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The Culture Blend BLOG

If you have EVER lived abroad or love someone who does, there is something here for you.

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Enjoy — and Thanks for Reading!

The Four Relationships You Need if You’re Doing Something New

There's a whole lotta' new going around. COVID shook things up didn't it? Expats have been kicked out or displaced or put on hold. Brick and mortars are morphing into websites and zoom calls. Careers have shifted. Businesses have been reimagined. Paradigms have been...

Little brother syndrome: How expats feel when you badmouth their host country

I never had a little brother ... but I was one. So I know how this works. There is an unwritten bylaw in the "How Family Works Field Guide" that states very explicitly that elder siblings reserve full rights to be absolutely annoyed by little brothers. Because little...

Oops … I forgot myself: Reclaiming your identity in a massive life transition

You know that feeling? It's a sick one. In your gut. Sometimes you catch it early. Two minutes down the road on the way to the airport. "Did you pack the swimsuits?" "Yes." "Socks?" "Yes" "Underwear?" "Yep." "Boarding passes?" "YES! I got everything ok?!" "Sorry . . ....

Transition in a Transition: A few thoughts for making big moves after a big pandemic

You can feel it can't you? Like racehorses lined up at the gate. Like a dam about to bust. Like globally-minded, would be (or former) world travelers and serial expats who haven't been on an airplane (or put on pants) in over a year. The tension is mounting. We're...

Bald Tires and Bad Habits: The right kind of change in a snowstorm year

Facebook did it. Instagram too. All of them. They cracked my code. Not a day goes by that I don't get at least 458 offers for the exact thing that I was just talking about yesterday. Sometimes (and I swear this has happened) all I have to do is think about it. You...

Permission to Netflix: The Power of Intentional Disconnection

There is a MASSIVE difference between "oops" and intentionality. You've been there right? Tell me I'm not the only one. The clock says three hours past your bedtime but your brain is in full-on bargaining mode. One more episode won't kill me. I'll catch a nap...

Ten Years of The Culture Blend

Ten years ago today I hit "publish" for the first time. I had no clue. I had no clear agenda. No long term goal. No 10 step plan for optimizing SEO, driving traffic, managing bounce rate, or maximizing widgets. I barely knew what a blog was. I just knew that cultures,...

The High Hidden Cost of Constant Transition

If you are running, leading, investing in, managing, or somehow otherwise involved in the oversight of an international business, team, or organization, someone in your group is shoveling money out the window. You should do something about that. Transitory teams are...

Pandemics are Stupid (and other things I learned about transition in a 2020 global move)

I'm a Transition Specialist. I know because that's what is on my business cards -- which are outdated -- and in a suitcase -- on a ship -- somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea. Feels like a metaphor for my life right now. My role is to know things. Important things like...

Dear China: A note from a thankful expat

Dear China, You're so much better at goodbyes than I am but let's try to get through this ok? When we first met I was so intimidated by you. You were bigger than life, older than Moses, and more confusing than puberty. But you were so welcoming. I can't say I felt at...

“Yeah, but you’re not Black”

How does a White father from the United States, raising his Black son in China talk about the news this week? That's not rhetorical. It's not hypothetical? I'm asking. Because I don't know. What I do know is that I'm not the only parent this week scrambling for the...

The Best Things About COVID19

How do you even begin to write a blog post with that title? Feels like walking through a minefield of potentially explosive offensiveness and miscommunication while word-twisting snipers lurk in the trees all around. "Did you see that blog post? Some idiot said COVID...

Stop Thief: Getting back what COVID19 has stolen

COVID 19 is a dirty, rotten criminal. Ironically, not even a smooth one. It snuck in and no one saw it coming, but it made a bunch of noise and stayed way too long. Got greedy. Got cocky. Thought it could take everything. Got news for you COVID ... you don't get...

3 Seconds of Insane Courage: A Tribute to Caleb Meakins

"The problem isn't fear. It's being stopped by fear."- Caleb Meakins One year ago my stomach was in my throat and my heart was about to beat out of my chest. I was weighing out a decision that was wrenching my guts. It was one of those "this could be beautiful,...

Expat Disrupted: How to Move Forward When Everything is Going Wrong

This year has been NUUUTS. I had a plan. It was a good one. I was excited. And then . . . Life happened. Sound familiar? In June I quit my job to pursue my passion -- something I've been dreaming about for a long time. So (as one does), I laid out a plan for a...

An Expat in China’s Response to the Coronavirus

Two weeks ago Corona was just a beer. A couple of disclaimers to start: ONE: I'm no doctor, reporter, researcher or a public official and I am certainly no expert in nCoV-2019 (the Corona Virus that everyone around here is talking about). I'm just an expat in China...

White Expat Privilege

Photo by bruce mars So this happens. A lot. I get into a taxi and say "ni hao" ("hello" in Chinese). The taxi driver's eyes get wide and he says, "Waaahhh, your Chinese is SO good!" My daughter, on the other hand, could get in the exact same car, with the exact same...

Addicted to Change

Hi. My name is Jerry. And I'm addicted to change. Hi Jerry. Glad I got that off my chest. I know I'm not alone (come on expats -- fess up). I've seen you out there and you're just like me. You get itchy if you go three months without getting on an airplane. Your life...

A Christmas wish for ALL people

Christmas has become a convoluted affair, hasn't it? Frankly. I'm confused. As an expat, I'm admittedly behind the curve on the most current culture wars and feather ruffles. I lose track of what I'm supposed to say and what I'm not supposed to say. Let me see if I've...

Stop wasting your time abroad: Recovering what you came to do

This blog post will change your expat experience -- if you let it. Grab something to write with -- and something to write on. We're about to go to work. Remember that time you moved abroad? You were so ready to take on the world and you had big plans to do it right....

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The Eight Most Ironic Things I Miss About China

Nov 12, 2013

Uh. The people. Duh. That's the only respectable answer to the question most often asked of people who have recently moved across the planet . . . "What do you miss the most?" It has now been five months since my family and I relocated our lives from China back to...

Roller Coasters and Getting Shot: The Best and Worst Things About America

Oct 7, 2013

You're moving to China??!! They run over their people with tanks!! That's what the guy who weighed our bags at the airport said seven years ago. It made me question whether or not airlines had ever considered any form of "Things Not to Say" training for their...

The Five Contradictions I Want to Teach My Kids

Sep 6, 2013

I'm a pretty decent guy but there are things in me that I don't want to pass on to my kids. I'm not alone here right? There is some foundational flint in the core of every mother and every father that sparks a longing to see "better things" for their children. It's...

What Did You People Do to Hannah Montana?!!

Sep 4, 2013

I learned about twerking today . . . or was it twinking? One of those. I've been in China for seven years. That's really not very long. It's only one dog year. Wait. That's backwards right? Either way. It's not very long. Now I have returned only to discover...

Blogdentity Crisis

Aug 26, 2013

They say that blogs resemble their owners. They don't actually say that. They do say that about dogs. They should say it about blogs too. Blogging for me has been a thoroughly enjoyable stress release in the chaos of my daily bumblings as a foreigner in China. It...

The Funniest Thing I’ve Seen in a Chinese Toilet All Week

Jan 18, 2013

There was a sticker in my urinal yesterday. I'm not entirely surprised to see random things in a urinal. In fact I usually don't give it much thought. Cigarette butts are almost a given. Those little pink moth ball smelling discs wrapped in a plastic . . . sure....

How to Install a Kitchen Faucet in China

Jan 14, 2013

I'm a do it yourself kind of guy. Call me crazy but I see absolutely no value in paying a trained professional my hard earned money to invade my home for up to an hour while he completes a simple task that I could clearly do myself in seven to ten hours for twice as...

Bootylicious: Language Faking Gone Horribly Wrong

Jan 7, 2013

I am a fully confessed language faker. I've owned it. Embraced it. Even written about it in front of the whole internet and everybody. Rarely does a day go by that I don't find myself in a Chinese taxi or convenience store nodding like I understood what I just...

The Blog Post I Didn’t Write

Oct 26, 2012

I nearly wrote a blog post this week but I didn't. It would have been a good one too. Funny. Witty. The "makes you think while you're laughing" kind. Too bad you'll never get to read it . . . because I didn't write it. I started to. I've even got the notes I...

More Happiness More Drunk — Cultural Perspectives on Alcohol

Sep 26, 2012

Let's play "Guess What They're Selling." This was an advertisement near our home: "More Happiness, More Drunk." What's the product? Easy right? Gotta' be beer . . . maybe champagne . . . wait, this is China . . . could be Bai jiu (Chinese white lightning...

8 Questions to Help You Find Your Expat Thang

Sep 24, 2012

As a follow up to my last post . . . Being Married to the Expat Cake Lady –or- Finding Your Thang: For Expat Wives . . . Here are 8 questions to help you find your THANG. 1. Are you an inny or an outy? Too personal? Sorry – this has nothing to do with your...

Being Married to The Expat Cake Lady -or- Finding Your Thang: for Expat Wives

Sep 22, 2012

My wife makes cakes and she is amazing. No kidding, she makes Betty Crocker look like a rookie donut maker. She has this nuclear grade creativity packed into her brain which explodes every time she gets near flour and eggs into some unbelievable work of sweetness...

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