Author: anoceanaway_ireland
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Second summer abroad
I eagerly anticipated our summer plans for months, and now they’re all in the rearview mirror. As I look back on the summer, I am grateful for all the friends and family we spent time with, especially those we hadn’t seen in several years. Since we first moved to Philadelphia in May of 2013, we…
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Bank holiday weekend road trips around Ireland
If there’s one thing that Ireland has plenty of compared to the US, it’s bank holiday weekends! With miles of gorgeous countryside just past the Dublin city limits, it’s easy to find ways to explore the country of Ireland and still make it home for Sunday roast dinner. My family and I have had so…
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Ski season review!
Our 2025 ski season has officially come to an end, and I can confidently say this has absolutely been the highlight for us so far in our year abroad in Europe. In the past 12 months we have skied Zermatt, Switzerland; St. Anton, Austria; and Les Arcs and Val d’Isere, France. All are unique locations…
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Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes later
On a cold, partly rainy morning one year ago today we landed in Dublin with absolutely no clue how this new adventure would work for our family. The kids were partly excited, mostly scared, and we were all super jetlagged. The first three months anywhere always feel like you’re walking on the moon for the…
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Too late for a new start?
It’s obviously a little late in the year to post a “new year, new goals” post, but nothing in 2024 went as planned, so why should 2025 be any different? Let’s take our cue from the lunar new year instead. To be honest, I have been reluctant to commit my goals to paper for fear…
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An alternative Thanksgiving
In 2016 we celebrated our first Thanksgiving away from home. Our oldest (and at the time, only) son had just turned one and I had this grand idea that we needed to mark the occasion with a big trip. We had just moved to Asia, and I wanted to prove that we were a family…
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New beginnings
Every September feels like a fresh start for me as well as for my kids. We’re all turning over a new leaf, putting summer in the rearview mirror and focusing on the push to learn something before the holidays come. As with many (most?) new expats here in Ireland, I’m currently in school too, but…
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Who says you can’t go home?
Somehow, summer has come and gone (again). In June, 10 weeks stretched out before us and felt like a lifetime, and now I look back on all we’ve done and cannot believe we’re beginning the next school year tomorrow. I’ve already recapped our time in the West of Ireland in late June, but our major…
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Touring West Ireland
Last month my parents came in from Boston for a trip around the county and it was a jam-packed week! We did the standard Dublin sights: Dublin Castle, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Christchurch Cathedral, and The Book of Kells at Trinity College in the first few days. But what I was really looking forward to seeing…
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London was calling
We just returned from a super successful bank holiday weekend! This was our first bank holiday where we flew to another country, and London did not disappoint. I have been to a lot of countries but somehow, I had never been to England before, so I was as excited as the boys were. We landed…
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How can you carpe diem?
When I was young, one of my favorite movies was “Dead Poets Society,” the classic coming-of-age story released in 1989 starring Robin Williams. One scene always stuck with me. Robin Williams, the English teacher at an all-boys private high school, told his students to seize each and every opportunity that came their way, especially when…
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Forever friends
In 2016 we moved to Shanghai, my first experience living overseas. I had no idea what to expect – especially when it came to the people we were going to meet. Over our three years in China, we made friends in our apartment building, in our son’s school, in the expat association I joined, but…
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First impressions of Ireland
Today the sun is shining, a gorgeous, mostly blue-sky day. The leaves are on the trees and spring feels like a real season here in Dublin. Weather on the surface seems like a secondary concern for any given place, but at times it can feel like the most important thing in the whole wide world.…
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The first months back
Well, it’s been five months since we repatriated back to the US. For so long all I thought about was what life would look like when we returned, both professionally and personally. I felt so ready for the change, but I think I forgot to properly prepare everyone else for the up and down emotions!…
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Time of my life
I’ve been trying for weeks to put into words how I feel about leaving SH. It’s been two months of goodbyes, last time at this restaurant or last date night or last friend coffee, and I have to say I am exhausted by it all. We have had some truly memorable moments over the past…
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The language of fun
We attended our last SH birthday party over the weekend. As I stood there listening to the Spanish being spoken all around me, it clarified something for me. SH is not just about speaking English or Mandarin. It is not a black and white experience where you interact with either people who speak your native…
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Tokyo, revisited
We returned to Tokyo last week for a final family vacation. Previously it was one of the places we thought was the least kid-friendly to visit, but for several reasons we decided to give it one last go. We had two days visiting traditional Japanese sights, and two days at Disneyland. I made the smart…
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Our last has his first: happy birthday, Zach!
Our baby boy turns one today. It was a year of crazy ups and downs, phases that felt endless and stages that pass in the blink of an eye. After your first child you think you’re ready for it all, but there are always new worries that crop up, and each child has different innate…
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A tale of two Singapores
We just came back from a family vacation in Singapore. It was a quick trip, ostensibly just to see the zoo and to revisit a few of the places that we had enjoyed on our first trip to Singapore two and a half years ago. Our first vacation there was our first major trip in…
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Making friends, saying goodbye
This post originally appeared on Shanghai Mamas. Spring. The dreaded time of year in Shanghai when we tally up all the friends who have just told us they are leaving as soon as school lets out. And every year it seems like a bigger number than the year before. Friendships here are often much more…
An Ocean Away 