Life in the West Archives - Page 3 of 4

Small Talk Styles: What do you do? vs. How many children do you have?

Making small talk or initial conversation with new acquaintances was perhaps the hardest part of adjusting to life in Mongolia.

Last week I saw my friend Li after our kids got out of school for the day. Li knows more

My husband was born in 1981 in Beijing. Back in those days, the one-child policy was something new, and especially

In Canada, we celebrate ‘Family Day; held either the second, or third Monday in February (depending on where in Canada

It’s January 2018, the start of a new year — and a new round of stunning photos of Asian male/Western

We started collecting our paperwork and getting things notarized shortly after I arrived to Mongolia in July of 2015. We

The first time I felt trapped was in a service elevator in a Washington, DC YMCA. I was 22 and

I am one of four siblings–three sisters, one brother. Though my oldest sister was off to college before my brother

Should I send my kids to Chinese schools? It’s a question that many foreign parents in China ask themselves, especially

When I moved to Mongolia two years ago I was thrilled to get a teaching job at an international school.