December 15, 2015. I remind myself regularly of this date. When I’m up at night, my brain whirrs as I count the days, weeks, months and now years since I turned my back on expat life. It seems like no time has passed at all, and yet all the time in the world has passed. DecemberContinue reading “Two Years of Home”
Tag Archives: expat life
Seven Years After Solo Travel
“I hope you find what you’re looking for,” the ticket agent said to me before we hung up the phone on that winter night in Atlanta in 2010. Pure joy shot through my veins after we disconnected. Sitting in my apartment in the 100-year-old house, listening to the cars pass my house on their wayContinue reading “Seven Years After Solo Travel”
True Story: I’m a Recovering Expat
Editor’s Note: This should have been published on Dec. 15, 2016. I was hella sick so never published it on the actual one-year anniversary of surrendering my status as an expatriate. Better late than never, right? Hi. My name is Diana. I used to be an expat. For almost four years, it was how IContinue reading “True Story: I’m a Recovering Expat”
What Being an Expat Taught Me About Life
The photos flood my Facebook feed. They’ve been doing it for ages now, thanks to all the different ways memories are shared. Typically, I look at them, let my mind linger and then move on. But, there’s something different about the photos and moments popping up now: they’re no longer tangible. Let me explain.
Home: Las Vegas
Home: Las Vegas. It hits me when the sky gives way from black to a sea of glittering, golden lights. Some 20,000 feet below me is the Mojave Desert, which is slowly giving way to the Las Vegas Valley. Tears well up in my eyes, and there is no containing them. I’ve left my worldContinue reading “Home: Las Vegas”
Because Sometimes You Don’t Realize It’s Love Until It’s Gone
My heart races as the cab driver pulls up to the International Terminal at Madrid. I’ve been here before, but this time, it’s different. This time, I’m not hopping on a short flight to London, or heading to the States to procure my Spanish Visa. This time, I’m going back to Thailand. The longest placeContinue reading “Because Sometimes You Don’t Realize It’s Love Until It’s Gone”
What is Home?
Home, by definition, is the “place where one lives.” As a former corporate-world-woman, long-term traveler, and now a serial expat, home has been many places and continues to morph into new and different places where I wake up. It was where I grew up, with my family, in the middle-class suburbs of Washington, DC. ItContinue reading “What is Home?”
9 Things to Know About Expat Life
Today marks three years of life as an expat. If you asked me three years ago, when I arrived wide-eyed to Chiang Mai if I ever would have imagined being in Spain today, I would have likely looked at you and laughed … because really? That notion, then, seemed absurd. And yet … here IContinue reading “9 Things to Know About Expat Life”
When you go numb
There’s a pressure mounting in my veins. I can feel my heart race at night, before I go to sleep. The anxieties I fought so hard to quiet, surfacing and swirling in my mind, prohibiting my body to surrender to quiet. To black. To dreams. I’m in Madrid.
The world of expats: more of what you need to know
So … you want to be an expat? Making the decision to leave your home country and experience another country is one which should not be an impulsive decision. After being an expat for nearly three years, there are a lot of things to consider before packing up your home life, quitting the job andContinue reading “The world of expats: more of what you need to know”
D Travels 'Round 