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How To Become an Expat
Ever since Trump has gotten elected, people searching for advice on how to become an expat has skyrocketed. For most of us, the idea of becoming a former US citizen is alluring—but not quite doable. But, if you really do want to leave your country, it's possible to become an expat in the right circumstances.
By Ossiana Tepfenhart7 years ago in Wander
Tokyo
Right before I had decided to live in the highest skyscraper in Boulder, Colorado I had signed up for the CIEE Program. I saw studying abroad as one choice only and that was to re-visit Japan. If I went it would be my second time to visit the country and so maybe I chose the location as it seemed less scary and intimidating. Perhaps I picked the location out of curiosity of where my ancestors had lived. The trip had already been laid down in my life path in fact, as I did go to Tokyo and that did happen.
By Sound And The Messenger7 years ago in Wander
Lost In Neverland
Hey, So let me introduce myself. I'm Kim and I have been an au pair in the Netherlands for about 4 months now. It's a very challenging experience and I learn something new every single day, plus I get to explore this beautiful country in my free time and I get a lot of free time.
By Kimberley-Jo Mercer7 years ago in Wander
Kendo
Every time I step into Japan I feel it is the result of some unspoken quest for me to visit a past life. It does fall naturally that I do come from a Japanese background. It was thus that when I did settle into Naraha on the Coast of Fukushima, I found it quite serendipitous that the room adjacent to my place of residence happened to be the local Kendo Dojo. Kendo was the ancient practice of the samurai that populated Japan's islands in the days when my ancestors lived out their days in southern Japan. I have deduced that my family name "Hatanaka" likely comes from the name of a samurai clan. I do not know the accuracy of this, but I have noticed that my life seems to give me hints to this past. It was in this way that Kendo weaved into my life. There is another common preoccupation with my thoughts that notices that my life has also put me in close ties with Native Americans. I have found that both the Native American and Japanese culture share striking resemblances. For instance, very recently I have come to discover that the natives often observed their surrounding and took clues from the animals that they came in contact with to give insight into how to best steer their lives. They also took this from the vegetation in their environment. For instance, there is the Aspen tree, which grows abundantly in my hometown. It is a tree that means discipline as the practice of Kendo similarly embodies.
By Sound And The Messenger7 years ago in Wander
Into the Inaka
There's this feeling I have even now when I look back on the experience of leaving Tokyo and going north to Fukushima, which was the place where I would teach. It's a feeling of warmth and adventure and mystery. I remember the rolling hills that were lush green in the summer and the perfect square plots of rice fields that ran past like bars of rest on a musical piece. The city disappeared and then it seemed that there was never a city. Everything rewound 60 years. There were old thatched huts, but we were on an interstate in an air-conditioned bus and so this naturally brought me back to the present. I was with around 40 other teachers and we were all starting out the year in Fukushima. It was 2009 and just changing to the Indian start of summer. It was late summer when the green couldn't be more dark and this hinted that the next movement would be the withdrawing of chlorophyll from everything green.
By Sound And The Messenger7 years ago in Wander