Family Life Abroad: the expat place ~ Welcome Home ~

Family Life Abroad ~for now I'm here to stay~ JavaFILE

"Travel is fatal to
prejudice, bigotry, &
narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it solely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one corner of the earth all one's lifetime." -- Mark Twain

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Three Ages of Woman (Detail)
Gustav Klimt

Sunny Day in Venice
Henri Martin

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Articles for Expats:

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Rapid Cost of Living Increases in Africa and Asia
by Steven McManus

~ how much expats spend on what ~

Not a Geisha
an excerpt from Kimberly Palmer's book

~ a distinct lack of deodorant ~

The Shock Value in Culture Shock
a discussion with Jennifer Herrin

~ why do we do it? ~

The RedCoates in Thailand
an interview with Karen J. Coates & Jerry Redfern

~ it ain't Cambodia ~

Rules, Britannia: An Insider's Guide to Life in the UK
a book review and interview with author Toni Summers Hargis

~ chuffed fags and fairy cakes ~

Run, Baby, Run
by Stephanie Olsen

~ can you ever leave your problems behind? ~

News and Headlines:

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The Death of Language?

An estimated 7,000 languages are being spoken around the world. But that number is expected to shrink rapidly in the coming decades. What is lost when a language dies?
BBC Today

How The West Failed Eastern Europe

Twenty years on, formerly communist states are stuck in old ways.
Forbes

Bilingualism's Brain Benefits

Bilingual speakers are better able to deal with distractions than those who speak only a single language, and that may help offset age-related declines in mental performance, researchers say.
WashingtonPost Science Notebook

Big in Japan: How to rent an apartment in Tokyo

Forget the reikin ouchie and finder's fees: first get past the "no pets, no foreigners, and no prostitutes" stipulation
a Matthew Firestone post on Gadling.com

E.U.'s Expanding Borderless Zone Spells Trouble for U.S. Expats

Teaching English illegally ain't as easy as it used to be!
Christian Science Monitor

International Headlines

~ LINKS FOR KIDS ~

It's hard to find a mix of fun, educational homeschooling material in English when you live overseas. The internet becomes a viable alternate source until your next trip home. Some excellent sites are:

The Literature Page: your place to read classic books, plays, stories, poems, essays, and speeches online. A wonderful site to go to when you've run out of English reading material! What's especially handy is the bookmark feature, which uses cookies (no registration required) to keep your page 'til your next visit.

Brush up on painting: Serault's Pointilism, Van Gogh's palette knife broadstroking - fun on-line creation and learning

Learning Spanish? Sign up for a daily email which contains an intermediate or beginning word with full translation and example; an advanced word with definition but no translation; an idiom or proverb along with synonyms; and a modismo or slang expression from a different country. Look what I learned! "Las cosas van de mal en peor." hmmmmm....

a safe and engaging educational environment where very early learners (ages 2-6) can play games, listen to and participate in interactive stories and sing songs.

Really BIG Numbers are easy to comprehend when you use a visual with the common penny.

Learn to Draw on-line: grab some paper and pencils, then follow along. If you enjoy this, you might want to click here too.

If older children need to feel involved in proactive ways to help others, click-a-day sites, such as The Animal Rescue Site, can be simple introductions to the world of volunteering.

Related Expatriate Links:

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Japan Guide

- For everything you need to know about Japan, from the language to religion to working your way around, first-hand from Japan.

Kids in Barcelona

- Expat Emma Grenham started this information, resource and support site helping residents and visiting families to enjoy the city with kids. This kind of site is a fantastic find for expat parents with young children--wish I had had that when I was in Poland!

Cats in Sinks

- actually, this has nothing to do with expat life per se, but cat lovers everywhere will recognize this and feel all warm and fuzzy, and that's as good a reason to link as any.

First Aid Online

- it's comforting to know that if you need immediate or emergency medical advice, you can turn to the good people at St. John Ambulance.

Expatriates.com

- a very helpful community with ads, resource directory and forum for expatriates.

International Living in the Philippines: lifestyle, community news and survival tips

A Manila-based website for expats in the Philippines with honest and insightful articles from a dangerous paradise.

Lonely Planet

I love the Thorntree feature: the best (and busiest!) travel forum on the web

The Thai Character from the Thailand Tourist Information Handbook

read before you go, oblivious foreigner, and proceed with caution

Sleeping in Airports

Real-life stories to help you catch a little shut-eye when even the best-laid travel plans go awry.

The German Way and More

Click on "interviews" to read candid reports by people who have lived in German-speaking Europe

Odessa Street: welcome to the neighborhood

A young, fun look at daily life in Paris by an American graduate student (with size 11 feet).

Behave yourself in Japan

How-to-bow.com is an entertaining and detailed video explanation of social intricacies in Japan, with historical reasons to back up the complex behaviors. Very interesting stuff here.

Expat Community Web Portal in Turkey

Istanbul anyone? Here's how to rent; phrases for the cleaning lady (and how much to pay her); directions to the local grocery store are given in the forum. Exposes the culture, the mysteries; even the Turkish bath.

HackWriters: real people real lives - the online portfolio of good writing

take a seat and journey world cultures with some incredible writers

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Travel Tips:

"Heathrow's Terminal One has a small play structure with tunnel slides under a large aquarium - kids can climb and parents can attempt self-hypnosis through fish gazing..."
~

"Take a (deflated) beachball in the carry-on. The kids can play at the airport during an interminable lay-over; it won't hurt anyone or get lost and you can let the air out when your flight's (finally!) called."
~

Reader update: "Vancouver International Airport has an indoor playgound and a great adjoining parents' room with cribs, rocking chairs and dimmer lights, change tables and family washrooms."
~

"A tip from my ESL classroom: take along a pocket-sized comic book (Peanuts comes to mind!). Pre-readers can have fun making up stories; and older kids can try their hand at filling in the covered-up speech bubbles."
~

Homeschooling Abroad?

eSpindle was started by homeschooling parents looking for a new and smarter way to learn vocabulary.

eSpindle is very simple to use, yet extremely powerful. Powered by a database of over 100,000 words, eSpindle provides "always right" instruction for all ages and skill levels.

Try a FREE trial today!

Free Download
I use this simple corkboard daily and highly recommend it - it's even proven to be a good homeschooling tool, as there is a selection of calendars and clocks to choose and talk about. My pre-reader is typing reminders to herself like "play today" (dictated to and written out by me first), so it's also providing letter and word recognition.

I compiled and edited my very first cookbook in PDF format--likely a result of all those years abroad with no peanut butter.

Nuts in Every Recipe!
The Nutty About Nuts E-Cookbook