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Merde in France
“I love my neighbourhood. I pick up (after my dog).” “Finish this sentence,” said Alex, my French teacher. “The thing I don’t like about Bordeaux is….” She glanced expectantly around the room, but for...
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From homecoming to homefeeling: 5 things I did right as a repatriate
I feel right at home these days. Today officially marks the end of the holiday season chez nous: Chef Boyardee is back at work, Younger and Elder Daughters are back at school, and Jeff and I are once...
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Le pick-up artiste
I was wading through my very clogged inbox yesterday and found an email I’d sent to a friend on May 11, 2006. I’d all but forgotten about this interesting encounter in the aisles of my local Auchan...
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The lazy expat mom’s guide to language learning
Lazy? Moi? Aaron Myers of The Everyday Language Learner is the idea guy behind today’s post. I discovered his website quite by accident, and I love his approach to learning languages. I’ll let him fill...
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Younger Daughter’s Expat Story
Elder and Younger Daughters at Sentosa. Today’s guest post was provided by Younger Daughter. I’m cheating with this one, because she wrote it for a school assignment shortly after we moved back to...
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Fetchez la vache and other franglaisisms*
Several years ago in Bordeaux, Younger Daughter was invited to a birthday party for one of her classmates. Unfortunately, she didn’t share this information with me until about an hour before the party...
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RAFTing toward a smoother transition
Somewhere around the halfway mark of my recent holiday in Singapore, dermatological disaster struck. A week of constant ping-ponging between the sweltering heat and the Arctic air-conditioning so...
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The changing face of Hallowe’en
Not all the kids were scared. When I was a child, Hallowe’en was greeted with a sense of anticipation rivaling only Christmas in intensity. Choosing a costume, dressing up, wandering from door to door...
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Hold your horses: we don’t eat that here
Me, about 6 years old. Can you see the terror? Since horsemeat outrage is suddenly in vogue, now seems a good time for me to write about my own scandal involving equine flesh. Although it played out on...
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Bordeaux banking blunders
Rolls of Canadian coins My first trip to the bank in Bordeaux was a non-event. I walked up to the building, nervously rehearsing the upcoming conversation in my head, and pulled on the door. Nothing...
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