Category: Expat Life

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Pumpkin spice: More than cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger

Fresh-baked pumpkin pie
Image by mtnlover610 from Pixabay

BALI, INDONESIA – Pumpkin Spice is back at Starbucks. And a week or so earlier, Dunkin Donuts announced the return of their own pumpkin spice coffee drinks.

Honestly, I’ve never tried either one of their flavored drinks. I prefer my pumpkin spice in its original form – fresh-baked pumpkin pie! It’s been my favorite dessert since I was a kid growing up in Ohio.

Since moving to Indonesia, I’ve discovered a surprising link between Starbucks, my favorite Midwest childhood dessert and a group of tiny islands in eastern Indonesia. Curious?

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(Wo)man vs. Bat – Stop with the poop already!

Fruit bat with outstretched wing
This is the kind of creature we’re up against – Image by Tanja Marx from Pixabay

BALI, INDONESIA – We’re big fans of nature and wildlife, especially birds and butterflies. We also enjoy seeing small lizards, non-rodent mammals, the occasional beetle, and other curious-looking insects.

Mosquitos and flies – and now bats – are not on that list.

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Passport Photos and So Much More

Our photo studio find - a battery-powered mosquito zapper
Sometimes you find the things you need in the most unexpected places

BALI, INDONESIA – Last week Melanie and I went to a local photo studio to get ‘mugshots’ for our new visa application. The required package included four photos in three different sizes – 12 photos in all – for each of us.

I can only guess why they need so many photos. One of the smaller ones will go on our new ID cards. Another one could be incorporated into the new visa sticker that goes inside our passports.

As for the other 10 pictures, I suppose they will be attached to terribly important paperwork and filed away in various official government archives. How could we survive without bureaucracy?

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