Hi, I’m Daniëlle
I moved to Asia in 2014 thinking it was temporary — the way everyone does. Twelve years, three kids and one permanent residency card later, it clearly wasn’t. I still get asked at the school gate where I’m “actually” from, usually right after someone tells me I’m basically local by now. I’m not sure either of us is right. This is where I write about that in-between — the part after “expat” stops fitting and before “local” quite does.
Meet me
I’m Dutch, 185cm tall, and years ago I stopped trying to blend in — I’d rather stand out. By day I run a strength and wellbeing studio for women here, and I’ve just written a book about training through the messy, unpredictable seasons of a woman’s life. Turns out four hundred pages on real life not going to plan was decent practice for actually living it, three kids and a school portal that logs me out at the worst possible moment included.
Why I’m writing this
Ten years of half-formed opinions on school systems, sport choices and being the tallest person at every parent-teacher meeting had to go somewhere — this turned out to be it.
The actual juggle
Running a studio, moving my eldest into a local school, training for a Hyrox race — most days it somehow works out. Some days it’s just a school portal logging me out three times in a row, and I still don’t know what SA1 stands for.
What’s actually here
School systems from an outsider who’s staying. Sport choices without the panic. Fitness that fits around a business rather than the other way around. And the odd honest email when something’s actually worth saying.
Come along
If you’re also somewhere in the middle — not quite local, not really an outsider anymore either — I’d rather write to you than at you. No spam, no funnel, just the real stuff when there’s something worth saying.
Stay tuned
New field notes go up whenever there’s something worth writing down — not on a schedule. Subscribe on the homepage and you won’t miss one.
