Schoolhouse Rock

Like many expat kids, my boys attend an international school. And while it has rubrics and complicated assessments instead of grades and smart boards instead of chalk, it is a school in the most traditional sense. There are students and teachers and classrooms. There are principals and secretaries and forms. There are discordant recorder sounds…

You Had Me at Goodbye

June is a rough month for expats, whether you’re coming or going or staying put. As June rolls around you’ll catch me doling out 100 Kroner notes like candy to cover the cost of leaving gifts; books, flowers, keepsakes and mementoes. June sees me squeezing in tea times here and coffee mornings there and drinks…where? Where were…

F Words

Next week my sister turns 40. I would cackle with glee and do an evil little leprechaun dance except for that fact that she’s my younger sister and her turning 40 means that I’m well over 40. Schadenfreude, have you met my good friend irony? The internet abounds–it practically explodes–with advice about turning 40. What…

We Go Together (like rama lamma lamma ka dinga da dinga dong)

This past weekend I traveled to London to make merry in honor of a friend’s 40th birthday. It was a celebration, not just of the birthday girl and her milestone, but of friendship. Old friends and new, those from close by and those from far away. For many of us, it was also a mini expat reunion….