Repatriate: to return to one’s place of origin or citizenship. It sounds simple enough: you are returning to the place you came from, where you have lived, where you have friends and family and a cultural frame of reference. It’s not like you have to learn about a new culture, make new friends or even […]
My bicultural self has been working overtime these last few months and as far as I can tell, it has mostly to do with this year’s US election. I find myself uttering the following a whole lot: “…as a European, I don’t quite understand…” I don’t know why, but this election cycle, more than any […]
Americans are becoming increasingly aware of the needs of others around the world, as well as in this country and its cities and neighborhoods. This can be seen from the large number of Americans using their time, money and talents to support organizations which help those less fortunate. Statistics show that 62.8 million Americans volunteered […]
We live in a time where information can be presented, exchanged and consumed at the touch of a button, where no detail is too small to share and the potential audience can be anywhere in the world. A resume created by an engineer in Shanghai can be read by a manager in Silicon Valley; a […]
I don’t think I am exaggerating when I say that half of the girls in my high school in Sweden dreamed of going to the US and working as au-pairs after finishing their high school studies. The draw was multifold: it was a way to get out and see the world, to get a taste […]
I have been thinking all week about the expectations on American teenagers. I thought it would be fairly easy for me to figure this out. After all, I have two teenagers currently living at home and a third child who just left her teenage years behind. All three have grown up in the US, they […]
Being a teenager in middle and high school can be hard enough under the simplest and most idyllic of circumstances. There are social codes to live up to, academic pressures to withstand and parents to please. You worry about being liked and what your friends think of you. Add to that a changing body and […]
Two of my biggest hurdles in regards to raising teenagers in the US have to do with the liberal views on drugs such as marijuana and the, what I would call, confused view on sex education. I know, most parents regardless of geographic location, probably worry about both these issues at some point in the course of bringing up […]
I was visiting my daughter at college this past weekend. On the last day, as we were having breakfast on the campus of the University of Hawaii, it struck me how different life is now compared to when I first moved to the US some 20 years ago. Back then I was a new mom […]
Complication, complication, complication – I think those are the three words that best describe summer planning as an expat with kids! I am kidding of course, but there is a grain of truth here. As an expat you are often trying to piece together a summer where you are juggling the desire to go home […]
My husband and I got married on a Swedish summer day. It was a low-key outdoor wedding; close family and friends were our only guests. We had no wedding planner, no catering, and no photographer. It was an altogether homemade affair. I was 24 years old. My husband to be was (is) American. Young and […]
With one child in college and another who just finished the last of his college applications, I feel like college preparations and applications have been at the forefront of our dinner discussions for years now. And still, in spite of having two children who have gone through this process, it blows my mind that applying to go to college […]
