culture shock Archive

Moving countries during an epidemic

5 weeks in our very own repatriation journey I want to take the chance and reflect. How does it feel to move back to your home country? How does someone adjust to a culture that is familiar but distant at the same time? Oh, and yes, let’s not forget that we are all trying to create a new normal in times of Covid19.

Visiting home as the Expat

I will be flying to Europe tomorrow and living abroad for two years now my feeling about this holiday and coming „home“ has changed a bit. In this blog post, I want to share my view about this. If you are an expat yourself, you might resonate with this, if you are a friend of an Expat this might help you to understand your friend a bit better.

The Expat Syndrom and its best medicine

Especially new Expats are struggling with the so-called Expat syndrome: We tend to see only the negative parts of the new culture we are living in and praise our own culture from back home. It is human and does not define your character. It’s more of a coping strategy of the human brain for an overload of uncertainty and new beginnings. However, this attitude won’t make you happy when living abroad.

Expat Interview with Alexia

This week I want to share with you one of the interviews of the workbook with Alexia, who lived and moved abroad to exotic countries and found herself in many different roles along the way. I am sure you can learn a lot from her point of view!

News podcasts: Best podcasts to stay in touch with global developments

Here are my personal Top 5 news podcasts I follow on an almost daily basis. Some of them are more for a long drive on the weekend while others are just taking a couple of minutes – informing me about the top news before I had my first coffee of the day.

Where are you coming from?

Recently, I discovered something amusing about the way Americans introduce themselves to me.
When talking with Americans, I often hear them saying „Oh, I am also German/Italian/Dutch…“
Read my latest Monday Thoughts.

How life abroad as an Expat Partner changed my life in a positive way

Becoming the Expat Partner is not only about dependency and change in a stressful way but also offers great and unique value. Learn more about how Expat life will change your life in a positive and sustainable way.

Where is home?

Being in three different countries over the last couple of days I got inspired by the question of „Where is home“. Here is my point of view on this topic and I would love to learn more about your opinion.

Monday Thoughts: Should we stop comparing our cultures?

‘Expat Syndrome’ is a condition whereby many expatriates see mostly either the best of their own nationality and the worst of the locals, or see the opposite.“ My opinion on comparing cultures and what I learnt as a German in America.

The beauty of the Expat community – the global mind

During the past weeks and months, I had so many nice discussions within the Expat / Living abroad – community and I started to reflect on: Why does each of these conversations be so easy to me? Why do I have so much in common with people I never met before and I am only able to talk to via phone or video chat?

Monday thought: Experiencing the worst-case scenario – surgery abroad

Since I am back from Christmas in Germany it was a rollercoaster journey with my health. I went to countless doctor’s appointments…each time assured that everything will be fine and each time I had to go back to just being told that it went worse. You start to prepare yourself for the worst-case scenario: Getting surgery in a foreign country with a foreign health system.
In this blog post, I will give insights into how it feels to be that vulnerable abroad and I give some advice from my experience.

The 5 phases of culture shock and how to go through smoothly

Culture shock is what you can expect when moving to another country. It does not matter if you move to a place similar to your own culture or you are changing continents. No matter the distance, you will still experience a cultural shock and the different phases it comes with.