Mumbai, India After 5 years in Ho Chi Minh City, we are moving to Mumbai in summer 2017! Expat life in Vietnam has been great for young children, and I’ve had wonderful career opportunities in my current school. However, I found it difficult to get outside of the expat bubble as a single mom,, Read More
Wow! Hard to believe it’s been three full years already, and at the same, I feel like I’ve been in Saigon even longer than that as I’ve gone through so many changes, both professionally and personally, since we moved here in August 2012. I’m now printing the fifth iteration of my business card, this, Read More
We had a lot of fun preparing for and celebrating Arianne’s first birthday! Because Arianne’s birthday falls during the Tet holidays, I decided just to have a small, simple party at the house. Gabriel gave me a long list of HIS friends that he wanted to invite, but I showed him on Facebook that, Read More
I just returned home after getting laparoscopic hernia repair surgery for an abdominal hernia at FV Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. What happened? About 10 days ago, I had a nasty bout of food poisoning. A few days later, I noticed a strange, tender lump in my stomach, directly above the belly button., Read More
This is my 5th year teaching overseas, and for the first time a family member came to visit! I knew in the back of my mind that if grandbaby #2 would be born in Vietnam that might entice my mom to endure the 30+ hours of travel. She arrived 5 days before Arianne’s c-section, Read More
Name: Arianne Elisabeth Weight: 7.04 lbs Length: 18 inches Born via c-section at Hanh Phuc Hospital. Her first name, Arianne, is French and means “most holy.” D and I wanted a name that sounded nice in both English & Portuguese. The Portuguese version is Ariana. The middle name, Elisabeth, we picked because we like, Read More
Over the summer my husband Duarte and I filmed for House Hunters International. There were 5 total days of filming: 1 day in Lake George, New York with my family and 4 days in Ho Chi Minh City. We moved to a different house for our second year in HCMC, and I’ve been waiting, Read More
It’s still rainy season in Saigon, and Duarte and I are a full month into our second year of teaching at ISHCMC American Academy. Duarte was the Math Department Head last year and had a full load of math classes, but now he’s been swapped over to the Science Department where he’s teaching AP, Read More
Remember when I had to go to London for a one-day black tie event? I was a finalist at the Cognita Awards for Excellence as a secondary teacher. Cognita is a network of international schools that includes ISHCMC American Academy in Vietnam. While the majority of Cognita schools are in the UK, they also, Read More