If we move a little further east, the dinner of the Dubai community was surely delicious as well, but they had an additional reason to come together as they wanted to celebrate Ramadan with a typical after-sunset meal. The intrepid InterNations explorers from Kathmandu, too, wanted to participate in an important cultural and religious event, leaving the capital to visit the local Gai Jatra procession in the beautiful streets of neighbouring Bhaktapur, a highlight of Nepal’s historical heritage. Two of our Chinese communities had planned a special surprise as well: Everyone in Hong Kong was invited to a boat trip with a breath-taking view of the famous skyline along the Pearl River Delta, and the Shanghai Ambassadors generously (and gladly) sacrificed part of their weekend to guide selected members on a VIP tour through the numerous pavillions of this year’s EXPO in town.

Last but not least, two extra events in Australis and the Americas were dedicated to the delights of both local and international food: A close-knit group took a leisurely stroll across Brisbane’s farmer market before taking brunch together, and Brasilia’s potluck party was a perfect opportunity for the guests to exchange delicacies and recipes from their respective home countries.

(Pictures by Steven Schönauer & Derrick Sanyahumbi. Thanks!)

My Events Page — Upcoming Events List:

The Munich August Beach Party looks pretty cool, Margaret thinks: It’s for “socializing and networking”, the event description says, but also “for dancing and partying” later on – just the thing she is searching for, more casual rather than formal and business-like. Since there are already 401 attendees (from 59 nations, the detailed list she discovers after clicking on the >>See complete guest list link tells her), she’s sure to find someone who’s either in need of an English teacher or a sports partner.

Maybe she’ll even try to buy this Albatross Membership – a premium membership status, she rightly assumes – because Albatross Members will have an extra entrance without waiting in a queue and will get in for free. But there are still a few days left for her to consider this decision. After all, the Albatross status will only get checked at the door, and everyone seems to get a free welcome drink anyway.

Albatross or not, Margaret has decided that she wants to join the event and get to know other expats. The comment section tells her that she won’t be the only newcomer at the get-together: Miyuki from Brazil and Andrea from Italy mention that it’ll be their first time too and that they’re looking forward to getting acquainted with great new people. Without further hesitation, Margaret makes up her mind and clicks the “Accept Invitation” button right next to the photos. She’ll probably share it with her local contacts on Twitter and Facebook later. And via the >>Invite People to Event feature, she can e-mail her closest friends in Munich directly.

Now when exactly does the event begin? Next Thursday on 19:30? Or was it 20:00? And where was the venue again? In the right-hand column with the start date and the address information (boy, is she grateful for the little Google map as she doesn’t quite manage to get her bearings in Munich yet) Margaret also spots that the Munich Ambassadors are hosting this event. So, time to check out the Ambassadors Page via the Members tab in the upper navigation bar! Two fellow Americans, she notices with delight – she now has the opportunity for a brief meet’n’greet next week!

InterNations Local Community — Ambassadors Page (Munich):

If you still have some money to spare this month, maybe you can use it to support the people of Pakistan. Take care to avoid telemarketing fundraisers, though, since they are sometimes employed by for-profit agencies that keep a sizable share of your donation themselves. Instead, rely on established charities such as UNICEF, Oxfam or the ICRC, which have already got helpers in the affected regions. With them, you can also designate your contribution and do some research in their annual financial reports whether your donation actually reached the people who needed it most. Last but not least, you can easily give online on their secure donor sites.

If you have any particular charity you’d like to recommend, you can also do so in the InterNations Forum.

In Asia and the Middle East, we received particularly positive feedback from the InterNations Communities in Doha and Singapore. The exclusive location in Singapore with its selection of fine wines, great InterNations specials, and prize raffles is by now a well-established feature in the local event calendar. Within only a few months, though, the relatively new expat gatherings in Qatar attracted over 100 guests, probably owing to the beautiful high-class setting of the latest event. Our largest communities in China, i.e. Beijing and especially Shanghai, set new local attendance records as well – their promising locations, too, seem to have lured our members out of air-conditioned offices and apartments despite the stifling summer temperatures of China’s metropoles.

One special event that we haven’t mentioned yet was the InterNations daytrip of the Munich Community to neighbouring Salzburg. A close-knit group of InterNations members from southern Germany had the chance to go on a private tour organized by the InterNations Team and explore the quaint Austrian town. Perhaps the daytrip will even set a precedent for future explorations in other InterNations communities as well.

(Pictures by Mark Hammami and Guy Raguin. Thanks a lot!)

When she clicks the “More Forum Posts” link on the Munich Community page, she finds the local forum overview for the categories “Town Talk”, “Expat Q&A”, “Jobs”, “Housing” and “Marketplace”. This brings back memories from her earlier days as an expat woman on the Internet in the late 1990s, before the advent of social networking, when she used to post mainly on virtual bulletin boards for strangers living in Tokyo or Berlin. Here, too, InterNations members are getting organized according to their different nationalities (perhaps Margaret might drop by at the Canadian Club once in a while since she spent an important part of her childhood in Toronto…); they are looking for support with typical expatriate issues such as certified translations of official documents (ah, the joys of paperwork, Margaret thinks), researching the job market in Bavaria, hunting flats or even furnished rooms for short-term rent and selling their used IKEA furniture for a bargain when they have to leave town in a hurry to go on their next assignment. So far, so familiar.

Margaret does not leave a comment yet, but subscribes to a thread where an expat from Poland is looking for a language exchange partner — the e-mail notifications for every new reply will remind her that since she might come back to this woman’s offer later. But it’s the Event Section with its announcement of an upcoming InterNations Summer Party in about three weeks that really catches her interest. A beach bash in the middle of a German city that’s almost 1000 kilometres from the nearest seacost? An international night out with free welcome drinks and dancing at one of the coolest venues in town? Now that’s definitely different from the other expat websites she remembers. Margaret is now intrigued … but more about that in the next installment of our series.

The Guided Tour in particular will help expats interested in InterNations to get a better impression of what the site is all about, from our strong local focus over the function of an InterNations Ambassador to the regular events we’re offering, and its sleek new look fits our community to a t. So, if you are a prospective member who would like to know more about the InterNations Community or a newly joined expat who wants to have an easy overview of our site, just explore the link above.

In the Players Cup, a limited edition Apple iPod nano with engraved InterNations logo, went to third place, a German InterNations member in the Rhineland. An American in Munich, one of the local star players and the second highest-ranking participant, can also look forward to a brand-new Apple gadget, an 8GB iPod touch. However, he was overtaken at the last moment by Toronto’s top player, who had guessed both champion and vice-champion correctly and thus earned lots of bonus points: An expat from Switzerland secured himself the first prize for his next holidays, a flexible flight voucher worth up to 1.000 Euro.

Congratulations to all the lucky winners! Congratulations are also due for the Top Three in the Communities Cup. With a very narrow lead ahead of Antwerp, the Lyon Community claimed rank no. 3, winning free beer for all guests at an InterNations event of their choosing. The football experts in Ottawa, who made second place, will be drinking prosecco at their get-together. And the lucky champions in Tallinn? They can be toasting their success with free champagne, courtesy of InterNations.

A special thanks goes to all our enthusiastic participants! Even if you were not among the fortunate winners, we hope that you enjoyed this competition as much as we did. See you around when the Cup goes to São Paulo in 2014!

Since her registration, the Community Ambassador contacted her to give her a personal welcome; but Margaret doesn’t quite understand the position of an InterNations Ambassador yet, making a mental note to explore this later. The standard message from our InterNations Team Account explains how to build and enlarge her contact network on InterNations: Margaret, however, realizes that her profile doesn’t provide other members with much information right now. This, she decides, has to change before she starts connecting with others. How else should they find out whether their interests and occupations match?

By clicking on the “My Profile” link in the navigator box on the left side of the start page, Margaret indeed finds her own profile page very quickly – and is amazed how blank and non-descript it still looks. So, what to update first? Maybe a recent photo that’s already stored on her hard disk. She just needs to click on the red “Upload” button and browse the pictures from her own computer to opt for one. The “Edit Profile” button, she assumes, should let her fill in more information immediately.

Margaret’s profile before her update (click to enlarge):

Margaret’s profile during the updating process, new picture included (click to enlarge):

Going through the three different tabs – general, which covers her international experience; private, where she can share more about her origin and her hobbies; professional, to present her education and work experience – Margaret eventually comes up with a profile she finds much more satisfying and presses the Save button. Now other InterNations members can see that she spent some time in Germany before and in France and Japan as well. In fact, she worked as an expat English teacher since she has got an M. Ed. for English as a Second Language from Seattle University – a qualification she thought important to mention too. She’s looking for new friends in Munich, and she’s hoping to find nice, open-minded people with a similar passion for backpacking, hiking, creative writing or motorcycle tours…

Margaret’s new profile (click to enlarge):

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