Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Change, Creativity, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Transitions & Change, Family & Friends, Holidays, Identity, Life Balance, Light Bulb Moments, Repatriation, Writing, tagged 2013, 2014, being in the moment, bigger picture, blogging, building a life, change, creativity, cross-cultural, culture, daily resolutions, expat, global nomad, identity, larger view, mindfulness, New Year's Resolutions, reflection, reflective interlude, repat, Repatriation, resolution, TCK, transitions, writing on January 12, 2014 | 2 Comments »
In my latest blog post, Intermezzo, I wrote of taking stock of 2013, a year which for several reasons I’m glad to see in my rear view mirror. That’s not to say that many wonderful things didn’t happen last year, they did. But there were some unexpected challenges on top of some tough moments, and […]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Change, Creativity, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Emotional Resilience, Expat Transitions & Change, Family & Friends, Holidays, Life Balance, Light Bulb Moments, Repatriation, Travel, Writing, tagged 'in the moment', 2013, Adapt and Thrive Across Cultures, being present, change, Christmas, continuous intentional observation without judgment, deaths, emotional resilience, expats, expectations, family, grieving, holidays, illusion of perfection, intermezzo, Jane Dean, Jo Parfitt, Lisa Hall, loss, mindfulness, mourning, New Year's, reflection, Repatriation, solitude, Summertime Publishing, The Emotionally Resilient Expat: Engage, transitions, travel, turbulence, turmoil, wanderlust, writing on January 6, 2014 | 6 Comments »
Over the past couple weeks, I’ve been taking it easy. Really easy. As in not doing much of anything other than what absolutely, positively needed to get done. For example, that time spent pulling together receipts, filling out reimbursement claims for our international health care provider, making photocopies of the entire stack and then standing […]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Change, Family & Friends, Holidays, Life Balance, Our Animals, Writing, tagged Adventures in Expat Land, blogging, expat blogging, family, forgetfulness, holiday celebration, house guests, illness, life, longtime friends, malware infestation, replacement laptop, stress, Thanksgiving, the dog ate my homework, the good the bad and the ugly, worry, writing on December 4, 2013 | 17 Comments »
It’s been so long since my last post, I feel as though we ought to get reacquainted. Let me introduce myself, my name is Linda and once upon a time I wrote an expat blog in which I posted regularly. You might have heard of it – Adventures in Expat Land? Seriously, I can’t blame […]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Change, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Life, Expat Transitions & Change, Family & Friends, Re-entry Reality, Repatriation, Sandwich Generation, Writing, tagged Be one with the transition, blogging, building a life, career, career changes, community, construction, creativity, culture, emotional resilience, expat, expatriate life, family, friends, health, making a home, re-entry, Repatriation, social life, spirituality, transition, transition stages, wellbeing, writing on October 4, 2013 | 8 Comments »
I hope you’ll join me as I navigate the re-entry stage in our repatriation journey. Every three months I’ll share a series of ‘snapshot’ blog posts about the particulars of building a new life from scratch, filed under the post category Re-entry Reality. I’ll look at everything from making a home, engaging socially, staying healthy, and stretching […]
Posted in Blogging, Creativity, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Emotional Resilience, Expat Authors & Others, Expat Life, Writing, tagged Adapt and Thrive Across Cultures, Amazon, Americans in Britain, blogging, book reviews, CCKs, cross-culturals, Expat Arrivals, Expat Authors & Others, expat book reviews, expat books, Expat Focus, expat genre, expat life, expat websites, Expatica, expatriate, expats, ExpatWoman, ExpatWomen, global living, global nomads, IAmExpat, Jo Parfitt, Julia Simens, living abroad, living overseas, magazines, memoirs, novels, repats, Riveting Expat Reads, short stories, Summertime Publishing, TCKs, Telegraph, The American Hour, The Emotionally Resilient Expat: Engage, writing, Xpat on October 1, 2013 | 13 Comments »
At the risk of sounding entirely self-serving, I am going to share with you a development I hope expats*, cross-culturals, current and adult TCKs/CCKs, global nomads and repatriates alike will find heartening: the rise of books chronicling all and sundry aspects of expatriate life. I know my mentor, Jo Parfitt, will find this gratifying as […]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Change, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Emotional Resilience, Expat Life, Expat Transitions & Change, Netherlands, Repatriation, Sandwich Generation, Travel, United States, Writing, tagged building a new life, dying, elderly parents, emotional resilience, entry, expat life, involvement, leaving, loss, Netherlands, re-involvement, Repatriation, solace, sorrow, terminal cancer, The Hague, transition, transition stages on September 28, 2013 | 2 Comments »
Glancing at the calendar this morning, I realized it’s been almost three months since leaving the Netherlands. Twelve weeks from when I strapped myself into my assigned airline seat, Daughter to my right, our pets Oli and Ava beneath us in the acclimatized pet cargo hold. Eighty nine days since I watched the plane rise […]
Posted in Blogging, Change, Emotional Resilience, Expat Transitions & Change, September 11th, Writing, tagged bonds, change, colleagues, destruction, friends, healing, loss, moving, pain, people, reflection, remembrance, September 11th, terror, transitions, writing on September 11, 2013 | 2 Comments »
Behind the scenes I’ve been working on a number of posts about what’s been going on and what I’ve been up to these past weeks and months. It’s been a whirlwind of motion, a cacophony of change, some tough moments scattered among positive and uplifting ones, along with the more mundane. (Is there ever a […]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Change, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Expat Transitions & Change, Family & Friends, Netherlands, Repatriation, Sandwich Generation, Writing, tagged blogging, book, change, cross-cultural, expat, expat life, family, Netherlands, publication, Repatriation, social media, transitions, US, writing on August 12, 2013 | 29 Comments »
Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in. Yours truly, sheepishly shrugging while simultaneously cringing at how pathetic this looks. When last I posted several weeks ages ago, I dropped the bombshell we were moving back to the US this summer. That news was indeed incendiary on a personal basis as we had fully expected […]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Change, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Emotional Resilience, Expat Authors & Others, Expat Life, Expat Transitions & Change, Family & Friends, Life Balance, Netherlands, Sandwich Generation, Travel, United States, Writing, tagged author, blog, blogging, book, building a new life, career change, editor, fiction, home base, Jane Dean, Jo Parfitt, layout design, leaving, Lemonberry, Lisa Hall, Netherlands, publication, Repatriation, Ruth Van Reken, Summertime Publishing, transitions, US, writing on June 18, 2013 | 42 Comments »
I’ve often wondered what I would say in a post like this. I’ve played it out in my mind before, I just never thought I’d be writing this now. You see, it’s time for that kind of post. Not the kind where you tell everyone you’re moving on to another expatriate experience, although there were a […]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Authors (Other), Change, Creativity, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Emotional Resilience, Family & Friends, Identity, Life Balance, Light Bulb Moments, Sandwich Generation, Work, Writing, tagged blogging, epiphany, family, Gretchen Rubin, life-changing, profound truth, refrain, The days are long but the years are short, The Happiness Project, writing on June 8, 2013 | 14 Comments »
Lately something’s been stuck in my head, like a snippet of a song’s refrain playing over and over again. It’s as if I have my own chorus – although it’s actually more like a soloist, with a deep, resonant voice – repeating the phrase in an ongoing loop. It’s to the point where it has taken […]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Creativity, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Writing, tagged bloggers, blogging, book, connecting, design layout, editing, editor, manuscript, posting, publication, writing on May 17, 2013 | 20 Comments »
For the record, I have not fallen off the face of the earth. It only appears that way. You’re probably sick of reading a post in which I say I’m getting back to blogging on a regular basis, and then proceed to, well, blog on an irregular basis. I don’t blame you. I’m getting tired […]
Posted in Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Emotional Resilience, Family & Friends, Life Balance, Light Bulb Moments, Netherlands, September 11th, 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, Change, Creativity, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Authors & Others, Expat Life, Riveting Expat Reads, Third Culture Kids (TCKs), Expat Teens, Travel, Writing, tagged adult TCK, Antoni Gaudi, architect, ATCK, author, Barcelona, Catalan, Catalunya, crime, cultural values, desperation, economic downturn, England, From Barcelona: Stories Behind the City, frustration, Gaudi, Jeremy Holland, love, Native Spain, Netherlands, pickpockets, relationships, religion, Saudi Arabia, short stories, short story collection, social mores, Spain, Summertime Publishing, TCK, the Philippines, US, writer, writing on April 11, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
Time for another review of a book written by, about or for expats. Not only does Jeremy Holland’s From Barcelona: Stories Behind the City happen to be all three, it’s also a collection of short stories. To non-literary types, they sound surprisingly simple: just rattle off a quick tale about someone who did something (or had […]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Authors (Other), Blogging, Change, Creativity, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Authors & Others, Expat Life, Expat Transitions & Change, Global Issues, Identity, Repatriation, Third Culture Kids (TCKs), Expat Teens, Writing, tagged Ann Baker Cottrell, Anne Copeland, Apple Gidley, call to action, Colleen Reichrath-Smith, creative, cross-cultural, Cultural Integration and the Illusion of Closeness, cultural intelligence, culture, culture shock, doers, Duncan Westwood, Elizabeth Vennekens-Kelly, emotional intelligence, emotional resilience, expat life, expatriate life, expatriation, experiences, Families in Global Transitions, FIGT, FIGT 2013, ideas, innovative, insight, intercultural, international, Janet Bennett, Jo Parfitt, Judy Rickatson, Julia Simens, Kathleen Gamble, Katia Vachlos, Kilian Kroll, Laura J. Stephens, Leila Buck, living abroad, Maria Foley, networking, Norm Viss, perspective, Pico Iyer, projects, Rachel Yates, Rebecca Grappo, Repatriation, research, Ruth Van Reken, social intelligence, TCKs, topics, transition process, Trisha Carter on March 30, 2013 | 4 Comments »
Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend the annual Families in Global Transition conference (aka on Twitter as #FIGT2013). The theme this year was ‘Cultural Integration and the Illusion of Closeness.’ It was, in a word, exhilarating. Inspiring. Tremendous. Thought-provoking. Reassuring. Okay, it was many words, all those and more. Two thought-laden days dedicated to exchanging […]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Authors (Other), Blogging, Change, Creativity, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Emotional Resilience, Expat Authors & Others, Expat Life, Writing, tagged Aerosmith, author, Back in the Saddle Again, blogging, book, books, business cards, cover design, cover mock-ups, crying, done, editing, emotional, emotional resilience, FIGT 2013, final, ISBN, Jane Dean, Jo Parfitt, layout, Lemonberry.com, Lisa Hall, nonfiction, printing, publishing process, recalcitrant, regular blogging schedule, Stephen Tyler, Summertime Publishing, testimonials, writing, writing routine on March 27, 2013 | 18 Comments »
I have been thinking about this post for days, weeks, even months. I’ve longed to be able to write it, but made myself wait. There were times I never thought this day would arrive. Now that it’s here, my thoughts are a (barely) coherent mess and the words are tumbling out on the page. Well alrighty […]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Creativity, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Authors & Others, 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 Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Change, Creativity, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Authors & Others, Expat Life, Riveting Expat Reads, Writers on Writing, Writing, tagged An Inconvenient Posting, Apple Gidley, blogging, depression, editor, expat author, Expat Life: Slice by Slice, expat memoir, Jane Dean, Jo Parfitt, Laura J. Stephens, publisher, stories, Summertime Publishing, The Telegraph, topics, writing, Writing a Book on February 23, 2013 | 15 Comments »
A few months ago I reviewed longtime expat Apple Gidley’s terrific memoir Expat Life Slice by Slice. I knew many readers would find it interesting to hear about how a newly published author goes about her writing. Our interview follows. * * * I asked Apple to start by sharing when she first realized she had a […]
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, Blogging, Change, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Doing What I Can to Help, Expat Life, Global Issues, Guest Posts, Writing, tagged Barack Obama, civil rights activist, democracy, Ethiopia, guest blog, inauguration, jaded, Jijiga, Martin Luther King, momentous, naivete, nostalgia, peaceful transition of power, President of the United States, progress, promise, refugee aid worker, refugees, Somali, Somalia, strength, Tracey Buckenmeyer, UNHCR, writing on January 21, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
On this momentous occasion when we observe the strength and inspiration of the peaceful transition of power in a democracy with the inauguration of Barack Obama for his second term as President, and we celebrate the life’s work of civil rights activist Martin Luther King, it is only fitting to share another guest post from Tracey Buckenmeyer. All three […]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Change, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Doing What I Can to Help, Life Balance, Writing, tagged Alice Pyne, Alice's blog, Alice's Escapes, blogging, bone cancer, bone marrow donors, bone marrow registry, Bucket List, Cumbria, died, family, heightening awareness, passed away, raising awareness, raising funds, teenage bucket list, teenager, terminal cancer, writing on January 13, 2013 | 8 Comments »
Many of you have Adventurers have followed here with great interest the story of Alice Pyne, an incredibly courageous English teen who faced down terminal cancer for the past five years. I first wrote about Alice in A Teen’s Bucket List eighteen months ago, and provided updates in A Teen’s Bucket List – Update 1, Hey Alice! Good Works […]
