Gogovivi
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About Kiley & Her Blog
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How We Became an Expat Family
After a long acquaintance but short courtship, my husband and I decided to marry when he received an offer to move overseas. That first opportunity fell through, but within a couple of years, the offer to move to Asia materialized. As a girl growing up in rural Central Oregon, I always had my sights set on living overseas, but back then I fantasized about Paris, not China.
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What I Enjoy Most and Least About Where I Live
What I love most is watching my daughter grow up as a global girl. She speaks two languages fluently, she has friends from five continents, and for her it is all completely normal. She has a completely different worldview than I had as a child. I love using my (admittedly limited) Chinese language skills to connect with people when I travel around China. And I love looking back on the trajectory of my life and wondering how I ever got from there to here. My least favorite parts about living in China are probably typical of expats anywhere: I miss my friends, family, and lifestyle back home, I miss familiarity, and I miss the ease of living in my native culture. Nothing is easy when living in a foreign culture: simple things like buying food and clothing, talking to the Internet guy, and going to the doctor are all challenging in ways I never imagined and ways that I find exhausting.
