Life as an Expat Blog

Preparing to move abroad this summer? The winter is fully behind us and it is now full steam towards summer and expat-changeover-season! At this time of year, many expats feel the earth moving under their feet again as they start preparing to move abroad. Some will move for the first time and some for the fifth or more!  No matter if it is your first or your fifth international move,

Resilient ExpatsThe life of an expat can be described with various adjectives: exciting, challenging, adventurous, isolating, transformative, unpredictable, lonely, uncertain, empowering… to name a few. The words in this list that give a more positive feeling invoke ideas of the traveling expat whose world is their oyster and every day is full of adventures around the globe.The other adjectives noted here are the harder, more deeply personal words that tend

Becoming an Accompanying Spouse Are you a woman who has recently moved overseas with her family as an accompanying spouse? Did you decide to make this decision in support of your husband’s career? Do you have young children in tow who you now primarily care for?  You are not alone.  We want to introduce you to Sarah, an accompanying spouse and new mom who recently moved to Paris. Sarah left

Our new expat life: arriving in our new home In a recent podcast interview with Sarah Smutny from Simply in Balance, Karly discussed her last international move and setting up her new expat life.With Sarah, Karly talked about how ikigai is influential in her life and how ikigai can help the newly arrived expat find their footing in their new expat life.This podcast gives you practical ways to approach your new

An American expat in FranceI am an American expat living in Annecy in the French Alps. I have moved within France three times - Pau, Paris and Annecy.My first move to France was not easy. And this is an understatement.This is my story.I am from a small fishing and farming community in rural Massachusetts. I come from a fairly typical American family who doesn’t travel much beyond US borders and

The limited language skills of French expatsWhen I arrived in Houston in 2019, my English was, frankly, not very good. I had a typical French level - bad. The best one can hope to have with the language teaching in France, which leaves much to be desired. At school in France, when you learn a language you don't speak it, it's mostly written work or reading. This is one of

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