A Review of The Samurai’s Daughter by Sujata Massey Christmas in San Francisco – what an exciting holiday! But not for Japanese-American Rei Shimura, who grew up there. Rei has lived in Japan for several years, the fruition of a lifelong dream. She eked out a living teaching English to business people when she first [...]
As Different as East and West
April 16, 2010 1 Comment
Two Expat Movies: American East and Sabah: A Love Story Both these movies deal with the clash of Middle Eastern cultures in a western setting, but they’re as different as East and West. American East has a gritty feel, starting with the opening sequence which shows a post-9/11 terror alert level red indicator. The newsfeed-style [...]
The Best Resource You’ll Ever Find for Planning Your Overseas Retirement
April 2, 2010 2 Comments
A Review of How to Retire Overseas by Kathleen Peddicord I’ve been following Kathleen for a few years now, and she definitely knows what’s what when it comes to living the expat life. She’s been in the business of helping people find new lives in new countries for 23 years, and has moved – with [...]
From New York to New York
March 15, 2010 1 Comment
Kate & Leopold Starring Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman Leopold, Duke of Albany, is spending 1867 in New York City, sent there by his family in disgrace because he is 30 and not yet married. While watching a speech by the designer of the Brooklyn Bridge, Leopold sees someone behaving oddly in the crowd. Later [...]
Almost French/I’ll Never Be French
March 1, 2010 5 Comments
Last week my youngest daughter flew from Orlando, FL to Europe. She’ll be spending about 2-1/2 months in Lille, France to round out her gap year between high school and college. In honor of her French adventure, I decided to review a couple of books by expats in France. Almost French, subtitled Love and a [...]
A Hundred Million Miracles
February 15, 2010 Leave a Comment
A Review of the Movie Flower Drum Song “A hundred million miracles are happening every day.” That’s the opening song in the movie, Flower Drum Song, and the theme that sparkles throughout the entire musical. Flower Drum Song is also the story of cultures on collision courses with each other – East vs. West, traditional [...]
Two Big Fat Greek Movies
January 25, 2010 1 Comment
My Life in Ruins, starring Nia Vardalos, looked like the perfect choice for an expat movie review: American-Greek classical scholar takes a job at Athens University, gets downsized, does a stint as a tour guide. Perfect! Well, not so much. Great idea, good cast which includes Richard Dreyfuss, one of my all-time favorite actors, but [...]
Learning from Art: Expat Books and Movies
January 14, 2010 Leave a Comment
I’ve been posting reviews of books and movies with an expat theme every month for the past six months or so, and I really enjoy this feature of the Future Expats Forum. It forces me to think about books and films in a new way, and to exercise all those writing skills I learned as [...]
The Holiday: Expat Movie Review
December 16, 2009 Leave a Comment
Well, it’s not exactly an expat movie, although various characters do travel to and stay in other countries. But it’s a sweet Christmas-time romantic comedy, so I thought it worthy of a review at this sentimental time of year. It also features an unusual character – the Home Exchange website, a great place to arrange [...]
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