At Home Abroad Series: Expat Children and Education

Source: Creative Commons/ nojhan

For any parents thinking about moving abroad, schooling inevitably will be top priority before making that decision. Will the curriculum be recognised internationally? Will they like their school? Will they be able to get in…? These are all valid questions expat parents consider when moving overseas.

We came across this interesting video on the BBC where expat parents Paulie Gould, Jen Holzberger and Beth Severino share some of their experiences and considerations taken in uprooting children without damaging education.

In the clip, they describe the challenges they faced ranging from choosing a suitable school to the difficulty in navigating UK’s catchment policy, from private schooling and home schooling options to the costs associated with each.

Looking at the data we have for the Expat Explorer Survey, expats voted Singapore as having the best quality education. One local expat even said, “If you're offered an opportunity in Singapore – grab it, you'll never regret it!” Second and third place respectively were Hong Kong and the United Kingdom.

For parents looking to move abroad, it might be useful to look at The European Council of International Schools (ECIS). Founded in 1965, the ECIS is a global membership organisation that strives to maintain an international consistency between schools, to help ensure children leaving a member school to have an internationally recognised standard of education.

Expat Info Desk also has a wealth of information on all aspects of expat life, with an excellent section on “Choosing an expat school”. This article suggests that the main options to consider when it comes to expat education are:

1. International school vs Local school
2. Boarding school vs Day school
3. International Baccalaureate vs Local qualification

Are you thinking of relocating and have questions about your children’s education? Post them below and see if our expat community can help. 

How to make a long distance relationship work

Last week, we blogged about “What would you do for love” which looked at some of the film classics about long distance relationships. 

Making long-distance relationships work is tough, but not impossible. Here we share some advice to overcome the obstacles of trust, communication and distance:

Source: ConnectingSW

There are no regular relationships

This nugget of advice comes direct from the experts at popular dating site eHarmony on how to have a successful LDR. They suggest that the only way to accept your relationship is not by defining it as “abnormal” or “different”, just that it is not as local as many relationships. 

Communication, communication, communication

As with any great relationship, whether that is romantic, business, family, local or long-distance, communication is of the upmost importance. Jessica Reed at eHow caveats this with a little warning: try not to reply too much on non-verbal communication, such as email. There are many other, new ways to communicate that are cost effective and reliable. For more ideas see this post using technology to keep in touch.

Pursue common interests, even if it means pursuing them apart

It’s all well and good emailing each other throughout the day, sending little pictures on WhatsApp, and finding a time that suits both your time zones and schedules to Skype each day, but if you have nothing to talk about when you do it all may seem a little fraught. One suggestion is to do things together, apart. Perhaps read the same book, stargaze whilst on the phone to each other; come up with your own, innovative ways to bond.

Are you in a long distance relationship? What are your top tips? We’d love to hear about your innovative ways to keep the romance in the relationship. Leave us a comment in the box below.

Guest Blogger Series: Introducing… Sine Thieme

We love it when we hear from expats from around world and when South Africa-based expat, Sine Thieme got in touch and shared with us this beautiful account of her experience in South Africa, we thought it was only right to spread the love to the rest of our readers…

Living in South Africa

One thing I love about living in South Africa is that our lives suddenly seem to be filled with adventure. In the space of little more than a year, we have become scuba certified and gone on several diving trips, watched our teenage son hurl himself into the void off the world’s highest bungee jumping bridge, swam with great white sharks, ridden on elephants, battled a bush fire, gone on several safaris - one of them from a balloon - and paddled on the Zambezi river above Victoria Falls.

This could be due to the fact that you always try to live more intensely when you’re an expat, knowing that your assignment will end all too soon, and wanting to explore as much as you can while given the chance. But I think South Africa has something special. South Africans love their country, they love spending time outdoors, and they love sharing their joy with others. From the day we set foot here we got swept up in this spirit of exploration and we haven’t slowed down since then.

When we arrived here in March 2010, I was very determined to methodically check off the typical post-move stuff before exploring the new world around us: open bank account, get phone, internet, sign school forms, find doctors, buy a car... However, it didn’t quite happen like that. Everything moves a lot slower here than my efficient American housewife self could ever have imagined, often throwing two new problems in your way when you’ve just finally gotten rid of one. I remember well those early days, how I’d finally inched closer to getting that elusive traffic register number, which is a prerequisite for buying a car, only to find out on my third trip to the registration office that I wouldn’t be allowed to register after all, since my husband was the one with the job and the visa. Or I’d wait – in vain - perched over the phone for the promised callback “just now,” only to be enlightened by friends later that “just now” in South Africa means “maybe,” at best.

Africa, it seems, was just as determined teaching me patience as I was determined to bend it to my will. Needless to say, I admitted defeat when I realised after more than a year that I was still carrying around with me the same dog-eared to-do list that I’d written the first day. The curious thing is that I’m grateful rather than annoyed. It’s amazing how well life goes on even if certain things simply do not get done, or at least take a lot longer than you expect. Your power is cut off? Back home I would have been on the phone within minutes to complain to some person of authority. Here, I shrug my shoulders and go read a book, fairly certain that eventually it will come on again. And when it does, I have great material to type up yet another story about the wondrous workings of South African bureaucracy.

Making the move

Moving to South Africa can be very scary. At least up to the point where you actually do the moving. I remember googling South Africa and Johannesburg when the prospect of relocating first came up, and I was shocked to find out that we probably wouldn’t survive the trip from the airport to our house. Every expat forum discussing South Africa tries to outdo the next one in terms of spreading crime horror stories, so that when you finally arrive here you are saddled with a huge amount of anxiety that takes time to shed, little by little, until you wake up one morning and realise you live in a beautiful place.

Yes, Johannesburg isn’t the safest city, but that is true for many other cities out there. Most locals will tell you that you just have to be “sensible” and I find that to be very true. You’re careful where you go at night and you keep your eyes open, but you also realise that the possibility of crime and bad luck can’t rule your life.

There are so many positives of living in Johannesburg: The weather is beautiful year-round (I think we must get 355 days of sunshine a year). The flowers here are gorgeous, and though winters are pretty cold, they are very short. Domestic help is easily available. There is nothing in the world that quite matches an African sky at sunset. The people are friendly and fun-loving.

On top of this, there are amazing opportunities to travel and explore, be it to nearby Pilanesberg to view the Big Five in the wild, to the snow-covered Drakensberg, to Cape Point at the Southern tip of the continent, to one of the best wine-making regions of the world near Stellenbosch and Franschhoek, to the beautiful wild beaches of Sodwana Bay and the St. Lucia Wetlands in the East, to the majestic Kruger Park, or to the parched sand dunes of Namibia. Southern Africa offers an amazing variety of landscapes, climates, and wildlife that you won’t easily find anywhere else.

What has helped us settle in quickly was the wonderful group of friends we’ve made. We had opted to send our four children to a South African private school, rather than an international one, and were admittedly anxious how that would work out in terms of friends. We needn’t have worried. Most of our friends are South Africans, with a sprinkling of expats, and we couldn’t be happier. In fact, enrolling your kids in a local school is one of the best ways to truly experience a country, even if they might have more of an adjustment to master upon returning or moving on. What they learn in terms of a new culture far outweighs what they might learn academically. It’s a bit of a shock when you have to go from basketball and baseball to netball, cricket, and field hockey, but if you keep an open mind about it, you will be surprised how much fun it is (and – sacrilege - you might discover that rugby is indeed superior to football).

Another myth about Africa that I’d like to dispel is that it is a parched and hot place. Yes, the weather is mostly beautiful where we live and there is a lot of sunshine to go around, but it’s such a dry heat that more often than not you end up being chilly as soon as you sit in the shade or the sun goes down. When it does finally rain in the summer months, it feels more like winter. I’ve been colder than ever before in my life when going on early morning game drives in a drafty safari vehicle, and our kids make fun of me because it takes a really hot day before I as much as dip  my big toe into the pool.

One aspect of life in South Africa that is really hard to get used to is the extreme poverty all around you. Even though it has been over fifteen years since the end of apartheid and the advent of a true democracy, masses of people still live in mere shacks, crowded together in townships, with barely any access to running water and electricity. South Africa is so much more developed and westernised than the rest of Africa, and yet there is this huge discrepancy between rich and poor. Nevertheless, you will hardly find a place with more cheerful and friendly people than South Africa, and the energy and vibrancy all around you is palpable. Life seems to be painted in bolder strokes in Africa.

If we had listened to all the naysayers condemning South Africa for its crime rate, or if we had been discouraged by the ridiculous amount of paperwork you’re required to submit to obtain your visa, we might never have moved here. We would have been the poorer for it, as this is an amazing place to live. And there is still a lot of exploring for us to do! To find out more about our expat adventures in South Africa, visit http://joburgexpat.blogspot.com.

About the author

 

Sine Thieme, also known as Joburg Expat among her fellow expats and bloggers in Johannesburg, moved to South Africa in 2010 together with her husband and four children. Her blog chronicles life in South Africa in all its beautiful and at times irritating variations. She blogs at http://joburgexpat.blogspot.com/ and tweets @sthieme

What would you do for love?

Source:Chunkiemunky

Inspired by this week’s article on Expat Telegraph about three couples who uprooted their lives and moved thousands of miles to be with the one they love, Expat Explorer brings you tales of love without boundaries and keep your eyes peeled for the next blog post on some tips from the experts about keeping that long distance relationship (LDR) alive.

According to In Love Abroad, a site for people who mix the exciting worlds of love and travel, the top five movies about long distance relationships are:

1. The Notebook

Source:Popcorn Now

The Notebook tells a story of a poor and passionate young man who falls in love with a rich young woman and gives her a sense of freedom. However, like any classic Romeo and Juliet-type stories, they are soon separated by social differences.

2. Sleepless in Seattle

Source:Moviefanatic

Widower and single father, Sam ends up lamenting about his lost love on a talk radio program, when his son Jonah decides to call into the station. Little did he know that thousands of miles away, Annie hears the program and immediately falls in love with Sam, despite the fact that she has never met him and that she is engaged to humdrum Walter. Believing they are meant to be together, Annie sets out for Seattle to meet Sam.

3. Going the Distance

Source:Moviefanatic

Going the distance is your typical romcom centered on a guy and a girl who try to keep their love alive as they shuttle back and forth between New York and San Francisco to see one another.

4. Like Crazy

Source:filmofilia

This film is about a British college student falls for an American student, only to be separated from him when she's banned from the U.S. after overstaying her visa.

5. Casablanca

Source: Chess Ville

Your classic LDR movie. Casablanca is against the backdrop of unoccupied Africa during the early days of the Second World War. Rick Blaine, an American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.

All these movies have one underlying theme - couples having to overcome the barrier of geography. Of course, with the increased popularity in global citizenship, secondments and working abroad, many couples do indeed encounter the obstacle of distance. How do you overcome these? In the next post, we take a look at some tips and advice on how to make a long distance relationship work.

Guest Blogger Series: Creating a community within a community

Followers of Expat Explorer might recognise a familiar name for this week’s guest post. Back in 2010, UK-based expat, Bryce Keane shared with us his tips and advice on integrating into a completely new country and was one of the most read blog posts that year.

Two years on, Bryce is safe-to-say, fully settled in and has even gone about creating his own community of like-minded individuals. Here, he talks about how he came up with the idea of combining the appeal of a cold beer, sizzling sausages and burgers and good banter.

Creative Spaces are Flourishing Everywhere, but it's Communities That Can Make the Impact*

Source: Digital Sizzle

The idea for Digital Sizzle was born one Saturday afternoon on the rooftop of The Queen of Hoxton pub in Shoreditch, East London. A start-up project manager, a web designer and an Aussie ex-pat digital PR guy sat down and wondered if there was a way to make a real contribution to the local tech and start-up community? How could we create a space to share stories, work, lessons and laughs? We decided on something as simple as the common BBQ and, for the first time, we would try and bring together the start-up community with the digital, advertising and other creative agencies in the area that have the skill and resource to help them grow.

We would later realise two things:

1. A digital, tech and creative networking BBQ would prove hugely popular amongst our little community and;
2. It's incredibly hard to hold a BBQ in Central London

What seemed like impossible to start off with, we somehow managed to make it a reality. With this, Digital Sizzle was born.

Lately, it seems to have grown to be one of London's most-attended and talked about meet-ups, thanks largely to a steadily growing (and digitally-savvy) community of fans, and the fact that it is the only networking event that brings together the world of creative agencies and tech start-ups. We like to think it might also have something to do with the burgers...

Building the community

Mid-last year, we were approached by Michael Acton-Smith, CEO and founder of the of global kids hit Moshi Monsters, to partner with him to develop and expand his popular tech meet up, Silicon Drinkabout, in association with the quarterly Sizzle events. 

Founded at the end of last year, the Silicon Drinkabout has become a popular Friday night event, a regular Friday night drinks for tech start-ups in or around Shoreditch - (dubbed the Silicon Roundabout or London's Tech City). As The Digital Sizzle team had been regulars at Silicon Drinkabout since its inception, and felt it represented a very important part of the community that we were trying to create, it seemed a natural fit. 

When speaking to Michael, we realised that it made sense to combine forces and ensure that there are really great weekly meet-ups for the tech community, and then much larger quarterly events for the wider creative community, in place to help connect people. After all, community is so important in the start-up industry, and more regular meet ups can help to help drive growth and innovation.

Overnight our little community doubled. With the weekly casual drinks and a much bigger quarterly event now under our care, we very soon began seeing the results of our work go from online, to offline and back again. New jobs, new working relationships, new creative collaborations, new relationships with interested members of the media, and even interest from the big players - we began to see first hand the fruits of our labour of love. Our community was growing but, more importantly, it was growing based on open collaboration, co-operation and mutual connection.

It’s exciting to be in such a vibrant community. Out of that unique combination of creative and business integration that exists here in East London has emerged not just "traditional" tech startups like Huddle, Mind Candy and Skimlinks, but a new breed of creative and digital agencies like Albion, Poke, and TH_NK.

They exist alongside an array of VCs and investors, a mature and responsive tech media including, and the big technology companies that are moving into the area.

About the author

Bryce Keane is an international communications professional with experience managing a wide variety of communications campaigns in both the EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions. Originally from Melbourne, he has a fascination with digital, tech and London's booming start-up culture, and has managed communications campaigns across a wide variety of sectors including national and regional campaigns across a variety of industries including: Resources, Agri-Business, Government, Travel/Tourism, Telecommunications, Hospitality, Transport and Logistics, Corporate Social Responsibility, Architecture and Design, Lifestyle, Not-For-Profit, Hygiene, and Technology. He has recently joined the Cohn & Wolfe London team as a Digital Strategist, is a co-founder of tech and creative networking BBQs Digital Sizzle and is a co-organiser of Silicon Drinkabout,a regular after work drinks for startups every Friday 'round the Silicon Roundabout. You can reach him on LinkedIn or Twitter.

*An edited version of this article originally posted on The Huffington Post UK.

The Rise of the Expat Mummy Blogger

Yesterday in The London Evening Standard there was an incredible article about exercise shorts that help you lose weight. Zaggora HotPants have been on the market for just six months and their revenues are set to hit a staggering £10 million this year! With no advertising budget, Dessislava Bell, creator of the HotPants, attributes this amazing success to sending out a free pair of the shorts to each of 500 bloggers, many of whom where Mummy Bloggers.

From The Evening Standard

But where did these Mummy Bloggers come from? Dave Lee and Snezana Curcic, BBC World Service Reporters, say that, “For the mums, they provide a discussion and support network”.

Clearly, if this is the main reason for blogging, this can only be amplified for Mummy Bloggers living abroad where a support network may not be immediately underneath them in their expat posting. Writing a blog can be a way of connecting with people in a similar situation, although may not be in a similar geographical location.

So to celebrate all the wonderful Expat Mummy Blogs out there Expat Explorer has compiled an A-Z of the Top Ten Expat Mummy Bloggers.

4 kids, 20 suitcases and a beagle

In her own words: Kirsty is an Australian writer and Blogger currently living in Qatar. After calling 7 countries home over the past 11 years she's embarrassed to admit she still can't pack a suitcase properly. Kirsty is currently writing a book about having 4 children in 4 different countries while trying to remember her new telephone number and where she packed the can opener. You can catch Kirsty on twitter @shamozal

Bringing Up Brits

In her own words: Meghan Fenn is an American expat and mother who has lived in England since 1999. After graduating from university with a BA in English and Art, she became an English teacher and lived and worked in Prague for two years and then in Tokyo for two and a half years. She moved to England to complete her Masters degree in Design Studies and then worked as a web designer at a company in Nottinghamshire. After being made redundant whilst pregnant with her 2nd child, she set up her own web and graphic design company, White Ochre Design Ltd.

Meghan currently lives on the Southeast coast of England, is married to an English man and has 3 young children, all born in the UK.

Bringing Up Brits is her first book and she is currently working on another book about raising a family around a business (and vice versa!).

Dubai’s Desperate Housewife

In her own words: Dubai’s Desperate Housewife has lived in Dubai for 11 years. She quit her high-flying job to be a full-time mum to a 4-year-old and a small baby – something she wrestles with every day. Although she loves being there for her kids, she lives a parallel life in her head; one where her career continued its upward trajectory and her days are not spent on the school run and dangling rattles for a baby to swat.

Expat Mum

In her own words: Quite simply I'm a Brit who was whisked off by a knight in shining armour (well, an accountant) to live in the USA some twenty years ago. We now have three kiddy-winkies and a mutt with selective hearing.

My days are filled with writing for various things on the web (see next tab), finishing another book, running a charitable organisation to fund a school in Ghana, and of course, being a devoted wife and mother to my adorable family. (That would be British sarcasm in case anyone's now a little confused.)

I was brought up in the northeast of England (God's own country), went to university in Bristol and worked for the rest of the 80's in London. When I first moved to the States, I lived in Dallas, but the rest of the time has been spent trying to come to terms with the oppressively hot summers and unbearably frigid winters of Chicago.

Happy Homemaker UK

In her own words: Follow my journey as it unfolds as an American mom living in England. Often featuring local locations and tidbits, I love photography & a good story.

Note from Lapland

In her own words: Note From Lapland is where I write about whatever the hell is on my mind, whether that’s Finnish supermarkets selling vibrators or more serious posts about dealing with life after children and discovering who you are but hopefully always in an entertaining manner.  I swear, I rant and rave, I make you laugh and hopefully also make you think.

Mommy has a Headache

In her own words: Who am I? Displaced Londoner now living in the States with my two little girlies and long suffering husband. Co-author of hilarious parenting book Cocktails at Naptime www.cocktailsatnaptime.com My mom's an Austrian, my dad's a Brit, which makes me a Britaustrian, or possibly an Austrish?

The American Resident

In her own words: The American Resident is written by Michelle Garrett, an American expat making a home in Britain for over 20 years.

I am a freelance writer who enjoys being creative in an interactive way during my free time. That’s why, besides blogging, I also love cooking, gardening and hosting parties–all creativity enhanced by interaction with others. Sharing makes most things more fun.

As a freelance writer and professional blogger I have written for magazines, websites and larger projects. I am currently working on two eGuides for expats.

If you’re curious about my back story, click here: How I Got Where I am Today

If you would like one cool fact about me: I can do that thing where you run up to a chair, stand on it with one foot on the seat and one on the back, and slowly tip it over. Can you?

The New Diplomat’s Wife

In her own words: The plan was to become a diplomat myself, but I somehow ended up marrying one instead. We started out as a duet and recently became a trio, just to spice up the spirit of adventure. Previous post: Vienna, Austria Current post: Washington, DC

Vegemite Vix

In her own words: Well not all about me obviously, this is the internet.

I moved with my three kids, my dog, cat, a guitar and twenty boxes of books, from New Zealand to North Hampshire in the UK in August 2008. Why in God’s name did I swap beautiful beaches for Blighty, pavlova for pork pies and sand, surf, sun for …. snow… and sleet…

You’d be surprised how often I’m asked that question, but in truth, I did it for lots of reasons – work opportunities, opportunities for my kids, but mainly for the love of my Englishman this crazy man I met and fell in love with in Paris in June 2007.

This is the story of our experiences, of our brave adventure. Sometimes they’re funny, sometimes they’re sad, but always – at least I hope so – meaningful.

This is our story about how to really live – wet-paint-on-your-fingers-live – in another country as an expat, a long way from the places, the people and the land you call home.

And a final word for any aspiring bloggers out there (expat, mummy or other), here are 25 Top Tips for Bloggers from Expat Mummy Blogger, The American Resident, Michelle Garrett.

Are you an Expat Mummy Blogger? Get in touch and share your blog, tell us why you love blogging! 

Guest Blogger Series: Introducing… Candace Kuss

For this week’s guest blogger, we have the pleasure of introducing Candace Kuss, an American expat who’s been living in London for more than six years. 

With Super Bowl season upon us, Candace shares with Expat Explorer readers, the incurable homesickness of missing Super Bowl Sunday.

Missing the Super Bowl

Missing friends and family during the holidays is a common expat experience. But for Americans like me, incurable homesickness attacks hardest during our biggest unofficial holiday — Super Bowl Sunday.

It is the only day that can’t be truly celebrated on foreign soil. London is lovely at Christmas time. Halloween is growing in popularity. Thanksgiving is all about English expats (aka Pilgrims). And it is cheeky good fun to have British friends over to toast and roast on the Fourth of July.

But living in a country where football means soccer, it is impossible to translate what the Super Bowl experience is all about. The BBC, with kind condescension, will broadcast the game, but not the commercials, even though they will be analysed as seriously and as deeply as the game itself. Indeed, it is the Super Bowl which has single-handedly kept the glamour of TV advertising alive, even as social media soaks up all the oxygen and marketing spend keeps moving online.

It is this carnival surrounding the spotlight stealing ad sideshow that make Super Bowl Sunday a holiday for all American. The fight to entertain us during the commercial breaks can make even a dull game fun. You don’t have to be a football fan to join the party. Families all over America stock up on beer, chips, dips, ribs and red velvet cupcakes with their team’s logo. There’s a reason Doritos and Budweiser are the brands that go large for the game. For the last five years, Doritos’ mega ‘Crash the Super Bowl’ contest has consumers creating their own Doritos commercial for a chance to win a million dollars and the fame of having their ad shown in the game. And my personal favourite, the Budweiser Clydesdales, is an American icon in their own right.

The pain of a loyal Patriot on the sidelines

Before I was an expat in London, I emigrated from Long Island, New York to Boston, Massachusetts. Thrown into a sports obsessed city, I went over to the other side and swore allegiance to the Celtics, Red Sox and the Patriots - all bitter rivals with the teams from New York. So imagine my joy, not to mention that of the network executives, to be gifted with this year’s rematch of the New York Giants vs the New England Patriots. Historic teams from huge media markets. MVP quarterback (Tom Brady) with a super model wife vs MVP quarterback (Eli Manning) from a legendary football family and Madonna at halftime. Oh my! The coverage is insane. This year, NBC Sports Network will air more than 18 hours of live programming ahead of the game. It’s like the entire hoopla of an Olympics squeezed into one day.

But sadly, I will miss the parties, the mass quantities of food, the electricity of the whole country coming together in celebration. As I struggle to stay awake in GMT, tweeting and texting friends, I will vow to be there in person this time next year. Let’s go Pats!

About the author

Candace Kuss is an American in London. Voting address is beautiful Sonoma California but her sport homebase is Boston. When not watching sport highlight clips online, she runs the Interactive Lab for H+K. Please say hi on Twitter, check out the work blog and, if you are inclined, root for her team, the New England Patriots to crush the Giants on Super Bowl Sunday.

Top 10 Expat Explorer blog posts

It’s that time of the month again where we re-cap on the most read posts this month. How many have you read?

1. Expat Entrepreneurs – The most popular blog this month is one we published a couple of weeks ago on a rising breed of expats – the expat entrepreneur. In this blog post we share some of our top tips for prospective expats thinking of setting up their own businesses
2. Lonely Planet- Friends for Friends – If you’ve just moved to a completely new country, navigating your surroundings can be tough. Lonely Planet has come up with a great Facebook app that helps you to find friends of friends in your destination city. Why not check it out now
3. How to prevent the culture shock of repatriation and feel as if you’ve never left – Expat Explorer shares our five steps to minimise reverse culture shock
4. Taking the plunge – getting employment in another country - After making the hard decision to move abroad on a long-term basis and deciding on the country to move to, we share these tips on how to get employment abroad
5. Top tips for repatriation – Repatriating seems to be a popular topic this month as we share more advice on how to face the challenges of returning home after a prolonged period abroad
6. The Accidental Expat – Alexandra Lawrence – Sometimes opportunities come unexpectedly. Canadian-expat, Alexandra shares her account on how she become an expat by chance
7. Finding work abroad and the challenges expats face – What are the wider challenges expats face when it comes to finding work abroad? Knowing where to look and how to start looking can be fundamentally different depending on the country. Why not share with us here the difficulties you’ve encountered finding work abroad
8. Why do people become expats? - Often taking that first step in moving abroad is riddled with complications. In this post, we explore pros and cons and considerations potential expats should make before relocating
9. Guest Blogger Series: Introducing... Chelsea Christensen – our special guest blogger- Chelsea shares her story on successful expat romances
10. Expat in Toronto – First-time expat, Miranda Gulland shares with Expat Explorer readers her experience on moving to North America with work