Christmas in Thailand is always a little strange. It’s the nicest time of the year meaning, instead of clouds, cold temperatures and depressing darkness – like I’m used to in Seattle – every day is clear, sunny and, well, pretty much perfect. The weather combined with the fact that Thailand is a Buddhist country and […]

Normally I only half heartedly make some New Year resolutions. I’ll spend a few minutes thinking about what I want to work on or toward, write them down, then…forget about them. Last year I couldn’t think of any. Sure, there were plenty of things I could work on, but I didn’t feel any desire or […]

Today’s post comes from Kim-Ling about previously living in Spain as an expat and why she and her husband and doing all they can to get back. When my husband and I found out that we were moving to Spain to do a Language Assistants Program, we were absolutely elated. Having visited Spain previously and […]

Today’s guest post comes from Jools, an English expat who is working and living in Cape Town, South Africa with his girlfriend, Kate, who had recently shared about her life in Cape Town. I moved to South Africa almost four years ago, and during my time here I’ve lived in several different locations around the country. […]

Today’s guest post comes from Lauren, an English expat who is working and living on Lamma Island in Hong Kong.  Not many people know this unless they visit, but Hong Kong is made up of a network of 263 islands, many of which can be reached by ferry and each island has it’s own distinct vibe. I […]

Today’s guest post comes from Kristina, an American expat who is working and living in Madrid Spain.  For as long as I could remember, I had the travel bug. I read a lot (and still do) and I dreamt of places I would get to visit. Taking Spanish in school propelled me to study in Spain. What […]

I have been completely behind on the Day-to-Day’ series so am running a full week of guests posts from expats around the world.  Today’s guest post comes from Justine, an American expat who was working and living in Jakarta Indonesia.  I moved to Jakarta on a whim. After traveling around the world for 12 months, my boyfriend received a […]

This past week has been a busy, and kind of disorienting, one. Immediately after helping host Thanksgiving for 50 people (complete with one of the only turkeys found in Thailand), I left Chiang Mai and spent the weekend high in the hills of Chiang Rai in a hill tribe village that grows the coffee beans […]

Looking back at photos of when I first moved to Thailand or traveled around Southeast Asia I’m torn between two feelings. On one hand, I love them all – it was such a new, exciting time for me and looking at the photos brings back a hint of that excitement and novelty. On the other […]

This week’s guest post for the ‘Day-to-Day’ series comes from Natasha, an American expat who’s currently working and living in rural South Korea. If you’re an expat and interested in sharing the day-to-day details of your city, shoot me a message at thepaperplanesblog @ gmail.com. Hello! My name is Natasha and I currently live and work in South Korea. Having thought […]