Expat Community

From a very early age, I've been interested in the world outside my home town. I think it probably started with conversations with my Great-Grandfather Nash, who emigrated to the US during the Mexican Revolution. When I was 7, and living in Michigan, knowing that someone in my family spoke an entire different language and came from a completely different country was absolutely fascinating. This fascination grew after a family reunion in Acapulco, a summer spent visiting my relatives in Mexico, involvement in a foreign exchange program to Germany, and my personal travels as an adult.

Living abroad and being part of the expat community has served to affirm and strengthen my interest in and appreciation for other cultures. The richness of their experiences, the diversity of their backgrounds, and both the commonality and differences in familial and political perspectives is amazing and personally enriching.

Last night we had dinner with some expat friends from Greece who are returning to China for yet another assignment. We talked of family. We talked of the vagaries of living in Jakarta, and other countries, and what we love about it, and what we miss in our home country. We spoke of history. How the nobility of Europe began interbreeding by adhering to the rule of only marrying other nobility, and diminished their gene pool so severely, they started birthing morons who would lose the family fortune. A European education, as one might expect, has a different perspective on European history than an American education. Most of all, we spoke of our home countries.

I have always wanted to visit Greece. I'm fascinated by the history. I'm fascinated by the influence the ancient Greeks still have on our world today. From mathematics, to philosophy and government, even medicine and language still retain the influence from the ancient Greeks. I've always wanted to see the great architectural wonders of ancient Athens - the Parthenon, the Erechtheion, the Temples honoring Apollo, Zeus, and Hera.

When I was in college, I saw the movie Summer Lovers and knew I wanted to experience the sleepy seaside communities built on the cliffs of the Aegean and Medittereanean Seas.  After speaking with our friends last night, and hearing them describe the azure blue waters - "the color of Gillete shaving gel", the sandy beaches of every color imaginable, the differences between Western Greece and Eastern Greece, I have a renewed in visiting.

This is the life I always dreamed of when I thought of traveling and living abroad.  Meeting great people.  Sharing stories of our travels to and living in foreign nations.  I always leave these conversations enriched, educated, and with a new perspective on life.  Expats are a unique breed of adventurous, educated, diplomatic and succesful people.  I am proud and humbled to call myself a part of them.