A couple of days ago, Limbaugh, self-proclaimed leader of the far right, told an on-air caller he will leave the country if health reform passes. Read the article

Limbaugh said he would go to Costa Rica. The only problem with that plan? Costa Rica has universal health care.

According to International Living:

“Costa Rica has universal health care, one of the best health systems in Latin America.

“Statistics from the World Health Organization frequently place Costa Rica in the top country rankings in the world for long life expectancy, often even ahead of Great Britain and the United States, even though the per-capita income of Costa Ricans is about one-tenth that of the U.S. and the U.K.”

Never known for his consistency, Limbaugh is now denying he would move there. Instead, according to the Huffington Post:

“I said, ‘Look, there are insurance companies who don’t want to be put out of business.’ … They are establishing health care clinics with quality doctors in places like Costa Rica. They’re going to continue to sell policies to people who have the ability to fly down there and get treatment. If I have to get thrown into this massive government health care insurance business and end up going to the driver’s license office every day when I need to go to the doctor, yeah, I’ll go to Costa Rica for treatment, not move there.”

I guess Limbaugh has totally missed the point that the only so-called reform bills in play right now would provide a massive giveaway to the insurance companies and make the Wall Street bailout look like a kid’s birthday party by comparison.

In any case, it made me wonder where Limbaugh might go if he really did decide to leave.

Socialist Europe? Not a chance. Let’s take a look at what Rush might find in English-speaking countries outside the US, since I’m sure the guy who bleeds red-white-and-blue wouldn’t want to live among those who wouldn’t understand his harangues.

1. Canada. With their single-payer, government sponsored health care, that would be a “no”.

2. Great Britain. National Health Service. No go.
3. South Africa has a combination system, which includes both public and private plans.
   

   “South Africa’s health system consists of a large public sector and a smaller but fast-growing private sector. Health care varies from the most basic primary health care, offered free by the state, to highly specialised hi-tech health services available in the private sector for those who can afford it.”

4. Australia. According to a government website:
   

   “The Australian Government funds universal medical services and pharmaceuticals and gives financial assistance to public hospitals, residential aged care facilities and home and community care for the aged. It is also the major source of funds for health research and provides support for training health professionals and financial assistance to tertiary students.

   State and territory governments provide a variety of direct health services, including most acute and psychiatric hospital services. State and territory governments also provide community and public health services, including school health, dental health, maternal and child health, occupational health, disease control activities and a variety of health inspection functions.”

5. New Zealand’s medical care is also public.
   

   “New Zealand’s healthcare system is funded mainly through general taxation. Treatments are usually free or subsidised. Medical treatment is generally very good. Private healthcare is also available.”

6. India might be a possibility. Their system is mostly private, and medical tourism is big business there. On the other hand, to live there Limbaugh would have to put up with an enormous non-white population.
7. African countries where English is the official language – Kenya, Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe to name just a few. No way would our boy Rush live amongst Africans. Unless he could be king, maybe.
8. Island Caribbean nations. There are a few Caribbean islands where English is spoken. But in Saint Lucia, for example, the public expenditure for health care is twice the private expenditure. In Jamaica, health care is free to all citizens and legal residents. Oops. Barbados has government-run clinics, in addition to the public hospital.

Face it, Rush, the civilized world provides health care for its citizens. You want to help your buddies in the insurance business? Support the current bills and they’ll love you forever. This Congress doesn’t have the spine to provide health care.

For the rest of us? There are lots of great places in the world to live where health care is available and affordable. And where we don’t have to put up with Limbaugh’s shenanigans.

As someone who plans to move to another country so I can afford health care, Limbaugh’s “support the poor insurance companies” position nauseates me. How about you? Let us know what you think by clicking the comment button below.

Generally I post new material here three times each week. Since January, I’ve uploaded the new posts on Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the evening (Eastern Standard Time for me).

I thought I’d ask all of you if that posting schedule is convenient for you, or if something else would make it easier for you to read the new Future Expats material as it comes out. Please make your selection in the poll below, and I’ll report the results in a couple of weeks after you’ve had a chance to weigh in.

Thanks in advance for your participation. Keep in mind that times are all Eastern Standard!

About 500 people are gathered in Quito, Ecuador right now for International Living’s Ultimate Event 2010. They’re learning about life in a bunch of countries where it’s possible to live well on $2,000 a month or less. Can’t be there with them? They’re offering the Ultimate Event 2010 Conference-At-Home Kit, and guaranteeing satisfaction. “If This Information Doesn’t Help You, Pay Nothing” they state. Substantial discounts are available if you order now.

by Suzan Haskins, International Living

Back in the U.S. another winter storm threatens the east coast, stock prices are diving thanks to high unemployment rates, the painful health care debate continues to make us all sick, and Conan O’Brien is in the news. For joining Twitter.

Who cares…about any of it?

Nothing works back home any more…from health care to child care, from banks to politics, from cars to bars. OK, the bars still work. But who really wants to pay $8 for a draft beer these days? Not me, and especially not when I can get a 22-ounce bottle of Pilsener, a mighty fine beer, here in Ecuador for $1. (And a full four-course meal for $2. And a three-bedroom condo for less than $50,000.)

Wouldn’t it be nice to fall in love with your life again? To find a place with better views out your windows, better weather, a lower cost of living, and where things really work?

According to Lee Harrison, who has lived in Ecuador, Brazil and Uruguay:

“Everything [in Uruguay] runs like clockwork. All the roads are safe and well-kept, the parks are clean, the hardware stores and grocery stores are well-stocked, trains and buses run on time….”

And the cost of living is low. In Montevideo, Uruguay’s famous colonial city, Lee showed us photos of a two-bedroom apartment in a building offered for $65,000. “This is a nice apartment—I would happily live in it,” he said.

Glynna Prentice acknowledges that Mexico, where she lives, isn’t the least-expensive country. But, she says, in Mexico you can get government health insurance for $300 or less a year. And that includes all your prescription medications.

A private insurance plan, she says, is half the cost you pay at home, as are out-of-pocket expenses.

And this isn’t publicized, but Mexico offers a great retirement program for anyone living there as a resident. Lots of discounts on things like restaurants, cultural activities and medical care.

Glynna says Mexico may be the easiest country for a foreigner to get a resident visa in.

But Lee Harrison says that about Uruguay, where he plans to apply for permanent citizenship. And Dan Prescher says the same about Belize and its famous Qualified Retirement Program, which allows a host of benefits including importing your household goods, vehicle and boat duty-free and tax residency…whether you actually live there or not.

Belize may be the easiest country to relocate to—especially if you’re concerned about the difficulties of learning a foreign language.

There’s so much more to tell you! But of course, I can’t type up everything that’s happened here in Quito. In just two days so far, we’ve already spent 13 hours in presentations and workshops. And we have two days yet to go!

We’ve learned about the best countries for second citizenship, the best countries to obtain residency easily and at little cost, and which provide free or very low-cost health care to residents.

That definitely helps us know where to look to find the location of our dreams. And thanks to our speakers, we now have a very good idea of how much it will cost us to live in these countries, including the costs to buy a home, apartment, or acreage.

Would you like to learn more about all the countries and opportunities we’re discovering here at the Ultimate Event? Let me tell you how you can…

We’re putting together a complete package of nearly everything that’s happening at this event, with audio recordings of all 76 of the presentations.

We’re also making copies of all the speaker handouts, PowerPoint and visual presentations. And, of course, the complete dossier we give to each attendee when they showed up here at the Swissotel in Quito.

It’s the Ultimate Event 2010 Conference-at-Home Kit—and it covers every aspect of the 2010 Ultimate Event.

Would you be interested in attending a conference or workshop to learn more about living overseas? Have you ever attended one? Share your thoughts by clicking the comment link below.

Don’t miss another Future Expats update! Sign up for convenient email RSS delivery here.

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So, you’ve decided you want to live in Asia, to travel to exotic locations, eat incredibly spicy food, and generally enjoy life in a culture that’s completely different from what you’ve grown up with. But you have to be able to afford it.

Previously, we’ve discussed teaching English as a second language as a way to finance your life abroad. Not surprisingly, the greatest demand for English teachers is in Asia. If you have a Bachelor’s degree in just about any subject and some specialized training, you can find a job teaching English in almost every Asian country.

“Young Americans Flock Overseas to Teach English” is the headline of a March 1 article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Job boards for English teachers in China, Japan, S. Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand are bursting at the seams, but if you’re adventurous, you can also find jobs in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. I even saw some listings in Tibet!

First Step – Choose Your Training

While some English-teaching jobs abroad require only that you be a native English speaker, others expect at least a bachelor’s degree in some subject, and the best insist on certification.

And here’s the bugaboo. There seems to be a large difference of opinion as to which types of training and certification are the best. Acronyms like TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language), ESL (English as a Second Language) and TESOL (Teaching English as a Second or Other Language) fly about. Every school promises that its program is the best, the most widely accepted.

A discussion by actual English teachers at Dave’s ESL Café, a favored source of information for all things ESL, casually dismisses all training except CELTA, SIT and Trinity. Unfamiliar with all of those terms, I decided to do some research. Here’s what I found.

CELTA

The CELTA certificate is issued by the prestigious University of Cambridge in England. Although actual courses are offered by many different institutions in different countries, the courses must be validated by Cambridge. Setting CELTA apart from many run-of-the-mill English-teaching courses is the required practicum – students must successfully complete six hours of practice teaching to real English language students, and the overall course is at least 120 hours.

Teaching House offers CELTA classes in New York, Boston, Miami and San Diego. Another CELTA provider is Bridge TEFL. They teach US classes in Denver, CO. Other locations include Central and South America, as well as locations in Europe, Turkey, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Russia and China.

SIT

SIT stands for School for International Training, which offers master degree programs in teacher education and intercultural management. It’s located in gorgeous Brattleboro, VT, but doesn’t offer the English teacher training there. Instead, it partners with other schools, like Global TEFL, which holds classes in locations like Chicago and California and TESOL Training Worldwide, which offers courses in places like Oaxaca and Veracruz, Mexico. They also require 6 hours of teacher training in adult ESOL. According to their website,

“The School for International Training’s TESOL Certificate is a 130 hour course which provides participants with professional knowledge and skills in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) as well as tools for their own reflection and growth as teachers. It is designed to be offered intensively in four weeks or extensively over a longer period.”

Trinity

Trinity refers to another English school, Trinity College, which issues the certificates. This is not a terribly practical choice for a US-based student, as the only courses offered in North America are in Canada. However, if you want to take the course in Malta, Uruguay, New Zealand or Iran, you’re in good shape.

Others

All three programs share the two common requirements of at least 120 hours of course work, combined with at least 6 hours of practice teaching. There are other schools which offer courses that meet these standards, but without the prestigious certificates.

One of these is the ITTO (International Teacher Training Organization), which offers a similar program, albeit with slightly larger class sizes, in the US, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Peru, as well as Prague.

So what’s a prospective English teacher to do? How do you wade through the quagmire of offerings? We’ll explore this further in another installment.

Do you have experience as an ESL/TESL/TEFL teacher? Considering teaching English overseas but have questions? If so, I’d love to hear from you! Just click the comment link below.

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 New Life in Paris, was written by Sarah Turnbull. An Australian journalist, she met Frédéric while traveling in Eastern Europe, visited him in Paris, and ended up making a life with him. She explains:

“I left Australia hoping to cram a lifetime of adventures into one unforgettable year. Instead, I ended up with a new life. … The idea was to immerse myself in fascinating foreign cultures, to work as a freelance journalist in Eastern Europe, whichin my mind bubbled with unwritten, hard-hitting stories.

“When [Frédéric] invited me to visit him in Paris, I’d hesitated just long enough to make sure he was serious before saying yes. Why not? After all, this is what travelling is all about, isn’t it: seizing opportunities, doing things you wouldn’t normally do, being open to the accidental?

“That trip to Paris was more than eight years ago now. And except for four months when I resumed my travels, I have been living here ever since.”

Turnbull wittily describes her introduction to French life, her realizations that the French are different, and her growing appreciation for what she found. And what she found was a society that demanded propriety, that was largely uninterested in her until she’d been among them for several years, that expected standards of dress, grooming, manners and table setting completely alien to her informal Australian background. A society where introducing oneself at a cocktail party was scandalously bold!

“Coming to terms with this emphasis on appearances is tough. … In France, vanity is not a vice. Rigorous self-maintenance is imbued from bith – it’s a mark of self-pride. … Men are expected to pay close attention to their appearances as well. The loaded phrase, “se mettre en valeur” is used all the time. It means “to make the most of yourself.” This is not something the French do when they feel like it: they do it every day. Sloppiness in appearance is condered a fatal disease. Once it takes hold, you’re on an irreversible downhill slide. You’ve committed the unforgivable. You’ve let yourself go.”

She and Frédéric disagree over visits to his home in the north. To him, it is normal to spend at least one weekend a month with his father in the town where he grew up, surrounded by extended family. She finds the northern part of the country ugly, and is very uncomfortable immersed in his family’s rituals. The beaches of his home area bear no resemblance to the hot, sunny, sandy Australian beaches in her native Sydney.

She spends his friends’ dinner parties crying in the bathroom after being treated like a piece of furniture for hours. Her only female friends are expats like herself.

When she considers getting a dog, she notes that Parisian dogs are treated better than Parisian children.

“Where I grew up, dogs are dogs. … But in Paris, a city of roughly two hundred thousand dogs, … canines lead lives that are remarkably similar to their masters. They stay in chateaux-hotels and have expensive haircuts. A night out means dressing up and dining at fine restaurants. What makes this unrestrained spoiling even more bizarre is that it’s totally at odds with the strict discipline the French mete out to their kids. While children are expected to sit rod-straight at restaurants, eating and conversing like little grownups, dogs are babied andindulged, perched on velvet stools and hand-fed from plates.”

Gradually, Turnbull’s perceptions change. She starts seeing beauty in the northern landscape, and fits in better with Fréderíc’s family and friends. She finds that the Parisian system of neighborhoods allows people of different walks of life to be known and accepted. She sees value in the French habit of never letting oneself go. She recognizes that a woman who initially looked through her at dinner parties has become a friend. She has become almost French.

American Mark Greenside, on the other hand, freely admits in his title, “I’ll Never Be French.” His book chronicles a vacation in Brittany which led to an impulse purchase of a house there. After years of being an American renter, he is now a French homeowner, splitting his time between the two countries.

The French people he meets in the tiny Breton village don’t bear much resemblance to the Parisians described by Turnbull. Despite his almost total lack of French language skills and his sloppy personal appearance, his neighbors take him under their collective wing. They share meals, introduce him to the community, Madame helps him find and purchase his house and saves him from wasting a lot of extra money hiring one contractor over another. Nevertheless,

“If this were the end of a story, things would reconcile, add up, I would add up, or at least have direction, there’d be no loose ends, and the end might take you back to the beginning. But this isn’t a story, it’s my life, and the French and American sides don’t easily fit. When I’m in France, I see how American I am. In the US, it’s the reverse. I now try to bring the best of my American self … to France and the best of my French self … to America, and often fall short in both places.”

Almost French was published in 2002, I’ll Never Be French in 2008. The people and lives they describe are very different. I’m left wondering whether Parisians are really so different from Bretons? Did French people change so much in six years? Do the French treat scruffy men better than informal women? I suppose all of these are true and none of them are true.

The bottom line is that we bring to any life experience the sum total of our personalities, experiences, education and training then try to make sense of the results. And that is true whether we still live in the town where we were born, or a strange country halfway round the world.

Buy from Amazon

Some of you are probably wondering why I posted this video link here. What does this have to do with being an expat?

The short answer is, “nothing at all.” The long answer is more complex.

The gentleman playing the cello solo in this piece is Jonathan May. I first met him 16 or 17 years ago, when he was the conductor and artistic director for a youth orchestra in which my son played violin.

Over the years, I got to know Jonathan as we worked with a small but dedicated nucleus of concerned parents and educators to form a new youth orchestra, an effort that eventually gave birth to the Florida Young Artists Orchestra in Orlando, FL. I served on the Board of Directors for the first two tumultuous years of that organization’s existence, and was privileged to work closely with Jonathan during that time.

Since then, my daughter has also been a violinist in the FYAO.

The video clip above was recorded one year ago, at a concert of the FYAO Chamber Symphony. Jonathan May played the cello solo while his brother, the talented movie composer Daniel May, conducted. Another member of the family, Jonathan’s youngest son Nathan, played stand-up bass. He’s the bassist closest to the camera when it pans to the right, about two thirds of the way through the piece.

The reason for my posting all this is to honor the memory of a man who had an enormous positive influence on the music education of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of young people. Sadly, he passed away this afternoon after suffering a massive stroke. He leaves his wife, cellist Maureen May, and four musically accomplished children, along with other family and a powerful legacy of music education.

Jonathan embodied an attitude toward music that is sadly lacking in our public education in the United States, and gave his orchestras the opportunity to travel to other countries to perform and to learn. He knew — none better — that music is, truly, a universal language and he was its wonderful ambassador.

His energy and enthusiasm, his dedication to young people, his vision and leadership, and his personal warmth will be sorely missed.

Music lovers may want to sample some of the other Florida Young Artists Orchestra videos available on YouTube. Click here for a list.

* Those of you who are of my generation will recognize the significance of this post’s title immediately. But for those of you who were born within the last quarter century, here’s a little explanation. Back in 1971 or thereabouts, Don McLean released a song with that title. The last two lines of the first verse were,

“But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died.”

You can find the complete lyrics here

Guest Post by Kathy Nicholls

photo by Kathy Nicholls

You feel the sea breeze in the air no matter where you go on the island, and the people, while highly motivated to work hard, understand the importance of having a balance in life. Now back in the States, I do miss those things. Here are just a few things to think about if you are considering Barbados as a place to live.

Barbados is a small island in the Caribbean. When we first arrived, there were so many things to learn culturally. From the accents of the Caribbean, to the Bajan English, it was all a learning experience. Fortunately the people in Barbados are patient teachers, and they were gracious when we made mistakes in the way we said things as well as in teaching us some of the local phrases and sayings.

There are some things to do to prepare for living in Barbados. First, know that if you are working on the island, you must have a work permit. Barbados law says that a business is not allowed to hire a non-national if there is a Barbadian citizen who is qualified to do the job. The process for obtaining a work permit is lengthy, with a lot of paperwork, copies of all of your credentials, and a physical exam. In the meantime, you will have to plan on renewing your visa stamp while you wait as the stamps are only good for 30 days in the country. Be prepared for an exercise in patience as things tend to happen slowly and on what is fondly referred to as “Bajan time.”

Patience is a virtue, or so the saying goes. If you are going to live in Barbados, or any other place in the Caribbean, you quickly learn the meaning of this statement. “Bajan time” simply means it will happen when it happens. If you are coming from the US, you are used to making a call, for example, to get your cable TV hooked up, and finding that it’s done in a day or two, usually a week at the most. Not so here. It is not uncommon to wait three or four months before your time comes up on the schedule.

Food: There are many wonderful dishes in Barbados, so come prepared to try new things. You probably will change some of your eating patterns if you’re used to a lot of US-based foods, for example, cereal. Remember that most things in Barbados are imported. That translates to a higher cost for food than you may be used to paying. My first experience with that was going to the store because I was craving Frosted Flakes. Mind you, it’s not that I couldn’t find them, the store carried them. The box that I normally paid around $2.50 for in the States would now cost me the equivalent of $9 US Dollars! I quickly learned that Frosted Flakes was no longer on a “must have” list anywhere while I lived on the island. The best thing to do is learn to shop in the local grocery stores, visit the fresh fish markets (they are all over the island), and buy your vegetables from the local vegetable stands. Not only do you get fresher food, it is just tastier!

My time living in Barbados was so full of wonderful experiences, not the least of which was my marriage to my new husband. It was an awesome time in my life and I do intend to return some day. To list all of the things I learned while there would make this post longer than any of you would care to read. If you crave island living, the fresh breeze from the sea, and year-round summer weather, Barbados is definitely a place to consider.

Kathy Nicholls lived in Barbados as an expatriate for two years, working with a medical transcription training program. She is now back in the States and owns the Nicholls Leadership Institute, where she blogs about leadership development, as well as two medical transcription-related websites, the Medical Transcription Training Alliance, working with potential medical transcription students and training programs, and MT Tools Online, a continuing education site for medical transcriptionists.

Do you have an expat experience you’d like to share? Click on the comment link below, or send me an email!

I have a confession to make. I love chocolate. It’s my drug of choice, my not-so-secret pleasure.

That’s why I was tickled recently to find that Ecuador, one of the countries we’re considering as a place to live, is a good source of the luscious beans. According to MarketWire,

“Where do the Swiss go to buy the best chocolate in the world? The Trade Commission of Ecuador says it’s a little known fact that Swiss chocolatiers have been traveling to South America for centuries, specifically Ecuador, to stock up on Arriba Nacional cacao.”

Eduardo Borrero, Ecuadorian trade commissioner, stated in the same article:

“Ecuadorian chocolate is organic, sustainable, fair trade, superior in quality and when Americans discover they can drastically reduce their carbon footprint by cutting out the ‘middleman’ they will take a serious look at the label for the word ‘Arriba’ before their next chocolate purchase.”

I say, “bring it on!”

The World Wide Chocolate website describes Ecuadorian Arriba chocolate as:

“a special cocoa varietal with a perfumed floral scent. Its flavor is smooth, with a dominant jasmine note and nutty after-tones.”

National Geographic Traveler describes the Kallari Association, a chocolate cooperative which grows the cacao and makes the chocolate. According to the article by Sarah Aldrich, Association members have the opportunity to earn a living without clearcutting the Amazon rainforest. So we can feel really good about eating their product!

Ecuador just moved up a few points in my “next country to live in” stakes.

Would locally grown cacao induce you to choose one country to live in over another? Weigh in by clicking the comment link below.

Guest Post by Brandi N. Grays

I never really decided to live overseas. There was no well-laid plan, no dream destination. I didn’t do any research. When I first got off the airplane in Ankara, Turkey I had no idea what life had in store for me. My boyfriend had been working in Turkey for a little over a year and he asked me to marry him. He was already in Turkey (and it seemed that I had been awaiting this proposal forever), so we decided that I would go there and we would get married right away. I found a tenant for my apartment, packed my bags, and hopped on a plane to Ankara.

Because I hadn’t done any research, I arrived a few days before the start of Ramadan. We had to wait through closed offices and holiday observances; but, we were finally able to get married about three weeks later. So many people ask me, “How did you manage to get married in another country?” It was a challenge, but this experience is what helped shape my perspective about life overseas; take it all in stride.

I have lived all over the world; Turkey, Belgium, Bosnia, Israel, and now Mexico. I am thoroughly enjoying myself. However, I believe that in order to take full advantage of your expat life you have to relax a bit and understand that you don’t have the same amount of control as you do in your home country. I have had many opportunities to work myself into fits of frenzy; however, my outlook on this uncommon life has saved me.

What Do You Mean, I Can’t Buy Groceries Here?

I can remember standing in the checkout line at a grocery store in Belgium. I had a basket full of groceries and was at least 7 months pregnant. I handed the cashier my credit card and my passport and began bagging my groceries. However, I was alerted to the fact that there was some sort of problem with my identification. The cashier explained that my middle name was not on my credit card as it appeared on my passport and therefore, I couldn’t pay for my basket full of groceries. I tried to explain to her that it was just my middle name and didn’t have to be on my credit card, but my explanation was not sufficient. I speak enough French to get through my daily life; but, I can’t go head to head in a verbal battle with a native French speaker.

So, here I was holding up the check-out line in Carrefour and getting angrier by the minute. Had I been in the states, I would have demanded to speak to the manager, asked for the number to corporate headquarters and called them while I sat in the car. In this case, however, I pushed my basket to the front of the store, bought a hot waffle on my way out, and went back later with my husband and his credit card.

These sorts of experiences will happen, especially when you first arrive in a new country. If you don’t fluently speak the language, you will encounter them much more often. But they will give you opportunities to laugh later on. They are simply part of the adventure. There is no sense in getting upset and angry. Take it all in stride.

I could tell you stories about rogue taxi drivers, hostile sports fans, ridiculous apartment deficiencies, and the worst McDonald’s on Earth. Of course, when you are standing face to face with a cashier and can’t buy your groceries, it can be disheartening. If you have to demand that a taxi driver take you back home because he doesn’t know where he is going (and you don’t really either), it can be a bit overwhelming. But when you stick it out and get past these little bumps in the road, the journey is a blast.

Brandi N. Grays is the owner of Eleven Twenty-Three Creative Group, a small business marketing firm. She blogs about starting and growing your small business. She will be launching her own blog dedicated to expat moms in the spring of 2010. You can reach Brandi at brandingrays@1123creativegroup.com.

A couple of weeks ago, I posted that my father had just died, and how his passing has given me more urgency in making my overseas move.

This weekend, my widely scattered family has gathered to hold a memorial service. Coming from all up and down the East Coast, from Florida in the South where my husband and I live, to Vermont in the North, from Ohio to the west, and a great many points in between, we are sharing memories and stories, tears and joys, and trying to make some practical decisions as well.

Because of this, I would like my readers to join me in a virtual moment of silence. No regular blog post today, just a few minutes to reflect on what’s really important in this life.

Thanks for your understanding.