From Oregon to Kathmandu: O'Sullivans Abroad



Published 2013-09-02 11:16:14

O'Sullivans Abroad family Our names are Allison and Jeremiah and we currently live in Kathmandu, Nepal

1. Why did you move abroad?

We moved abroad to teach at international schools and travel as much as possible.  We both love working with children, traveling, and experiencing culture shock (ok, maybe one of us likes this a little more than the other), so this seemed like the best fit for us.

2. How do you make a living?
We work traditional teaching jobs at English speaking international schools.  To get jobs, we’ve attended job fairs in both San Francisco and Bangkok.  The experience has been pretty straightforward and very similar to job fairs in the US, except that you end up abroad!

3. How often do you communicate with home and how?
We communicate with home almost every day.  Whether it’s a planned Skype call, email, blog post, iMessage, Facebook post, or even an Instagram picture, our friends and family are connected with us.  We might not always have direct communication, but we know what’s going on in their lives and they’re able to get a glimpse into our lives.

4. What's your favorite thing about being an expat in Nepal?
For us, the best part is the culture.  We’ve never experienced living anywhere like Nepal and everyday we wake up, we’re amazed at what’s around us.  It’s the simple things, like walking down the street, that make us realize we’re someplace else.  Every once in a while we’ll both get the feeling that it’s weird that this is normal.  We also love the having the ability to go hiking in the foothills of the Himalayas and look forward to getting out of the city.

5. What’s the worst thing about being an expat in Nepal ?
It’s incredibly hard to see how many of the locals live, specifically the children.  Through our work, we’ve been able to be part of a few service projects that have helped people, but it’s still heartbreaking to see how they live.

6. What do you miss most?
Other than family, Allison misses good snack food and Jeremiah misses Timbers matches and microbrews.  Friends and family are pretty good about shipping us snacks and Jeremiah is able to watch most of the matches online.  Still trying to figure out how to get microbrews here…

7. What did you do to meet people and integrate in your new home?
Our colleagues are a huge part of our social life and we hangout with them quite a bit.  We’ve also met a few people on treks that have hung out with us and we’ve even had a few people that we met through our blog stay a few nights.  It’s always fun meeting new people and hearing what type of adventure they’re on.

8. What custom/ habits do you find most strange about your adopted culture?
The mascara on babies is a little strange to us.  Our daughter has worn it, but putting makeup on babies/children seems a little abstract.  We’ve gotten used to it, but many of our friends/family members have pointed it out as well.

9. What is a myth about your adopted country?
N/A

10. Is the cost of living higher or lower than the last country you lived in and how has that made a difference in your life?
The cost of living is drastically lower than it was in Taiwan, but this hasn’t changed how we live too much.  We are able to save a little extra money, but continue to eat locally, take taxis, when needed, and walk to work.  We are able to afford a nanny and a cleaning lady, which does give us more family time.

11. What advice would you give other expats?

Advice for expats, specifically with children is to not let others dictate when and where you go.  We had quite a few people tell us to get our traveling/teaching abroad out of the way before we had children, but having children abroad was one of our goals.  We look forward to raising a Third Culture Kid O'Sullivans Abroad orangeand enjoying have a family to come home to every day.

12. When and why did you start your blog?

We started our blog a couple months before we left (July 2009) and created it so family and friends could keep up with where we were and what we were doing.

Blog LinkAllison and Jeremiah's blog, O'Sullivans Abroad

 

Find out more about being an expat in Nepal with Easy Expat's  

Resources for Nepal

 

  To be considered for an interview (as well as other articles), add your blog to BlogExpat! 

 


Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest WhatsApp Addthis

Category:
Interviews

Author: texkourgan
Part of the EasyExpat.com adventure since 2008. Drink, Travel, Write
Tools:


For other discussions, advice, question, point of view, get together, etc...: please use the forum.


More articles

- My Life Abroad -
A selection of expat stories

"A fun compulsive read!"
J. Matcham, Amazon

"I strongly advise people ready to live abroad to read this book!"
Patrice, Amazon