Life is still not normal, but it’s getting so close and I’m getting excited about that!

Today, I’m still living in rural village, 2 hours’ drive from wife’s work.
Still squatting in borrowed family home, across the street from in-laws.
My parents’ are now visiting here for a couple weeks.
My kids only seeing mom on weekends has me feeling like a single parent.

How We Feeling?

All this: the very close in-laws, borrowed home, visiting parents, single-parent lifestyle – all help to peg the needle on my stress meter. Am I handling it okay? Of course not. (It’s called stress for a reason, dammit!)
As a result, both kids and I are long for & miss our Prague friends and lifestyle in a huge way. Prague’s big parks & awesome playgrounds, daily meet-ups with friends, frequent communal programs & adventures to new places. I digress…

I can’t say I’m not trying here. Yesterday, I and the kids took my parents to a blueberry festival. I take my daughter to a storytelling hour at the library offered every 3rd week. We go swimming often. Still…replacing old normalcy with new normalcy takes time.

So, Why’s Today Special?

Today is a special day for the kids and me. Today, we drive down to Dartmouth, to see our new place. Mind you, our new home is nothing grand: a 3-bedroom apartment, converted former military housing. (love describing it that way to people – really sets their impression) But it will be Our Home.
Today will be my kids’ first time seeing their new place, their new bedroom — AND all their stuff from our former home in Prague. Talk about exciting for them!!!
So, Today is the end of our transition period from Prague to Dartmouth.
After my parents leave next week, we will actually move into our new place.
Why are we visiting it today? Tomorrow is when we can register my daughter at her new school. School start next week.

Wife’s work will be close by, so we’ll all live together. One kid in school. One kid will start a bit of daycare. Routine will a part of our vocabulary. Normalcy will begin. (whoa, did I just use “routine” as a positive thing?)

So, you see, the way I see it, normalcy isn’t here, but it’s right around the corner. I can taste it, smell it, almost touch it. Oh, I can’t wait!

Making New Expat Friends

**Total sideline here**
Last week, I met up with Andrew and Alison, a married expat couple living in Belgium. They happened to be visiting family in Pugwash (total small world).
Before last week, I only knew Andrew through his comments on this site like here & here & here. So, it was a cool experience to meet them face to face.
Great meeting you both!

Alison manages a cool website for expats in Belgium. By the way, Alison is obviously also a talented photographer. Check it out for yourself at ACM Photography page.

We shared lunch in a sweet corner cafe in the village downtown. Alison and Andrew also got to meet my wife, kids and my parents, which is pretty cool for me.
They are a super nice couple and obviously in a happy place in their lives. And for me, it was therapeutic to talk to fellow expats.

Again – really cool meeting you Andrew & Alison!

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I’m used to Prague already. I’m not “done” with it, not by any stretch.

But I realize that I am used to Prague.
How did I realize that? I spent this past weekend in Berlin, Germany. And it was great.

Why was it great? First, because I spent it with my family, plus another couple of friends and their kids. All good stuff. But for us all, Berlin was great, because it was a change.
We returned to Prague and the elation was gone. (Except for our collective 4 small kids who were pretty damned ready for bed)

Forget food, clothing, and shelter. What we need is change.

For me, CHANGE is:
- the single biggest time-slower
- the single most effective catalyst to appreciate what we got
- the single harshest reality slap

Change is a time-slower, because it forces you stop and focus. With change, auto-pilot gets turned off and you grab the controls. You ask yourself more questions (or you begin asking any questions).

Change helps you appreciate what you got. Depending on the change, maybe you more appreciate what you had; maybe you more appreciate the gain.
In either case, you and I both usually take that change and make it for the better.

And change can be a reality slap. I think we both know this reality slap in one form or another.

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What the hell?!? What are you doing? Why haven’t you done something about it already?
Yes, I’m talking to you! Dammit, man – pay attention!

Pull your seat a little closer, sit up straight, close your gaping mouth and listen.
Really. Focus. Pay attention…

You’re sitting there, behind your desk, in front of your computer screen. It’s Tuesday today, but that isn’t really important. It could be Monday, it could be Wednesday, it could be any work day of the week.

This week, next week, next month. It’s all the same. Same desk, same PC. Same Tuesday. Same, same, same.

I received a comment today. Some guy asking about getting a Czech driving license on my Czech driving license post.
Then it hit me – I haven’t received a comment in a long while.

No one asking “But what about…?” or “How would I…?”
Well, what about you? Why haven’t You written that question?

Am I writing this for my health? No. Sure, writing this blog gives me a smile.
But more importantly, it should be giving you ideas, motivation, the “ah-ha” moment to start a plan, screaming “By God, I’m going to Do It!”.

It’s okay. I see now you need steps. A Step-by-Step plan. Tell me if I’m right or comment below.

Before I dive into creating some all-encompassing how-to guide…let me ask some beginner questions:
1. Do you have a passport?
May seem simple, but it’s important, so I’ll repeat it. Get a passport. Caution: when you hold it in your hand, you may experience a little tingle. It’s normal.

2. Do you have your shit in order?
I mean, no $30,000 credit card debt, no summons in the mailbox, no parole officer hassling you… If none apply, you’re good to go.

3. Are you generally a happy person?
The answer is likely yes. However, if you feel like slicing your wrists after watching a sad TV commercial, then culture shock may not sit well with you. If you are a generally happy person, then you’re good to go.

Can You Do It? – Yes!
Deciding to just pack it all up and experience life elsewhere ….it’s not a hard decision.
It’s a very easy one. The hard part is in doing it.

They did it.
But it can be done. Most recently, just this past weekend, a couple I know (through this blog) did it. (Damn, I can almost hear the Dora the Explorer end theme song: “We Did It – Hooray!”)

They started with an open “What if” type of e-mail. Then they were busy on the ExpatYourself forum. I’ve been in e-mail contact, answering their questions from time to time. Just a sweet, normal couple from Arizona. Now they live and will be teaching in Prague, Czech Republic.
They did it. And so can You.

I look forward to hearing from you.
-Jeff

p.s. Have you read any of these books? A friend recommended them to me. If you have read them, I’d like to hear what you think.

The Four Hour Work Week

Rework

Switch

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Here’s my situation…
Me and the family will take a long vacation before moving.
We rented a motorhome for the month of June.
We pick up our motorhome in Frankfurt, Germany.

Ah, but where do we go?
That’s the snag. Frankly, we can’t decide. West? South? North?? East???
So, since I so love this blog, I decided to let you pick.

My plan is simple: I make a poll. You vote. We travel.
I set up my very first poll below. It was actually fun to make.
I also offer a map, sort of, showing our choices. Of course, I’m no artist, so each route is hardly exact, but you get the idea.

Check them out. You vote. That’s it.
The result? Whatever “wins” – we spend the month driving that way for our June vacation.
Really, we will go wherever the winning votes tell us to go. Don’t get too excited, though. It’s not like you’re coming with us or anything, unless you can get here by 1 June.

Oh, one last word. If you’ve got an idea I didn’t mention, or you have an itinerary that you really think we should do, then leave a comment below. Be compelling; I’ll reply to all.

Thanks for your vote. I can’t wait to see where we’re going!
-Jeff

Red, Green, Orange or Yellow?

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For almost anyone, the idea of transferring money can be stressful. If you’re like me, you’re triple-checking it “went through” even if transferring money between accounts of the same bank.

But this article is not about accounts in the same bank, nor about banks in the same country. This is about international money transfers.

I’m talking about doing it across the ocean,

when source and/or destination doesn’t speak English,

and you’re not a financial guru anyway. …yup, stressful.

Well, stress no more.

I’ll do this in a couple parts.
In Part I: we go over some words we’d better understand.
In Part II, we’ll go over some principles about foreign exchange, and do some scenarios.
In Part III, we’ll recap, plus set some expectations about fees.

PART I
Disclaimer #1: I am not a bank nor a financial expert. Seek the helpful advice of a relevant professional, like your bank’s customer representative. I can accept no liability for the disappearance of your life’s savings as a result of your following this blog post.
In short, take me with a grain of salt.

Words To Know

SWIFT
The network of banks. Nearly every bank on the world is a part of the SWIFTnet network. And every bank has what’s called a SWIFT code, or BIC. If you see an 11 character code- that’s the BIC.
By the way, SWIFT stands for “Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication.”

BIC
BIC is a code for the bank (It stands for bank identifier code). It’s a unique number for each bank, just like your social security number is unique to you. BIC is also called the SWIFT code. The SWIFT code or BIC is always 8 or 11 characters. A bank’s primary office has 8 characters. If it’s a local branch, the last 3 specify that branch. For example, NatWest in London is NWBKGB2L. Or Kommercni Banka in Prague is KOMBCZPP.
If you need your bank’s BIC code, look on their website or just ask for it.

IBAN
IBAN is a code for 1 bank account (it stands for International Bank Account Number). Caution: it’s an intimidatingly long string of numbers and letters, starting with a code per country, bank & account.
You must ask for your account’s IBAN number, because it denotes YOUR account.

Bank Transfer
This is what we’re on about, right? To transfer money, you need a IBAN and a BIC. That’s it. Oh, and the money to transfer.

Only so many hours in a workday…tune in til next post when we’ll discuss principles of foreign exchange and cover some scenarios.

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A few months ago I subscribed to Seth Godin’s blog. Every day I get a short observation e-mailed to me. If you haven’t heard of Seth Godin, click on the link on his name for the Wiki article. Fairly amazing, self-made dude.

Anyway, today’s pearl of wisdom is about TV. Or the complete lack of it in Seth’s life. Seth doesn’t watch TV since he feels “there are so many other things I’d rather do in that moment.”

Ditto.
I & the mrs. (dating at the time) stopped watching TV several years ago.

Here’s our story: the show “Survivor” just started. Remember the show where strangers stranded on an island had nothing to do but 5-minute game-show contests? Their staged problems and bickering, distilled down to 20 minutes plus commercials. And all for our entertainment. Behold, Reality TV.

Two Different Directions

So, right after we watched this first Survivor episode, my wife said (and I think I remember her words well) “What the fuck have we become today? What was that? What are we doing with ourselves?”
I took a mental step back, paused and agreed. She was totally right.

Survival, defense mechanism took over. I opened my toolbox, grabbed a pair of diagonal pliers, and cut our TV’s coax cable to the wall. “There. No turning back from that,” I said.

That was 10 years ago. We haven’t owned a TV since.

Sure, when we’re with friends, at a bar or at their house and the TV is on, we have to be careful not to get sucked in. TV is a novelty now. If we’re not careful, we catch ourselves staring, with our mouths hanging open, …drooling. It’s not pretty.

No one asks what we’ve done “instead.” Maybe the answer might be painful to hear. I will say this: Our Own Choice. We’re no prize winners, but we have accomplished much more than if we hadn’t disconnected. After a few weeks, the lifestyle difference was already huge.
I know I won’t convince anyone. It’s something you know only after a decision to quit.

What are some disadvantages of quitting TV? I hear about Oscars night & the Superbowl only in the news. I miss them, consistently. They’re not something I especially wait for, or hear much about until the morning after.

Do we watch any TV? Yes! We were once hooked on “24″ and “Weeds.” For the show “24,” we watched 4 full days worth (4 seasons) But after that, Jack just couldn’t keep our attention. “Weeds” hasn’t come back after the fifth season, so I guess we’re done there, too.
And now our latest is “The Big Bang Theory.” Love those guys. Thanks to the Internet, we can find and watch these fairly easily. It’s all brain candy, but we’re comfy getting our brain candy in single serving portions.

Anyway, enough of the soapbox.

But I have to question this much… if we never disconnected, would we have left? Would we have become expats? I’m confident that yes, we would have wanted to move.
But I’m not sure the jump would come so easily.

Something to pause and think about.

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In case you don’t visit often or haven’t before now – I’m moving.
Well, we’re a family of four, so We’re moving.

Today, we’re expats in Prague, Czech Republic, but we will move overseas back to North America. This post is the first of several to show how we’ll do it.

It’s now March 10th.
We have a plan: we’ll leave Prague on May 30th.

The planning after that is a bit of a grey area.
You ask “How gray?” …Charcoal?

Let’s see – 10 March to 30 May. That leaves just under 3 months, or about 11 weeks.
For a family of four, I would say that 3 months is cutting it close, about the minimum to make it “not-so-stressful.” But we’re going for it. I’ll write about what we’re up to, in case some family out there may find it helpful, too.

So, what have we done to get ready?

Last week, we bought flights to Halifax, Canada. We still have our fingers crossed for New York city as well, but it’s still not 100% for certain.

We signed a contract with a property management company. They will handle our apartment we bought here 2 years ago.

We drafted a spreadsheet of To-Do items like closing bank accounts, health insurance, selling stuff, packing/shipping our stuff ….those little things, right?

Obviously much more to do – stay tuned!

Moving abroad is big deal, but it can be done. Sure, I’ve moved abroad a few times already, but I still get nervous before each big move.

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This is a Big Topic: the visa process.

By the way, when expats talk about visas, we ain’t talking credit cards!

Whenever I hear the question How do I get a visa?, I cringe. I cringe because I know it’s the most common question to ask and the most difficult one to answer.

Some people may stop at “Well, it just depends on the country.” Instead I will write a series of posts, hopefully answering some of the first and tougher questions about the visa process.

Any questions on your mind? Ask them in the comments here or in the forum.

I got my ears open. Stay tuned…

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“I want to be an expat” – a dream of over 700 million people.

A survey, which took 3 years to complete, was finally released. The survey asked “Would you like to start a new life abroad?”.
Across 130 countries, 16% of the people answered “Yes.”

What countries were most popular?
Mostly developed western countries, plus Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Where does everyone want to go?
If everyone had their wish, the United States would swell by 165 million people (growing it by 50%)
Canada would bring in 45 million people (a whopping 150% boost!)
France, Thailand and Britain each would grow also by another 40+ million people.

What’s the biggest motivator for all these people?
Jobs. For many folks, the big deciding factor whether to stay or go was employment. Do you want to work abroad?
Last year, HSBC released a report about expats which reported that half of surveyed expats are in their residence country and plan to stay because of a better contract than they could get back home. Another tidbit: more than half had lived outside their home country for longer than 5 years.

Both the HSBC report and the very recent Gallup survey show a growing trend: people are seeking to become expats.

credit: Source article

“I want to be an expat” said by 700 million people. That’s a lot of people. It’s a big dream. Start now, while you’re ahead of the pack.

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