Asari from Copenhagen, Denmark recounts her grandmother’s story of coming to Copenhagen in the 1920s from Ibadan, Nigeria and her initial experience of adjusting to being somewhat of a rarity in her new home. “I was very tall and very dark and had thick long curly hair which defied every attempt at containment by any [...]
Filed under: Culture Shock, The daily grind, abroad on October 14th, 2011 | No Comments »
John, a Manhattan lawyer fell in love with NYU Guest Lecturer Margarete and decided to move back to her hometown near Hanover Germany with her. He tells us about the culture shock he received upon being chucked from big city life into a jumble of small-town minds. I must say I was less than prepared [...]
Filed under: Culture Shock, Intercultural Differences on October 6th, 2011 | No Comments »
Joyce, a mother of two, moved from her hometown in Huntsville Alabama to the Cook Islands to join her husband at where he took on a permanent position at a marine research lab. She tells us how many things in her life have changed since moving to this sunny paradise. My friends considered me lucky, [...]
Filed under: Culture Shock, Intercultural Differences, The daily grind, abroad on September 30th, 2011 | No Comments »
Celine from France has decided to quit her job in Paris and work for a non-profit organization in Kyrgyzstan. The radical change from a vibrant metropolitan city to a small rural area was a lot for Celine to handle, and she tells us some of the hardships she endured in the beginning and the epiphanies [...]
Filed under: Culture Shock, The daily grind, abroad on September 19th, 2011 | 3 Comments »
I was recently talking to my friend about how many people we knew had moved abroad and she asked me whether or not I thought that she could cut it abroad. That took me by surprise because I hadn’t really thought what it does take to be able to live abroad. I mean I was [...]
Filed under: Culture Shock on September 9th, 2011 | 4 Comments »
Julie, a psychologist from Belgium tells us about her harsh first weeks in Tokyo as an expat wife. What would be your first reaction be if someone told you that he or she had left Europe and spent three years in Japan? Probably you would say something along the lines of: “Wow! That must have [...]
Filed under: Culture Shock, The daily grind, abroad on September 5th, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Riya from Bali Indonesia met her husband Vladimir from Moscow Russia while he was on business trip in Jakarta. After a long-distance relationship that lasted a few years she decided to join him in Moscow. Here is a brief story of her initial reaction to this city that so differed hers and how she went [...]
Filed under: Culture Shock, Intercultural Differences, The daily grind, abroad on August 31st, 2011 | No Comments »
Kylie from South Africa moved abroad to Peru to work at her law firm’s new branch opening in Lima, and realized how difficult it was for her to distance herself from the other expats in order to meet local Peruvians with whom she could improve her Spanish, as well as get to know the Peruvian [...]
Filed under: Culture Shock, Intercultural Differences, The daily grind, abroad on August 24th, 2011 | No Comments »
As an expat, you often face challenging experiences alongside the fun and exciting ones. Some of them are completely banal challenges, for example, doing the grocery shopping, going to the doctor’s, or even something as simple as breakfast. Even though it doesn’t define everyone, most people are creatures of habit, and being an expat completely [...]
Filed under: Culture Shock, The daily grind, abroad on August 16th, 2011 | 5 Comments »
Bridget, a British mother of two, tried to find a middle ground between her two children’s differing opinions on moving abroad again. Before we went on our last voyage as globetrotting parents, my husband Lewis and I faced a surprising dilemma concerning our two children Maya and Max. They were both born in England and [...]
Filed under: Culture Shock, Moving to another country? Me?!! on August 1st, 2011 | 1 Comment »