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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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Let’s Talk About the Dolphin in the Room

Jun 21, 2012

"I'm thinking about buying an elephant." That's what I said to Flight (our Chinese assistant) just because I knew it would be a fun conversation. "Hmm. Why do you want to buy an elephant?" sidenote - That response was a landmark moment in our relationship. Her...

What Crocodile Dundee Taught Me About Culture Shock

May 31, 2012

Let me just make this clear. I am secure enough in my masculinity to write a post about learning from Lorelai Gilmore. So following it (almost immediately) with a post about what I learned from Crocodile Dundee is in no way an overcompensation for that. The same...

What Lorelai Gilmore Taught Me About Culture Shock

May 31, 2012

Culture shock is so cliche. It's a buzz word that is tossed around by all who travel but rarely understood. I know because I don't understand it either. I've seen the charts and the diagrams with the highs and lows, the big dip around six months and the slow climb...

On Rape and Racial Profiling in China

May 23, 2012

An expat in Beijing was beaten unconscious and left laying in the street last week after sexually assaulting a young Chinese woman. Warning - This post is not a funny one but stick with it to the end. Sorry. I'll be extra funny later I promise. Also, for those of...

Why I Rooted for China Over the “Dream Team” and The Best Daddy Daughter Date Ever

May 21, 2012

I have had a love-hate relationship with the "Dream Team" (I'm using finger quotes) for 20 years. Like the rest of the Universe I was school girl giddy in 1992 when the Olympics first allowed NBA players to compete. Not at all because it assured a gold medal for the...

The Potty Perspective

May 10, 2012

My American friend (who was living in China at the time) freaked out when she thought for a moment that her baby was missing. She was only slightly less alarmed when she realized that she was mistaken. Instead, an elderly Chinese woman had removed her 18 month olds...

Watermelon, Brad Pitt and Some of My Other Chinese Friends

Apr 22, 2012

My daughter went to Kindergarten with Spiderman. He was shorter than he looks in the movies. Something interesting happens when our Chinese friends get an English name. It's pretty standard practice, considering most Chinese students start learning English when they...

Pip Pip Cheerio Y’all: What’s in an Accent?

Apr 18, 2012

My wife and I watched "The Man in the Iron Mask" this week and I ruined it for both of us. I'm about to ruin it for you too. Have you seen this movie? It came out in 1998 (just one year after Titanic). It's a gripping story that places the characters from the Three...

A Valenwhat? Explaining Valentine’s Day to a Chinese Friend (repost)

Feb 15, 2012

I'm starting a petition to ban Valentine's Day in China. Judah and I had to wait 6 hours (gross exaggeration) to buy two red roses for our girls yesterday. It was much better when us foreigners were the only ones who felt the pressure of blowing it and all of the...

“Hey Fatty” and other Chinese Greetings

Feb 8, 2012

After five weeks in America it was good to see our friends in China. Until they called me fat. Last week I was walking home and ran into Lotus. She's our friend who runs the vegetable shop in our apartment complex. She's also the one who said my son (who is half...

I Think I Might Be Amish

Feb 5, 2012

I could totally pull off the Amish look, don't you think? I felt strangely amish today . . . in a bizarre, science fiction, alternate universe, I live in China where there are no Amish people kind of way. From now on I will be blogging by candlelight. I grew up in a...

What if China met Texas?

Jan 14, 2012

I got a steak the size of my own torso for Christmas. At least it was the size of my torso before I ate it. Now my torso has grown considerably and the steak is . . . well . . . gone. This incredible piece of beef alone was worth the trip back to the States but the...

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