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Continue reading →: Discover Prompts, Day 2: Open// When I thought of today’s prompt, this photo came to mind. Angkor Wat was much more impressive than I expected, and I deliberately stayed away from looking at photos of the park before visiting because I wanted it to be a new experience. Has anyone else done this…
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Continue reading →: Discover Prompts: Day 1, JokeI know I’ve lived in Thailand too long when the first image that comes to mind when I hear the word ‘joke’ is the rice porridge dish that makes for a great breakfast here. You can add a soft boiled egg, green onions, soy sauce, and other bits like ground…
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Continue reading →: The Changing Seasons – March 2020March was a f***ing dickhead, is what it was. Now, to be fair, it started off innocently enough. Oh sure, we were in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, but March is when COVID-19 gained the kind of speed and tenacity that woke up the Western world. It was also…
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Continue reading →: Hair: a braided essayOnce upon a time, there was a king and a queen who desperately wanted a child. It seemed like an eternity, but then one perfect day, the queen became pregnant. During the height of her term, she craved a particular kind of vegetable that happened to be growing in…
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Continue reading →: The Changing Seasons – February 2020Hiya! I’m back again for another Changing Seasons photo challenge, hosted by Su. How is everybody? I hope the month of love treated you right! For most of February I wasn’t myself because I lost the momentum that I had in January. I’m also fairly certain I’m pre-menopausal (fun!), so…
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Continue reading →: Being Wrong is the New Right: a man’s guide to living with a womanHi, my name’s Lumberjack Dan, and I’m here to help you fellas get your balls in a row. Whether you’re at the starting gate (you’ve decided to move in with your long term girlfriend) or have been running the track nonstop (married with kids), I’ve got the answers to your…
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Continue reading →: Why you might NOT like Chiang MaiChiang Mai, Thailand has been touted as the “Rose of the North”. It’s the Hail Mary pass for tourists, English teachers, digital nomads, and barefoot hippies. But in recent years, it has changed a great deal which is causing a bit of a commotion. First of all, I’ve written about…
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Continue reading →: The Changing Seasons – January 2020Welcome back for another monthly recap/photo challenge, thanks to Su. I hope this post finds you well. January was an unusual month because I traveled, got to spend time with old friends, and enjoyed a better work-life balance. Although, I’m hoping to commit to the latter for the rest of…
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Continue reading →: The battle for your body – Diet WarsNot only are we more politically divided than ever, we are in regards to our diets as well. There’s the Keto Diet (high fat, low carbs), the Dubrow Diet (intermittent fasting), the Carnivore/Paleo Diet (meat only, or mostly meat), the Mediterranean Diet (healthy fats and whole grains), the Flexitarian (mostly…
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Continue reading →: Let’s wrap up 2019, so we can move on to 2020!What a year, eh? Holy cannoli, I don’t want to do that again. I’m recapping the 2019 year of blog posts, and looking back through photos from a decade of living abroad. Whoa. January 2019 started off with taking a look at my relationship with money. I’m proud that…
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Continue reading →: The Changing Seasons – DecemberWhat a month. What a year. 2019 was a hard working year, and December was no exception. The first half of the month was all about finishing up work, getting our scholarship kids graduated, and wishing the holiday break would hurry up and get here already. But now that I’m…
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Continue reading →: Outwit, outplay, surviving the holidays as an introvertYou can’t get out of these. You’ve already tried. You’ve bailed before, Haley’s birthday, Tom and Peter’s housewarming, your grandma’s 90th, so you’re stuck. You’ve ranted and raved to your stuffed animal collection (family), drank it off but stopped after two glasses of wine (wuss), and passed out in a…
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Continue reading →: 🇹🇭 How the Thai diet has changed for the worseWhen I first started working in Thailand back in 2010, I remember listening to a casual debate among my fellow teachers whether or not the Thai diet was a healthy one. Upon first glance it certainly appears so, as meals were smaller (farangs would joke about ordering two plates of…
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Continue reading →: The Changing Seasons – NovemberThis month I’ve decided I’m celebrating 10 years of consistent blogging which coincides with how many years I’ve lived abroad. Technically, I should have made a fuss in late August, but like so many milestones, I forgot. My first post was called Ground Control. I reflect on how often I…
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Continue reading →: ✍🏼 Left-handedness: some stories and some scienceI am left-handed. Although, my younger brother was originally left-handed, he was corrected in grade school. He likes to joke that he’s been robbed of his true self as a result. But since he ended up in the U.S. military, I think that being right-handed served him better. It turns…
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Continue reading →: The Changing Seasons – OctoberHello, lovelies! It’s another month of participating in Su’s “The Changing Seasons” photo challenge. Head over to her blog for the details.
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Continue reading →: 🇹🇭 What no one ever tells you about eating out in ThailandEating out in Thailand requires a bit of patience, and knowledge regarding how things work (or don’t).
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💞 Is it harder for Asians to love themselves?
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Continue reading →: 💞 Is it harder for Asians to love themselves?Believe it or not ‘why is it so hard for Asians to love themselves’ was a search term that I found on my blog one morning. I’m usually amused or curious what folks are looking for, and I don’t make it a habit to turn them into blog posts (see…
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Continue reading →: The Changing Seasons – SeptemberHello again! I’m back for another monthly photo recap hosted by Su at Zimmerbitch. Click on over for the guidelines.
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Continue reading →: How to be an Edgy and Thought-Provoking Asian American// Own the Bowl Haircut – Why should childhood trauma still haunt you? Bring a bowl to the salon and tell them to do it. Bonus points if you are a woman or you do it at home. Post on social media. #iamthebowl
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Continue reading →: The Changing Seasons – AugustAfter July, August felt like I had something to prove. I plowed into teaching and writing projects as if all my New Year’s Resolutions depended on only this month. So, naturally, I got sick. It’s okay, I’ll live… (*flings herself on to the bed face down, and starts howling*)
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Continue reading →: ✍🏼 Notes from afield: (humorous) classroom observationsIf my mental math isn’t failing me, I’ve been teaching for about 12 years, which means I haven’t had the good sense to hook, reel, and catch a ‘sugar daddy’. Nor have I been able to launch my misplaced passion for writing into any lucrative side hustle or ‘cash cow’.
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Continue reading →: The Changing Seasons – JulyHello all y’all! I’m participating in The Changing Seasons Challenge which is basically a monthly recap that I heard about through Sarah, who got it from Su.
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Continue reading →: My reaction to “Want to be Less Racist? Move to Hawaii”In 1991 Spike Lee released ‘Jungle Fever’, a movie about an interracial couple. When it came out, it was making the news, but I only remember it because my brother looked at me and said, “What’s the big deal?” I shrugged, “I have no idea.” Fast forward to 2019, he…
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Continue reading →: Give me MUSIC or give me death! (a music challenge)Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. ― Plato Darren is doing a 30 songs in 30 days music challenge which he got from clever Sarah, and they inspired me to do it!
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Continue reading →: ✈️ Skip the vacation (or the ugly side of traveling)Hey, people who travel with their bed pillow. You look insane. – Jim Gaffigan Is everyone on holiday but me? Even though my vacation is later this month, I’m still burning with jealousy at everyone else’s Instagram feed. I’m convinced everyone’s loaded with unlimited cash – and having a great…
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Continue reading →: From tourist to non-tourist towns (six months in Rayong)The other day I went to a tourist information booth and asked, ‘Tell me about some of the people who were here last year. – Steven Wright Until recently, I’ve pretty much lived in tourist towns.
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Continue reading →: No Girl is an Island (a newsletter!)“What happens when people open their hearts? They get better.” ― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood I’ve wanted to start a newsletter for some time (and podcast while I’m at it), but I didn’t know what to share. I’ve also contemplated starting another blog and even to find other sites where…
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Continue reading →: How do you relate to people different than you?There’s a debate regarding what education is for: is it to prepare students for work or is it to stimulate the soul? But one of the key components I feel is missing is that we go to school to learn to get along with others. We, then, continue to play…
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Continue reading →: ✍🏼 What’s your relationship to poetry?It was my junior or senior year in high school when I fell in love with poetry. I think like a lot of people I had a preconceived idea of what poetry was and I had decided it wasn’t for me. Since English was my first class of the day,…
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Continue reading →: 💞 Why I love being a domestic goddessOkay, okay, maybe domestic goddess is too strong a term, but I do enjoy cooking, keeping a clean house, and staying at home. When it’s cold out, I’ve been known to pick up my crochet needles. I can build a fire to warm up a winter home. I love to…
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Continue reading →: Let’s go to Khao Yai National ParkDespite my small role as a chaperone, the humidity, heat, and great fear of wild monkeys, I enjoyed our trip to Khao Yai National Park. Khao Yai is a World Heritage Site declared by UNESCO, includes rain and evergreen forests and grassland, and is home to “more than 800 fauna…
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Continue reading →: Are you a morning or night person?I’m definitely a morning person and by that I mean I’m more productive in the daytime. I used to wake up with the Hawaiian sun shining through my bedroom window. (Doesn’t that sound like something out of a Disney cartoon!) I didn’t own an alarm clock until I moved…
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Continue reading →: What is home? (a nomad reflects)Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home. – Matsuo Basho I’ve done a lot of moving in my life in attempt to discover where I belong. I’ve moved from Portland, Oregon, down to Chico, California, then further still to Oceanside, California. And when we were fed…
Hello,
I’m Lani
Welcome to Life, the Universe, and Lani. I’ve been blogging about my experiences living abroad since 2009.
At this point, this site serves as an archive as I’m mostly active at No Girl is an Island 👉https://lanivcox.substack.com/ 🏝️where I have been both newslettering and continuing to craft personal essays on finding freedom in the fringes.
Thanks for stopping by, have a look around, and hope to see you over at No Girl is an Island.
Life, the Universe, and Lani 
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