As Former Expat with a Love for Foreign Cultures, I’ve Changed How I Travel as I’ve Aged
I’ve probably visited as many countries as travel guru Rick Steves has. Unlike Steves, I chose to live in foreign countries instead of dropping in for a few days. Living in other countries allowed me to form relationships with people and insights into other cultures that I couldn’t get on short visits. Now retired and living in the U.S. to be closer to family, I still yearn to broaden my horizons and encounter other cultures periodically.
My wanderlust knew no bounds when I was younger. That’s why I agreed to move to west Africa with my husband in the 1990s at the height of the AIDS epidemic. His public health work in Ivory Coast would help save lives while mine—freelance writing—could be done anywhere.
It was a lonely venture, moving with two small children to a place with an inhospitable climate where I didn’t speak the language. I worried constantly that one of us might get AIDS or malaria, and we had to be vigilant in a high crime city like Abidjan, where carjackings and burglaries were common.
Like all expats attached to the U.S. Embassy, we had a guard posted at our house 24/7. We grew close to those men over the years and mourned one of them when he died of AIDS. I also got to know women who welcomed me into book clubs and professional women’s groups. Like them, I was determined to embrace the local culture and help my children feel at home there.
We visited more than half of the 52 countries on the African continent when we lived in Ivory Coast and Tanzania. We climbed Kilimanjaro, snorkeled in the Zanzibari islands, and did numerous treks and safaris with our children. When my husband took a job in Geneva for four years, we visited all the major European countries.
Now in my 70s, I’m more risk-averse and no longer like roughing it or starting over in a new country. Yet, my anxiety level is low when I travel. I don’t worry about contracting a disease since I’m familiar with health precautions and get vaccines. I also take precautions against petty thieves, and don’t wear jewelry or carry much money in foreign cities.
While based in the U.S., I’ve had to be more intentional about travel and find new ways to encounter people of other cultures. One way is to do volunteer work—like teaching English at a summer camp in Lithuania as I did last summer.
I had never been to Lithuania and it sounded intriguing. The country ranked number one in the World Happiness Report last year—at least among young people—despite having Russian nuclear submarines based on its border. When a friend invited me to join her at the camp, I jumped at the chance.
I’ve taught English to Language Learners as a volunteer for years. But teaching four short classes daily was a challenge since I was used to teaching adults and not teenagers. The hardest part was devising lesson plans for four different levels each day since some of the kids spoke English well, while others spoke only Lithuanian or Russian.
Lodging was provided at an international school and I had evenings free to swim in the Baltic Sea and explore the coastal town of Klaipeda. The job taught me to listen better and be more resilient in the classroom. It also gave me a deeper appreciation for teachers who work with young people year-round, and for a country that topped the World Happiness Report despite its precarious geography.
This year I plan to teach English with a different group in Spain. Then I’ll reverse roles and work with a tutor to help me improve my Spanish.
Another way I can immerse myself in foreign cultures is to visit friends who live overseas. Recently, I toured Japan with my friend Rumiko who lives in Okinawa half the year. She arranged several hiking days for us in the mountains and tours in major cities.
When we visited a handful of temples and shrines in Kyoto, Rumiko related folk tales and explained local customs to us. At a theater one evening, we saw a demonstration tea ceremony, a short concert of Koto Music, and performances of traditional dances. We also sampled foods specific to each region we visited: Shirasu (tiny white fish) in Kamakura, soba noodles in Kyoto, and Okonomiyaki (a savory pancake dish) in Hiroshima.
It was in Hiroshima that I gained a deeper sense of Japan’s traumatic history in the last century while touring the Peace Museum and viewing graphic photos of the atomic bomb’s impact. The horrors of the second World War were also evident at the Okinawa Peace Museum where photos and testimonials chronicled the brutal battle that lasted 90 days. After hearing the perspectives of an insider like my friend, I came away with a deeper awareness of Japan’s remarkable transformation from a war machine to a peaceful country and close U.S. ally.
A third way I can encounter other cultures is by going on retreats. I’ve attended yoga retreats in Nicaragua, Cuba, and Mexico, and writing retreats elsewhere. Retreats allow us to disconnect from the noisy world for a week and meet like-minded people who also like yoga, travel, and writing.
Excursions are a big draw on such retreats. I’ve hiked up volcanoes and worked in soup kitchens on community service projects that provide golden opportunities to learn about village life. Yoga retreats in Cuba and Nicaragua also allowed me to see parts of those countries I wouldn’t venture to on my own.
Such venues—volunteer work, touring with friends, and yoga (or writing or language) retreats—provide safe ways to experience new places and interact with local people. It’s always enriching to see what life is like for people of other cultures, especially if you travel with open curiosity and leave expectations and judgments behind.
As Rick Steves said in a recent interview, “I want to come home a little different, a little less afraid, a little more thankful, and a little better citizen of the planet.”
Terry Repak is the author of a memoir, Circling Home: What I Learned By Living Elsewhere, and other non-fiction books as well as travel articles and feature stories. She lives in Seattle and has a website at www.terryrepak.com and a Substack at terryrepak.substack.com