Category Archives: maychallenge

My 3 Worst Traits as a Blogger

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Day 24, Friday: Your top 3 worst traits

This sort of a question in an interview setting always makes my head draw a blank. I could list list off the many less than flattering things I think about myself but is that what you really want to hear?  I have decided to look at my three worst traits as a blogger, and hope that you’ll forgive me and still want to be  my blogger friend. 😀 

My 3 Worst Traits as a Blogger 


source

1) I am a procrastinator. I equate it to being a student in school that has 30 days to work on a paper.  Said student puts the research off until the last few days, does not start writing it until the day before, and then runs on to campus to get it in before the deadline.  Yes that is me in the blogger world.  It was actually probably worse when I was only blogging once a week.  Now that I blog daily it has helped me in that regard so much.  I started making an organized schedule of what I will post every day of the week and trying to schedule the week’s posts on Sundays.  However if presented with a deadline I still find myself putting it off until the last possible moment. Or worse yet (and hoping it never happens again) emailing my blogger friend to see if it is too late to turn something in.  Fortunately for me when this happened yesterday Mish was super helpful and kind.  Which has further reminded me to make sure I schedule everything so that I do not eventually get pulled into a Google Hangout with my blogger friends for an Intervention.  

2) I am a Twitter novice. I am not sure when I actually joined twitter because I used to tweet on an older private account.  I mainly tweeted with the few friends who had twitter and followed my favourite celebs.  Tweeting back in 2009 did not mean what it means to me now in 2013.  Back then it was more of a conversation, like instant messaging, between friends when we were not together, similar to facebook. Today however I see a purpose in it as a blogger and as a business owner with Bonnie Rose Photography.  Also most of my facebook friends do not use twitter and following mostly celebs can lose its enticement after a while.  Since I blog about being an expat, tck, and traveler I love reading tweets around the world from similar bloggers. With that said I still do not think I know what I am doing when it comes to Twitter.  Especially when it comes to promoting my posts.  I feel like I either do not promote them at all or too much or not well enough. All these questions run in my head about it. Do I misuse the hashtags? Could I be doing hashtags better? More importantly do my hashtags on Instagram drive you crazy? I think I overanalyze everything about my social media marketing. 

3) I still use my phone camera sometimes. I admit it and I am here to say that I am not happy about it.   Not to say I do not love sharing my instagram photos because I do.  But I have owned professional cameras and work as a portrait photographer. I should never be relying on my iPhone 4 for photographs.  When the lighting is amazing I am not too ashamed of the photographs, but in less than perfect lighting the grain comes in and I cringe.  So maybe I’m a photo snob.  But I also know I love my posts way more when I have photos from my Nikon DSLR and I figure my readers do too.  I know with my prescheduled posts this is not so much of an issue, but with my ‘on the fly’ posts I tend to rely on my phone.  Admitting I have a problem is the first step right? 

So with negative I have to follow with positives.

I plan to be better at working against procrastination, to learn more about how to use twitter better, and to share more high quality photographs on my blog.  :)

Cheers, 
Bonnie 

#BlogEveryDayInMay

*photographs found here  are sourced.



What I have learned from Harry Potter

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Day 23, Thursday: Things you’ve learned that school won’t teach you

At the last book release with my newly acquired book in hand while carrying my sleeping baby ‘Mandrake plant’ in my HotSling.
There are many things I have learned through experiencing life that I did not learn in school.  However there are also a lot of things I learned from reading books.  I love J.K. Rowling’s  Harry Potter book series and I have both the English and the American series sitting on my bookshelf.  I owe my younger sister for getting me hooked into this magical world.  My parents had started reading books along with her and I would be sitting at the breakfast table feeling left out as the three of them discussed ‘quidditch’.  There were only three books out when I began reading them and was instantly hooked.  For each book release we would stay up all night at the bookstores.  As my children came along I brought them along too and in costume.  My eldest was baby Harry Potter with the scar for the 6th book release and for the 7th he was a Howler and his baby brother was mandrake plant.  I now read these books to my children and when we finish a book they are then allowed to finally see the film for the first time.  These books have touched three generations in my family since their release in the late nineties. 
source
What makes the Harry Potter series so great is that this in-depth imaginative world of magic is married with so many integral life lessons we can relate to or apply to our own life as muggles.  If you have not read the books I have to caution you with a quote by Doctor Who’s River Song, “Spoilers.”  

1.  How we treat others.  This is a reoccurring theme in the books.  With wizards of different backgrounds (truebloods, half-bloods, and muggle born) many characters use this class system to treat people differently.  Characters like Draco Malfoy who think half-bloods like Hermione are dirt and less off families like the Weasleys, are not much better.  Then of course  w have the house elves who are most mistreated for being common slaves of the magical realm.  

In the Goblet of Fire Sirius says to Ron, “…If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”  

Real character is not defined by someone’s surname nor how well off they are in life.  But by how they treat others, especially those who can do no real benefit to make our lives better.  Selfless acts of kindness are the real strength behind a person. 

2. Parent’s Love is Powerful.  This is seen from the beginning with how Harry Potter was saved against Voldormort’s attack on his family.  In the last book we see examples of two mothers whose parental love leads them to make choices to protect their children.  Despite the truth that Narcissa Malfoy is horrible woman, she was shown in the books to do anything for her son, Draco, even make an Unbreakable Vow to save his life.  In the Deathly Hallows she spares Harry’s life, walks away from Voldormort, and gets her family to leave the evilness behind.  I felt in the film it portrayed the Malfoys leaving as cowards. While there is truth in that the unblinding love for her family above all else is what drives Narcissa to protect her family and get away.  The other character is Molly Weasley in one of my favourite scenes in the last battle at Hogwarts.  Belatrix has made an attack on her youngest daughter Ginny and makes a comment about her recently deceased twin son, Fred.  Molly’s love her for children sends her into mother bear mode to protect her children which is followed by the infamous scene where she curses and then kills Belatrix. I definitely believe this theme resonates stronger with me now that I have children of my own. 

3. Your family is not limited by blood relations.  Harry may have lost his parents early on and have been treated like an unwanted and worthless outsider by his muggle relations.  However that does not mean he does not have a family.  He was practically the eight kid in Weasley family and was looked after by characters at Hogwarts such as Dumbledore, McGonagall, and yes…Snape. For myself I love this truth in the books because it is something that rings true in my own life.  I grew up in Europe where my parents’ blood relations resided in the US.  As small as our family is, as I have no cousins, I had my church family that became my adopted grandparents, uncles, and aunts.  I have friends all over the world that are closer to me as family than blood relations on my husband’s side of the family.  Especially as an expat living an nomadic life, we do not have to limit ourselves to the family to which we are born.  
4. The good deeds of others is not alway seen and you cannot judge a person.  These two things are best represented in the books by my favourite character Severus Snape. He is looked at as a baddie or a non agreeable character through out the series.  It really is not until his death that Harry realizes the truth behind Snape.  It was Snape’s love and devotion for Harry’s mother that motivated him to let others see him one way while he basically looked out for Harry’s best interests through out the story.  His character has helped me in my own life when I had people thinking and saying things about me that were not necessarily true and more so very ugly.  But I had people in my life to protect and I will still go on protecting them.  Perhaps it could have been easier for Snape to just come clean to be treated and respected better by his colleagues and students. But then he would have failed the one he loved. That is what I really liked about his character that he had that much love inside him, though it was not seen by others.  My second favourite character was Neville and he could have easily been discounted as being insignificant and worthless to the story.  But he grew and improved through out the books to become the strong character in the final part of the story.  It proves you should be patient with yourself and others. Never judge. 
5. Actions speak louder than words.  In this case they are also more important than the hand we are dealt in life. In the books this is best shown through the comparisons of Harry Potter and Lord Voldermort.  They are so similar when it comes to the lives they were given.  They were both orphans, both found out they were wizards at age eleven, both could speak to snakes, and both were destined for Slytherin.  I still think that Harry Potter, chose to be in Gryffindor.  Which is the the point of this that we all have the choice.  While Tom Riddle chose his path and became Lord Voldemort, Harry Potter chose to be good and fight evil.  
 Albus Dumbledore says, “It is our choices…that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”  
To say that we cannot do something or cannot achieve a goal because we lack something is limiting our true strength and character.  Doors may open and close but we can choose which path to take and can choose how we react to life. 
6. We all make mistakes, but we can grow from them.  We are perfect and we will continue to make mistakes until our last breath.  Just as we should not judge others for their mistakes we should also live by the truth we can come back from them.  Mistakes do not have to define us but to help mold us into better people.  At one point of the books Ron walked away from his friends out of anger.  However he came back and stood beside his friends when they needed him most.   Professor Lupin is a werewolf and does not run away in shame.  Instead he uses that to help mentor Harry and become a stronger character for his choices in the book. Percy was not a character I was necessarily found of in the books.  After he deserts his family he comes back, admitting wrongs and asking for forgiveness. We can all find redemption in this life and we should be quick to forgive others.
7. Inspire others with the way you live your life. Having lost my father almost five years ago this is something I have taken away from his loss.  His life inspired others and he has inspired me, my husband and his grandsons.  Harry too lost his father but it was his memory of him that gave him the stregth to stand up to Voldemort in the graveyard scene.  I want my own children to remember me for the choices I made and the legacy I leave behind. We are not perfect but we can strive to be that person people need in their lives.  Its a powerful theme I take away from this book series.
I know there are many more lessons to be taken away from this book series and so many great lessons from other books.  It is why I love to read and why I pass on the love of books to my children.
Q: What is a book that has impacted you and what have you taken away from it?

#BlogEveryDayInMay

*photographs found here  are sourced or  belong to Bonnie Rose of Bonnie Rose Photography © 2013 All Rights Reserved | www.bonnie-rose.co.uk 

Hair Growth Myths & Growing Long Hair

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Day 22, Wednesday: Rant about something.


Long hair. Some of us crave it.  My hair is now longer, but in this photo I wore extensions to get my shoulder length hair to be the look I wanted.


I began my hairdressing career in 2004 and from that time I feel like I have heard it all.   As a licensed professional there is nothing better than being told by clients a) how to do your job or b) that they know better than you (and your mentors, instructors, textbooks, licensing exams) or that your knowledge is incorrect.  

From my time working in salons I have heard quite a lot of myths from misinformed clients.  There is one type of client I have had in my chair that confuses me the most. The girl who believe her hair can grow to a certain point and stops growing.  Those people you know who you are.


‘Who me?’  Yes. You. 
The thing you should know about hair growth is that your hair is in a continual cycle of phases.  About 90% of your hair will be in the Anagen or growth phase.  The other 10% will be either in Catagen or regressing phase and Telogen, the resting phase.  On top of that there are many different factors that can affect your hair growth and the health of your hair.  Things like your health, age, medicines, your diet, and how much sunshine you are exposed too. Ever heard of a Vitamin D deficiency?  Its very common in England.  Then of course theres alway the factor of heredity.  I have known a few friends who were blessed with always having very strong and very long hair and nails that grew like wildfire. It is in there genes.  
So back to the client who is telling me her hair touches her shoulders and then it all stops growing.  Though there are many kinds of hair loss, including after pregnancy, this is not one of them. If it was I was I would have heard about it. It is also not a disorder, which I have gotten most recently from a woman as part of her defense for my ignorance in hair growth.  
Your hair does not have eyeballs.  So it cannot say ‘hey I am now to her shoulders, we must all stop growing now. Heaven forbid she gets long enough hair to do this!’ (See image directly above).  If you were to shave your hair at that point you would see that your hair is still growing a week later.  It works just the same as the hair on your legs. If you dont shave it, it will keep growing.  
Aside from what was mentioned earlier there are other factors that can affect your goal of getting longer length of hair.  This includes how well you take care of your locks.  
1) SHAMPOO: If you are using a really harsh shampoo and using it every day you have higher risk for less than awesome looking hair.  I honestly believe that washing your hair with shampoo should happen no more than twice a week.  The in between times you use really warm water in the shower and scrub your scalp well.  I suggest natural shampoos free of chemicals, but to go the ‘sulfates free’ route if you are choosing a shampoo from your stylist or salon.  
2) TRIMS:  This can go both way.  If you skip your regular trims because you want to ‘keep all your length’ you risk losing more length in the process.  Why? Split ends.  The truth of the matter is split ends can split faster than your hair can grow.  So chew on that for a while.  However if you are getting regular trims and you do not see your hair getting any longer it could be a case of too much of a good thing. Either you are getting your hair trimmed too frequently and/or your hair stylist is cutting off too much in the trims.  If you wait forever to get your hair trimmed and then do it just twice a year you probably see less growth because more has to be taken off due to the health of your ends. 
3) TOOLS: Basically anything you do to your hair affects the growth. It is sorta like how people say ‘everything will kill you’.  Everything can damage your hair, including twirling it around your finger.  Your hair is dead once it leaves the follicle, despite the snazzy advertising campaigns of shampoo and hair product companies.  Heat can be the worst. So if you are a slave to your hair dryer and other heat tools you may want to second think that if you want to grow your hair longer.  
4)WET TO DRY:  Do you brush your hair when its wet? Your hair can stretch so much longer when it is wet than when it is dry, which means breakage.  You honestly should never let a hairstylist use any sort of brush in your hair until your hair is 70% dry.  A wide tooth comb and your fingers is good enough until your hair gets to that point.  Then switch to brushes.  
Honestly there are so many factors that can affect your hair it may take a little time to tweak things in your life and see how it changes things over time.  I do not blame you if you were under this assumption that your hair can only grow so long and then it just stops.  But lets be real. 
Image found from Tumblr not sourced.
If you are feeling a bit bummed about this shocking truth, here is a funny image I found about how girls react to getting their hair cut.  It is funny because it is true. 
So if you want long hair and you cannot wait you can always go the extensions route.  It is what I did and I am not ashamed to say it. I only wish I had known about it before. 😉  I currently do not wear them now because my hair has caught up with them so its kinda pointless.  Even if you do not wear them daily, it can be fun for special occasions and nights out on the town.  
PS. COCONUT OIL.  I swear by it.  Best thing for your hair and for growth. 
Q: Hit me with your hair  and beauty questions, what do you want to know?

#BlogEveryDayInMay

*photographs found here belong to Bonnie Rose of Bonnie Rose Photography © 2013 All Rights Reserved | www.bonnie-rose.co.uk 

My Blog’s Archive Faves from 2005 – 2013

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Day 21, Tuesday: A list of links to your favorite posts in your archives


This was my original header I created in 2006 for my blog design when it was called ‘Mummy Paparazzi .  I have always clung to my ties to having been born in England and the Union Jack has always been prominent in the design.  It was not until 2012 I started thinking about changing the blog title and changing the theme from a mummy blog to a Travel, TCK and Expat Lifestyle Blog.  

I have not yet made a Archival of popular or favourite posts so completing today’s prompt took me a little longer than I had expected.  I put some of the most popular posts in categories below.  Since I have only really joined the community of bloggers as of 2013 there are many posts since 2005 (back when the blog was called Mummy Paparazzi) that do not show up in popular searches.  My very first post Waiting in the Wings was written fifteen days before I gave birth to my first son.  I love to look back through old posts and find things from which I had forgotten. For example Get Cheese-y Wit it is about the pet mice we had in Hawaii. The older posts are photo heavy as it was more about sharing recent snaps of our life with my parents. Then with the loss of my dad and dealing with a shaky marriage, blogging again fell to the sidelines.  I have never kept up the blog when things in my personal life were not as great as the photos I was sharing. It took moving to Europe in 2011 to start our Expat life that my blog started coming back to life every week with a new post. Bon Fire Night was my first post on November 5th, 2011 since my blog was resuscitated back to life. I love that post because I got to share a favourite childhood memory in the present with my husband and sons in our new life in England. Christmas in London and Leaves in London may be my favourite posts from 2011.  In 2012, I started sharing a lot more of my fashion photography and guest posts on Manifold Magazine (A Night out in London). However I think my favourite posts are New Years with our self portrait holiday photos, Doctor Who Experience, Snow Day, PopArt SuperHero Party, Saturday Picnic, and Halloween. All the posts below come from the most popular and favourite posts of 2013.  As this is the first organized look of posts through out the time of  A Compass Rose (and Mummy Paparazzi), I hope you will have fun checking out the links and exploring the blog.  It has evolved since its creation eight years ago and I look forward to seeing what the future has in store. 
A Personal Look:
Travel Posts:
TCK & Expat Posts:
    

I am a TCK & an Expat
My Expat Life
Moving Abroad
A Few Favourite (Expat) Bloggers
Saying Goodbye to Friends Pt. I
Saying Goodbye to Friends Pt. II

Ugly Tourists Make Me Uncomfortable

Q: Do you have a favourite post from my blog that I have not mentioned?  I will be making a better archival page for ‘new readers’ soon and would love any feedback or advice! x

#BlogEveryDayInMay

*photographs found here belong to Bonnie Rose of Bonnie Rose Photography © 2013 All Rights Reserved | www.bonnie-rose.co.uk 

One Hundred and Five

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Day 20, Monday: Get real. Share Something you’re struggling with right now.
This is me last summer and fall while eating paleo, doing strength training, and taking coconut oil. 

One hundred and five. That is neither the current temperature nor my weight. It signifies how many days I have successfully blogged in a row without fail.   Although you’ll see blog posts on here as far back as 2005, blogging as I have in the recent months is a new thing for me. It is no longer about just showing photo updates of my kids to my family. I went from 5 readers in January to over a 170 in May. Through finding my purpose in blogging I have found my voice. To have blogged every day since Monday the fourth of February is a big deal for me. I have successful done something every day for three full months. 
However that is not always the case in my life. Perhaps it’s my continual transitional life that has programmed myself to constantly start things without always seeing the end. 
Which leads me to the subject of the prompt. I have been struggling recently with commitment to exercise and eating cleanly. I’m very great at starting an exercise regime and do great and planning to stick to paleo. I can do a couple of weeks and then I usually miss a day which somehow leads to a long enough ‘break’ that Im back to finding the commitment again to start all over.
I have had good streaks in the past. I was doing great last summer/fall while temporarily stuck at my in-laws for a few months. Perhaps because exercise and food were the only two things I could control in my life at that point while being treated and controlled like a sixteen year old by people who like to control and step in when I parent. I was sticking to paleo and was concentrating on weight training and interval training to lose fat and tone up. I have quite a boyish figure and I somehow was transforming my body to have a waistline and the appearance of curvy hips. My husband, who was back at home in England, saw photos of my progress and cheered me on.
However I have now gotten into a rut of not exercising. While my diet is void of fast food, pre-packaged food filled with preservatives, sodas, and junk food it is not strictly paleo. I do eat fats, but the good kind. Meaning nothing that says ‘low’ or ‘non’ in front of it. However thats not only what I have been eating as of late. Abs are made in the kitchen an I have covered mine quite well recently a lot of white flour, white rice, white potatoes and white sugar. I used to not even have sugar in my house but bought it for baking and then let it slowly creep into my meals because the lazy side of me thought it was easier than getting a spoonful of honey. The other white ingredients have been reintroduced and used more out of necessity while things have been a bit tighter around her financially. My typical paleo breakfast of eggs, bacon, avocado, blood pudding, and tomato got replaced with porridge that I started eating with my kids. 
I’m not overweight. I am glad I have a much healthier body image than when I was growing up.  However I am now carrying extra weight in fat in my mid section. Since I have had two kids via csection that means I have harder work ahead of me with rebuilding my abs.  After being a slave to the scale with horrific eating habits in the past It’s not my weight in numbers that upsets me. I know a number on the scale cannot tell me how much fat I lost and how much muscle I have gained, since muscle weighs more than fat.  All extra ‘fat’ weight goes straight to my tummy and the way my clothes are fitting right now upsets me. Especially because I know from experience that even if I had not worked out at all, but had done strict paleo, I would be looking at a flat stomach right now.  I have done the vegetarian and vegan things many times before and have done the extreme limiting of ‘calories’.  What I can tell from results is both get me ‘skinny fat’ and eating a paleo diet of meat and veggies with good fats like bacon and avocado and eating way more colories that way has gotten me skinny toned.  While my younger self stressed over the scale of being a perfect 100 and fitting in my size zero jeans, I just want to to toned with muscle with as little body fat as possible. I do not care what number the scale says, what size clothes I fit in, or how many calories I am consuming.  But results do not come without action. 
That is what I am currently struggling with and what I hope to over come. 
With my vow renewal only two and a half months away in August I know I need to start working harder if I want to see change. 
I have blogged every day for 105 days, certainly I could stick to getting my body in shape before 02.08.13, yeah?
Q: Any advice or motivation you can give me that had worked for you? 

#BlogEveryDayInMay

*photographs found here belong to Bonnie Rose of Bonnie Rose Photography © 2013 All Rights Reserved | www.bonnie-rose.co.uk 

A Few Favourite Bloggers

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Day 19, Sunday: Five of your favorite blogs and what you love about them.  There are several blogs I check daily every morning for new posts and stalk follow on twitter. I tried hard to share with you only five but you get seven instead. 😉 



Aspiring Kennedy
I love Lauren. We go back to summer camp in cabin 5 and later as students at University. I love reading her blog because her infectious fun personality really shines through her posts. That and I love that we now have more in common as adults now that she also lives the expat life in England and is now raising a daughter. While her blog now has a proud mummy element as she now embarks on life as a parent, she still sticks to her original theme of a lifestyle blog. If you like to live vicariously through other expat and travel blogs, Aspiring Kennedy is perfect as Lauren is always off traveling somewhere new or trying out a new cafe for afternoon tea. 
American Expat with a daughter in London, England.


Expatria, Baby
I knew as soon as I found Erica’s blog that I was here to stay. As a photographer I am in love with her style of expat lifestyle and travel photographs. Her blog truly documents her expat life as a mummy blogger. Indonesia had not been on my radar before but now as an avid reader of Expatria, Baby I have added it another place to which I would love to travel. What really draws me to Erica is her true expat spirit of adventure and exploring the world around her with her daughter in tow. She has a great way of showing what life is like through her daughter’s eyes too.

Canadian Expat married to a Swiss, with a daughter in Indonesia



From There To Here
I have only just recently found out about this blog and it is already one of my favourites. Jay now lives in Norway but also previously lived in Gabon, Africa. I love to read about the places she has been and she writes so eloquently and paired with beautiful photographs. She does a really great job at taking the reader along on the ride in her posts as you travel vicariously through her blog. I look forward to getting to know her better and reading more about her life now in Norway. Oslo has always been one of my favourite places to where I have traveled and so her current location was a magnetic attraction when I first found out about From There to Here.

Canadian Expat in Norway



Casey Cote
I have to admit that I really love Casey’s blog, We Took The Road Less Traveled, because it is a life I had hoped my husband and I could have experienced when he was in the military. Having been stationed in Stuttgart as a girl myself, I love to read about Casey’s life in Germany as a military wife. I love that they take full advantage of their time stationed abroad to enjoy life on the economy and immerse themselves in local culture. She is currently on vacation seeing more of Europe and following her travels is favourite thing about her blog. Her posts are full of life and I find it so fun to read about and see the photos from their latest adventures in Europe.

US Military Wife stationed in Germany

Twitter: @CaseyCote



Living in Another Language
As a nomadic person by birth I am not surprised that I can find kindred spirits in others that live across the world. Amanda is definitely one of those people and I have really enjoyed getting to know more about her through her blog and talking with her on twitter. It can be fun seeing what you have in common with other bloggers. She is also a military brat, is living the expat life, and is also married to a guy who loves to cook and work on motorcycles. While some bloggers show photos of their kids, she has an adorable bunny named Jazz. I think its cool because my husband and I had a bunny named Pippin (and later renamed Harriet when we found out it was a girl) when we first got married too. Since I live in Europe I love following along to her life in Asia. She is a photography lover and so you get photography filled posts and Instagram updates of her life in Korea.

Former military kid living the Expat life teaching in South Korea



Lost in Travels
Chelsea’s blog has been one of my favourites since I found it through another blog where her eye catching button was displayed. I have not stopped following her blog since and have enjoyed getting to know her better. I come away from Lost in Travels blog with the motivation that if you want to do something or go somewhere, you should do it! After getting married she and her husband left the US to travel the world, experience new cultures, and share adventures together. It comes off to me like a modern day expat fairytale, something I would have dreamed of as a younger nomadic girl myself. She keeps it real as she shares the heart of life living and teaching in Korea. Plus she does a great job at sharing her own experiences to aid others in life as an expat and with advice for having a blog. I love that she is very genuine and caring and I ;look forward to continuing following her adventures around the world.

American Expat couple teaching in South Korea


Across the Pond

I found Meg’s blog through Lauren (blog mentioned above) and became an instant follower. I love following her blog because as a person she comes across as having a huge heart and from hearing her story, she comes off as being a very strong individual. She moved abroad with her previous relationship and to go to school and started her blog to document and share her experiences in Europe. She now is getting ready to leave and repatriate back to California as a newlywed to a man from Northern Ireland. I really look forward to following their story as they begin their new life in the US together. As I follow mostly expat and travel blogs, it will be cool to see her life married to an Irish expat in Sunny California.

Newlywed Expat in Scotland getting ready to repatriate back to California



Thank you for looking through some of my favourite blogs, these are some extraordinary women and they all inspire me to continue to live life internationally. I think the general theme is ‘Girl Gone International’ which is the name of an amazing magazine I now have the pleasure of taking part in and of being involved. You can follow on twitter at @girlgoneintl, online at the website: http://girlgoneinternational.com/

#BlogEveryDayInMay


*photographs found here today do not belong to me but to the blogs to which I have credited. 

When My Daddy Returned from the Gulf War

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Blog Every Day In May, Day 18.  Tell a story from your childhood. Dig deep and try to be descriptive about what you remember and how you felt.

I’m not sure if there are any photos of me in my school uniform from my days of primary school in Norfolk.
This photo however was taken near the same age with my father in one of those fun period dress up places. 
Most of my favourite memories are from years growing up in Europe and many of them include my dad now that he is really gone.  One of the best memories I have is when I was finishing up a day from school.  It was the afternoon and I had just completed a game of field hockey with the other girls and we were now changing to go home for the day.  A classmate ran into the room and exclaimed to me that my father was outside.  I remember shaking off the news with out a care because I knew my dad was not there.  He was a world away. He was in a desert.  He was not in England and certainly not at my school.  Grabbing my belongings I left the school building to be proven very wrong as my eyes met  my fathers.  I remember the way he looked. He looked so tall (from my short stature of being a young girl) and so tanned.  I do not remember my father every looking so dark. He was smiling and I dont remember if I dropped my bag or ran with it under my arm. But I ran all the way to be greeted by his arms in a hug.  To be honest my eyes are filled with tears as I write this because it was such a happy memory.  Times when I wish I had my father now I wish I could just close my eyes and open them again to see that same smiling face.  To be able to give him one more hug. To hear him say ‘I love you’. 
This is an excerpt from my post Living In England During the Gulf War. 

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*photographs found here either belong to Bonnie Rose of Bonnie Rose Photography © 2013 All Rights Reserved | www.bonnie-rose.co.uk