Teaching English and looking for common language with Eritrean refugees. This is a picture of my Saturday morning this week. Because it’s not what you know but whom you know, I suddenly find myself teaching English to refugees. I have no qualifications, no experience, no expertise, but I do have a friend who has all those things. … Continue reading S Is for Stranger
Category: Repat adjustments
Social Media Etiquette in One Handy Chart!
With this handy etiquette chart, you can be active on social media and STILL HAVE FRIENDS at the end of the presidential election season! A couple of years ago, I was in Istanbul the day before mayoral elections that were being watched as a bellweather for upcoming national elections. I don’t speak Turkish. I couldn’t properly … Continue reading Social Media Etiquette in One Handy Chart!
The Places We Meet
I find myself, at the moment, more of a foreign girl at home than I’ve been in plenty of places where I couldn’t speak a word of the language. My country is baffling me. In the wake of yet more police shootings of black men, peaceful protests were being staged in Dallas--a city where reports … Continue reading The Places We Meet
A Little Help, Here, Please
It’s Memorial Day weekend in the U.S., a holiday begun to commemorate those who died while serving in the armed forces. It now involves military tributes, graveside services...and barbecues. Summer has begun! Memorial Day weekend is when swimming pools open, summer programs begin, the school year ends, and the upper crust don their summer whites. On every Memorial … Continue reading A Little Help, Here, Please
Let Them Eat Candy
I've just unpacked my Malteasers dress from the Princess Souk, so I'm super-pumped to be back in the U.S. for Halloween. I have a cauldron full of candy. I have real pumpkins. And last weekend I made a batch of pumpkin spice donut holes, which were SPECTACULAR (recipe here*), as testified to by the way … Continue reading Let Them Eat Candy
Note to Self: Top Ten Repat Reminders
A woman I knew a few years ago returned from a year of living abroad. Awesome. Great experience. Good for you. But I'm not doing myself any favors if I paper over the fact that she had instantly become INSUFFERABLE. She could say nothing without prefacing it with "Well, in China..." Nothing, I promise. To … Continue reading Note to Self: Top Ten Repat Reminders
Margo Catts 