New CBI in the mix, is it worth it?

The view was gorgeous. Everything else was complicated.

Yesterday I drove an hour up a mountain for my kids’ school.

The plan was simple enough: drop them off, find somewhere nearby, and get a full workday in.

Then I got there and discovered there was basically no service.

So much for the workday.

The upside? The view was gorgeous.

By the time I headed home, the day had collected a few more complications: an almost-empty tank, a bolt in my tire, and gas stations that wouldn’t process my credit card because sometimes, well, cash is still king.

None of it was catastrophic. It was just one of those days that perfectly sums up life abroad.

You can be standing somewhere beautiful, grateful for the experience your family is having, while simultaneously wondering why the simplest parts of your day have become so unnecessarily complicated.

That’s the part I think gets missed online.

Life abroad isn’t always idyllic. It also isn’t a disaster.

Sometimes it’s a mountain view, no cell service, a flat-ish tire, an empty tank, and a reminder to carry cash.

And somehow, all of those things can be true at once.