The Displaced Nation

A home for international creatives

Tag Archives: Entrepreneurs

Jennifer Dubowsky, Acupuncturist — Bringing Eastern healing to the American Midwest

2 Comments Posted by on January 25, 2012

Born in:   Bean Blossom, Indiana.

Now: Practicing acupuncture since 2001; currently has office in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

 Cyberspace coordinates: Jennifer Dubowsky (business site); Acupuncture Blog Chicago (blog); @tcm007 (Twitter handle); Jennifer Dubowsky Acupuncturist – Facebook page.

Most recent post: Well Being Increases With Our Ability To Make Choices 

Tell us how you went from “the smallest of small towns” in Indiana to practicing acupuncture in Chicago. 

Since I was young, I’ve always had a huge interest in travel and other cultures and spent a year living and going to high school in Paris when I was 16-17 years old.  In college, I developed an interest in the body and got my Bachelor of Science degree in kinesiology (I actually thought cadaver dissection was quite interesting.) My interest in health and other cultures lead me to the perfect marriage in Chinese Medicine and I got my masters degree in Oriental Medicine, studying in New Mexico and Colorado.

How did you become interested in the practice of acupuncture?

​I have been interested in healthcare my entire adult life. Chinese Medicine was a perfect mix of the exotic and effective healthcare.

What do you think acupuncture is particularly good at doing?
Acupuncture is very good at treating many ailments.  Some examples of common health problems I address in my Chicago office are pain relief, fertility and other gynecological issues, anxiety, allergies, and headaches. One of the major benefits of acupuncture is that it not only helps many problems, but does so without the negative side effects of drugs.

You completed an internship at the Sino-Japanese Friendship Hospital in Beijing. Do you have any special memories of that time?

The time in Beijing was special for me because it completely solidified my love and faith in Chinese Medicine. I also got to explore the city which is so exotic and difficult to manage because I didn’t speak Chinese or read Chinese characters. While I was in Beijing, my hair was blonde and I traveling with a friend who had super curly dark hair. We were a very noticeable pair walking through the streets. People stared and a few stopped us to take photos or touch my friend’s hair. That was a little weird.

As well as your website, you have a blog. Is this another tool you use for your business, or is it more a personal endeavor? 

I started my blog in 2008. It has gone from being a marketing tool for my practice to a true passion. I love being able to connect with people all over the world through the magic of the internet. I have “chatted” with people in India, Israel, Ireland, and Australia and thousands of people from many other places have visited my site.

According to a recent post on your blog, the AAAOM (American Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine) is “working hard to get acupuncture included in the Affordable Care Act as an Essential Health Benefit.” Why do you think it’s important to make acupuncture available and affordable to the general public?

Acupuncture, just like all healthcare, should be affordable to the public. Ultimately each person manages his or her health and deserves options so that they can be informed consumers.  Coverage by all insurance plans would certainly go a long way to making acupuncture available. If readers are interested, they can sign a petition that asks to have acupuncture included in president Obama’s HealthCare Act.

Given your passion for blogging, do you have any other writing projects in the pipeline – a book, for example?
I am currently working on an e-book, my first venture into longer writing, because I believe that a book will connect me to more people. Chinese Medicine can be very complicated for the lay person and I plan to create a book that explains the treatments and philosophy in ways that people can understand and appreciate.

Our theme for January is Enlightenment Through Travel. Did you travel to any other countries apart from China when you were learning about acupuncture,  or is there somewhere you would like to visit in the future to further your knowledge in this field of medicine?

I had the opportunity to spend a couple of months traveling in Southeast Asia after my internship at the hospital in Beijing. I loved exploring other countries and was able to visit other parts of China and the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia. Something I love about Chinese Medicine is that there is always more to learn. Therefore, I know it would be to my benefit to travel back to Asia because meeting with other practitioners is often like finding someone in another country who speaks your language. Knowing Chinese Medicine is like being in a special club so there is always that connection, despite the often wide cultural gap.

Do you have any gurus whom you look up to?

No gurus, but I have had one teacher, Dr. Tan, who has hugely influenced my practice since I graduated from school. I’ve learned so much from him about how to use my needles to their best advantage.

Would you ever consider living anywhere else? If so — where and why?

Yes — some cities I’d love to live in at least for a while would include Rome and London. Who knows – if an opportunity comes up, maybe I’ll be hopping on a plane to somewhere else 😉

 STAY TUNED for tomorrow’s episode of Libby’s Life, where Libby is finding that high school popularity contests don’t end with high school.

If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to register for The Displaced Dispatch, a round up of weekly posts from The Displaced Nation, with seasonal recipes, book giveaways and other extras. Register for The Displaced Dispatch by clicking here!

Related posts:

Image: photograph of Jennifer, supplied by herself.

, , , ,

BOOK REVIEW: “The Globalisation of Love,” by Wendy Williams

9 Comments Posted by on December 16, 2011

Writer Wendy Williams has described her new book, The Globalisation of Love, as being about “global love stories, inter-cultural romance and marriage.” A Canadian expat living with her Austrian husband in Vienna, it is of little surprise that Williams is interested in intercultural romances and her book could be best described as an expat take on the self-help, relationship genre — a Men Are from Mödling, Women Are from Vancouver, if you will.

As Williams writes,

…one of the most profound effects on globalisation is that people from everywhere are falling in love with people from everywhere else. There is a world of romance happening out there and it is called the globalisation of love.

That is certainly reflected in the readership of The Displaced Nation, where a large number of you, myself included, are involved in inter-cultural relationships or marriages so I imagine there are those among you or friends you know who may need this book with its advice and anecdotes on how to circumnavigate the occasionally choppy waters and discombobulating experiences of being, in Williams’s neologism, a GloLo couple. Williams explains the problems a GloLo couple may experience in dealing with parents-in-law, marriage ceremonies, immigration officials — all that “fun” stuff many of us have experienced.

Williams has a very conversational turn-of-phrase and peppers her book with references to romantic comedies, and I suspect her style will delight and grate in equal measure. Whether you find yourself charmed by the idea of a GloTini cocktail (recipe included in the book) is probably a fair indicator of whether you are going to curl up with The Globalisation of Love or hurl it across your living room.

With each topic tackled, Williams brings up case studies from a whole ranges of GloLo couples that she has interviewed. For me, this is undoubtably where the book is strongest as you find yourself either charmed or cringing at the experiences of each couple. Williams, also brings in the story of her own marriage, always in a disarmingly self-deprecating way, so at times The Globalisation of Love reads almost like a quasi-memoir.

I do think there are drawbacks. The over-classification of GloLo couples can quickly become confusing. At times I felt that I required some kind of chart to work out what sort of GloLo I’m defined under, though I suspect I probably snugly fit into what Williams classifies as “the scoffer.” The quick, breezy glossing over of the issue of mail-order brides did not sit comfortably with me, and I also thought the look at those who meet on the Internet was a missed opportunity. I’ve heard of a number of people who have found their partner via the Web — not through a dating site, but from regularly participating on a discussion forum centered around an area both partners have a common interest. This often involves those who previously wouldn’t have entered into a GloLo relationship, and perhaps have never once traveled out of their home country despite starting a relationship with someone on the other side of the globe.

While by no means a book that is going to radically change your opinion on self-help, relationship books, it is a worthwhile addition to the genre.

You can buy The Globalisation of Love here.

STAY TUNED for Monday’s post, a displaced Q about the Ideal Christmas Holiday.

If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to subscribe to The Displaced Dispatch, a weekly round up of posts from The Displaced Nation, plus some extras such as seasonal recipes and occasional book giveaways. Sign up for The Displaced Dispatch by clicking here!

Related posts:

, , , , , ,

Displaced India Hicks throws in beach hat for Royal Wedding hat

2 Comments Posted by on April 26, 2011

Special announcement from TDN: ML Awanohara and Kate Allison will be live-tweeting the Royal Wedding from a displaced perspective. Join us from 5:00 a.m. EST, using the hash tag: #DNRW

On Sunday night I decided to indulge in nostalgia for my misspent youth in England. I watched a couple of TLC programs showing footage from the wedding of Charles and Diana on July 29, 1981.

I was there as a displaced American. Well, I wasn’t in London but at a street party in an East Anglian town.

To be honest, I have only the haziest recollection of how I spent the day: who attended the fete, what we talked about, what we ate. Part of the reason is my exceedingly poor memory.

But I think the lapse is also due to having been displaced so many times since then — to Japan, back to England, and now back to my native United States. England’s royal wedding no longer stands out in my memory compared to other landmark events I’ve observed, such as the marriage of Masako Iwada to Japan’s Crown Prince.

Always a bridesmaid, never a bride

I was therefore particularly taken with the TLC special Untold Stories of a Royal Bridesmaid, featuring model, interior design entrepreneur — and expat — India Hicks.

I kept wondering: does Hicks actually remember that hot day at the end of July 30 years ago? True, she was a bridesmaid for Princess Diana — but she was also only 13 at the time.

And, unlike many of the participants in that Royal Wedding, Hicks has moved on since, quite literally: she has put down roots on a three-mile-long fishing island in the Bahamas, where she lives with her family in a plantation-style oceanfront house.

Indeed, at 43, Hicks is living life on her own terms, a novel concept for a female who was born in the Royal Family orbit (Prince Charles is her second cousin and godfather, and she is 512th in line for the throne). As the New York Times pointed out in its profile of Hicks last month:

For many years, Ms. Hicks distanced herself from the royal circles that surrounded her childhood, focusing on developing her profession.

What’s more — and the Times didn’t point this out — she and her lifelong partner, David Flint Wood, have never bothered to marry, despite having had four children together.

Hicks may have been one of the two bridesmaids assigned to keep track of Diana’s 25-foot-long train, but she doesn’t appear to like weddings much, or else I assume she would have designed one for herself …

A most unroyal royal

I ask you, does this sound like something an heir to the British throne, however remote, would say:

I’d liked to have lived as Cleopatra. She didn’t take any crap from anyone, had lots of children out of wedlock, was intelligent and witty, known for her abilities and was a good stateswoman. I like most that she didn’t take any crap.

It’s what Hicks told the Wall Street Journal in an interview just a few days ago. You go, girl, as we say in the States…

So what’s in it for her besides money — and a higher profile for her brand, which is branching out next month to include jewelry? Not to mention her sense of duty (these are her people, after all).

British people are wont to say that the Royal Wedding provides a good excuse for a day off and a party. But for us displaced people, these affairs are a little different.

For Hicks as for many of the rest of us under equivalent circumstances, I suspect the wedding of Wills and Kate provides a good excuse to:

1) Indulge in a spot of nostalgia.

As Hicks remarks on her TLC special: “I think it will bring back memories that perhaps I’ve forgotten.”

As already mentioned, we displaced types can relate. The desire to recapture your youth intensifies if you are no longer living in your home (or adopted home) country.

2) Spend time in the home country.

As mentioned, Hicks has opted for the life of an expat, far from the madding crowds.

But, while retreating to a Caribbean island may sound like a dream come true, I imagine it has its dull moments, when one longs for a tad more intellectual and social stimulation.

Covering the Royal Wedding provides Hicks with the pretext for hanging out in her native land a little more and for introducing herself to such people as Diana’s wedding dress designer, David Emanuel. (The two haven’t met since 1981.)

3) Reconnect with family.

Living far away from one’s family is another penalty of the expat life, which tends to get steeper with time — especially for women who are close to their mothers.

By becoming a Royal Wedding pundit, Hicks has had the opportunity to reminisce about the good old days with her mother, Lady Pamela Hicks, for several of her TV specials.

A daughter of Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India (hence her daughter’s first name), Lady Hicks was herself a bridesmaid to Queen Elizabeth.

I particularly enjoyed the moment on the TLC special when mere and fille pull their respective bridesmaids’ dresses out of the boxes and compare them. Hicks thinks her mother’s looks more classical, while hers is dated — a product of the frilly 1980s.

* * *

On the “bridesmaid” special, the time that Hicks seems most enthused about revealing her stories is when she picks up the Halcyon Days china pot that Diana gave to all her bridesmaids, containing a silk worm that helped to produce The Dress. Hicks holds up the little white cocoon and gives it a rattle.

For that single instant, she looks as though she’s been transported back in her island home, having taken the road less (or more?) traveled by…and to which she will be jolly glad to return on April 30.

Question: In your experience as a displaced person, do events in one’s home (or adopted home) country — whether private or public — induce an overblown sense of nostalgia? I’d love to hear your stories.

If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to subscribe for email delivery of The Displaced Nation. That way, you won’t miss a single issue.

, , , , ,

RANDOM NOMAD: Kim Andreasson, Management Consultant

5 Comments Posted by on April 14, 2011

Kim AndreassonBorn in: Sweden
Passport: Swedish
Countries lived in: Australia(Sydney): 1988-89; USA (New York and LA): 1996-2010; Vietnam (Saigon): 2010-present
Cyberspace coordinates: DAKA Advisory (business)

What made you leave your homeland in the first place?
My parents decided to travel around the world in 1988-89 and took me along for the ride. We left a snowy Sweden in December and arrived at our first destination, Los Angeles, in 72 degrees and sunshine, staying in the Hyatt on Sunset (now the Andaz West Hollywood). We explored the city’s many attractions including Disneyland and Universal Studios. I was sold and ever since, have considered LA to be the greatest city in the world. At the same time, my curiosity was piqued and I was sold on the idea of leaving something you know well for something different. I have never looked back.

Is anyone else in your immediate family a “displaced” person?
My California-born wife is now displaced as we are living in Saigon. By the way, we first met at a Swedish restaurant in Chinatown in New York City — call it displacement in microcosm.

Describe the moment when you felt the most displaced over the course of your various travels.
I’ve been fortunate to live in the kinds of cities where it’s relatively easy to blend in. But I’ve certainly experienced some memorable cultural contrasts. Soccer (what we Europeans call “football”) is a good example. During the World Cup in 2002 I was in an Irish pub on New York City’s Upper East Side at 4 a.m. watching the match between Sweden and Argentina. I believe I was the only one there watching the game. That was a really strange feeling. By contrast, during the 2009 qualifying match, the time difference was better and there were thousands of of us Swedes watching the games at a bar near Times Square in the middle of the day. This time, I thought I was in Sweden, which was also strange, in its way.

Describe the moment when you felt least displaced.
It’s a curious thing, but it’s when I leave my adopted homeland(s) that I feel especially at home in them. If you ask me my nationality in Vietnam, I’ll always say I’m Swedish. But if you ask me when I’ve just left Vietnam, I’ll say I’m Saigonese (a resident of Saigon). I was in Bangkok recently and couldn’t stop talking about how much I preferred life in Saigon. Likewise, when I lived in the U.S. and went home to Europe, I would feel more American than European during my visit.

You may bring one curiosity you’ve collected from your travels into the Displaced Nation. What’s in your suitcase?
From Australia, a boomerang, for the symbolism of always coming back. From America, a basketball because I enjoy the game and would like to continue playing it. And from Vietnam, a business suit — you can get world-class tailoring here at a very good price.

You’re invited to prepare one meal based on your travels for other Displaced Nation members. What’s on your menu?
Without a doubt, as a Swede, I am known for my guacamole. No, really. I guess because I lived in LA for so long, I came to love Mexican food. I would prepare it for you according to a classic recipe, something like:
1 tablespoon red onion
1 tablespoon cilantro
1 tablespoon jalapeno
1 avocado
2 tablespoons diced tomato
1 pinch of salt

You may add one word or expression from each of the countries you’ve lived in to The Displaced Nation argot. What words do you loan us?
From Australia: “G’day mate” — for its friendliness.
From the USA: “Awesome” — it reminds me of how globalized LA jargon has become, courtesy of Hollywood.
From Vietnam: “Ba” — and if you repeat it three times, you get a beer (333)!

img: Kim Andreasson on his way to Bến Thành Market, in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) — that’s if he can navigate the intersection of Le Loi, Ham Nghi, Tran Hung Dao Avenues and Le Lai Street.

If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to subscribe for email delivery of The Displaced Nation. That way, you won’t miss a single issue.

, , , , , , , , , , ,

Newer posts →