Category Archives: Expat experience

The 1.6 days of Christmas

Posted on 18 Dec 2014 by lornaofarabia

Last December I posted a Christmas tree retrospective. The 2013 entry in that lineup was our lavender bush, which I neglected to put back out on the porch before departing for our Berlin/Barcelona winter holiday family extravaganza. The housekeeper watered … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Expat experience, Home life | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Cookies loved and lost

Posted on 16 Dec 2014 by lornaofarabia

I invited some ladies who bake over to my house last Sunday for a cookie exchange. We drank mulled wine on the front porch in the afternoon sun. December in Ethiopia is very pleasant, just like all the other months … Continue reading →

Posted in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Expat experience, Food | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Faranji

Posted on 5 Mar 2014 by lornaofarabia

My friend Mimi remarked that every time she sees the word “faranji” she can’t help thinking about the Star Trek ferengi. You may know from previous posts that “faranji” is what expats like us are called. Nik asked me a … Continue reading →

Posted in Ethiopia, Expat experience | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Smells like Christmas spirit

Posted on 21 Dec 2013 by lornaofarabia

I’ve been finding it a little hard to get into a holiday mood. If you live in a country where Christmas starts as soon as the back-to-school sales are over, it might be hard to imagine anyone feeling nostalgia for … Continue reading →

Posted in Addis Ababa, Expat experience, Home life | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Oktoberfest

Posted on 15 Oct 2013 by lornaofarabia

For the past month my son Nik has been bopping around Europe on a student Eurailpass. From the looks of his pictures on Facebook, I’d say he’s having a blast. One of his recent destinations was the Oktoberfest celebration in … Continue reading →

Posted in Addis Ababa, Expat experience, Food | Leave a comment

There’s no place like home

Posted on 8 Sep 2013 by lornaofarabia

Finally the blog has caught up with us in real time… we actually arrived home in Addis Ababa on August 5. For the next month I spent all my spare minutes sorting through the hundreds of photos I’d taken on … Continue reading →

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So long and thanks for all the fish

Posted on 4 Aug 2013 by lornaofarabia

The last two days of our summer vacation were given over to a shop-til-we-drop London scavenger hunt. The list of required items was long and varied. We split it in half and raced separately around the city in search of … Continue reading →

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Moving along

Posted on 8 Jun 2013 by lornaofarabia

Just a month ago, the end of the school year seemed a point on the distant horizon. Now suddenly we have only a week left in which to accomplish what looks to be an impossibly long list of tasks. There … Continue reading →

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The Elizabethan ruff of misery

Posted on 28 May 2013 by lornaofarabia

Our kittens Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (as Alekka finally named them, never mind that they are brother and sister) celebrated their 4-month birthday a couple of weeks ago.  Maybe “celebrated” is the wrong word, because what it meant for our kitties … Continue reading →

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This is just to say

Posted on 23 May 2013 by lornaofarabia

This is just to say I have eaten the can of American tuna that was hidden at the back of the cupboard and which you were probably saving for lunch on a hard day. Forgive me it was delicious creamy … Continue reading →

Posted in Expat experience, Family, Food, Home life | Tagged | 4 Comments