For nearly a century, between 1560 and 1640, this bilateral trade would earn Portugal fabulous wealth and make Macau a linchpin in her globe-straddling network of trade.
Today she juggles job, marriage and family while straddling three continents, with a home in California where she spends weekends and holidays with her two college-student children, ages 23 and 18, and trips to Europe and Asia, where her husband works.
They are students like the mother who shared her experience with us on the White House website of working towards a degree while raising three children and straddling financial challenges.