Expat Focus Expat Focus: For Anyone Moving Or Living Abroad

When American Sara Dyson moved to Croatia in 2012, she couldn’t find any local resources in English to help her. So as she figured things out - like residency and healthcare, Croatian culture and learning the language, she posted about it on her website, expatincroatia.com, to help other foreigners. Close to a decade later, Expat in Croatia is a full-blown business, and Sara is about to become a Croatian citizen.
In this interview, we talk about why Sara moved to Croatia, the ‘one giant grey area’ that is local bureaucracy and how to work through it, and what she loves about the Croatian way of life.

The continent of Africa is our destination today. We’re going to be talking about living and working in Rwanda with Italian expat, Giulia, who decided to take a leap away from her life in Europe to follow a job opportunity.
Giulia talks about her first impressions of the city of Kigali, and why it’s known as the ‘Switzerland’ of Africa. We also talk safety, work opportunities and local workplace culture, Giulia’s experience with the health care system, choosing to ‘not’ learn the local language, ordering warm beer, and the personal growth that happens when you leave your comfort zone.

Have you ever visited a city in a foreign country, and just felt immediately at home? That was Laurel Wright’s experience whilst on a solo European holiday from the USA. Wanting to escape the hustle culture of LA, she decided to pack up her life, and move to Berlin.

We recorded this chat a couple of months back, and talk about what Berlin is like in the summer, how she found a job and navigated German bureaucracy, freelancing in Berlin, workplace culture and making friends with locals. Laurel also explains the ways in which her quality of life - and perspective - has changed for the better since her move abroad.

Do you have your eye on a rundown old property in the French countryside? Are you planning to leave your big city life behind for a simpler one? Do you really know what to expect? Best-selling Author and Editor Janine Marsh gave up her city life in London and made the move to a neglected farmhouse in Northern France more than a decade ago.
Find out what attracted her and husband Mark to the Seven Valleys, the creature comforts they had to leave behind in the big smoke, what they’ve learnt in their many years of renovating their home and trying to be self-sufficient, and the point at which they truly started feeling like locals.

Today’s guest is an accidental social media influencer. American, Kacie Rose Burns has amassed a community of over one million people across TikTok and Instagram. And it all started with a little video she posted on her way to her new life in Italy. When I told a friend I was going to interview Kacie, she said “I just want to meet her in Italy and eat gelato together.” And that’s exactly the vibe you get watching Kacie’s social media videos.
We chat about what led her to leave her career in New York and move to Florence, Italian culture and food, including what you should never do to pasta, and some of the opportunities that have come her way thanks to her social media fame.

Joining me today is award-winning podcaster and Business Strategist, Christine Job. She has spent the past five years living in Valencia in Spain, and her podcast, Flourish in the Foreign, celebrates the voices and stories of black women, and women of colour, who are - just like her - living and thriving internationally.
We talk about Christine’s own journey abroad, passport privilege, and how her experiences differ as a woman of colour in a foreign country. Christine also discusses how life in Spain has healed her, and helped her to become the person that she is today.