Opening the Expat Pandora's Box

Just like Liz, Angela Vitiello moved away from New York in 2010 and has lived abroad ever since. Liz and Angela chat about the NY responses to leaving NY, balancing visits back home, finding friends, and lots more.She's now married with kids and staying put in Brussels, Belgium for the foreseeable future. She runs Expat Parenting Collective and has lots of advice for folks moving abroad or already abroad.Learn more about Angela:www.expatparentingcollective.comwww.instagram.com/expatparentingcollectivewww.linkedin.com/in/angela-vitiello-mba-ms-edwww.instagram.com/itsangelavitiello

If you're an expat or an immigrant, loneliness will hit you. OK really, if you're a human, loneliness will hit you at some point whether you like it or not. But what do we think of when we think of loneliness? Liz and Ryan share stories of when they've felt most lonely and their backgrounds and experiences shape them into very different perspectives on that same word.

Welcome to Season 2! Is your New Year's resolution to move to a new country? Or to move back to your home country after living abroad? If that's your goal for this year, here are some deeper questions to ask yourself before you buy that plane ticket.

New. More. Different. Expat life is full of excitement, growth and discovery. But what happens when we say goodbye to the life we used to have? We might have lived in a different world with different people while being a different person. And now we are somewhere so far away from there. Today we talk about the things we left behind in order to become expats.

Sometimes you fall in love with a holiday you weren't born celebrating. When Ryan, a South African, started dating Liz, an American, she shared her love for giving thanks and eating an insane amount of butter. Listen to Ryan's experiences with the holiday and what it has come to mean to him. Ryan and Liz also go into lots of detail about the Thanksgiving foods they love and traditions they have created in Portugal.

What you don't know can't hurt you, right? Well, when you think about moving to another place, and especially when you actually make a move, you might not realize that you are opening a giant Pandora's Box where you start to notice things that you never noticed before about your home, about your new home, and everything else. Sometimes it's obvious things (like New York is SUPER expensive) and sometimes more subtle (like Italy is incredibly dog friendly), but you truly do start to look at different elements of life differently and you start to question which things you are willing to have bigger compromises on and which you aren't. #expatlife #pandorasbox #questioneverything

When you move abroad, you are going to feel guilty. For what you left, for who you left, for what you’re choosing and what you aren’t choosing, for dozens of different things surrounding the topic of money, for being selfish and chasing your own dreams, for not speaking the local language “well enough”. You’re just going to feel guilty. A lot. Trust us. Ryan and Liz share a list of 10 forms of expat & immigrant guilt that we’re feeling at the moment. We’re pretty sure that at least a few of these are going to resonate.But what can you do about that guilt? Feeling guilty doesn’t change anything and it sure doesn’t fix anything. Ryan (a therapist for expats and immigrants) shares some advice on what to do about those feelings and how to best support yourself when things get tough.

In this conversation with Josh & Kalie of Expats Everywhere, we discuss the differences between travel in our early 20’s versus our 30’s, their decision to have a baby in the USA after living abroad for a decade, some ways of making friends in their new home of Portugal, and more. We love to chat with other expats, and it was really fun to compare notes with a couple who’s been abroad for so long, who also loves Slovenia, and who is living life with all of the ups and the downs in Portugal.

Just passed in Portuguese Parliament, the path for us expats and immigrants toward citizenship in Portugal is changing. Some people are fed up with how over-immigration is impacting this country and are cheering for reform. Some are livid that these changes will have a tangible impact on their lives, and not a positive one. It seems like everyone in Portugal is having big feelings right now. Online, in person, if you are thinking of moving to Portugal or living here, this is the topic of the moment. We break down what is changing, who's happy, who is unhappy, and why. Then we go through some of the social media posts we've seen. Some advice from Ryan the therapist: if you are coming at this discussion from a place of anger, maybe think about it a little more. We are all entitled to feel our feelings, but to have a fruitful conversation about a complicated topic, it's often really helpful to do your best to try to see both sides.

Fresh off of a trip to the UK, we find ourselves asking, "Could we live there?". So we take a look at some different categories: food, accommodation, transport, weather, and making friends, and try to compare Portugal with the UK. Which would you choose?