“Most of us are locked up pretty tightly inside our “cultural cages”, and it’s the rare person that even BEGINS to see this about himself.” - a short quote from my “About” page. People have asked me about this thing that I call “cultural cages”, so I wanted to see if I could develop a clear description here, and apply it to ourselves and to those...

That’s a pretty good question! WHY CHOOSE TO BE AN EXPAT? Why, after all, would you want to leave the place where you know how to make sense of subtleties, and reside in a place where you function — for quite awhile — as the odd-ball who misses all but the most blatant signals?!! Sure, we know that some people are FORCED into situations like this,...

ROOT CANAL!!!! I’m getting one done here in N. India, by a great dentist. At least I HOPE he’s a great dentist! We’ve got the chairs, assistants, fans and nice tools that Pushkar and Pyara talk about in their filmed interview (below). Anyway, all the drilling and pushing and pulling this week has this expat thinking about teeth a LOT, and it...

I live in a place where my definition of “trash” doesn’t work any longer. My definition of “gross” and “ugly” are even starting to suffer under the pressure of conflicting views. I’ve written elsewhere about ethnocentrism, proving that I’m at least AWARE of the tendency to view things inaccurately due to ignorance...

Culture Happens. Culture Shocks. The person experiencing culture shock is often unable to identify it as such. They know something’s wrong, but what is it? They look in the mirror and say, “That’s not me! I don’t act like that! What in the world is going on?” Soon after that, they say, “Get me outta here… NOW!” The...

Culture happens. What? Yeah, I said, ‘culture happens’! It means that what you see around you – ALL AROUND YOU – is a reflection and demonstration of the values, priorities and beliefs of the people living there. Here are some things about the people and culture of Indian that I really enjoy: 1)      Respect for elders. It’s wonderful to see the high...

An Indian Looks at an American Family I’m a dad to three daughters, and they’re all happily married. I can honestly say that I have three excellent sons-in-law! I can also honestly tell you that being able to say such a thing about my sons-in-laws is a very, very important thing for me. I love those three girls SO MUCH; they mean the world to me! I would do...