Like most everyone else in Paris, we’ve decamped.
Unlike most others, though, we have not traveled south to the French countryside or the Mediterranean coast for our July and August holidays… but westward across the Pond.
Lief and I have spent the past few weeks in Panama… laying low and hanging out at the beach with family and friends at Los Islotes.
This week we’re back at it in our Live and Invest Overseas offices in Panama City… meeting with writers and editors in advance of the launch of our most important new service since… well, since the launch of Live and Invest Overseas itself a decade ago. More on this soon.
Meantime, we’re focused on another, more personal launch.
Next month, our son will begin his higher-education studies as a freshman at NYU Shanghai.
This weekend we’re traveling with him to China to install him in his Shanghai dorm and to help him prepare for pre-semester orientation programs… including intensive lessons in Mandarin.
After spending a decade in the Old World (first Ireland and then Paris)… and then a decade in the New World (establishing our Panama HQ)… now a chance to discover and explore the Orient…
Three decades ago I had reason to travel to Hong Kong, China, and Macau… but I have not been back since.
I’m thinking a few things may have changed in this part of the world over the past 30 years. Now, thanks to our son, I have a new reason to return and see for myself.
As a mother, I’m both mildly panicked at the thought of my youngest child going so far from home on his own (I won’t be able to pop by his dorm room for surprise visits on weekends… much to his disappointment, I’m sure)… and immensely excited by the opportunity he’s embracing.
When I moved from Baltimore, Maryland, to Waterford, Ireland, some 20 years ago I couldn’t have imagined where my new life overseas would lead.
Today, I’m on the edge of my seat to find out where my son’s adventures overseas will take him next.
And us along with him for the ride.
Kathleen Peddicord