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!
My Adopted Home Is Bleeding and You Need To Understand Why
This post was written by one of my fellow-authors in Once Upon an Expat. Margie is an American woman married to a Turkish man, watching the horrors there unfold in a way the rest of us need to understand. It's short (a skill that seems to escape me), and it's important. Please read.
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 World of Stories
A few months after I arrived in Saudi Arabia, I found myself at dinner with a group of teachers. You know, school teachers. Ladies that taught English at Saudi girls’ schools. Old maid school teachers. You got that picture squarely in mind? Good. Now flush it. Whatever scars you still carry from that time you … Continue reading A World of Stories
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
Back in the Saddle
Well, here it is. The Rip Van Winkle blog, stumbling out of the woods after a long, lazy nap to try to pick up where it left off, only to find out that the world has moved way, way on. Things have changed in Saudi Arabia since I left a year ago. We were toward … Continue reading Back in the Saddle
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
The Faith and The Hope
This is my favorite keepsake from Saudi Arabia. Okay, I'm pretty pumped with this, too: The gift that keeps on giving. But the necklace is still number one. To my eye, Arabic is an exquisite written language, and it's been used decoratively for centuries. When I told the jeweler what I wanted, he suggested a … Continue reading The Faith and The Hope
Dear Saudi Arabia, Please Help Me Understand
Why won't you let any refugees in? Please, help me. I want to understand. I want to think better of you than what I see. I sit in front of the television, crying. "This is Europe's defining moment," I hear a television announcer say. I shake my head. "Why?" I say. "Why is it just … Continue reading Dear Saudi Arabia, Please Help Me Understand
Me, a Joke, and the Secret Police
Theory: A sense of humor is to every human quality as salt is to every food. It doesn't take much, but the lack of it will pretty much kill whatever you're serving. Love? Good, but when it's dead serious it'll suffocate a person. Dignity? Admirable, but without a sense of humor you're just stiff and … Continue reading Me, a Joke, and the Secret Police
Margo Catts 