When we’re moving to a new destination to embrace a new adventure or just because it’s the best opportunity for our families we often fantasied about our new homes. Our initial assumption is that if it’s abroad, it must be exciting. But the truth is most new things are appealing because they are a novelty. […]
Do you know that more than half of the world’s population is bilingual? Bilingual families are those whose members use two or more languages (or dialects) for communication. In our home, we speak mainly Portuguese and English. At occasions, when my husband and I don’t want to be understood by those around us, we speak […]
If you have been an expatriate for a long enough time you might agree that we all go through cultural surprises and some degree of cultural shock from time to time. Adjusting to a new culture can be challenging even when we have moved all over the world and may consider ourselves experts. Just recently, I notice […]
ExpatJoy Blog is becoming a reality due to my passion for communication, learning from others and sharing information on living the expatriate life. In my experience, our fellow expatriates are our best source of help and information when it comes to living abroad. There is a sense of camaraderie among the members of this community as […]
Your success while living internationally is more related to your level of self-knowledge and your engagement in life than it is to the difficulties presented in day-to-day living. The meaning of success greatly differs from one person to another. Let’s use the Oxford dictionary’s definition as our starting point. Success is “the accomplishment of an aim […]
By finding out what we want and learning how to ask for it, global nomads can create drive and purpose during transition, adaptation and everyday life, in any destination. It seems that everyone wants more – more money, more education, more time. Apparently, the only thing most of us don’t want is what we already […]
Seven steps to transform your inner critic into your inner coach. If the post is too long for you at this time, here is a two-minute+ video summary. I’m not good enough…I’m not smart enough…I’m not educated enough…I’m too old… you fill in the blanks… What does your inner critic tell you everyday? One […]
A few months ago, I decided to start this blog – a place to organize my thoughts about expatriation, repatriation, international living, raising TCKs, multiculturalism – essentially my life. During this journey, I’m having the pleasure of discovering other bloggers who write about the same subjects from different perspectives and quite literally, from all over […]
Few would argue that moving abroad brings uncertainty and many challenges. Some researchers even rank moving houses, as the third most stressful event in life. But the reality remains that we, expatriates, have to relocate from one place to another. Thus, each of us has to be responsible for staying motivated and effective during these […]
I grew up moving from one house to another, and to tell the truth I didn’t enjoy it very much then. After all, how can any of us take pleasure uprooting our lives and having to start all over again in a new location? Research points out that change in living conditions is considered a […]
Like many of my fellow expatriates, I believed that going back home after spending time abroad should have been a piece of cake. The experience of repatriation triggered a series of uncomfortable feelings and shocked me. Although I sounded like a Brazilian, I dressed differently, could not fully understand the local news, and felt out […]
