About Me

Aloha! I am Julie. Mahalo for visiting my blog.

As an expat lived in the USA and currently made my way to Canada, this blog is to show you all the restaurants, accommodations, attractions, off-the-radar places, local activities and travel tips based on my experience living abroad. Places I have lived over the past seven years are Virginia, Hawaii, Toronto, Windsor (Ontario) and Stratford (Ontario). I also did several return trips to Alaska, Montreal and a long trip to Quebec City. .

In this blog, I will share the culture and the knowledge of these places to make your trip to those destinations a breeze. After all, there is no better way to get to know a place than actually live there.

Meet Julie

As an expat, I enjoyed exploring my host country Canada and USA and get to travel to nearby countries often. I have also spent six months in South America and half of the time I stayed in Chile (it is such a lovely destination worth my time and expense).

Apart from maintaining this blog, I am actually a social worker and a Facebook VA. I have worked with tourism boards, brands and hotels, but most time I pay for my own travels. Sometimes I created content because I believe my fellow travelers may need the information from it (like border cross from Chile Chico to El Chalten/El Calafate), while other times I write from my pure passion and for inspiration (for example this post about my Skydiving Experience in Hawaii).

Lake Louise in Banff, Alberta Canada/Photo Credit: Julie Cao

About this blog: I started this blog to write memoir for my beautiful life as an expat in Hawaii, and visualize that someday I could return there. Four years passed, a return to Hawaii and the United States has become a dream of mine, and my blog has evolves to so much more. I love my expat life and I want bring my friends, family and the kindred souls I met along the journey with me. This blog is about to share the local knowledge and travel tips about the places I have lived in and the destinations I am familiar with through long and multiple return trips.

For me, living abroad is the best way to get to know a country. It is an extended travel. It allows me to get so much out of a place than just being a tourist. This is my kind of life, and my favorite kind – move from place to place, threw myself into the unknown, start everything from the scratch, develop a deep connection to the places, and get to know the culture and the people.

If you want to know what live abroad really looks like, this blog will show you. I will also show you some of the trips I had during my expat life in the USA and Canada. Living overseas and travel around the world has become a part of me, the part that I never want to change and let go.

Wonder what lives in Hawaii really looks like? Start with these two post here (more posts coming soon):

8 Things I have learned after living in Hawaii

17 Unique Facts About Hawaii

Living in Canada:

Seven Reasons Why I Love Prince Edward Island – And Why You Should Visit

French Language Immersion in Quebec City

Destination Features

Stratford, Ontario – A Fun Day Trip in the Hometown of Shakespeare

Explore the Last Frontier – Alaska

Around Central Alaska by Rail – Fairbanks to Alaska (Winter Edition)

The Ultimate Guide to Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska

Travel Writing