with caf\u00e9s and pain au chocolat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you’re going to move to France from a state in the US, you can’t go wrong with Massachusetts. Not only do they have drivers license reciprocity (saving me all…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[65],"tags":[265,112,264,263],"class_list":["post-5288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-france","tag-cafe-2","tag-elections","tag-pain-au-chocolat","tag-politics"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5yggS-1ni","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/IMG_0163-2-1-scaled.png?fit=2560%2C1920&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5288"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5293,"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5288\/revisions\/5293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hoperoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}