Sep 9th, 2011 at 12:00PM: After six years of living part-time in Madrid, my family and I are moving to Santander, a port in northern Spain. Leaving a European capital of three million people for a regional city of less than 200,000 is going to be a big change.
Santander is in Cantabria, part of the rainy northern part of the country commonly called Green Spain. Stay turned for articles about this often overlooked region ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
expats posts
Five things I'll miss about Madrid (and four things I won't)
Sep 9th, 2011 at 12:00PM: After six years of living part-time in Madrid, my family and I are moving to Santander, a port in northern Spain. Leaving a European capital of three million people for a regional city of less than 200,000 is going to be a big change.
Santander is in Cantabria, part of the rainy northern part of the country commonly called Green Spain. Stay turned for articles about this often overlooked region ...Expat Workforce matches expats and employers
Jun 1st, 2011 at 2:00PM:
Are you an expat? Do you need a job or could you benefit from having a second gig? We found a matchmaking website that might be able to help. A new job board called Expat Workforce is connecting businesses who outsource work to English speakers living abroad. And it's absolutely free for expats.
As an expat, all you have to do is register and post a profile – which includes your ...Weekending: Varna, Bulgaria
Dec 8th, 2010 at 11:30AM:
Back in September, the end of the Muslim month of Ramadan offered locals and expats like me an excuse to go on holiday while our American friends were celebrating the end of summer and Labor Day. With more time to explore than a typical Weekending trip, I checked out Turkey's most western neighbor, Bulgaria, and fell in love with modern and medieval captials Sofia and Veliko Tarnovo.
The ...Beyond the kebab: Foodie blog Istanbul Eats now in print
Jul 28th, 2010 at 11:30AM:
Last night in Istanbul, a side street in the Galata neighborhood on the European side of town was packed with people eating Turkish street food such as çiğ köfte, salted cucumbers, and börek pastries, and drinking cold Efes beers and Turkish wines. The occasion was the publication of the book Istanbul Eats: Exploring the Culinary Backstreets,
a compilation of food and ...Weekending: Beirut
Jul 23rd, 2010 at 12:00PM:
One of the best things about life as an expat in Turkey is easy access to Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, with many previously far-flung destinations only a few hours' flight away. I might not plan a week-long vacation in, say, Kosovo, but if I can be there for Friday happy hour and home Monday morning, why not? My main criteria for choosing weekend trips are easy access, no advance visa ...Finding the expat community and what travelers can learn from them
Jul 6th, 2010 at 1:30PM: No matter how well-traveled you are, moving to a foreign country and living as an expat is a whole new ballgame. Your priorities and standards change, and hours that you may have spent as a traveler in a museum or wandering a beach are now spent in as an expat search of an alarm clock or trying to distinguish between eight types of yogurt. You become like a child again: unable to speak in complete ...Somaliland: building a nation
May 24th, 2010 at 3:00PM: The most interesting thing about traveling in Somaliland is that you get to see a country in the process of creating itself.
When it achieved independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991, there wasn't much to work with. The capital had been destroyed, a large number of people were homeless and without work, and the country wasn't recognized by the outside world. Recognition still hasn't come, ...Dealing with reverse culture shock
Feb 8th, 2010 at 6:15PM: You're returning home after living overseas. Perhaps you've been gone only a few months... or perhaps you've lived in a foreign culture for a number of years. It's possible that you became fully immersed into that host country and culture. Now, you're facing repatriation back to your home culture.
Sometimes, people experience what is known as Reverse Culture Shock when returning to their ...How to prepare for reverse culture shock
Jan 7th, 2010 at 9:28AM: You're planning your return from an extended vacation. Or, you're coming back to live in an old, familiar place after a long stint working abroad. Either way, you'll need to prepare mentally for your return home.
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/arts_culture/How_To_Prepare_for_Reverse_Culture_Shock'; Although you may have grown up in this old familiar place, returning home can be a real jolt to ...State Department website lists where American travelers have died abroad
Dec 7th, 2009 at 3:00PM: The LA Times recently linked to a tool on the US State Department website that allows you to search by date range and country to find out where around the world Americans have died of "non-natural" causes.
The information goes back to 2002. No names or details of the deaths are disclosed, they are only reported as suicide, drowning, drug-related, homicide, disaster, or vehicle, air or ...Can you go home again? A question for the long term traveler
Nov 29th, 2009 at 3:30PM: There's the adage "you can't go home again" that does bear merit, particularly if one has been gone from home for years. Perhaps you traveled back to your hometown for Thanksgiving and have a mental checklist for just how much the town has changed.
Certainly you noticed changes in yourself. Or maybe you noticed that even though you've changed, your trip back home was an indication that some ...National Geographic Glimpse program accepting applications
Oct 28th, 2009 at 12:00PM: If you are between the ages of 18 and 34 and will be living abroad for at least ten weeks between January and July of 2010, the National Geographic Glimpse program wants to hear from you.
Glimpse correspondents will take photos and write stories about their experiences abroad, receive training and support from professional editors, get a $600 stipend, and have the possibility of being featured ...Expats hit hard by economic downturn
Jun 24th, 2009 at 11:30AM: It's a popular dream--move to a sunny, beautiful part of the world where life is cheap and say goodbye to the home country forever. But the BBC has found that the dream of many expats has soured because of the economic downturn. The article focuses on the tens of thousands of British expats living in Spain, but the story could be about expats anywhere. For the past twenty years the English have ...Gadling TAKE FIVE: April 25-- May 1
May 2nd, 2009 at 10:00AM: During a week of swine flu travel news, and May Day, there have been other tidbits of interest. Here at Gadling, Catherine Bodry is back to blog some more. In her first post after her year hiatus she shares her #1 item she won't leave home without when she travels.
Along with Catherine's return, there are a number of posts to entice the thinking, sensitive traveler.
It's not too late to ...Creativity abounds if you live outside your homeland
Apr 28th, 2009 at 3:00PM: Science says expats are more creative, so it must be true. According to research published by the American Psychological Association (five studies in all), living abroad opens minds and leads to new experiences – all of which points to creativity. The research will be published in May in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Of course, the conclusion is a tad obvious, as the ...The friendliest expat countries
Feb 23rd, 2009 at 3:30PM: I'm not a big fan of lists, so please don't be surprised at my dismay with Forbes.com's newest attempt to show how Western countries are full of the friendliest people on earth. In its latest "Top Ten" list, David Sutton identifies what he believes to be the world's friendliest expat countries. The top three on his list: Canada, Germany, and Australia. Please don't get me wrong. I think these ...Former costly cities like London and Seoul are now cheaper
Dec 4th, 2008 at 12:00PM: Is there a good side to the world's economic woes? Not if you are a stock trader or banker. But if you are an expat, living in one of the world's major cities, there is an upside to the sad state of the global market. Example: London and Seoul, formerly two of the world's costliest places for expats to reside, have become quite reasonably priced. A year ago, Seoul was on par with Tokyo in terms ...What happens in Dubai stays in Dubai (Dubai's jails, that is)
Oct 6th, 2008 at 2:00PM: Just read an interesting dispatch from Britain's The Observer on the recent jailings of expats in Dubai. We've covered Poppy-gate and other unfortunate brushes with the law in Dubai, but this article really gives you a clear picture of the two worlds in this emirate: the intolerant Islamic society backed by Sharia law and the Wild West of Britain (and plenty of other nations looking to capitalize ...Living and working in Beijing
Feb 6th, 2008 at 11:00AM: I spent a chunk last year living and working in Beijing, something that I've always wanted to do. I grew up in Tianjin, which is an hour's train-ride outside the capital, and so I have fond memories of the place. There's been so much press--and no doubt it'll consume us completely by this summer--on Beijjing's rampant growth and construction, leading up to the Summer Olympics this August. But what ...The modern couch potato
Jan 14th, 2008 at 11:18PM: While I was backpacking across Peru the last couple weeks, I kept hearing about couch surfing. (And not the lazy TV-watching kind). Apparently it's become the rage of late, traveling not hostel to hostel, but couch to couch. The most established organization--and nonprofit to boot--that connects you to complete strangers who will host you while you're traveling is the Couch Surfing Project. We ...
