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Imagine that after months of frustrating job search, you finally get an offer that can change your life. Not only is it the perfect match for your skills and experience, but it is also coming from a different country. The pay is great, and relocation expenses are covered. You are excited, you are making arrangements to leave. And, most likely, you are not at all ready for one of the following scenarios.

Parenting is one of the most (if not THE most) life-changing experiences one can go through. But as much as this responsibility is shared, it is often the mothers who experience this change tenfold. And if you experience motherhood whilst working abroad, this transformation can feel even more profound. And for many expat women, motherhood in a foreign country marks a professional turning point.

Living abroad makes birthdays feel a bit strange sometimes, especially when you're far from family and close friends. One of my first birthdays alone abroad, I got myself a ticket to an empty hotel beach and spent the day sitting alone under the sun, wondering if that was the weirdest and saddest way to spend a birthday. But as I started writing this article, I've realized that doing randomly unconventional things for your birthday abroad is actually not that random, and quite common.

Starting at a new school used to be about standing in lines, printing folders of documents, and going on campus tours. Today, in many schools, the enrollment process looks very different. Lots of things can be done online 鈥� and sometimes the first time you and your child will step foot in the new school will be on the actual first day. For expats and their kids, this is a trend that works in their favor. Because now they can explore, apply, interview, tour, and even enroll in a school before they are even there. Here's how it works.

The biggest difference between moving counties and moving continents is the distance. Duh, you might think. But it's not only the physical distance itself. It's also how this distance feels. Moving from Spain to Germany is a big life change. But not quite as big as moving from Germany to Brazil. You are now a Transatlantic flight away from everything that you used to know as home. And even if the culture may not be that different, everything else probably is.

Working in an office can feel really isolating. True, you are surrounded by people. But everyone around you is busy, working on their projects and meeting their deadlines. Take this situation abroad, and you are adding in language barriers, cultural differences, workplace misunderstandings鈥� Before you know it, you may find yourself turning to ChatGPT for social comfort, and liking it. But in this article, we want to explore why human connection in the workplace still matters, especially for expats. And why you absolutely should have a work buddy, and how to find one.聽

There is so much more that goes into the choice of a university today than even a decade ago. International students especially have the whole world to choose from. And while before students were more focused on the theoretical benefits of a certain degree, today, with so many less traditional options for learning (online, via social media, private tutoring, etc.), there is a lot more a traditional institution has to offer, especially given the price of formal education.聽

One thing we keep repeating throughout our study abroad articles is this: being an international student can be a great, and often life-changing experience. But what is stopping a lot of students from experiencing international study is often not something abstract like the fear of the unknown, but something very practical and tangible: the cost. Luckily, there are quite a few scholarships aimed specifically at international students.聽

Imagine your kid's school bans junk food in the cafeteria. That's good, right? But what if they also start monitoring what you have packed for your child's lunch? No more sugary drinks, processed snacks, fried foods, and sweets. So, those little treats you were adding to your kid's lunch to cheer them up, or a familiar snack from home, are no longer allowed. This is not an imaginary situation but the reality for parents in Abu Dhabi.

Moving to a new country comes with lots of costs. We explore a lot of these in our living abroad guides.聽But some costs are more abstract and don't really reveal themselves until much later.聽This is often the case with the relationships that we 鈥渓eave behind鈥� back home.

Just a few years ago, living in a big city seemed to be a direct association with success. And so was moving to a big city. And a lot of expats, when relocating, were more driven towards big cities for this reason too. But things seem to be changing. If social media is to be believed (and yes, this is very debatable), a lot of people now prefer, given the choice, to settle away from the noise of a big city. Smaller sustainable communities are starting to emerge.聽

We often talk about how difficult relocation can be for adults. You lose connections with friends and sometimes even family, you suffer from language fatigue, you need to adapt to a completely new way of life. This can be really hard on adults. But then what about children?

So you've decided to have a roommate. As an expat, this is often a reasonable idea. You are in a new place, you want to save money, and looking for an apartment on your own may seem a bit intimidating.聽But how do you go about looking for a roommate? More importantly, how do you go about it safely and efficiently?

Expat families encounter many surprises. One of them is that the school calendar used back home may be entirely different from that in your new destination. It may seem more logical for the academic year to be universal. But this is not the case: school schedules are affected by a lot of things: climate, historical traditions, cultural norms, and more.

For many people, Christmas and New Year are familiar markers of the year, shaped by traditions they have grown up with. But not everyone shares the same cultural calendar. For expats from countries where Christmas is not widely celebrated, living in a place where the holiday dominates public and social life can be surprisingly disorienting. Decorations, music, and rituals suddenly become unavoidable, turning a festive season into a reminder of cultural distance. In this article, we look at how expats experience this contrast and how they learn to adapt when Christmas is not their holiday.