La Finca, Love, Loss, and Laundry on a Tiny Puerto Rican Island Caribe, by Corky Parker: A must-read adventure of determination and love.   I will confess that when I finished reading La Finca, Love, Loss, and Laundry on a Tiny Puerto Rican Island by Corky Parker, I felt a pang of pain and a sense of emptiness: how would I do now without the incredible adventures that Corky had been sharing with me for the past days? La Finca has been my first audiobook. And I think that listening to Corky’s voice delivering the amazing story of her life has added zest to the already incredible events tha ..read more

We wholeheartedly thank Julia Teresani, who had already shared her experience of pregnancy and birth during lockdown in Shaghai, for this practical article with tips on how to keep yourself busy abroad. How to keep yourself busy abroad while not working and what new mommies can do. Moving abroad and living an expat life is an intriguing experience. However, sometimes it comes with a cost. If you relocate with your partner, often someone needs to give up working. That was my case. My husband and I moved to China in August 2021. We did not want to miss this experience. We love traveling and embr ..read more

Kirsten in an amazing mixture of citizenships, cultures, languages and connections to the whole world. I was so lucky when I met her in Lima, Peru, when she became Kirstenexpat for the Expatclic team for a while. Several countries after that, I met her again in Brussels first, and then online to talk about identity, belonging and global citizens. If you ask Kirsten where she is from, and she is willing to give you the long answer, you might as well sit down with a cup of tea and get ready to travel the world. With a German mother and an American father, she grew up between Libya, Nigeria, Scot ..read more

Sofia was born is Melbourne to an Italian mum (me, Barbaraexpat) and Australian dad. As part of her university course, a Bachelor of Youth Work, she had to write and assignment titled “Where do I belong?”. I think it captures well the emotions of children grown up between two cultures and, with her permission, I share some of her thoughts. Grazie Sofia!   Luvaira is a block of land that belongs to my nonni, in the countryside of Liguria, Italy. There is a small house my nonno built and lots of drywall terraces where olive and mimosa’s trees are grown. This land has been in my family for m ..read more

Hanna is Polish, and has been living in Switzerland for more than 25 years. Since we are professionally in the same field, we have become close and meet regularly to chat about our work and our lives in Switzerland. When we last met, Hanna shared an experience that made me think of our topic of the month, Identity and Belonging.   When Hanna moved to Switzerland for study, and then decided to remain for love, she first lived in Geneva. After several years, though, she and her husband moved to a nearby village. Despite frequent trips  between Geneva and her new home, Hanna felt lonely ..read more

We wholeheartedly thank Costanza De Salvia, daughter of our dear Ginevra Niccolini Serragli, who occasionally writes for Expatclic, for allowing us to publish this article she wrote in 2020. Costanza was born in Florence in 1998. She has lived in Geneva and Hong Kong, where she attended a French international school, and then London, for university and her master. A fully international life, and she was also one of the first to obtain a tourist visa to Saudi Arabia in 2019!   I am what the American sociologist Ruth Hill Useem would call a Third Culture Kid. Italian born. French raised, in ..read more

We had already met Julia Teresani when she told us about her moving to Shanghai during the pandemic. Today we are so happy to tell you that she gave birth to a beautiful and healthy baby girl…during lockdown in Shanghai! We are grateful to Julia for sharing this amazing story with Expatclic.   In my culture, we touch wood when things go well. I probably forgot to do so… When I arrived in Shanghai last July, I thought we were escaping the pandemic situation in Europe, as China was handling the virus well. There were still many restrictions in Europe, but we had a relaxed life in Shanghai ..read more

 This year, it will take place from 21st to 23rd October. Read on to find out what to expect and, if you wish, how to participate.   The Online Human Library that Expatclic organized last year as a fundraising event was a deeply moving experience for anyone who attended. 33 “human” books, that is, people in flesh and blood with a story to tell, followed one another on the screens for five intense days. An incredible opportunity for exciting listening, interacting with people from all over the world and with stories that are sometimes very different from each other. The idea of ​​the ..read more

We wholeheartedly thank our dear Paola for sending us this beautiful and poetic article, which she wrote while she was living in Bangladesh.   My experience of fishing is limited. In the sixties, when we were teenagers growing up in Tanzania, my older brother enjoyed harpoon fishing. ‘You go with him,’ my mother would say to me, ‘just in case’. So I would float under the scorching sun in an inner tube over a reef in the immense Indian Ocean, far from the shore. A long rope connected my tube to my brother’s waist. He’d disappear underwater, and resurface every now and then with a rock-cod ..read more

We are very grateful to Julia Teresani for this beautiful and intense article. Julia is an expat, currently living her fourth life in China (Shanghai). She spent her childhood and youth years between Poland and Belarus. After that, she moved to Spain (Barcelona), where she lived for five years. Julia loves to explore the world and share her experience with the readers in her articles. You can follow her on Instagram, where you can find photos from her trips. Thank you Julia!   I believe the story of my moving to China during the pandemic will be passed down from generation to generation i ..read more