Tag: March
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Returning to Normal-ish
I love to travel. It seems like an obvious thing to say as an expat, but there are expats who live abroad and see the world and there are expats who live abroad as they would in their home countries. I am of the former. Despite this love of travel, I detest the process of…
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My Adoption Journey – 6: The First Adoptive Family
I have just written my second attempt to request information from my first adoptive father. This time, I hand-wrote a letter to send in the regular post. I tried an email address that I found online since post is a bit delayed and sporadic these days; however, after no response and no idea if it…
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The Netherlands in March 2022
When I first arrived in Abu Dhabi, I made friends with some fellow Couchsurfing hosts who are also Asians of Western culture, which at the time was a rare meeting. We stayed friends over the years with a few visits back and forth after they moved on. Our last visit, though, was around ten years…
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“Please”, “Thank you” & Etiquette
Before emails, we had typewriters and regular post for staying in touch or conducting business. Before texts, we had telephones requiring a voice conversation. Before social media, we had to face people directly to express ourselves. While I fully appreciate and take advantage of our modern-day advances, there are some ‘rules of engagement’ that I…
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Busy Busy
March is here already and I’ve spent the last couple of days focusing solely on the platform to get everything in line for the month. I’m not complaining, by any means, as I know that putting in the time now frees up my time later. Still, I find myself less enthusiastic about the platform as…
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To Panic or Not to Panic?!
Unless you’ve been under a rock or blissfully enjoying a Luddite world, in which case you wouldn’t be reading this, you will be aware of the global crisis known as COVID-19 or the Coronavirus. Now, I’m not a prepper, panicker, conformist, or doomsday believer. In fact, in a state of emergency I have always said…
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The Temporariness of Life
Where does the time go? There I was thinking that I was on regular schedule for posting, but then three weeks just flew by! Now, I am back in March and hoping to not jinx my flow. I guess I have still been a bit busy with work and trying to find the ever elusive…
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Re-Finding Purpose
Call it midlife crisis or call it whatever you like, but I have been trying to find purpose (again) these days. When one chooses not to have children, it becomes more difficult at a certain age to define what life is all about. As someone who has spent most of her life trying to be…
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Hanami
In Japan, the best seasons are the fall and spring. These are the times of the year when you can be outside and enjoy all that the flora can offer around town. Or, many people take special trips around this time. The spring offers views of the famous cherry blossoms where you can see people…
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Kyoto Day 3
Our last half-day in Kyoto was a cold and wet one. We put on our Oregonian minds and endured the rain drops enough to do the short walk along the Philosophers’ Path (哲学の道哲学の道) where we reminisced about the old days when J and I created our own pronunciation of philosophize to philoSOPHisize because we had…
