Many moons ago, on my previous blog, I wrote a post entitled “Mongolian Habits to Adopt.” I was more than two years into living life in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and didn’t know yet that I would be pushed to leave that country. But here I am in my fourth year of life in İzmir, Turkey! I was recently reflecting upon ALL the things I love about Turkey, and about making a life here. I remembered that…
I can’t believe how fast the month of January sped by this year around. Usually it is a slow month in addition to being one of the darker and longer ones. But alas here we are already one week into the month of February. I usually share much sooner than this what my “word of the year” will be. In case you are unaware of this tradition or habit of mine, here are links to…
This coming summer will mark seven years that I’ve been living abroad as an expat. In those seven years I’ve traveled home to the U.S. five times: for Christmas in 2016, the summers of 2017, 2019, 2020, and then this last holiday gathering, Christmas 2021. My longest break was from the summers of 2017 to 2019 as I moved from Mongolia to Turkey in the summer of 2018. While my employer does fund a ticket…