How to Read in a Foreign Language
When I moved to the Netherlands, books were my primary language teachers. I built a respectable collection of books in Dutch, and taught myself how to read them. And within that year, I would go from struggling to understand children’s pictures books to reading whole novels. My last book of…
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Guide to the TIL Journal in Notion
My first attempts to start the Today I Learned (TIL) journal began in 2019. Learning something new and writing it down seemed easy enough to stick to daily. But I’d struggle for the next two years to do just that. It wasn’t until 2021 that I could make it a…
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Remembering Life with the Today I Learned Journal
We like to believe that we’ll naturally remember what’s important to us. “That brilliant idea that came to me in the middle of the night? No need to take notes. I’ll remember it in the morning.””That mistake I made again? Surely I’ll remember and know better next time.””And I’ll definitely…
Keep readingThe Homebody Expat: Part III
Unlike my little hometown, Istanbul would not wake me to the sound of sweet birdsong and soft breezes through trees. On the contrary… From our windows came the calls of jackdaws: a clever sort of bird, black and gray with pale blue eyes. Once they discovered that I would leave…
Keep readingThe Homebody Expat: Part II
“Close your eyes, tap your heels together three times, and think to yourself, ‘there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home.’” I would stay in Turkey to visit my partner and his family for three months. Three months in a massive, crowded, noisy city which sharply contrasted from…
Keep readingThe Homebody Expat: Part I
The Step Out the Door “The Ozarks is where I belong.” This wasn’t a declaration of pride, but rather a simple, subconscious inner agreement that I was satisfied where I was: in my small hometown, where things felt familiar, predictable. As an introvert with high levels of social anxiety, these…
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The Overlooked Trials of Grocery Shopping as an Expat
It was my first morning in the Netherlands. I got out of bed, light on my feet, the air charged with my own exhilaration. I poured my cereal, and stood looking out the window at my new home of Rotterdam as I took my first bite— And spit it out.…
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The Sentimental Expat: Obsession with Memories
When a Homebody Becomes an Expat When I saw that orange box of Arm&Hammer baking soda in the aisle, I must have perplexed the customers around me as I suppressed a scream of excitement and ran to it, eyes glittering. This, strangely enough, was a reminder of my homeland.This was…
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Remembering What I’ve Learned with the TIL Journal
Learning something every day has been a beloved habit of mine for the past two years. And although not every single day is worth a revisit, there are many things I’d like to upgrade from “learned once” to “long-term memory”. Here, I’ll show you a couple things I’ve done to…
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How I Keep the Today I Learned Journal a Consistent Habit
I have a long history of failed habit attempts. Yet with my Today I Learned Journal, it’s been a consistent habit for over two years now, without missing a single day. The difference between my failed habits and this one? I give myself easy options. Why Make it Easier? Setting…
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Why I Started the Today I Learned Journal
Learn something new every day. Don’t worry if it’s an embarrassing question to ask. It doesn’t matter if it’s something you should have known years ago.Just learn it, and write it down. Why I Started I began the Today I Learned Journal as a way to confront my fear of failure. And…
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Brittany Bulut 