Time transcripts of The Outside Course Audio File

[00:00:00.00]	Hello, my name is Ellen and I belong to an online community called The Outside Course.

[00:00:07.01]	The forum was originated by a group of people who were involved in the horse community 

[00:00:12.75]	who wanted a place to chat about their lives.

[00:00:15.00]	There are lots of places to talk about horses online, 

[00:00:18.15]	but these people wanted to talk about their lives outside of horses. 

[00:00:24.25]	And the forum where they had originally met didn't allow for non-horse-related discussion.

[00:00:30.00]	Of that original group, I believe there are exactly none left on The Outside Course.

[00:00:35.00]	Everyone, including the folks who started the forum and our moderators 

[00:00:37.50]	has wandered off, and those of us who make  The Outside Course what it is now

[00:00:45.00]	are a pretty loyal group who all meandered in from someplace else 

[00:00:50.00]	and we settled down to have  a nice cup of coffee and a chat. We stayed.

[00:00:55.00]	I joined the forum when it began and I was a very occasional posting member

[00:01:00.00]	for quite awhile. I had a very busy and active horse life

[00:01:05.00]	in the real world, and I was an active busy member of a large horse forum.

[00:01:10.00]	But almost four years ago now, we left the United States. 

[00:01:14.00]	I left with my family, and we left my horses, and my active horse life was all left behind. 

[00:01:23.50]	If you've ever been an expat, you'll understand why The Outside Course 

[00:01:26.01]	suddenly became a lot more important to me. When you leave your home country behind, 

[00:01:30.81]	you become a foreigner, and in our case we moved to China

[00:01:35.01]	where we were instantly recognizable as foreigners and we lived in a place where

[00:01:39.71]	very few people spoke English. And the majority of the other expats in the area 

[00:01:44.01]	were all Europeans and Australians. And of course I made lots of friends 

[00:01:47.26]	and I felt very at home in my adopted community, but ... there's always something missing 

[00:01:54.23]	when you're a foreigner. Always. The Outside Course became a place where I could

[00:02:00.01]	sit down and read about my home.  I can read about people who

[00:02:05.01]	can have horses and people who can have dogs and cats and other pets and ... 

[00:02:08.61]	people who were having great days and people who were having bad days, 

[00:02:11.26]	and people who were getting engaged and people who are getting married and divorced 

[00:02:15.63]	and having babies and all sorts of other everyday seminal events. 

[00:02:22.02]	The folks in the community of The Outside Course

[00:02:25.00]	live their lives and speak a language that I completely understand and that I can relate to.

[00:02:31.41]	We very sadly left China behind  after three fantastic years, 

[00:02:35.31]	and now we live in the Czech Republic. And I, I do love it, I love it

[00:02:40.01]	I have an amazing life with very little  in the way of real complaints, but

[00:02:45.01]	I'm still a foreigner.

[00:02:48.01]	Dobrý den! Jmenuji se Ellena. Jsem cizinka. Mluvim česky moc malo. [ Good day! My name is Ellen. I speak Czech very little. ] 

[00:02:55.01]	Mluviš pomalu, prosim! [ Please speak slowly! ]. See I'm a foreigner! 

[00:02:58.51]	I look like everybody else in the Czech Republic so I blend in and I have to tell people I'm a foreigner,

[00:03:05.01]	Jsem cizinka. [ I'm a foreigner ]...but I, I'm foreign.

[00:03:10.01]	And as happy as I am with my life, 

[00:03:11.51]	and I promise I wouldn't trade it  for all the alfalfa in Tennessee,