Tag: Canada

Ch-ch-ch-changes: In Which I Attempt to Talk Coherently About This Past Year
December 31, 2013

Ch-ch-ch-changes: In Which I Attempt to Talk Coherently About This Past Year

  I wrote a paltry 22 posts here in 2013, just under two per month. Some months far quieter than others. Most of them somehow ended up hovering around the thousand word mark, which I’ve been told is way more than people want to process …

13 Comments
Let’s Just Leave the Country Again, Shall We?
November 15, 2013

Let’s Just Leave the Country Again, Shall We?

Yesterday we went luggage shopping, for proper hard-shell wheelie bags, the kind that grown-ups buy. The kind that cost more than, say, free. It’s not that I don’t own any luggage. I do. I own all the bags and suitcases that people all over the …

11 Comments
The Gestation Will Not Be Televised: Notes on Not Writing About Being Pregnant
October 30, 2013

The Gestation Will Not Be Televised: Notes on Not Writing About Being Pregnant

  I have a pregnancy app on my phone. It tells me, week by week, which fruit my progeny most closely resembles (currently eggplant, in case you were wondering). It also blurts out daily tips on what I need to do (today I apparently need …

8 Comments
Big Dumplings in Little China
October 20, 2013

Big Dumplings in Little China

It’s hard to write about your homeland.   I’ve spent decades honing my skills at describing places from the perspective of an outsider looking in. It helps to not fully understand what’s going on, or if I actually do know what’s going on, to be …

4 Comments
Killing Time in Familiar Places: Notes on Learning to Enjoy Enforced Stasis
September 30, 2013

Killing Time in Familiar Places: Notes on Learning to Enjoy Enforced Stasis

  It’s been raining for about three days now. The kind of rain that comes with leaden dark white skies, streams of water everywhere, and cacophony on metal roofs. Yesterday, near hurricane winds led to all ferries to and from the mainland being cancelled. A …

9 Comments
Seriously, I Have No Idea What I’m Doing: Notes on Being Knocked Up Whilst in Transit
September 17, 2013

Seriously, I Have No Idea What I’m Doing: Notes on Being Knocked Up Whilst in Transit

  Back when we first found out I was pregnant, about a million years ago in Shanghai, we thought it utterly rational to carry on with our plan to pack up and leave our jobs, our flat, and China, embarking on a road trip down …

18 Comments
A Totally Impractical Guide to Roughing it in the Wilds of Vancouver Island
September 6, 2013

A Totally Impractical Guide to Roughing it in the Wilds of Vancouver Island

For those of you used to my usual summer missives replete with food porn photos and freshly gleaned insights and wild tales from exotic locales such as Morocco or Sri Lanka or Myanmar or Indonesia, I fear I am letting you down. And for those …

12 Comments
How to plan a wedding in just three weeks
August 29, 2013

How to plan a wedding in just three weeks

Last Friday, I got married. Married! Moi! To a man! Not a cat, not a mop, not an ambitious travel plan, not an abstract idea! A real live man! For those of you who have known me at least somewhat over the years, this may …

9 Comments
What’s my Age Again? 11 Notes on Age and Decontextualization of Travel and Expattery
September 3, 2012

What’s my Age Again? 11 Notes on Age and Decontextualization of Travel and Expattery

In a few weeks, I’ll be on the wrong side of my mid-30s. You know, the over the hill and halfway down the other side end. The one with the great big pile of Sisyphean boulders stacked carelessly at the bottom. The unfashionable end.  The …

15 Comments
Things You’re Not Allowed to do in Canada: A Photo Essay
July 10, 2012

Things You’re Not Allowed to do in Canada: A Photo Essay

A few years back, I read an article about an expat who lived in Greece until he became so fluent in Greek that he understood everything that was going on around him, everything that was being said. Then he had to leave. What he had …

13 Comments
Oh, hey, Canada! Notes on National Holidays for the Globally-Wired Brain
July 2, 2012

Oh, hey, Canada! Notes on National Holidays for the Globally-Wired Brain

As some of you may have gleaned through recent subtext in my posts, I am secretly Canadian. Secretly in the sense that unless my status as a Canadian actually comes up directly in conversation, I don’t tend to talk about it or write about it …

8 Comments
On Identity and Decontextualization: Notes on Going Home (again)
June 23, 2012

On Identity and Decontextualization: Notes on Going Home (again)

I’m home again. As a travelling sage once said, if it’s Tuesday, I must be in Belgium. Or in my case, if it’s somewhere near the end of June, I must be in Canada. Vancouver Island, to be precise.   I’m in a much better …

13 Comments