Jan 30

Jan 30 6 Ways I Will Never Be the Same After Moving Internationally

Happy New Year! It has been almost exactly 18 months since I moved out of the USA and I have learned so much in my experiences as an expat. While I currently live in Lebanon, this isn’t my first time living abroad. I have spent a few years living in Italy as well. If you want to learn more about my life in Italy, be sure to watch this videos on my YouTube channel!

I recently watched a video recently on TFD, one of my favorite YouTube channels, and it was about how Chelsea’s experience living in France changed some of her daily habits and it really got me thinking. I realized that after counting up the time I spent living in Italy and living in Lebanon, I have spent 5 years of my adult life out of the USA, and both stretches have been in the formative years of my mid 20’s and now mid 30’s.

The time I spent in foreign countries was punctuated by graduate school, my first job heading a major project and really being in charge, learning languages, having a destination wedding and building a global life with my husband.

It has definitely been quite a ride, so here are 6 ways I have permanently changed after living abroad.

6 Ways I Will Never Be the Same After Moving Internationally

I Take a Lunch Break

I’m from New York city, so the earlier years of my career were spent ordering lunch, doing a mad grab from reception, then eating with one hand while continuing to type with the other. But after I moved to Italy it was a whole new ball game.

My entire team and I would walk out for lunch, grab an outdoor table and sit down for a multiple course lunch - sometimes with wine! We were usually gone for at least an hour, sometimes an hour and a half every day of the week and guess what. Projects still got done, deadlines still got met, the entire company didn’t fall apart because the team decided not to scarf sad salads at their desk.

While it may be hard to push back on the kind of American corporate culture that normalizes intense work hours with little to no breaks during the day, try to experiment just a little bit. Assuming you’re back in the office every day, start slowly breaking the sad lunch desk habit at least twice a week. You will come back feeling recharged, relaxed and ready to be more productive the rest of the day.

I take all of my vacation days

I say this all the time, but one of the best things about living abroad is the ease of travel. Whether it’s by plane, train or road trip, everything suddenly is so much closer and more accessible once you leave the USA. Long weekend escapes are common, but so are 3 week long summer vacations where the office essentially closes and everyone goes on a beach vacation.

Unfortunately the average American only has 10 days vacation and some companies still have draconian policies about how you can accrue your vacation days and how many can be used in one stretch. But I make it a point to use every single vacation day available. The only reason I think it’s legit to keep some days in a calendar year is if the company lets you roll your accrued vacation days into the next year and you want to save them for a longer trip. And on another note, if you have sick days that you never use, give yourself a break!

Sick days exist for a reason, and if you are feeling under the weather it is within your right to use them. Too many of us feel the need to haul ass to the office while sneezing and coughing our lungs out, or even just being on the mend. Don’t be a hero, give yourself a break and call out, even if you just rest up on your couch or take a mental health day out of the office.

I am more careful about my spending

Some of the habits that I’ve picked up in Lebanon in particular will always stay with me, and one of them is carefully monitoring my spending. Lebanon is a cash economy - because of everything happening with the economy and local currency credit card use here is nonexistent. Everyone goes out at all times with a fat stack of cash and because of that I am so much more cognizant of my spending.

If I’m out at dinner I choose my entrée carefully and do a mental count of the cash in my wallet versus the cost of a second drink or dessert because I have to physically have the cash to cover my meal and anything else I did before dinner or planned to do after. While it can be an inconvenience to have to plan so carefully - not because you can’t afford it but simply because swiping a card isn’t an option, it does help keep my spending curbed because racking up credit card debt is simply not an option.

And yes there have been many times where I have changed social plans because I didn’t get to take money out before it was too late or found my stack of cash running low. There is also very little spontaneity - walk by a store and want to buy a cute dress - too bad. Overspent earlier in the day and found out all your friends are heading to your favorite bar later? Not you. But I do love that most stores are really flexible with holding items because they know everyone in the country is in the same boat.

I socialize in ways that don’t just revolve around eating or drinking

In the US most of my social plans revolved around brunches, dinners, and bar hopping, but since I’ve been an expat I spend more of my weekends doing cultural or physical activities. When you first move abroad it can definitely feel like an extended vacation, and all of the things you might pack into a few day trip, you tend to spread out over time. You definitely want to get to them, but you know that you have time.

So a lot of my socializing has started to revolve around sightseeing, museums, touristic or cultural activities, day trips, or even things like hiking or going on a long random walk around the city.

I have a more relaxed approach to beauty

Back at home I had my regular favorite salon and stuck to my regimen and favorite places like clockwork. But living abroad and bouncing between countries forces you to take your chances at new places, or figure out ways to do it yourself. I have experimented with cuts and color in Lebanon, getting sew in weaves in Paris and learned how to perfect a lot of my hair styling and updos for formal events that popped up here and there.

Bouncing around countries means a willingness to relax whatever standards of beauty you may have held yourself too, especially when it comes to blending in. Now, women in Lebanon definitely get glam, like even beyond glam. So I have plenty of opportunities to get dressed up and done up. But some of my other expat friends live in places where it’s not culturally acceptable to go out in a full face of makeup complete with lashes and perfectly coiffed hair just for a grocery run. Take your approach from the locals in the country you are living in, and don’t overthink not having access to your favorite salons or treatments at home.

I am always prepared to leave

And last but not least on a sad note, living as an expat is an amazing experience, but one that is not without its fair share of instability. So considering that one thing that expat life has permanently changed for me is the fact that I am always ready to leave. The last few years have turned the world upside down, and with increased political, economic, and environmental instability - I am always ready to dip at a moment’s notice. That means always having the funds available to book a last minute plane ticket and a plan for where I would go in an emergency.

For example, if shit ever really hit the fan in Beirut, I know that while there are very few daily flights to the US, there are about anywhere from 6-10 daily flights to cities like Istanbul, Paris, Doha, and Frankfurt, so even if I can’t get home, I can definitely get somewhere else.

I am a huge fan of the go bag - an emergency grab it and run backpack, but I also always keep a carry-on suitcase halfway packed with some basics so I could actually properly pack it in just a few minutes. Give some thought to how you have prepared yourself for an emergency or evacuation. It’s the very unsexy part of traveling and living abroad, but the kind of planning that could potentially save your lives.