E Komo Mai! Welcome to my blog.

I'm delighted that you dropped in! E Komo Mai: WELCOME! This blog is basically an online visual journal is modeled after a concept I learned of in psychology 101... waaaaaaay back in college. That concept was somewhere in the chapter on The Significance of Dreams, where it mentioned someone's theory on dreaming about a house usually means that the house represents you. So I have used my actual house (Mauna Lea Manor) to structure my blog. In different rooms you will find different aspects of my life; different interests I like to blog about. This is a way to bring a little organization into my life and thoughts for myself... (dreams are in The Bedroom, Family updates are in The Living room, etc.)
This also, I would imagine, make reading this blog more convenient for you as well. If you are a grandparent interested in seeing photos and hearing stories about my boys, but maybe not so interested in my bellydancing obsession: you can just read what goes on in The Playground. But if you are an Art Collector more interested in my latest work and information on collecting, but not especially interested in my personal life: you'd enjoy The Office. Mauna Lea Manor is sort of the foyer to all the other rooms. If you would like to tour my online portfolio, please visit: www.stephaniebolton.com.
I hope you enjoy your time here ;) & continue to stop by!



Friday, November 20, 2009

I wanna be an Ex-Patriot when I grow up!

Why do ex-patriots seem so much more alive than the rest of us?
Is it because they take nothing for granted?
It is all fresh and new, no matter how ordinary?
Is it because there will always be new words to learn, new expressions to be explained?
Is it because everyone who meets them treats them like some rare & special exotic fascinating novelty just because they have an "accent"?
Are they rebels who get some odd thrilling sensation out of being where they "aren't supposed to be"?
Does it make them feel privileged?
...or perhaps sneaky cuz they are "getting away with it"
?

For a while I was trying to make an effort to live where I am at,
through the eyes of a foreigner- trying to appreciate each ordinary tropical plant, flavor, activity, as though it were something unique & truly exciting...
but it isn't as easy as I thought it would be.
It just isn't the same when you have to "try".

It often seems to me that I attract ex-patriots... or am I attracted to them...
well, however that happens I seem to be around them often...
not a terribly difficult achievement on an island in the middle of nowhere, since most anyone who is here, isn't from here.

I think what I am jealous of the most is that they chose to be where they're at.
I think I've been most happy in places that I chose to be. It isn't that those places were better than where I am from but they were selected at will.

I'd love to live in a town where I was one of an impossibly small handfull of Americans. But these days... where would that even be?

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