Shit New Yorkers say #87

I AM going to New York! This weekend!

and.. Ridgefield, Redding and Westport...

To see my friends... YEAH!!

But the main reason is to do my biometrics, part 2 of my trips to the USA to keep my GREEN CARD valid and updated. (I was just there last month) Because I won this priceless ticket in a lottery and I don't want to loose it. Really, I won my green card through a lottery!! Fun or what?

I have it now for 10 years and soon Dirk and the girls are getting a GREEN CARD as well, but we have to live there to activate it, but they got their numbers, which they waited for since 2005!! So the chance of moving to the USA after our stint here in South Africa is getting bigger and bigger, now the question is WHEN and WHERE??

We don't know, we will see!!

But I am side tracking a bit, to get used to the mostly rude New Yorkers.. not really MY opinion but the general public, I looked up this video; shit New Yorkers say, just to get used to it again..

So funny! So true! So over the top though...



I LOVE IT HERE!!

And we will eventually buy a place in Manhattan, next time we move to the USA! And a beach house in Thailand... that's the plan! Live in both worlds for part of the year...

How do you feel about New York??
Love it or hate it??

Mireille xx

Hard time... #59

I had such a hard time to enter the USA....

Every time when I come in, it almost pisses them off...

That's because I have a Green Card, and I don't live in the USA...

That fact really pisses them off...

And the guy at Homeland affairs, I always need to go to this special office at the airport, when I need to update my paper work.

This time I was there to renew my Green Card, it is expired after 10 years and get a new re-entry permit.

Oh the guy really intimidated me... with info like: You have a green card, but you don't live here, don't work here, don't own property here and don't pay taxes here... well, the last 2 are not true, but of course he was NOT interested in my response...

My situation is almost like an Military family, they don't work IN the USA, but that doesn't mean they work FOR the USA. Same here, we are not physical in the USA, but we still work kind of for the USA.

So he gave me a hard time and totally intimidated me with big words, loud voice and stern face!

But I got through, got my re-entry permit anyway and are filing for my new Green card and hoping that it all works out and I can leave again with the paper work done with.

So today I have time for some shopping, since I did all the filing of the paper work, and now I am just waiting for them to confirm that they have received it....

This is the mall I am hanging out today, it has these huge boots in front of Saks 5th Avenue, maybe I should buy the girls some boots like this??



So hanging out in the mall, wandering around, doing a bit of shopping... have nothing else to do besides waiting for my paperwork to get processed and getting a confirmation that this is done, so I can leave again.

A bore...

But somebody has to do it!

I miss my girls and my hubby, hope they are doing well. I am not often without them!!
Hope the days will fly by....

Ciao,
Mireille xx

San Antonio #58

Arrived and well...

Not much to tell yet, getting over my jet lag....

Need to do loads of paperwork for my Green Card....

Go to UPS store, copy, fax and posting to do...

Back soon with more!

Miss my girls and hubby already....

Love, M xx

In the air #57

OK, I am in the air while you are reading this.

Flying from Johannesburg to Atlanta to San Antonio.



That means that I left the house at 6 pm on Saturday FEB 25th and will arrive in the hotel in San Antonio on Sunday FEB 26th around NOON.

I don't like these long flights!! It screws up your body!! Your internal clock!!

Distance from San Antonio to Johannesburg is: 9144.1 Miles = ( 14716 Kilometers / 7940.7 Nautical Miles )

Approximate flight duration time from San Antonio to Johannesburg is 18 hrs, 59 mins.

Time difference between Johannesburg, South Africa and San Antonio, Texas USA is: -8:0 hrs

Johannesburg is 8:0 hours ahead of San Antonio. That means when it is 8:00 am in San Antonio, it is 4:00 pm in Johannesburg

Then think about not only time difference and the tiredness you have from flying and being locked up in the air so long, the temperature difference between San Antonio and Johannesburg is luckily not that BIG. Actually this week it is almost the same, about 19C = 66F.

That's why I didn't want to fly to NEW YORK CITY!!

I have my Kindle, Iphone, Laptop and Ipad with me, so I don't need to be deprived of being out of touch... how did we do that 10 years ago??

Happy Sunday!
Mireille xx

Meeting friends in Downtown Chicago.

After the Thai Family Reunion, we stayed another 2 days in Downtown Chicago to meet our dear friends Tehmina, Nadeem and their children Khizer and Zoha. Another set of friends we have here in SA also came to Chicago to be with us. Candice, Gustavo and one of their sons Leo. We had a blast!! We used to party together all the time, but now Tehmina lives in London, so it was so good to see them again!!

We had so much fun together, just spending 1 day together but it was great! How fun is it to be able to see our friends from all over the world, 3 couples all spending their vacation in different spots but just to be together 1 day, we fly and meet in Chicago of all places! Fun, Fun, Fun!!

It is amazing how many friends we have seen on this vacation!! That is totally cool!!

We even saw Marilyn, did you know there was such cool and big statue of her here in Chicago? I didn't. Totally loved it!





The view downtown from the Hancock building.



Here the girls are climbing off the railing on the Hancock building... make believe, they had so much fun!



My dear dear friends Tehmina and Candice, and Zoha. So much fun to see them!!



Bruno, Leo, Khizer, Zoha, Juliet & Jasmine... a bit awkward pose for the camera, but we love them to pieces!!



Great but short time together, would not have missed it for anything in the world!!
Love you all!!

Mireille xx

Back with friends, back in Ridgefield!

The first week we were back in the USA, we stayed with our good friends Bob & Valerie and their daughters Mia, Emmy & Ella. These are the best friends of JJ & Jezz, so we all had a blast seeing them again after 2 years!

But when we arrived in Ridgefield all the kids in Connecticut still had school, so we asked Barlow Mountain, their old elementary school if our girls could join a day and sit in the class with their friends. So fun to be back in their old school, the kids had so much fun!!

Mia, Ella, JJ, Emmy & Jezz, so happy to be together again!

While at school they ran into an old classmate and friend; Gina.

Mrs. Moran, Jasmine's kindergarten teacher was still there as well, so fun to see her again!

And Juliet met her Pre-School teacher, Mrs. Schumacher again, so much fun to see their teachers again!

Mia graduated that week from Elementary school, so we had a party at school!

Watching Mia's graduation.

JJ & Jezz had flowers for Mia.

Proud parents Val & Bob with Mia, the first one to graduate.

Mia & Trey, a good friend. They look like a married couple, said Juliet... haha! Even their clothes match :-)

This was the first graduation we celebrated this week, but 2 more to follow. LOL we didn't realize that we would be here to celebrate all these graduations, but it turned out that all our old friends were graduating this year. So fun to be here for these special occasions!!

I am finally settled a bit and uploaded all my pictures, so more to follow soon!
How is your vacation?
Are you enjoying the sun, sea and sand, or just some down time??

We are having a blast seeing all our friends again!
Mireille xx

Last day of 3rd Grade...

Last day of school today....

We are having a pillow case signing craft and an ice cream party at school for the kids... and then it is OVER!!

I am always amazed how much a teacher can learn a child in just one school year!!

The amount the girls grew this past year is tremendous!!

So I am thankful for the great teachers Jasmine and Juliet had... I hope next year they will get a good one as well :-)

For me it is always a good sign when my child LOVES her teacher and in both cases that is true.

THANK YOU Mrs. Aurora, you did a great job in giving Jasmine loads of self esteem, love and caring for her on special moments when she needed it most!! Jasmine totally adores you!!



THANK YOU Mrs. Westerbur for being there for Juliet and giving her the confidence she needed! Juliet is in awe of you!



Now we are having a break of school for the next 10 weeks, so we will travel to the Netherlands and the USA for some time off, visiting family and friends, making some great road trips and going to the BEACH!!

Can't wait for the sun, see, sand and fun!!
Enjoy your vacation everybody!!
Hope you will come back rested!

Love, M xx

~ Home swapping ~

Have you ever heard of home swapping?? Exchanging your home with somebody else on the other side of the world for a vacation??

We do that!



We take advantage of vacationing in another country by NOT paying for accommodation. It is a fantastic way of staying in a real great place, you choose yourself. An apartment in the middle of a big city, or a house on the beach, or a lodge in the mountains, if you can imagine it you can go there!

You just swap your house with theirs!!

We do that! And we like it!!

We are part of people all over the world who swap their homes for a short or longer time, you can go to this website, which we are part of, but there are actually many of these websites. However, we liked this one, because it had a huge number of homes ALL over the world. So you have to look out for that, that there is enough variety. Then you pay a yearly fee and you are free to swap, as often as you like.

Sounds good or what?? To me it does!

The only hard part is, if you have only 1 house, a lot of people on these sites have 2 or more... then you need to swap at the same time with other people who want to be in your house, and you want to go to that country at that time... so that is sometimes tricky. So it would be easier if you have 2 houses, and you can swap with the one that you are not living in full-time, but we have only 1 house and it worked out for us!

I am going this summer to Bethany Beach in Ocean View ~ Delaware in the USA and those wonderful people of that house came to ours last year during the World Cup Soccer, while I was away on Koh Samui. So in this case it worked out just fine. And I can't wait to go to the beach in Delaware this summer! I am sure we will have a grand time. And all for free!! No money is exchanged, they stayed in my house and I am staying in theirs.



How fun is that?? OR.... do you have reservations?? It's all based on an honest description of your house, and having respect for other peoples property. It worked out fine for us, so I am sure that this time it will work out too. Like buying something on Ebay, you need to give feedback, so if you don't tell the truth it will come out eventually and nobody wants to swap with you anymore. And in general when you check out the houses and the families they are all very well educated, have nice homes, take good care of their stuff, and they will do the same to your house.

Check it out, and see if it is something for you?? HERE is the link of 1st Home Exchange. And if you like to see my house registered there type in 21810 in the REFERENCE slot on the left.

But go and browse a bit in countries you always wanted to vacation and see what is available, it is so much fun to start dreaming and seeing yourself in that beach house in a tropical location. Or in the centre of Paris you can rent a cute little pied-a-tiere. How fun!!

Tell me what you think of this idea??

Have a fantastic day, fantasizing about your DREAM LOCATION ~ FOR FREE!!

I am researching BALI for next summer 2012, first I was thinking of going to Thailand again, but now I am thinking I want to go to BALI ~ Indonesia for 8 weeks. So hey if you know somebody who wants to swap a house with me, put me into contact!!



Mireille xx

Can't wait!!

To see this bunch of FUN kids again!!



By the way don't they all look like sisters??

When we moved to Ridgefield, CT in August 2003 the girls were just 16 months old. And since this was a new area for us, I needed to make some friends. So I went immediately to this mommy and me music group and saw a DAD there with his twin girls, same age as JJ and Jezz. So we started talking and planned to meet. But it didn't happen at first. So I just did my thing and I guess he did his thing... till we went to our first Halloween parade in town and there I see this little girl with EXACTLY the same outfit as JJ in a stroller, and the face almost looked identical to Jezz.... you guess who it was.... the father with the twins I had met at the Mommy and me music group. So now I was not planning to let them go without any contact details!! LOL

So we hooked up and the rest is history!!

The other twin girls, just 2 months younger than JJ and Jezz are called Emmy and Ella and with their 20 month old sister Mia we have been friends since that first Halloween in 2003. The girls grew up with each other the 5 years we were in Ridgefield, and we MISS them dearly. But we are so EXCITED to go and visit them now next month!! We will be there the day Emmy and Ella turn 9, so a big surprise party!!

I guess you go through life making many friends year after year, but at least for MY girls, their FIRST FRIENDS are THEIR TRUE FRIENDS and they still are always talking with so much love for these kids, so we make the effort to go back and back to see them and to keep the friendship alive!! And I hope to keep that alive no matter where we move, we will be back to see them and hang out with them. 2 years ago we went back and spend a vacation together on Cape Cod and now we will go back again and vacation together, how fun, we CAN'T WAIT!!

A funny detail: when we would arrange play dates or in the winter we would go and let the kids play in the Mall the dad (was in between jobs at that time) so he would do the play dates with his 3 girls and then me with JJ and Jezz, you would see the stares of the other people.... You could see them thinking how can this couple have 5 girls under the age of 3 and handle this?? Because they all looked like each other, although the Liu kids are half Chinese / half Puerto Rican. Nobody saw that difference, and honestly you can't see it.

We would go to NYC together and do DIM SUM or planting trees on Earth Day...



Jezz, Ella, Mia, JJ & Emmy.

Or rent a house together in Cape Cod and spent a whole vacation together having fun, good food, magnificent drinks and enjoy the sun, sea and sand!!

All together in our beach house in Marshfield, directly on the sea. Having lobster and drinks was the ultimate dinner!!

Emmy, Ella, JJ, Jezz & Mia looking for crabs between the rocks.

Just the 2 sets of twins, Ella & JJ and Jezz & Emmy selling lemonade.

Fun memories while cleaning up the beach!!

We had some good times together, and we will soon again!! I can't wait!!
Soon we will be there guys!!

Have a great day,
Mireille xx

Being a global nomad....

Since living abroad already since I was 20 years old, I feel more like a world citizen than as a typical Dutch person. As a child I already knew that I wouldn't stay in Holland, it was just too small and cramped for me. So the first opportunity to go abroad for me was when I was 20. I moved to the USA for a one year au-pair agreement I made with a lovely family in Brielle, New Jersey. That trip gave me the travel bug for sure, if I didn't have it already....



So when I moved back to Holland and I met Dirk (yes, we are 20 years together!) almost immediately after I told him I want to travel the world, so if he liked to keep dating me he better travel with me... and he did and since we have been living in 6 countries: Spain (Canary Islands ~ Tenerife & Lanzarote) Greece (Rhodes), USA (Eugene, Oregon) back to Holland for a few years, got married and moved to Thailand (Jomtien), USA (Ridgefield, Connecticut) and now in South Africa (Johannesburg).

So you can see not only 6 different countries, also 4 different continents... with different cultures, languages, food, religions, driving on different sides of the road, shopping labels and traffic signs not in your language, many many different aspects you have to adjust to each time you move. Get a new doctor, dentist, ob-gyn, new school, get used to new shops and leaving behind the brands of food you are used to, new hairdresser etc.. etc..

However we got good at these adjustments of cultural changes, but each move it takes time... and you need to be patient to give yourself that time to get used to, feel at home in your new home, your new neighborhood, new friends.

So below is a list I found on the internet that will help you make that transition to your new place and I will give you an example how we experienced it or feel about it.


Factors Important to Successful Intercultural Adjustments

Open Mindedness... The ability to keep one's opinions flexible and receptive to new stimuli seems to be important to intercultural adjustment. Especially the first time you move abroad you have to understand that not everybody does the things in the same way you are used to. But remember each country has their reasons why they do it a specific way, normally you will figure this out after a while, but keep an open mind!



Sense of Humor... A sense of humor is important because in another culture there are many things which lead one to weep, get angry, be annoyed, embarrassed, or discouraged. The ability to laugh off things will help guard against despair. Think to yourself about it in this way: Do I laugh about this in 6 months or cry?? Most of the time it is annoying at the moment, but later you can laugh about the incident.




Ability to Cope with Failure... The ability to tolerate failure is critical because everyone fails at something overseas. Persons who go overseas are often those who have been the most successful in their home environments and have rarely experienced failure, thus, may have never developed ways of coping with failure. This is so true, but you are leaving your comfort zone and chances that somethings go wrong is so much bigger than back at home, just realize that you are not the only one!



Communicativeness... The ability and willingness to communicate one's feelings and thoughts to others, verbally or non-verbally, has been suggested as an important skill for successful intercultural communicators. Yes, friends become like an extended family, since you don't have your mother, sister around, you need to learn to share more and deeper feelings with your friends, otherwise you go kooko! Why do you think I started a blog?? LOL




Flexibility and Adaptability... The ability to respond to or tolerate the ambiguity of new situations is very important to intercultural success. Keeping options open and judgmental behavior to a minimum describes an adaptable or flexible person. Do as the Romans do when in Rome... you have to adapt to your host country, life just becomes a lot easier!!




Curiosity... Curiosity is the demonstrated desire to know about other people, places, ideas, etc. This skill or personality trait is important for intercultural travelers because they need to learn many things in order to adapt to their new environment. Agree: you can't live your life like you did in your home country and not being interested in the people around you, that is the beauty of living in different places, to figure out and experience how other people live. But I see many expats around me that try to stay in their own bubble... they will never adjust and have a happy time!



Positive and Realistic Expectations... It has been shown frequently that there are strong correlations between positive expectations for an intercultural experience and successful adjustment overseas. Isn't that the attitude you have to have wherever you are? Even in your home country! Be positive and make the best of your life, wherever you are!!




Tolerance for Differences and Ambiguities... A sympathetic understanding for beliefs or practices differing from one's own is important to successful intercultural adjustment. That is a big one as a life lesson for my children, I love that in their short lives they already run into so many different cultures and customs. No school can give them that experience!



Positive Regard for Others... The ability to express warmth, empathy, respect, and positive regard for other persons has been suggested as an important component of effective intercultural relations. Again here, I find that is an important lesson in life regardless where you live!



A Strong Sense of Self... A clear, secure feeling about oneself results in individuals who are neither weak nor overbearing in their relations with others. Persons with a strong sense of themselves stand up for what they believe but do not cling to those beliefs regardless of new information, perspectives, or understandings which they may encounter. Indeed, you are sometimes a minority and if you have a low self esteem this experience by living abroad will not help, so be a leader and not a follower. Lead your own life! There will always be people who have a bigger house, bigger car, are more beautiful than you are. But it is not important what you have, it is important that you live in the moment and enjoy your circumstances. Make the most of it! It is a wonderful life!



Another point that I find is really important but not on this list.... Before we moved to Thailand we had a culture shock course and the teacher told us that the key to success is to learn/speak the language of your host country. We did that; of all the countries we lived in we either spoke the language or learned it, and it does make a difference!

Well... if you ever move to another country or even move states or across your own country, there are a lot of valid points in here that count for you as well.

Have you ever moved far away and find that you ran into these points??
Tell me about your moves and experiences!

Have a Super Sunday!
Mireille

The Day The Towers Fell...

I am remembering..... and realize that the world changed THAT day!



The Day The Towers Fell

A sad day for America
as rejoicing rang from hell
awakening a mighty giant
the day the towers fell.
Our hearts were saddened
as we watched this vicious act unfold
as innocence met a fiery death
and seeds of war were sowed.
Shouts rang out from the middle east
that Allah has done his good
but no God joys in faultless deaths
though certain cowards could.
America just sort of glides along
but don't step on her toes
for her belief in right and justice
will stomp out freedoms foes.

Author Unknown

We must never forget!

What's your favorite cupcake?

If you have been following the news lately I am sure you are aware that tomorrow are the 2008 presidential elections in the USA. Even if you haven't followed the news that much you can't have missed it. It is everywhere on the news wherever you live in the whole wide world!!

Well, make sure you VOTE if you are an American citizen, since this is a historic moment in time and you want to be sure you are part of it! Unfortunately my citizenship is pending and I am not allowed to vote yet. Otherwise I would know which cupcake is my favorite ;-) However, since this blog is not a political one I keep it to myself.

Even here in SA we are following the news and we will be up watching TV tomorrow at 3 am to see who will be winning. Exciting times!!

Photo courtesy of Rachel from Cupcakes take the Cake.
Have a great week ahead of you! And make sure you VOTE!!
ciao, Mireille

moms coffee morning

Today we had a coffee morning with all the moms from Juliet's class. I had not met most of the moms yet, or just briefly when we were bringing the girls to school. But today we actually had a meeting at somebodies home and talked and get introduced to each other. Most of the moms had been an expat for a few assignments, so we didn't have these new-comers who have no clue how an expat life is working. I find it is a different breed of people. People who are not just used to 1 country, but are more citizens of the world. Easy to adjust to new surroundings, and we had quite a nice chat. About the school, about our life style here in SA. About the best places to shop, or to visit, or spend your vacation. Very important stuff, because if you don't get this information from your fellow expat friends, you won't find it elsewhere. Our world is quite exclusive....and I mean that in a way that we figured out that most of us don't have deep relationships with the local people. So we relay on our friends, like other people do relay on their family. Most of the moms come from a different background, we have moms from Sweden, Korea, Germany, Peru, USA, India, Japan, Tunesia, France and me Dutch. So you can see that it is a very mixed background, with each their own difficulties moving to South Africa. We talked about the language problems some might have, the maid situation (always a popular topic), the housing, the lack of electricity at moments you need it most, or the lack of water....even worse!

We also talked about Third Culture Kids aka Global Nomads. Yes, there is actually an official word for our children! I googled it and this is what wikipedia says about it: "refers to someone who [as a child] has spent a significant period of time in one or more culture(s) other than his or her own, thus integrating elements of those cultures and their own birth culture, into a third culture". TCKs have become a heavily studied global subculture. TCKs tend to have more in common with one another, regardless of nationality, than they do with non-TCKs from their own country. TCKs often come from highly successful, intact, educated families. When a group (whether it is the military, a business, church, etc) decides to send somebody to a foreign country, they are making a significant investment. They want to send people who will represent the group the best and provide the most value for the investment. TCKs also tend to come from families that are closer than non-TCK families. They will also have a smaller likelihood of having divorced parents (divorced parents are unlikely to allow their ex to take their child to another country.) "The strength of [the] family bond works to the benefit of children when parent-child communication is good and the overall family dynamic is healthy.

Most of us as parents had stayed in one country and have a strong feeling of belonging to a certain country. Most of our children don't. Since they are still young I don't believe it is a problem, but getting older and entering teenage stage, this loss of belonging can actually cause quite some problems. So I am eager to learn more about this topic, and most of us mothers are.

Most of us have young children, and we were all fine to travel a few more assignments before we are planning to settle down. But the question of most moms was; where do you settle down?? Most of us had traveled already so much that we didn't feel a strong bond to our home country, and most of our children weren't even born in that country. So why go back? It became quite an interesting topic, a topic we hadn't finished yet when the coffee morning was over. But there seems to be a seminar coming up on this topic...many books are written about Third Culture Kids so I am going to look into a bit more and keep you posted. Because I know some of my readers are also expats and are dealing with the same issues.

I wish you all a sunny day! or as they say in Zulu: usuku olubalele!
Mireille (say: Meeray)....I know some of you were wondering how you would pronounce my name ;-)

Getting mail....I just love it ;-)

As of today I have 2299 visitors of 87 countries to my blog. That is great, wonderful, amazing, and I just LOVE it.

What I would LOVE even more is, if I would get some mail from you. Who are you? Why are you interested in my blog? Are you Dutch or Thai like us? Do you have twins as well, or did you adopt from Thailand like we did? Or do you live in the USA or South Africa, or even another African country, or is it just the Funky Donkey?? What are the common things we have that you come back to my blog?? I AM INTERSTED IN YOU! Do you have a blog as well, and like to share it with me? Tell me!!

Please drop me a line, give a comment on my blog. What do you like to read more about; our private lives, our house and surroundings, our daughters, me or my hero hubby??
What is it that you like or maybe even dislike about this blog, share it with me....I like to know more about my readers. You are part of my daily life...obviously.... I like to be part of yours ;-)

I hope to hear from you ;-)
Love, Mireille

Campaign against binge drinking

I saw this article this morning in the Daily Mail from the UK. And like to share it with you. In Europe you see graphic campaigns against smoking and alcohol abuse. I don't see these here in the US as much and definitely not as graphic as in Europe. Do you think it effects people?

Women are being warned that binge-drinking will destroy their looks for good.
A new poster campaign launched today on London's Underground depicts a woman with saggy skin and a blotchy nose.
It carries the message: 'If you drink like a man you might end up looking like one.'
The aim is to appeal to women through their vanity by showing they risk bad skin, premature ageing and weight gain if they drink excessively. The campaign has been devised by the Drug and Alcohol Service for London.

Research by the charity revealed that two out of five women are worried about the physical impact of drink and only a third about health risks.
The Government has already launched its own £10million campaign to increase awareness about excessive drinking, which includes warnings to young women about the link between alcohol abuse and breast cancer.
But alcohol service campaign spokesman Harrinder Dhillon said: 'Women are clearly not reacting to the health warnings and drinking among females is getting worse year on year.
'Despite understanding the health dangers related to drinking, liver or heart disease seems a long way off. Our campaign strikes a chord with every woman around the country.'
The service's research found that two out of five women felt getting fat would stop them from drinking too much compared with a third concerned about heart disease.
Official figures show the number of women dying from alcohol abuse has nearly doubled over a decade.

What do you think, would this campaign have an effect here in the USA?
Let me know, I am curious!
Mireille