Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Change, Creativity, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Life Balance, Travel, Work, Writing, tagged adventures, ATCK, blogging, creativity, cross-cultural, culture, expat, extended holidays, family, formative years, friendship, global, gratitude, high school reunion, international, international high school, Italy, rejuvenation, repatriate, Rome, TCK, travel, wanderlust, writing on July 17, 2014 | 1 Comment »
When summertime beckons, many of us find ourselves pondering the annual question: home or away? Whether it’s a long-planned holiday far afield, camping in a field (aka caravaning), day trips in the general vicinity, a picnic in a bucolic setting, or simply a barbeque in the backyard, it’s the season we want to be doing something different. So […]
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, Change, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Life, Expat Transitions & Change, Family & Friends, Identity, Re-entry Reality, Repatriation, United States, tagged all over the world, around the globe, art, change, cultures, decorating, drawings, expat life, experiences, family, growing old together, home, icons, lifetime, marriage, memories, paintings, parenthood, pictures, prints, Repatriation, sculpture, statues, travel, values on November 7, 2013 | 8 Comments »
As mentioned in Under Construction, 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 […]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Change, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Emotional Resilience, Expat Transitions & Change, Family & Friends, Re-entry Reality, Repatriation, tagged bit by bit, blogging, constructing a life, exercise, expat life, expats, family, first three months, fitness, friends, friendship, gratitude, health, making friends, meditation, physical fitness, re-entry stage, Repatriation, repats, self-care, simplification, simplify, small steps, transitions, well being, writing on October 23, 2013 | 10 Comments »
As mentioned in Under Construction, 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, […]
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 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, 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 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, 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 […]
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 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 Change, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Authors & Others, 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 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 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, Change, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Life, Expat Transitions & Change, Family & Friends, Work, Writing, tagged blogging, culture, expat, Expat Focus, expatriate, family, foreign countries, foreign service, friends, In Search of a Life Less Ordinary, international organization, job opportunities, job transfer, jobs, military, non-profit organization, private sector, reassignment, Repatriation, Staying Put for Now, weak economy, writing on June 15, 2012 | 12 Comments »
Here in the northern hemisphere, when it gets to be February, March and April, the season begins. You would be forgiven for thinking that I’m referring to the blossoming springtime. Emerging from winter is certainly important, but there is another season beginning to bud: it’s what I referred to last year as a matter of The Clash […]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Life, Expat Transitions & Change, Expats A to Z, tagged activities, adapability, adjust accordingly, children, expat life, family, flexibility, friendship, gut instinct, job, lie low, make friends, relationship, significant other, spouse, work on June 2, 2012 | 18 Comments »
Recently I introduced Expats A to Z, a new series of posts about the little things that can make a difference in how we approach some of the challenges and experiences of expat life. I’m talking about those qualities and traits that we can nurture within us to help not only survive, but thrive amid constant change. You […]
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