A few days ago I had a long phone call with my mother, and told her about our plans to move overseas. She handled it better than I expected, and I give her a lot of credit. (She expressed far more unhappiness years ago when we told her we were moving from upstate New York, about five minutes away from her, to Florida.) Of course, that was 22 years ago, so she's certainly had a chance to adjust to our being far away. I explained, as calmly as I could, our reasons. The biggest one is that we …
It’s Not Easy Being… Well, a Dog!
The Complexities of Communication in a Foreign Language Guest Post by Heather Merkel Heather Merkel, CPC is a Culture Transition Specialist who helps Expatriates and their families feel at home anywhere in the world through a core set of strategies designed to help you overcome the social, personal, and professional related issues that arise when transitioning to another culture. You can learn more about Heather at Culture Transition Coaching. I've been reading a wonderful book called The Art …
April 15: Day of Dread for Most Americans
April 15 happens to be my sister's birthday, and she was always fond of reciting the list of disasters that occurred on that date. It's tax day for Americans residing in the US. (But if you live in another country you get an automatic extension until June 15.) President Abraham Lincoln died after being fatally shot by actor John Wilkes Booth. The Titanic sank. In honor of the day, here are a few fun -- and not-so-fun -- important events that she missed, in no particular order: Ray Kroc opened …
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Expat, Missionary, Saint
March 17 is celebrated throughout the United States and Ireland as St. Patrick's Day. On St. Paddy's Day, as it is familiarly known, we wear green, eschew orange and drink gallons of green beer. (Yuck!) We hold parades, dye entire rivers green, and generally behave in a very un-saintly fashion. [ad#Google Adsense-1] St. Patrick: A Brief History (with a little guesswork thrown in) St. Patrick himself is a figure shrouded in some mystery. He probably lived during the 5th century, and was a Roman …
Special: One Heaping Portion of Regret
Two days ago, my almost-85-year-old father died. It happened peacefully at home before breakfast on Monday morning. It was not unexpected -- on the contrary, he'd been battling MRSA for several years, and undergoing thrice-weekly kidney dialysis for over two years. He'd had a pretty full life: he served in the Army in Germany during WWII, got married, had 4 children, 14 grandchildren and 1 great-granddaughter (so far). He won photography awards year after year. Professionally, he was a …
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Health Care and Expatriation
A few days ago, I asked the question, “Is US health care driving Americans to move abroad?” The response was swift. “Of course it is,” wrote Lya Sorano, Atlanta businesswoman. “Hardly a month passes in which I do not hear about a friend-of-a-friend or former neighbor decamping to Mexico or Costa Rica. I may be next . . . :-)" Mary Duckworth Mimouna, living in Morocco, responded: "It was one of the major factors prompting me to move overseas in 1993 when I did with my foreign husband. We had no …