When my husband was first given an offer to work in Switzerland, the first thing I did was ask the question, "should I move abroad?" Unfortunately, I asked Google, and Google didn't really have an answer for that. But British writer and journalist Paul Allen does. He's written an ebook called, Should I Stay Or Should I Go? The Truth about Moving Abroad and Whether it's Right for You, and I can't help but wish something like this would have been available four years ago, when I was first deciding whether or not to move to Switzerland. Paul Allen now lives in northern Spain and joins me over at Writer Abroad to talk about his book and about being a writer in Spain.
What about you? Did you frantically search the Internet to like me looking for advice about moving abroad? Or how did you make your decision to stay or go?
12 comments:
Funny enough Google did have the answer for me!
I guess it depends what country you're leaving behind. For us it was a good move to be able to leave South Africa, it's lovely for holidays there but not so good for living. So when my husband got a transfer here I started packing immediately!
DRosie, what did Google say? Alas, Google was not so helpful in 2006.
Anneliese, I'm interested in hearing more about living in South Africa. I feel like a lot of places that are great for holidays aren't so great for living. Might be a discussion for another post.
My lame sense of humor. Since Josh works there. That is how we got the answer. No actual search results were made.
oh my, in my eyes, San Diego is paradise. I left behind paradise for culture. Isaiah and I hardly did any research (only for visa stuff actually), we just said, why not? Let's go! Pretty crazy decision-making process when I look back on it now, but we're glad we took a chance... If we knew ahead of time all that would be in store for us, we might never have come!
Nope, Google had squat for us. We just mulled it over for months on end. :)
Have you been to Canada in January? Slam dunk! Seriously, it's hard to leave family and friends always but it's hard whether you are moving to a new city within the same country or moving abroad. Belonging to an expat community definitely helped the transition.
It's interesting how everyone decided differently. It seems like some of you just jumped at the chance while others of us mulled and googled. I was scared to leave my job because I didn't know what my identity would be otherwise. Anyone else have this issue?
We were "asked" to take the international assignment then told we would be moving 30 days! I didn't have time to google!:) I was a little worried b/c I own a retail shop back in the States and worried if I could run it from here, but everything has worked out perfectly - I love technology!
Hi Mandy, wow that's great that you can run a store in the states from here. Don't we all love technology!
Decision was easy - there is only one LHC on earth - and it requires on site work. For me to be a trailing spouse was better then staying back in the US alone for a whole year!
Agree with that. But I know plenty of spouses that stay behind and plenty of families that live between two countries. Seems hard to me.
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