On one of my bad days a few months ago, I was reading an article about the benefits to children of living overseas (you know, just to help me feel better about traumatizing them by dragging them around the world). It mentioned a study in which children who had spent significant time in a country not their own demonstrated more creative problem solving skills. I believe it. Constant exposure to alien ways of thinking, unfamiliar expectations, and situations out of your comfort zone does tend to kick the problem solving machine into high gear. I’ve experienced this myself. For instance, since I’m the designated family chef/epicure, I’ve taught myself things like how to cook with local ingredients, and get by with severely limited kitchen utensils.… Read more
expat issues
Getting Ready for Ramadan
This will be our first Ramadan in the Middle East. For those who don’t know, Ramadan is the month of fasting in Islam, and begins on August 1st this year. I have mixed feelings about spending Ramadan here. On the one hand, it will be interesting to get a closer look at one of the five pillars of the Muslim faith. As a Mormon, I fast for one Sunday each month. Almost every month as I am preparing to break my fast, I think of my Muslim friends and acquaintances, and how impressed I am that they fast every single day for an entire month (and this month it’s the month of August too!).… Read more
Our Latest Cultural Blooper
Before I let you gasp in horror over what we did last night, let me give you some background on our side of the story. Before we moved to Tunisia, I read someone’s list of things she liked and disliked about living here. I can’t remember most of them, but one of the things she said she disliked was the “garbage everywhere.” I just laughed, certain she must be exaggerating. Living among the ultra-tidy Piemontese, I had nearly forgotten that the world was not one big well-tended, immaculate garden. In the part of Italy where we lived, there was barely a dirt clod out of place.… Read more
Blogging About Blogging
An expat blogger friend of mine remarked the other day that she’s still not sure blogging from America isn’t pretentious. I’d have to agree. In fact, I’d expand it to say that blogging from anywhere is fairly pretentious. I mean, who am I to think that my journal would make interesting reading for acquaintances, or even friends? Let alone strangers!
The blogs that stick to one topic, like recipes, fashion, or politics, make more sense. They’re kind of like books published in serial form. That’s normal. Even Dickens made it big publishing serially. But what about those of us like me, who are more or less publishing our memoirs as they happen?… Read more
Long Distance Grandparenting 2.0
Shortly after we moved overseas, we started using google chat (and sometimes Skype) to video chat with the grandparents. At first, it was a little weird and awkward. Video chat is somewhere in between talking on the phone (which can be difficult for toddlers to conceptualize and enjoy) and being there in person. Sometimes it’s hard to think of good conversation topics. But they eventually got the hang of it, and soon they were taking advantage of the video component by showing drawings and special toys to the grandmas, singing them songs, or even playing games like peek-a-boo and hide-and-seek after they figured out exactly where the webcam was located.… Read more
On Being American
I believe this is my fifth Independence Day outside the United States. I always miss the fireworks when I’m away. And even though I haven’t lived at home in years and years, I still remember fondly the 4th of July breakfast my church always hosted early on Independence Day morning. We would raise the flag, sing the National Anthem, listen to some inspirational speeches (they seemed kind of long when you were a kid and hadn’t had breakfast yet), and then eat pancakes! One year I came home from college for the summer and was asked to give one of those speeches.… Read more
Mormons Online
My church’s website, lds.org, recently got a makeover. At first, I had a hard time finding things, but I pretty much have navigation down after a couple of months with the new site. And I must admit that it does look very nice now. Since we live in Tunisia, where there is no organized unit of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), and most of our books are still in storage, I use the website quite a lot. And it occurred to me that some of the things I do there might be useful even to people who aren’t driven to lds.org… Read more
Four Birthdays, Four Different Countries
Four years ago today, my little man was born.
Here he is, newly born in Vancouver, Washington. Fortunately for me, four years later he’s still as snuggly as a newborn. He also still enjoys twirling my hair in his fingers, which he used to do when he was nursing (I’m told that my little brother Jesse did this until he was seven). I guess I still think of him as my baby, since he’s the closest thing I’ve got. But I’m forced to admit that at four years old, he is growing up. These past few years have been quite adventurous for our family.… Read more
Even Laundry is Better in Tunisia
I am not the most awesome housekeeper in the world. (Just ask my cleaning lady.) But I have laundry down. My mother taught me when I was six years old.
It is true that at college I disregarded her advice about color sorting on occasion, and ended up with grey clothes like Claudia and Jamie when they ran away to the Metropolitan Museum in From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. I was always chronically behind, which I am sorry to say continued (and even multiplied) after I was married. Then I decided to use cloth diapers when Axa was born.… Read more
I Thought I Could Organize Freedom
It’s that time of the year when Tony and I start thinking about what we like to refer to as “the Northern countries.” This first began when we were living in Saluzzo, Italy three years ago. As in most of Italy, summers there get quite hot. And just when it gets so sweltering that it’s barely possible to even move outside without a gelato in one hand and an Italian ice in the other, the downtown travel agencies start putting up large, tempting photos of gloriously icy blue Norwegian fjords. It had never occurred to me that I might like to visit Northern Europe, but all of a sudden, countries that bordered the North Pole or had names containing “ice” began to sound incredibly appealing.… Read more