LIFE IN NEW JERSEY: When you think of American High school, there are lots of images that are conjured up from TV shows, movies and news stories that have been shown around the world including in Australia. Shows such as ‘Mean Girls’, ‘High School Musical’, ‘Heathers’ and ‘Clueless’, help to develop biases and pre-conceptions about […] Continue reading →
EXPAT LIFE: As we come to the year’s end, I am thinking of my expat life in NJ over the last eight years, at a height of many thousand feet, in a plane on my way to Australia. It has been a long while since my last blog post, and much has happened in between, […] Continue reading →
EXPAT LIFE: As much as I have tried to avoid sounding American in my own parochial way, it’s almost impossible. After seven years, there are many routine words from the local’s vocabulary that have crept into my everyday speech. Here are a few examples of common American expressions that I say frequently: Candy A very well-used word […] Continue reading →
LIFE IN NEW JERSEY: After six years here, I can say that life as an expat in NJ has been pretty good overall. Once you are settled in, not feeling homesick any more, and your kids adapt to their schools, then life gets a lot easier. In fact, most of the time, it is quite enjoyable. But even living […] Continue reading →
EXPAT LIFE: I got a huge surprise when she told me. “Mum, I’m going to be in the Spelling Bee final.” “Congratulations! That’s fabulous!” I exclaimed with pride. Although I was thrilled for her, when I looked in her eyes, I could see she didn’t think it was fabulous at all. My daughter had a […] Continue reading →
EXPAT LIFE: If you haven’t had the exquisite joy of visiting a DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) in the USA yet, then you haven’t really lived. As an expat, I would definitely classify the DMV as an adventure travel experience – expat thrill seeking at its most dangerous. Just mention ‘going to the DMV’ and you […] Continue reading →
LIFE IN NEW JERSEY: Spoiler alert! Expat whinging (Australian for whining) straight ahead. WARNING: Stop reading now to avoid. Yes, it’s been a while but I am about to throw an expat-style dummy-spit about my adopted home country. Going to the hairdressers here has never been easy. It’s not that there’s a lack of […] Continue reading →
EXPAT LIFE: Being an expat must give you early Alzheimer’s. I’m just waiting for the study results to show up one day proving me correct. No, it’s not the stress of moving to the USA that I’m talking about (although that does contribute I’m sure). It is the constant need to check and recheck your spelling when […] Continue reading →
EXPAT LIFE: We’ve just returned from another home visit to Australia. It was short but still very enjoyable. As with other visits, we saw our friends and family and looked at our house in Sydney’s Inner West. Nothing seems to have changed much except for one big exception. Somewhere, somehow between this year and last […] Continue reading →
LIFE IN NEW JERSEY: What is summer in New Jersey like? Well in a word, humid. And hot… but not as much as you might think. Temperatures can go up to 37C (100 F) but it doesn’t occur often. The 40C+ days that you see in Sydney fortunately don’t seem to happen here. Weather extremes Mostly, the hottest […] Continue reading →
LIFE IN NEW JERSEY: When you think of American High school, there are lots of images that are conjured up from TV shows, movies and news stories that have been shown around the world including in Australia. Shows such as ‘Mean Girls’, ‘High School Musical’, ‘Heathers’ and ‘Clueless’, help to develop biases and pre-conceptions about […] Continue reading → 
EXPAT LIFE: As we come to the year’s end, I am thinking of my expat life in NJ over the last eight years, at a height of many thousand feet, in a plane on my way to Australia. It has been a long while since my last blog post, and much has happened in between, […] Continue reading → 
EXPAT LIFE: As much as I have tried to avoid sounding American in my own parochial way, it’s almost impossible. After seven years, there are many routine words from the local’s vocabulary that have crept into my everyday speech. Here are a few examples of common American expressions that I say frequently: Candy A very well-used word […] Continue reading → 
LIFE IN NEW JERSEY: After six years here, I can say that life as an expat in NJ has been pretty good overall. Once you are settled in, not feeling homesick any more, and your kids adapt to their schools, then life gets a lot easier. In fact, most of the time, it is quite enjoyable. But even living […] Continue reading → 
EXPAT LIFE: I got a huge surprise when she told me. “Mum, I’m going to be in the Spelling Bee final.” “Congratulations! That’s fabulous!” I exclaimed with pride. Although I was thrilled for her, when I looked in her eyes, I could see she didn’t think it was fabulous at all. My daughter had a […] Continue reading → 
EXPAT LIFE: If you haven’t had the exquisite joy of visiting a DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) in the USA yet, then you haven’t really lived. As an expat, I would definitely classify the DMV as an adventure travel experience – expat thrill seeking at its most dangerous. Just mention ‘going to the DMV’ and you […] Continue reading → 
LIFE IN NEW JERSEY: Spoiler alert! Expat whinging (Australian for whining) straight ahead. WARNING: Stop reading now to avoid. Yes, it’s been a while but I am about to throw an expat-style dummy-spit about my adopted home country. Going to the hairdressers here has never been easy. It’s not that there’s a lack of […] Continue reading → 
EXPAT LIFE: Being an expat must give you early Alzheimer’s. I’m just waiting for the study results to show up one day proving me correct. No, it’s not the stress of moving to the USA that I’m talking about (although that does contribute I’m sure). It is the constant need to check and recheck your spelling when […] Continue reading → 
EXPAT LIFE: We’ve just returned from another home visit to Australia. It was short but still very enjoyable. As with other visits, we saw our friends and family and looked at our house in Sydney’s Inner West. Nothing seems to have changed much except for one big exception. Somewhere, somehow between this year and last […] Continue reading → 
LIFE IN NEW JERSEY: What is summer in New Jersey like? Well in a word, humid. And hot… but not as much as you might think. Temperatures can go up to 37C (100 F) but it doesn’t occur often. The 40C+ days that you see in Sydney fortunately don’t seem to happen here. Weather extremes Mostly, the hottest […] Continue reading →