#xpats

[young--adventuress]

Okay so I have been gone for quite a while but I promise I'm BACK... and back in full force!

I'm off on a new adventure! Actually MOVING to Spain!!! I'm taking the dive and I'm doing it! ive loved the lifestyle for a long time and I miss it so much that I'm taking the dive and getting on with it!  So I'm back and ready to go!

Wee bit scared still but hey! it’ll be okay right?

[alicekboatwright]

Ex-XPat 2: Junk mail

In a few weeks, we've received more junk mail in America than we did in 10 years in Europe.  Why is this?  The constant stream of ads and coupons in our mailbox is really oppressive.  Buy! Buy! Buy! Buy! 

Do Americans actually buy more than other people?  Fall harder for these gimmicks?  Have a higher threshold for accumulating colored paper trash in their wastebaskets?  Presumably these tactics work -- or the advertising companies would have given them up.

Considering the complicated recycling plans in Washington, it's surprising that this flood of paper and plastic is not banned.

On the other hand, I've sort of missed Christmas catalogs. My mother would save these catalogs for me, and, when I would go to visit her, I'd take the stack to bed with me and pore over all those useless treasures like fake Christmas trees with 1,000 LED lights, nose clippers, and beds for Great Danes. I never bought anything, but they still evoked some deep and pleasurable nostalgia.

So maybe, by Christmas, I'll be at the mailbox waiting.

[sevenfawm]

BEIJING BOUND!

So it looks like my fiance and I will be moving to Beijing. We thought we were going to several other places, and then had settled on Hebei, but then got a better contract in Beijing.

So I'm asking all my followers, if any of you have been to Beijing, live there now, I need some info. How is the city? How hard is it to acclimate to the culture, and is there any warnings about the city I should know of? I just want to get all the information I can before moving here. I'm so excited. So any help?