Living the expat dream: on a chicken bus with a duck

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” – Unknown
Hi, fellow Steemers. I’m steemerpat, aka Pat or Patricia Bray. Since 2010, I have:
• Lived in five countries (Ecuador, Nicaragua, the U.S., Mexico, and Guatemala)
• Experienced culture shock—mostly back in the U.S.
• Become a grandmother
• Lived at several beaches!
• Watched a lot of gorgeous sunsets and moving water

• Experienced the embrace of sacred mountains
• Struggled to learn Spanish (still working on it)
• Edited books and wrote book descriptions
• Experienced earthquakes and evacuated up a steep, muddy hillside at night in Nicaragua during a tsunami watch, dragging along a 70-something former Playmate of the Year to higher ground
• Watched a volcanic ash cloud from my kitchen window and heard the thunderous boom of huge boulders being blasted thousands of feet into the air

• Had a heart attack
• Climbed to the top of a Mayan temple less than a year after said heart attack

• Focused in on a knife blade pointed at my face while my husband was being beaten during a robbery (goodbye, camera 1)
• Experienced the caring of a new friend who quickly came to the police station and hospital to translate for us
• Had a tense standoff with a not-in-uniform immigration official at a border crossing
• Watched palm trees swaying during tropical storms
• Had a year-round tan from the sun for several years
• Watched countless avian rainbows of flamingoes, frigate birds, pelicans, hummingbirds, parrots, owls, and exotic motmots
• Ridden on a chicken bus with a duck
• Heard the spooky boom of howler monkeys in the wild

• Released baby turtles and watched them scrambling toward the dark sea
• Read lots of books
• Watched bananas growing from flowers to yellow fruit
• Learned just how relatively rich people in the U.S. really are
• Been warmed by the laughter and smiling faces of beautiful little children unjaded by excess
• Watched a blanket of clouds below me—from a bus
• Cried over the suicide of a friend and neighbor
• Spent six weeks living out of a car while camping in Oregon
• Had time to slow down and enjoy life before it ends.

In short, I have been flying by the seat of my pants.

I planted the seeds for this grand adventure several years before we left the U.S. During a walk with my husband on a rare sunny day in early spring, I tentatively proposed the idea of becoming expats so that we could retire early.

I had not traveled nearly as much as I would have liked. Just like many other grasshopper boomers who had experienced too many rainy patches, we were broke. I was more than tired of gray, chilly Oregon winters; I dreamed of endless summer. I had chronic health issues but knew I would have to work a lot longer unless something changed. In other words, like many Americans, I was struggling with quiet desperation.

If we had not stepped out of our comfort zone, I would still be working a forty-hour job schedule, going to work and back home in the dark for too many weeks each year. We would still be trying to maintain a house and yard with the meager energy left at the end of the day and week.

I hope to tell you more about the good and bad of being an expat in future blogs. We learned so much the hard way—in spite of several years of up-front research. I’d like to help others avoid our mistakes and discover a new, sometimes baffling, sometimes frightening, always life-fulfilling experience.

Here’s my verification photo. You can find me on Twitter, where I’m also a newbie: @PatriciaBray.

I’m an introverted and opinionated liberal with broad interests—from psychology, politics, social justice, and cannabis legalization to travel, gardening, photography, and cooking--but words and nature are my passions.

The photographs are all mine except for the ones my husband took of me.