#Life abroad

[rq-producerperson]

feel free to ignore this if it’s too prying/personal, but how did you end up as an expat? i’m usamerican as well, and the idea of moving out of the country is so cool to me! i’d love to know what prompted the decision and what the process was like for you :)

Heya!

Not too prying, happy to answer.

I’ve always wanted to live abroad and have been traveling to different countries since I was 17. I did an international economics program for my bachelor’s, before shifting my degree to more of a culture focus (Chinese Language and Ethnic Minorities)

I’ve worked on cruise ships, was shortlisted for Peace Corps and a Fulbright Study, both of which fell through for ✨reasons✨

UK was the first place I went out of the country and I fell in love, it’s always been the most “home” to me. Working through RQ, I’ve come to develop their production arm into a full department. Living in the US was increasingly becoming difficult with timezones and restricting the in-person events I could attend and help organize effectively.

It took about 18 months of work from HR and a third party to figure out how to do it and to make sure the company qualified to sponsor me.The UK works on a points program, so I qualify for a Specialized Worker Visa through my academic background and role level in the company.

Best advice I can give to those that want to live abroad:

- Get creative with how you travel. I am a first generation college graduate who grew up below the poverty line. I’ve still been able to travel through scholarships, odd jobs, etc. I recommend you visit a bunch of places to make sure life abroad makes sense for you, it’s not for everyone.

- Know your skills and who needs them. You can check for Skilled Worker Visas in various countries. There’s lots of places that will sponsor you if they have a job shortage in that category.

- Patience. I spent the better part of a decade floating about in weird places before I found a method that worked for me.

Good luck! And happy adventuring!

[apolline-lucy]

2024.03.25✨

menu for a productive day:

- 1 hour walk ✔️

- finish reading Modern Divination ✔️

- write 1k words for my wip - ongoing

- post about my sapphic fantasy novel THE SILVER BIRDS ✔️

- journaling ✔️

- medical check up ✔️

how’s Monday treating you? 🤎

[ariasmontage]

August 23, 2024

Today was a good day. Some of my friends graduated and I went to attend the ceremony. I was very happy for them. They deserved to be celebrated after putting in so much care in all the projects we did together.

At the ceremony, many parents also visited. It was endearing to see them cheer for their children. They bought flowers and cameras. Some of the graduates were people in their 40s and 50s who invited their spouses and kids to the ceremony. Some of the kids were so little and enthusiastic about waving hi to their mom or dad as they received the diploma.

It made me miss my family and I wondered if they'd be able to fly to Seoul to see me graduate. I could imagine how excited my mother would be as I made her meet my friends and showed her the campus.

So different from how I felt about myself last night as I cried myself to sleep. I felt like a lump of flesh thrown at my parents door and now they had to take care of it.

Anyway, after the ceremony, I went to have lunch with a friend and we talked a lot in the park with our iced coffees. The evening was perfect with its pretty sunset and the pretty shadow of the curtain on my cupboard. My online order also arrived! I would leave me if I could and I who has never known men.

When it grew dark, the cheerfulness of the day wore of and the loneliness caught hold of me. I missed mum. I don't know when I'll see her next. I called her (suppresed that I was crying), chit-chatted and hung up. 10 minutes later I allowed myself to call her and cry. I never call her when I'm upset because I know how much she'd worry about me. Today, I permitted, was granted.

End.

[abroadlifeactually]

How Did I Get Here – Moving Abroad

Where do I begin? I decided to start writing down my thoughts, reflections, and candid stories because I’m at a crossroad, and I’m hoping that writing will lead me to new revelation and help me figure out my new path.

Just to give a little background, I’m a 40 something expat housewife that feels very blessed to be in my position, but it came with its own set of challenges and a lot of change all at once. They say living abroad can be isolating, the same is said about being a new mother. Add both those things together, and you have what I was living.

I am lucky enough to have an amazing loving husband, and the most beautiful joyful child. But, before I became a wife and mother, I “did my thing”. I had a great job in a cool creative industry that people are dying to get into. I traveled around the country, interacting with famous people, staying in 5 star hotels on an expense account. I look back on that life fondly, even though, if I’m being honest, it was also filled with various degrees of sadness off and on, for a variety of reasons. I was confident, fashionable, surrounded by people who loved me, and was able to not only take care of myself, but also save money. At the time, I lived in a tiny apartment in a neighborhood that will probably never be gentrified. It allowed me to get on my feet since starting out in my industry meant low wages, and it was what I could afford. By the time I left I was making very good money, had a stacked 401k and a decent savings. Think off-rack Carrie Bradshaw, from around the way. 

Side bar, the apartment was in a tiny co-op, and my neighbors were all something out of a Tyler Perry movie. There was the old lying gossiping lady who you had to be nice to because she was the unchallenged president of the board of the last decade, and was able to pull strings to get things done for you. The successfully educated woman with the husband with a long criminal past (and at the time present) that made everyone uncomfortable. Two pastors (one of which I got into a cold war with…), and a bunch of families and good hearted people just trying to feed and take care of their families. I’m pretty sure the property management company was robbing us, and when I spoke up and tried to bring attention to it, I was accused of being messy (sigh). There wasn’t enough parking for the amount of cars of the people who lived there. The running joke was, any time a single woman purchased an apartment, it was a matter of time before her boyfriend moved in, adding to the strain on parking. It was a mess, but it was home and I lived there for a decade.

After many years, and I do mean many years of being single (which provides me with a wealth of stories), I finally met my husband. He was my manifestation list come true. I met him on an app…. which back in 2016 was unimaginable to me. I signed up with the encouragement of a friend because I was bored, and tired of traveling to the neighboring state (where I worked) to date what I deemed were men on my same page, so I decided to see who was single in my sleepy area. I found a damn needle in a haystack. I credit my years of dating for giving me the knowledge to know a good thing when I found it, and to push through the self-sabotage to snag him. We dated for 2 years, got engaged, and then had a very small destination wedding. 

With marriage came a lot of change. We were both so used to living alone, that our coupling was a huge adjustment.  We didn’t live together for the first two months of our marriage. One, because of our job locations, and two, because frankly, neither of us was jumping at the idea of giving up our spaces. We just visited each other on the weekends, and talked until we fell asleep every night like high schoolers. We finally moved in together (which is a story in itself), and after 3 1/2 years of marriage, and a baby that we worked really hard to conceive, my husband was offered a position in an Asian country. So while I was on maternity leave, 3 months after the baby was born, we moved, and I became a housewife. 

It’s been a little over a year since we arrived. I feel adjusted to my new surroundings, far far away from my loved ones, but now I’m at a crossroad. I love the privilege I have of being able to be home with my child (although, being a fulltime housewife is the hardest job I have EVER had). I have a part time nanny/housekeeper to help keep me sane, I live in a beautiful apartment overlooking one of the most amazing cities in the world, and I have a husband who happily provides for our family financially, physically and emotionally. But Instead of relishing in all of this, I’m cursed with the burden of constantly worrying about the future and trying to work it out in my head. I cannot stop agonizing about my career and if I will be able to find work with a hole in my resume. I tried to convince last job to let me stay on, but I was a pretty new employee to the company, and they were seriously committing to their return to office ……  I realize that this might be the worst sob store ever…. “poor little rich girl”, but in my defense, this feels like a fun break, and we’ll have to get back to our real lives when we return home. So here I am, trying to figure out what’s next. I absolutely do not want to return to the office after working from home for three years, and now being home for the last 1 ½  with my child. I feel like I’m still recovering from an absolutely horrendous commute I did for YEARS, I shudder when I think about it. While I loved my job while I was doing it, it required a lot of schmoozing and I just don’t have it in me to do that anymore. I’m a private person so it’s not likely that I’ll try to be an influencer, and or do something openly on social media. I started an instagram before I moved thinking I would post about my life here abroad, and quickly realized I lacked the energy for all of that. I don’t want another degree, I already have a masters. We’ll be in this country for the next few years, but I don’t speak the language (it’s written and spoken in characters i’ve never seen before, and can’t even wrap my head around, although I have made an attempt to learn it), so working here is not really possible. It’s also possible that when we leave here, we may move to another country other than home. So what’s next for me? I’m hoping to get a sign that I can’t miss that points me in the right direction, and ideally leads to some sort of an independent career. In the meantime, I’ll continue to pour into my little sunbeam, and jot my thoughts and experiences here. 

[palacholic]

today it's exactly half a year since i moved to czechia and i need to sit and process that

[stuckonpageone]

Tower of the Sun, Expo '70 Commemorative Park in Osaka, Japan ~ 2018

This is probably my favorite sculpture ever. I remember going to this park when I visited Osaka during Halloween weekend and seeing this tall, looming thing by itself on a large, well kept lawn. It's just extraordinary. I think I stood there and just stared at it for 10 minutes. It doesn't feel like something you'd find on Earth -- like it was a gift from some other planet/species as a ambassadorial gift or something. Like an inter-galactic Eifel tower.

It was made by avant-garde artist Taro Okamoto and after a quick scan of his wiki page, it was inspired by pre-colombian imagery. I think it's one of those kinds of things you either like or dislike immediately. I loved it. The second picture is still my lock screen. There's just something so incredibly captivating. And I just love the idea of making something like this in a public park for the sake of it. For the pure, absurd joy of art. We need more of it.

[nikcha]

Have you ever noticed how extraordinary it feels to be surrounded by interesting people in a city with just the right amount of enigma and the unknown? Like watching a beautiful, intelligent film—one where you may not catch every subtle reference, yet it leaves you so curious, intrigued, and inspired.

Back when I lived in Prague at 20, I felt this rush of exploration constantly. There were communities, groups, and easily climbable hierarchies of status that made every weekend feel like an intellectual bliss I looked forward to. The city had dedicated third spaces, gatherings, and events where you felt you were at the very core of the youth’s cultural and intellectual pulse. Almost every conversation felt like a spark—a connection that had depth, excitement, and a shared sense of curiosity about the world but honestly also a good amount of drama. Prague’s young scene was full of thinkers, artists, and exciting people who challenged me and pulled me into ideas I hadn’t considered.

In Berlin, it’s different. Despite all the cultural activity—concerts, parties, readings, poetry slams, debates—I rarely feel that same thrill of genuine intellectual connection. I’ve met people from interesting spheres, but it feels more scattered and anonymous here. It’s as if everyone is floating in their own orbit, and the city lacks a central cultural hotspot to bring us together. Berlin has so many spaces to go, yet few leave a lasting impact or foster that feeling of being at the heart of something intellectually alive.

When I do meet individuals I can connect with intellectually, they often feel like bypassers in a social sense—people without reach, isolated in their own small worlds, despite their interesting ideas. And where there is social reach, there is energy. In Berlin the social reach tends to be in the fashion scene, which feels super hollow. That world is fueled by superficiality, with parties that revolve around the same tired jokes, fashion slang, and a cloud of drugs that mask any real conversation. It’s a scene that’s caught up in image rather than substance, where people strive for recognition but rarely offer anything genuine.

In Prague, I felt that ideas mattered and conversations had weight. Here in Berlin, connections feel transient, based on convenience or appearances rather than a shared curiosity or intellectual bond. Social connections are often formed through university, what company you work for, or some hobbies, or maybe through the party scene, but none of it feels sustainable. It’s strange to be in a city so full of culture yet find it so hard to be genuinely inspired or challenged. Berlin has all the ingredients, but somehow, the recipe just isn’t there for me yet. The city is probably just too big to compare to Prague’s scene? Is there a hotspot i don’t know about? Am i just missing the right group of people? Am I too greedy, wanting to climb the intellectual and social ladder constantly? I don’t want to move back, I want to explore the potential of this city - I need answers.

[ivymaria]

a symphony and drinks with the girlies💕

[abroademy]

Study Abroad Consultant in Gujarat

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[bluestoneocs123]

Bluestone Overseas Consultants

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[unicanzz]

I’ve lived in a castle. Does that make me a princess?👑

[rq-producerperson]

very important question, for an American producer working with British Voice Actors:

Can any of the various RQ casts do a convincing american accent? (any region or dialect)

what do you think of Jonny’s ‘southern’ US accent? I love the mechanism’s song hellfire but I wonder how it sounds to you!

also, I’ve visited Boston, New York, Colorado and Arizona - if there would be one part or place to visit in Texas, where would you recommend? 😁

Howdy!

1. Yes actually! Shahan is a good example and was recently cast as an American in the upcoming Broken Hearted Monsters for Neon Inkwell (Billie also just recently told me she did an American role but I haven’t heard her accent yet)

2. 😬 I’ve not really listened to the Mechanisms but I have heard Jonny’s southern accent, it’s not bad but it’s difficult for me to say it’s “good” because with both Jonny and Alex it just sounds like them putting in an accent to me. I’ve been around them for so long now that the British accent is actually very neutral and whenever I hear any American accent it makes me short circuit a little

3. Anyone who visits Texas just to visit should go to San Antonio, it’s one of my favorite places but I havent been in … [mumbles in over a decade] there’s a lot of history and like VERY Texan culture there. Though it gets touristy, it’s worth it imo

[mesmemos]

The Ugly Truth of Living Abroad as a Foreigner

[ariasmontage]

October 1,2024

I tried to reset myself today. Didn't put any music the entire day, silently did everything. In bed by 9:30pm. It's finally cold enough to sleep in a hoodie. I will watch one episode of Gilmore Girls while drinking my chamomile tea and the last of the raspberry brownie. The day before yesterday, I found this 2010 club remix. I'm listening to it now. I like the cold coming from the window and this music. Memory of early teenage.

I will try to do my best, give one last push. I don't know what I mean by that but I feel it enormously. It doesn't mean anything.

End.

October 2, 2024

If an old Professor makes it a point to carry 4 old books just to show you, please know they really care about what they're teaching. And that's enough to be respectful towards them.

Another thing I've started doing is send one October related thing to my sister everyday because it's her birthday month and I miss her.

End.

October 3,2024

A lazy, warm day followed by stressful cleaning evening.

October 4, 2024

uni in the evening, uni at night 🌃

October 6, 2024

(record of October 5th below)

Went to International Firework Festival yesterday. People had taken up all the spots near the river since the morning. So we sat a little further but we could still get a pretty good view. It's such a heartwarming experience to watch the show.

During the evening before the show we picnic-ed! I had my first presentation of the semester yesterday and after class I spent an hour catching up with a friend and then went to my room to gather the things for the picnic.

[apolline-lucy]

coffee time

[palacholic]

lesser talked of experiences as someone living in a foreign country:

there will always be a part of me mourning the life i left behind. trying to imagine what it would be like. wondering whether i would be happy - or miserable all the time. missing the friends i can't see in person for long periods at a time anymore, the people I grew up with, the food my parents made, my room with all my books and anime posters and the big window and the balcony. the places i used to hang out with friends. the sounds. the smells. it's weird missing all of that and at the same time being glad that it's in the past.