Last column — repatriation blues

Combating the Repatriation BluesWhen you are a returning expat, one way to lessen your sense of loss when you move home is to find other people like you. * By ALAN PAULEveryone in my family has been battling the Beijing blues. Back in…

Now what do I do?

Well I'm a little hungover after a few crazy weeks. The Allmans at the Beacons are over.. 15 shows. I was at 4 and they were all different and all great. I saw buddy Guy, Phish dudes, Eric Clapton, Chuck Leavell and Bobby and Phil from the Dead…

Mystery solved

How the Fed makes key decisions.

Gerbils

We returned last night from four days in Michigan and the baby gerbils are like new creatures. All very cool. We can pick them up now, and are supposed to, so they get used to people. They still look something like salamanders. Their eyes are…

Layla — Allmans with Clapton

Saw a really great, memorable Allmans show at the Beacon last night. Clapton played almost all of the second set with them. This was the encore, and filmed from right where I was standing. This guy must have been just ahead and to the right…

Serious excitement

Last Sunday morning, we were giving the kids breakfast and prepping them for their first day of Sunday School. Suddenly, Jacob asked who put M&M’s in the gerbil cage. I came over to see what he was talking about -- and saw that our gerbil…

Last column: long-term expats

* THE EXPAT LIFE * MARCH 6, 2009 Come Home, Did You Say? Some Expats Choose to Cut Ties with Their Employer and Stay Abroad * By ALAN PAUL We went to China in 2005 with a three-year commitment. Like most traditional expats, we arrived…

Allmans, Big East hoops…MARCH!

March Madness is here and I am enjoying it, in a maddening sort of way.It is the one month where I also felt most homesick in China, as college basketball reached its always fun, always nutty peak, and the Allman Brothers set up shop at the…

Anna art

It is Anna's dream to have a picture published in Highlights magazine and she worked diligently on these the other day. I chose The Great Wall ("me and mommy on the Great Wall") but she chose the forest. "You can;t choose this because you miss…