I am an Australian that has been living the expat lifestyle for eight years now. This has been the most amazing journey for myself and my husband. However there is so much to learn, experience and endure when it comes to leaving your family and friends to start your new life. What I have experienced and heard from many a expat with the relocation to a new country brings new experiences as well as
many challenges. Sometimes lack of family and friends understanding of why you are making or have made the move away. I would love expats to share their highs and lows to assist others currently doing the same just like them or to the new expat that is about to embark on this new chapter in their lives. We are a community bound together by the sheer existence of being an Expat away from our loved ones and the familiarity of our own country and cultures. Living sometimes in countries where we don't speak the local language and in some cases may drive on the opposite side of the road. Medical appointments can bring on anxiety due to language barriers, having babies in a foreign country. Visa applications that somehow never to go as smoothly as you are told they will. Finding suitable housing and schools for your children is the first big issue you may encounter once accepting your new relocation.Most important leaving the people you love most and understand you like no other! The list is endless and just when you think you actually may know how the system works...it changes and you may as a foreigner be the last to know. Quite often our friends and families confuse expatriation/expat life as a continuous holiday that we are on. Us as expats know only too well that this is so far from the truth but I suppose we to blame in some instances. We just can't help posting our experiences which can become quite additive to say the least. Whether it be pictures of different cuisine from back home, beautiful architecture, amazing countryside, holidays to new exciting countries or just day to day life that is so new to us. We don't do this intentionally but it may not always come across that way. Social media is like a continuous photo album and journal of our life as an expat. Just like you do when you go on holidays and go to social events. Don't think for one minute we don't feel envious of YOUR posts from back home. We would love to be at that party with all our family & friends or the all too many weddings we can't attend. The births, the deaths, birthdays, Mother Days, Fathers Days, the milestones and achievements of you all can make us oh so very homesick. And yes do have some very bad days too! So this page is to help you understand The Good,The Bad and The Downright Ugly Side our Expat Life!
