Five Things I Love About My Expat Life

Amanda van Mulligen who writes her own blog about her life in the Netherlands "Expat Life With a Double Buggy" suggested a blog link up over the coming weeks on a number of different blog titles. This is a great opportunity to see the views and opinions of a number of bloggers on a range of related topcis. We have never participated in one before but as fans of Amanda's blog we decided to join in.

This week’s topic is a great positive one, inviting us and you to share “Five Things I Love About My Expat Life”

Evelyn and I have given our top five below, we agree on some but not all and actually it was difficult for both of us to limit ourselves to just five. How about you? As well as being interesting to share and read these stories it’s a great way to enhance your focus on the positive aspects of life, wherever you live in the world, something Martin Seligman calls “Positivity” and an important element of his five point framework for flourishing in life.

Louise:

1. The exposure to different cultures and languages have opened my mind to many different ways of thinking, being and acting. Some more effective than others but always good food for thought.
2. Knowing that challenging times pass and there is learning in every single one.
3. Career: mobile lifestyle has challenged me to reinvent my career and given me the experience and insights to fuel my career.
4. International friends: they enrich our lives and open our minds challenging embedded perspectives and beliefs.
5. Going home: it is always with great excitement that we head back to the UK for holidays. Visiting relatives and friends has greater intensity and the more years we are away the more we see the good things about our home country. We have found that “absence definitely makes the heart grow fonder.”

Evelyn:

1. The fact that life is always interesting sometimes in a good way sometimes in a Chinese curse kind of way (May you live in interesting times is a Chinese curse!!).
2. The amazing people with whom I have crossed paths - some who have remained in my life, others who were there only briefly.
3. The way it has helped my children to develop confidence and open mindedness.
4. The way it has expanded my horizons - personally and professionally.  I could never even have imagined the life that I’ve led when I graduated from university
5. I love that feeling of being able to visit cities around the world and feel at home.

Now Your Turn:

What five things do you love about your life abroad? Add a comment below we’d love to hear from you.