am I or am I not?

I haven't been writing anything lately and that that was partly due to our family going away, me deciding that a lunch time nap might be the better option (to be energetic enough for my two monkeys in the arvo ... though today I've decided that a cuppa will have to do) and me reading other blogs. Most of those blogs are labeled expat-blogs and I started wondering whether I fit the description.

Am I or am I not?? Do I qualify as an "expat"?

According to dictionary.com an expat is:

1. One who has taken up residence in a foreign country.
2. One who has renounced one's native land.

I certainly haven't renounced Germany and Australia was a foreign country to me, but after living here for 4 1/2 years married to an Australian I can't help but feel that it really shouldn't be a foreign country any more.
Maybe that's partly connected to the attitude that any immigrant should assimilate and become Australian (whatever that means).
Gotta share a little story here:

I was sitting with a bunch of people I know when they started talking about "those immigrants" that just keep their own culture and don't assimilate. So I wanted to stir them up a bit and said "You mean people like me!" cause really I try to maintain a German culture in our home (not just for the kids' sake).
One of them answered "No, you're not like that, you're practically Australian." (or something to that effect, I do have to admit the conversation happened about a year ago.)
I said "No, I'm not!"
"Have you eaten a meat pie?"
"Yes, I've even cooked one once."
"There you go, you're practically Australian!"
Hmmm ... is that what it takes to be Australian? I might as well be Thai, since I cook Thai food at least once a week. But since national identity is a topic way to complex for what I was wanting to write about here I won't go any further with this.

So to get back to my original thought, Australia is not really a foreign country any more. I am quite accustomed to it (maybe Germany has even become a foreign country to me ... since I do think I'll find a lot of things qute weird over there after living here). But does that mean I am not an expat, could I possibly become an expat in Germany were we to go and live there??
I certainly don't think of myself as Australian. If someone asks I always say without hesitation, that I am German. But what is expatriation linked to, the nationality you've got or where you feel home is or isn't (which could easily bring me to my next topic, where is home, do I have two homes, one home or none ... two half homes might be most accurate but how is that possible??).

So maybe that's just what it comes down to if I look at the whole thing from the perspective of our family as a whole, it's not an issue since the BFG is an Australian (in his passport, by birth, place of residence, his parents and grandparents were born in here, the country that is home for him and probably the culture and customs he feels most at ease with are also Australian). Our family is most definitely not an expatriate family (neither here or in Germany).

But I as an individual have been an expat here and for the sake of our family, my relationship with Michael and my own sanity, have taken on this place as home.

So am I or am I not? I think I have been, and am not anymore!!

But I think I'll still read the expat blogs and identify with them to some degree, I guess I'll never again be either one or the other. I'm a bit of both, we are very much both and so the expat perspective is probably the closest for someone like me.