Posted in Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Emotional Resilience, Family & Friends, Life Balance, Light Bulb Moments, Netherlands, United States, Writing, tagged 9/11, April 15th, bombings, Boston bombings, Boston Marathon, calm, emergency responders, explosions, injured, killed, little children, memories, National Guard, nauseous, police, run to help, September 11th, victims on April 16, 2013 | 8 Comments »
Last night I was all set to go with a humorous blog post today when Husband called down the stairs, telling me to turn to CNN. Something about a suspicious explosion in Boston. My heart sank just hearing the words. I turned the channel and together we sat, eyes glued to the television, listening to [...]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Creativity, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Authors, United States, Writers on Writing, Writing, tagged @Home in Dubai, Anne O'Connell, Anne The Writer, author, blogging, book launch, Canada, courtroom drama, crime thriller, debut novel, Dubai, expat novel, first novel, hot flashes, humor, Jo Parfitt, menopause, Mental Pause, murder mystery, nonfiction, novel, PR experience, public relations expert, Summertime Publishing, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United States, writer, writing, Writing Just Because! on March 7, 2013 | 7 Comments »
Today’s a special day for Anne O’Connell, one I’m excited to share with her and with you. Fourteen months ago I reviewed her nonfiction book Riveting Expat Reads: Celebrating @ Home in Dubai. Anne’s been busy since then, relocating from the United Arab Emirates to Thailand and writing up a storm. Not only is today [...]
Posted in Albert Heijn, Change, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Netherlands, Travel, United States, Writing, tagged attention, chatting, conversation, despair, dinner, expat, expat life, family, family crises, focus, friends, friendship, grief, loneliness, marriage, medical problems, missed signals, neighborhood, neighbors, newly arrived, pain, promise of friendship, separation, Southeast Asia, The Hague, The Netherlands, time, travelling, trips, welcome on February 7, 2013 | 14 Comments »
I first met Tamara 14 months ago on the sidewalk in front of our neighbor’s house. It was a cold, late Sunday afternoon in December, the air heavy with moisture off the frigid North Sea. The weak sun had managed to emerge briefly from behind large swaths of gun metal gray clouds. Husband and I had just left the house to [...]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Change, Creativity, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Holidays, Travel, United States, tagged American football, away from home, bowl games, bowling, Christmas, Christmas Eve, circumstances, creativity, decorations, family, holiday season, holidays, innovation, ornaments, panache, stripped down version, togetherness, travel, US on December 31, 2012 | 8 Comments »
It’s been quite a holiday season this year, in oh so many ways. Nothing about it has been ‘normal’ or ‘same old, same old’ or even vaguely familiar. Given a whole range of circumstances, some of which will go unmentioned out of respect for others’ privacy and most well beyond our control, my family has found itself [...]
Posted in Authors (Other), Blogging, Change, Creativity, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, United States, Writing, tagged Amazing Things Will Happen, anger, arguing, automatic weapons, blogging, CC Chapman, community, Connecticut, Content Rules, creativity, frailest citizens, frustration, Geoff Talbot, Grace and Creativity, grieving parents, gun control, gunman, heart, In Need of Grace, innocent children, media, mental illness, mind, Newton, outrage, pontificating, positioning, Sandy Hook Elementary School, school shooting, schoolchildren, screaming, Seven Sentences, shooter, shouting, slaughter, soul, stillness, weakest, writing, yelling on December 18, 2012 | 10 Comments »
It’s been a busy few weeks lately with more than the usual ups and downs, ins and outs, whethers or buts, what ifs and why nots. I’ve been dealing with an amalgam of diverse issues, activities, and events ranging from the mundane to the weighty, the tedious to the tentative, the banal to the seemingly [...]
Posted in Blogging, Change, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Global Issues, United States, Writing, tagged 2012 elections, badmouth, Barack Obama, blogging, cast your ballot, conservative, cross-cultural, culture, decency, democracy, Democrat, demonize, economy, election coverage, Electoral College, electoral process, global, international, liberal, media, Mitt Romney, national security, politics, Republican, respect, social media, trashtalk, United States, US Presidential election, us vs. them, violence, vote, voting, war, We the People, writing on November 7, 2012 | 16 Comments »
Husband woke up at 4:45 this morning and got up to follow reporting on the US Presidential election returns. I went back to sleep and didn’t join him until a more civilized 5:45 am, but regardless, there we were, foregoing much-needed sleep to studiously eye the electoral college estimates and state-by-state tallies. Why? Because we care. [...]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Catarina Chronicles, Change, Creativity, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Holidays, Netherlands, United States, Writing, tagged Americans, autumn, Autumn Equals Change, blogging, Catarina, change, costumes, creativity, culture, decisions, different, dressed up, Dutchies, Expat Focus, expat life, faces painted, fairies, favorite season, fresh, ghost, ghouls, goblins, Halloween, holidays, internationals, Little Red Riding Hood, magical, makeup, Nederland, Netherlands, new, seasons, The Hague, trick-or-treaters, United States, witches, writing, zombies on November 1, 2012 | 4 Comments »
Yesterday was Halloween, and it was a smashing one indeed. It began dry and sunny (two big pluses during autumn here) and remained so throughout the day; Halloween night was, well, amazing. Halloween is HUGE in the United States, and every year, more and more Dutchies and other internationals join Americans in celebrating this fun-filled holiday. Cross-culturalism at its [...]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Change, Creativity, Emotional Resilience, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Life Balance, Light Bulb Moments, Sandwich Generation, United States, Writing, tagged blog posts, blogging, book, cancer, children, creativity, dog, expat life, family, getting creative, illness, internet connectivity, living overseas, Oli, Panera Bread, parents, planning, plotting, posting on my blog, progress writing a book, Starbucks, surgery, travel, treatment, tumor, visiting, visiting family, wifi, writing on October 25, 2012 | 12 Comments »
It’s been almost three weeks to the day since my last post. Believe me, I know. It’s been weighing on my mind. Not in an ‘oh cr@p, I have to post something on that d@mn blog’ sort of way, because this blog has never been like that for me. It is a labor of love, [...]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Change, Creativity, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Food and Drink, Global Issues, Light Bulb Moments, Netherlands, Travel, United States, Work, tagged art, artistic, blogging, connectivity, creative spark, creativity, cultural, culture, design, dreaming, entrepreneur, entrepreneurial, Facebook, family, friends, Google it, Google+, imagination, innovation, innovative, inspiration, internet, internet connectivity, jewelrymaking, LinkedIn, music, Netherlands Radio Choir, painting, search engines, social media, social media venures, Twitter, Vizify, writing on September 6, 2012 | 10 Comments »
I must confess that it still astounds me how, in this day and age and in the comfort of my own home here in the Netherlands, internet connectivity and the various social media venues it has spawned allow me to maintain contact with friends and family and build associations with others. Like the old Bell [...]
Posted in Blogging, Creativity, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Food and Drink, Holidays, Life Balance, Netherlands, United States, Work, Writing, tagged Americans, article, barbeque, blogging, book, business, businesses, commerce, corporations, creativity, culture, deadlines, don't wear white after Labor Day, economy, employees, employment, fashion, government, holiday, industry, jobs, labor, Labor Day, meetings, Netherlands, picnic, sales, The Hague, United States, work, work projects, workers, working, writing on September 3, 2012 | 8 Comments »
Today is the first Monday in September. For many, it’s merely the start of yet another work week. Whatever ‘work’ means for you. Getting the children off to school before running a long list of errands and volunteering in the classroom. Pulling into the factory parking lot with a double shift ahead. Trading stories at [...]
Posted in Change, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Authors, Family & Friends, Life Balance, Light Bulb Moments, Sandwich Generation, Travel, United States, tagged aging, Alice in Wonderland, cancer, death, dementia, doctor, dying, elderly, family, hospital, illness, living, looking glass, mortality, rabbit hole, sandwich generation, surgery, US on August 21, 2012 | 34 Comments »
That’s exactly how I’ve been feeling lately. As with Alice in Wonderland, this summer I fell down the rabbit hole and ended up in a parallel universe. It’s still my life, or is it? It all began innocently enough, back in that London hotel room on Easter afternoon. I can still visualize myself resting on the [...]
Posted in Blogging, Change, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Doing What I Can to Help, Global Issues, United States, Work, Writing, tagged Beyonce Knowles, Department of Defense, drought, Ethiopia, famine, global issues, human trafficking, humanitarian assistance, humanitarian organizations, I Was Here, Iraq, peacekeeping, refugees, Sergio Vieira De Mello, Susan Rice, terrorism, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UN Mission to the UN, United Nations, United States, violence, war, World Humanitarian Day 2012 on August 18, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Okay, today’s post is both global and deeply personal in nature. August 19th is officially designated World Humanitarian Day 2012, marking the 9th anniversary of the bombing in Baghdad that took the life of Sergio Vieira De Mello, then serving as both the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Secretary General’s Special [...]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Change, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Sandwich Generation, Travel, United States, Writing, tagged Australia, Blog Expat, blogging, cancer, Chris Marshall, email, expat life, extended visit, Facebook, family, friends, Google+, I Was an Expat Wife, In Search of a Life Less Ordinary, internet, interview, LinkedIn, online, parents, Pause and Smile, Russell VJ Ward, sandwich generation, Skype, Spain, Telegraph, Telegraph Expat, terminal cancer, travel, Twitter, visiting back in the US, wordgeyser, writing on August 4, 2012 | 19 Comments »
By now many of you may have noticed that I haven’t been posting regularly. Or much at all, if the truth be told. I’ve effectively been under an enforced ‘internet interlude’, partially of my own making, but mainly due to connectivity issues. As I’ve shared in Bite of the Generational Sandwich, the main focus of [...]
Posted in Authors (Other), Change, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Life Balance, United States, Work, Writing, tagged begin with the end in mind, blueprint for life, business, culture, first things first, leadership, life lessons, management, proactive, seek first to understand, selfhelp, sharpen the saw, Stephen Covey, success, synergize, team-building, team-leading, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, win-win, writing on July 18, 2012 | 16 Comments »
I was saddened to hear the news that Stephen Covey, author of the groundbreaking bestseller of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, had passed away. Covey, a university business/leadership professor and founder of an entire empire of subsequent books, high profile speaking engagements, widely acclaimed seminars and associated business tools (Franklin-Covey), was 79 when he died of [...]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Doing What I Can to Help, Global Issues, Guest Posts, Travel, United States, Writing, tagged Africa, blogging, Ethiopia, geography, gingerbread man, going 'home', guest post, kindergarteners, Kosovo, Ohio, paper cut out, photographs, postal system, postcards, Pristina, refugee children, refugees, Tracey Buckenmeyer, travel, UNHCR, United States, writing on July 14, 2012 | 7 Comments »
Recently, fellow Adventurers were introduced to Tracey Buckenmeyer in her initial guest post here, Tough Neighborhood. Tracey has made a career of helping refugees and displaced persons, working for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. She’s worked in many different countries, and currently is posted to Ethiopia. She’s returned to tell us a little [...]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Exercise & Sports, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Food and Drink, United States, tagged American baseball, baseball Annies, batting averages, beach, beverages, celebrating holidays away from home, contests, culture, divining the meaning, expat, family, family event, fireworks, games, home run, living abroad, minor league baseball game, Norfolk Tides, patriotic songs, RBIs, snacks on July 12, 2012 | 6 Comments »
Last week Daughter and I were with my brother’s family spending a few days at the beach. My sister-in-law’s mother and stepfather were visiting as well. On the evening of July 3rd, we all piled into into two cars and headed off to that very American of all summer pastimes, a baseball game. Neither Daughter nor [...]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Change, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Life, Expat Transitions & Change, Family & Friends, Life Balance, Light Bulb Moments, Sandwich Generation, Travel, United States, tagged adolescents, babies, cancer, career, children, college, doing the best you can, economy, employment, expat life, expats, family, friends, generational sandwich, illness, jobs, parents, sandwich generation, saying goodbye, teens, travel, university, vacations, visits on July 9, 2012 | 22 Comments »
Almost three months ago I wrote about the challenges inherent in being a member of the Sandwich Generation, Expat Style. You know what I mean: being squeezed between children (of whatever age) and parents and elderly family members. Both groups may need you, albeit in very different ways. It happens to many most of us, and we [...]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Albert Heijn, Change, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Life, Expat Transitions & Change, Family & Friends, Learning Dutch or Other Foreign Languages, Travel, United States, tagged America, different, driving, Dutch, English, expat, familiar, family, going 'home', going back, off kilter, Repatriation, sensory overload, travel, United States, university visits, visiting family on June 30, 2012 | 16 Comments »
I’ve been back in the United States for a week now, and I’m still adjusting. Daughter and I are here for an extended period visiting family, beginning to check out universities, attending a pre-college program (her) while I hole myself up to work on some writing projects, and so on. Oh, and eventually spending some [...]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Life, United States, tagged anti-government, Apocalypse, Armageggon, blogging, cross the borders, crosscultural, end of the world, expat life, expatriates, extreme right, guns, heavily armed, intercultural, milita, militia groups, patriotism, preparedness, reasons to expatriate, renounce citizenship, Seven Reasons Not to Become an Expat, survivalists, ultra conservative, United States on June 11, 2012 | 14 Comments »
A week or so ago, a strange entry popped up in my search filter. I didn’t recognize the website URL, but its name caught my eye. I clicked on the link and found myself reading an article about whether to become an expat, and my post Seven Reasons Not to Become an Expat was included. [...]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Life, United States, Writing, tagged California, cultural, culture, Intercultural House, international, international affairs, international NGO, Jamaica, Masters Degree, NGO, Pittsburgh, punk, Romeo Void, roommate, Saudi, semesters, steelworker, writing on June 8, 2012 | 8 Comments »
It was a week before my last semester when I packed my bags and moved into the university’s Intercultural House. I was studying for a Masters Degree in International Affairs, and events had conspired to bring me to the stone steps of the ‘IC House’ as it was affectionally called. I’d spent the three previous semesters of the [...]
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