Taking Route

Resurrecting My Hair: A Metaphor for Expat Life

I have the hair of a Mediterranean sea goddess. I discovered this last fall when our family traveled to Malta for a conference, and every single one of my ringlets was living its best life every day. One morning, I came out of the bathroom after catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror and shrieked to my husband, “I actually woke up like this!” They were so tight and bouncy I got compliments on my “haircut” when I posted photos.

The humidity, the sea breeze, the silky hotel pillowcase and the relaxed atmosphere of the conference that enabled me to primp a bit in the morning created the perfect environment for my curls to thrive. I only needed to wash my hair two times the whole week. The rest of the time I spritzed with a little water, added a tiny bit of product to combat the frizz, and twisted the few disobedient ringlets back in shape. To my amazement, they stayed all day.

Reflections From Abroad, New ExpatRosalie DuryeeApril 2, 2020culture fatigue, Language Learning, gratitude, rest, tipsComment

What Good Thing Could Come From This?

Can I just say that COVID-19 is really messing up some things? Like my plans. My husband and I had a much-needed weekend away planned. That came and went and is still much needed. My daughter is a senior this year. Her cap and gown are sitting in the packaging and she is making jokes about graduating online after all. We homeschooled for so long and she was looking forward to a graduation with her class. Her prom dress is hanging with the tags still on it in her room, and I’m trying to brainstorm a get together that fits in with the current restrictions on gatherings where we are. Our friends are trapped in country with expiring visas. Global workers who are stateside are having their much-needed fundraising functions cancelled. Schools are closing. Oh, the list goes on.

“The only good thing to come out of this are the memes,” I’ve muttered to my family.

But then I had to repent.

Reflections From AbroadGuest WriterMarch 21, 2020pandemic, Coronavirus, COVID-19, isolation, Velvet Ashes retreat, retreat, fearComment

Five Things I Learned While Taking a Break From My Phone

This past year, I fluctuated between two extremes with my phone: either I was mindlessly scrolling too late at night or I was obsessively attentive to a few accounts I thought were really helping me — both at the cost of actual time with my family. My feeds infiltrated my thoughts to a point where I wasn’t sure where social media ended and my real thoughts began. I had convinced myself that I was using Instagram intentionally because of how carefully I curated who I followed. My feed was full of beauty and joy, homeschooling, theology, inspirational expats, real life friends and funnies, and I was super interested in it.

Reflections From AbroadRosalie DuryeeJanuary 12, 2020media, social media, connectingComment

The Gift of Telling Your Story

My mother’s family spent several years in the early 70’s living in Seoul, South Korea, when she was a teenager. Because of her vivid memories and my relationship with my grandparents, the influence of Korea on my family was marked. My grandparents’ home in the States was filled with beautiful artwork and furniture from Asia. My grandfather often answered the phone with the Korean greeting, yobaseo, rather than the typical hello.

Reflections From AbroadHeather FallisDecember 20, 2019your story, expat life, statesideComment

Expat Life, Hospitality, and Olives

Everyone in my family loves olives, thanks to a long heritage from my Greek great grandmother. There were always bowls of the briny treats on the dinner table, and my grandpa purchased them in enormous tins to accommodate our large gatherings. You could call them our “Big, Fat Greek” gatherings, but the truth is our family is much more international than that. My Greek great grandma was adopted as a little girl by a French family living in Istanbul. She married a Russian man and raised three boys who all married foreigners, and she immigrated to the United States with her middle son, my grandpa, who had married an American from Washington State.

Reflections From AbroadRosalie DuryeeDecember 13, 2019hospitality, expat life preperation, reflectionComment

Led Overseas by Love

The baby stirs in her crib. It’s still in our room because the carpenter made it an inch too wide and it can’t fit through the door to her room which is, for some reason, more narrow than the other doors in the house. We were up most of the night. 40 hours of traveling back to our Asian home from the US has us all trading colds and coughs and fevers.

Reflections From AbroadTaylor MaySeptember 13, 2019love, compassion, expectationsComment