“Deciding to live in a different country with different challenges is the bravest, strangest, hardest and funniest thing you could ever choose to do with your life.”
Taken from “Once Upon an Expat” by Lisa Webb
Expat Book Club
A couple of weeks ago, when I started researching my list for expat books, I ran across a blog that talked about a book club focused on expats. She missed her old book clubs and was experiencing loneliness being abroad (she posts about that as well).
So, she took the bull by the horns and started her own book club targeting expats. Recently, some of the members even met up in Paris to talk about this month’s book. Seriously, how cool is that? She also started a Facebook Group and I was able to join even though I am not an expat yet. She is very active in the group and it has gained a lot of traction.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/expatbookclub/
Once Upon an Expat by Lisa Webb
This is the first book I chose to read in my expat book reviews. I left the book more curious on the potential of what an expat lifestyle would really mean for us. I had been thinking about the “honeymoon stage” where everything was romanticized. My honeymoon stage involved thoughts that we would be walking the streets of new an exotic places, enjoying different cultures.
Ms Webb’s book is fabulous. It is laid out in a series of essays distributed through the different continents. Each essay is written by women who express the ups and downs of expat living while still keeping an individualistic tone. Each one just a few pages long, and can be read in short stints or blown through (like I did) in a single day. They are fun and easy to read, but really kept my interest.
If you have a lot of prior expat experience and looking for more, this may not be the ideal book for you. You probably won’t gain a lot of new information here, as you have most likely experienced these themes. For me? Well, I am new to thinking about expat life, and I like to gather as much information as possible. So, this book was perfect for me!
This is a group of extended blog posts, if you will, bound into a beautiful book.
My favorite stories involved the expats and their close knit friends that develop while living abroad. That is something that we loved about serving in the military. Do you need something? Someone is there for you in a skinny minute and they don’t expect anything in return.
Those stories warmed my heart. If you haven’t had the opportunity to live in a community like that, you will get a sense for it after reading these.
The other story that stuck with me was about a mom who was lonely overseas and hadn’t yet found her group of friends. She kept trying and trying but nothing worked. She was an introvert with an streak of extrovert, she said.
After months of trying, a mom at the playground reached out to her and invited her to coffee and introduced her friends. The playground mom didn’t end up being her close friend, but as a result of this experience, the author pulled out her extrovert self when she saw other expats to initiate conversations.
I have a similar personality to the author’s and I am worried about the social aspect of being in different places around the world. I love my husband, but I will definitely need friends and a social life beyond him. I will definitely need to plan on being more assertive and extending myself to find fellowship.
The last thing that I came away from with this book is that we will need to have more conversations on what kind of expats we will be. Right now, we are planning on spending the first couple of years traveling slowly, but at some point we will settle down. It is important to me to have a sense of community. This pulls at my heart more than I initially thought.
I am currently looking at the larger expat communities in Thailand, Portugal and Mexico. This is just another piece of the puzzle to ponder.
I would highly recommend Ms Webb’s book and gave it 4 out of 5 on my Goodreads.