My first experience with culture shock was when I was eleven and my family moved from the big city to the country. I didn’t know it at the time of course, but looking back it’s clear as day that that was what I was experiencing, and it didn’t even take moving abroad to trigger it. […]
What is it that constitutes feeling settled in a new place? Is it when you start thinking in the local language, when you’ve gotten the hang of basics, such as queuing and ordering food at restaurants, or when they know your name at the local Starbucks? Is it when you get the jokes on late […]
We just moved this week and as far as the logistics of a move goes it was probably one of the easier ones I have ever made. We moved locally and there was no pressure to empty our old house all at once. Also, we had the benefit of prior moving experience and that counts […]
One of the best things I did during my first few years as an accompanying partner on expat assignment was going back to school. Not only did it provide me an opportunity to acquire new skills and make myself employable, it was also a way to meet people and make friends. In addition, I made […]
Going off to college is a big step, and whether going far or staying close to home, most kids will experience homesickness and adjustment anxiety at some point in the process – some more than others for sure, but I think it’s safe to say that no one really escapes it. It’s easy to imagine […]
Changing schools can be tricky in the best of circumstances and doing so because of an international relocation can complicate matters even more. It’s not just the kids who go to school who have to make adjustments and figure out the new lay of the land; parents do too. With a new school, you have […]
“No Christmas tree at psychologist Anderson’s house this year” was the headline for a news broadcast I caught earlier this week. The report was on holiday stress, and how harmful it can be to our mental and physical wellbeing. As you can glean from the headline a psychologist was being interviewed, and this year in […]
Giving up a job and putting a career on hold is a big deal under any circumstance. Doing it to follow your significant other and become ‘an accompanying partner on expat assignment’ is a huge decision. Not only are you giving up your livelihood and sense of independence, you also enter the unknown in terms […]
A few weeks ago at my local Safeway store, as I made my way to the checkout line, I walked by shelves full of discounted Halloween goods sitting next to Thanksgiving offerings and a few steps further down, all the Christmas merchandize you could ever want. It was a little disorienting to see this mix […]
I was doing some research on Thanksgiving and its traditions for this blogpost and I came across the words of president Abraham Lincoln. In 1863, as the US was in the middle of the Civil War, Lincoln announced that, in an effort to ‘heal the wounds of the nation’ he had scheduled Thanksgiving for the […]
November 4, 2008 was a memorable day for me. It was the first US election in which I was eligible to vote. By then I had lived here as an expat for a long time so I truly appreciated finally getting to add my two cents to how the country was run. I know first […]
With two kids off at college in opposite parts of the world and a third child still at home, long-distance communication has become an apropos issue in our family. It’s interesting to see how the kids are staying in touch with each other and how it differs from how I communicate with them. They are […]
