Roughly two years ago, we had left our apartment in Singapore behind. We’d moved into a hotel for a week while we said good-bye to Singapore. I oversaw the apartment turnover. The kids were finishing up their last week of school. Ravi ended his employment with GNB. Six weeks short of our seven year anniversary in Singapore, we left it. I’ve given a lot of thought to what should happen to Expat Bostonians. I’m not an expat, for all that the Bay Area in California is very different from Boston, Massachusetts. I’ve struggled to find content that would appeal to my audience. Honestly, it’s been a ..read more

Any of my readers who are also writers are probably familiar with NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month in which participants try to write a 50k novel in thirty days. Putting aside the fact that 50k is either a very long novella or the bare minimum to be considered a novel by a publisher (some publishers have a higher minimum word count to be considered a novel), it’s an ambitious goal and one that many people burn out on. I’m doing it this year mostly as a tracking tool. I don’t think I’ll hit 50k words, but it will be interesting to see how much I can write when I actually make a point ..read more

In honor of my 40th birthday, here are 40 random things about me. This is stream of consciousness. 1-I’m actually really excited for my 40’s (minus perimenopause–that sounds like a bitch) because with each year I’ve stopped caring about what other people think so much. I’ve become a more authentic version of myself, and I’m happy to see where that goes in my 40’s. 2-If my thirties were about raising young children, my forties will be about parenting tweens and teens. When I turn 50, Elanor will be a few days away from turning 20 and Rhi will have just turned 17. Some people find the idea of t ..read more

Photo source–Trip Advisor If you like historic properties and luxury, I highly recommend the Roosevelt in New Orleans. It’s just off Canal on the opposite side from the French Quarter. That makes a place like Cafe Du Monde a ten to fifteen minute walk, which isn’t insurmountable. If you have accessibility issues, there is very little in the way of benches on the way to and in the quarter. If you use a cane or a walker, I encourage you to bring one of the ones that have a little seated bench, like this one. The lobby is full of old world charm, including this gorgeous clock, which was shown a ..read more

Like I said in my last post, we were traveling and then had the double whammy of Ravi and Rhi’s birthdays, so I needed a break from blogging. Our vacation was to celebrate my fortieth birthday a few weeks early (I’m not forty until the 24th). New Orleans is one of my favorite cities, and I was so happy to have a chance to go back. I’ve been looking forward to visiting New Orleans with the girls for a long time. If you go to New Orleans, there is something you must do whether you’re there for business or pleasure, adults only or with kids in tow–Cafe Du Monde. Open 24/7 except for Christmas Ev ..read more

Hey all. I’ll be back on 10/17 with a bunch of posts about our trip to New Orleans and Ravi and Rhi’s birthdays. But first I have to survive it all ..read more

I know this started as an expat experience blog, but over the past eight years we’ve come to know one another, if you’re a long time reader. I’ve been fairly open about our lives and experiences. But I’m reaching a point where I feel like I’m struggling to find topics to write about. I mean, if you’re here to learn about our lives in Singapore, you’re better off in the archives. If you want to hear about the US, as an American it’s hard to know what would interest you. So I’m curious–what do you want to know about life in the US? You can leave a comment or email expatbostonians at gmail dot co ..read more

I was on Facebook on Monday and as I often do, I glanced at my timehop (the feature where you see what you’ve posted on that day years in the past). Three years ago the PSI was going up to dangerous levels. The picture above is not as bad as it got. That was possibly the year they canceled school because of haze. Ravi is an asthmatic, and every year my anxiety would spike, fearing for his health. The good masks that block the right particle matter are only made for adult faces, and my little ones were being exposed to hazardous air. Then there were the migrant workers who were given little mo ..read more

So yesterday, Sunday the 23rd, was Bisexual Awareness Day. I identify more frequently as queer, as I feel like a big umbrella covers a multitude of identities. But I do also identify as bisexual, meaning I am attracted to men and women. The thing about being bisexual is that you’re usually only identified as bi when you are single. The second you have a partner, everyone is in a rush to identify you as gay (because I was dating a girl) or straight (because my partner is male). When you’re with someone of the opposite gender, you pass to the point of being invisible. You’re seen as an ally of ..read more

One of the things you learn as an aspiring teacher in the US is that all of the research says that learning to read is a complex process and that the age that is “normal” to learn to read is in the 5-8 window. In Singapore, children are expected to be fluent readers and writers by age 6. Day one of Primary 1 your child better already know how to read because next week their spelling test will have words like mountains. In the US, we hope that kids start kindergarten knowing all 26 letters and their corresponding phoneme (sound a letter makes). But not all do. There is support for children who ..read more