Adventures of a Family

We have moved to a new country where we don't speak the language.  I don't expect anyone to speak MY language.  I am the visitor.  The expat.  The bule .  But I have Google Translate on my phone so things will be alright.  I can get by.  Acquire the things I need, and get to the places I need to go. However, there are some very good reasons to have a basic understanding of the language that surrounds you.  It isn't too difficult to think of the scenarios in which you might find yourself suffering for the non-existent language skills you possess.  And you may find yourself soothed by the fact that many people do in fact speak your language, if your language is English.  It isn't an obnoxious "American privilege" I speak from but a fact . But knowing how to say hello, good day, thank you, please and where is the bathroom can only get you so far. I decided that I needed a haircut and had the afternoon available to do so.  I took ...

If Michael and I had known what it really meant to move away from the house we'd inhabited for 13 years, getting it ready to rent, learning how to be landlords, getting all the paperwork together for our visas, figuring what furniture to keep and what to sell, and then selling SO MUCH STUFF on Craiglist...DEAR GOD! We both looked at each other at one point and expressed that this was pretty much the hardest thing we'd ever done. Any example of the millions of things we sold.... The 1st table we ever bought together Our first "nice" furniture we bought from one of Michael's colleagues 18 years ago     Then after selling all that stuff, it was time to pack and move, and then the house went from looking like this:   To looking like this for weeks:   With a pretty constant "free pile" outside on the parkway for several weeks: Clearly we are great neighbors We literally worked until 8 PM the night before the tenants m...

A few years have passed since the last entry, but we felt it was time to revive the blog, as we are now on an epic adventure in Surabaya, Indonesia. Yes, crazy, I know, but here's some background: Matthew and Julie, friends of our for many years, have been teaching in international schools for over 15 years. Matthew has been an admin for about the last 5 of those and finally landed at a school that he thought would be a good fit for Michael. So in January 2017, we made the big decision and signed a two-year contract.  Clearly we were not worried at all........ Taking the plunge and clearly not worried