Welcome to The Relapsed Expat

Hey all! Welcome to The Relapsed Expat, sequel to the The Recovering Expat.

Why the change, you ask? Well for one, I figured after all of my complaining on Recovering about how America is so expensive, so boring, so lacking in flavor and wildlife and public transportation, etc., etc. ad nauseum, I figured the concept needed a fresh start.

So if you're a reader of the old blog and were getting a little tired of that song and dance, let me now plead temporary insanity. I promise you won't find any of that here. Well, okay, unless there's something so funny I just. Can't. Resist. But it won't be a constant, grating refrain. Pinky swear.

Also, it's finally dawned on me (duh) that if you've been an expat for any amount of time, attempting complete recovery is probably futile. For better or worse, it's the re-pat blessing/curse to live the rest of your life with one foot in the boat and one on the shore. (How do I know this? A Chinese man with a fortune-telling chicken told me so. But that's another blog post.)

Another reason this seems like the right time to start a new blog:

On June 6, I'll be leaving for my first trip out of the States since 2010. It's a two-month, four-country dash through Central Asia that begins in Uzbekistan and continues through Turkmenistan and Tajikistan and ends in my old stomping ground, Kyrgyzstan. While I won't have Internet the whole time, I'll be blogging and Tweeting (@maurer_kg) from the road using this page as the main platform.

So if you're game to come along, go ahead and sign up for email updates using the link at the right. As always, a heartfelt thanks for reading. I look forward to spending time with all of you through these posts.

Cheers,
Sar