My childhood was, to say the least, not the best. So in order to avoid as much regular turmoil as possible, I would search for ways to run away, at least mentally. Early on books provided just such an opportunity – the welcome chance to escape into another world remains a constant pull for me, [...]
Unless you live in Alaska or along some parts of the west coast, it’s not likely that you spend much time staring up at volcanoes. In Bandung though, we can’t avoid them. The town is literally ringed by volcanoes and mountains. Indonesia is one of the most volcanically active areas in the world, and the [...]
The ant is an incredibly resilient insect. I know this because we have killed at least a couple million of them since we’ve lived here, or so it seems. And yet they continue to rule the house. We find the ants everywhere. In the cupboards. On the floor. One evening we found a swarm on [...]
Getting to a final decision on a house took us the better part of two weeks, and during that time my expectations of the place where we would live for ten months changed drastically. Traffic here is a nightmare. Noise is a constant. Pollution is everywhere. So I quickly began craving a home that could [...]
Moving your family overseas isn’t something to be considered lightly, so the planning can sometimes take on epic proportions something similar to the attack plan for the Dirty Dozen, as my brother Don would say. What goes with you, and what stays behind? How do you find a place to live, a school for the [...]
I can’t believe it’s just Tuesday, and I’m already down to my last million. Rupiah, that is. It’s one of the fun things about international travel – figuring out the currency. Each country (with the notable exception of most of Europe, of course, and the Euro) typically has its own currency, and each currency is [...]
Everyone should live in a neighborhood like ours. Our home in upstate New York sits in a development containing about 100 houses in the town of Wilton, about three hours north of New York City. While the forever wild woods directly out our back door and the rolling hills just out the front window make [...]