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    International Lifestyle: Moving Abroad in Your 20's
    International Lifestyle: Moving Abroad in Your 20's
    International Lifestyle: Moving Abroad in Your 20's
    Ebook164 pages3 hours

    International Lifestyle: Moving Abroad in Your 20's

    By Laura Gibbs and Jason Berkeley

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    About this ebook

    Ever wondered about what your life would be like abroad? Not satisfied with your job or your current lifestyle? Ever think that there must be something more to life than getting an internship, 9-5 job and a mortgage, adventures to be had, foreign lands to visit? Worried about wasting your 20’s building a career that you don’t love? Well if you answered yes to any of these questions then this is the book to help you change your life.

    International Lifestyle is a book about 13 people who took the leap to move abroad, left their comfort zones and completely redesigned their lives. From the highs and lows of life abroad the 13 authors share their life stories about why they moved abroad and why it is so important to do so in your 20’s.

    The contributors leave home for Argentina, Thailand, Tanzania, Spain, Germany, Denmark, Mauritius, Korea, Myanmar, Indonesia and even Bangladesh. Their stories tell you what it was like for them to move to a new country, expectations, realities and those crazy experiences you just wouldn’t get back home. Some have left forever, others for a year or two, but all have found something more, something they were searching for that they couldn’t find at home.

    International Lifestyle also includes a chapter called Making it Happen for those of you who are waiting for the right moment, enough money, the perfect job, for those who are scared of leaving the comforts and familiarity of home and need some advice to get started. If you want to move, we want to help you.

    After reading International Lifestyle you won’t be able to stay at home. But that’s okay, you are young -go explore the world!

    Compiled by Laura Gibbs and Jason Berkeley

    Excerpts
    ......................
    December 2014 started with a break up and ended with a death.
    Part Time Lover, Full Time Friend
    At some point a few years ago, I realised that life just wasn’t as good as it could be. I lived in a city that I didn’t like, a country I wasn’t sure if I liked and had a job that I definitely didn’t like. There was only one thing I was sure of and that was Martin. So with his support, I quit my teaching job - because I hated the education system, how much I worked and how much my friends worked. This was not life. I became a vegetarian chef and finally Mondays became something I didn’t dread. However, my mood in autumn and winter was still always low. I was also low on Vitamin D and I had developed a strange nervous energy which made it almost impossible to relax. I worked or exercised to distract myself until I was exhausted, just so I could sleep. The air around me seemed stifling. The dark British skies made the air heavy and every time I would lie down, I could feel it weighing on my chest. I needed to change more of my life. The problem was that Martin loved his job, his friends and his hobbies. He liked it here in this city and he wanted to settle, buy a house and develop his career. I started to wonder if he would mind if I left. Would he even notice if I was gone?
    ...................................
    Hardly a day went by when the word “Shantaram” wasn’t uttered under my breath:

    Bangladeshi cultural norms have it that I am unable to wear a skirt or a tank top without being seen as a whore and that when living in most areas outside of Dhaka, I am expected to conform to the country’s traditional attire for women: Shantaram.

    I am unable to go for runs in the street because it is culturally inappropriate for women to do so: Shantaram.

    I sit in on meetings with new business associates who refuse to look me in the eye and only choose to address my male counterpart: Shantaram.

    I get into a car accident and have bricks thrown at me because this country believes in vigilante justice as a means of compensating for their poor legal system: Shantaram.

    I am stared at with every step I take, everywhere I go, because I am a foreigner and because staring is not considered

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLaura Gibbs
    Release dateSep 14, 2016
    ISBN9781370752782
    International Lifestyle: Moving Abroad in Your 20's
    Author

    Laura Gibbs

    After finishing a degree in Business Studies Laura Gibbs decided that the world of marketing and sales was not for her. Instead she wanted to focus on her passion of stories and started writing, both personally and about travel.These days she is based in different parts of Asia and is trying to visit a foreign city for every letter of the alphabet (being currently stuck on a city beginning with X). Her personal mission is to visit every coffee shop in Chiang Mai, and finally mastering Thai language.

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      Book preview

      International Lifestyle - Laura Gibbs

      These days travelling to a new country feels completely normal to me. I am not fazed by signs in Chinese, cars on the wrong side of the road, monsoon storms or complex metro routes. I have seen Venice, New York, Tokyo, the beautiful beaches of Thailand, and the ancient wonders of Bagan and Angkor Wat. I have met countless amazing people, each with their own interesting ideas and views of the world. I have written a book, practiced yoga, hiked up volcanoes and eaten fresh fish from the sea of Japan. I have been privileged to visit refugee camps fenced in from the rest of the world and see how the poorest of the poor in Cambodia live. I have seen enough to make me realise how fortunate I am to have a passport, a comfortable bed and a hot shower. My eyes have been opened to the world and not only has it made me a better person for it, but I also have every possible door open to me - how many 27 year olds can say that?

      All these experiences are shaping me into the person I hoped I would be. What I fear the most is not the unknown but the mundane. The mortgage, the 9-5, the repetition of year after year in the same job, the false security of a pension and people wasting their lives in the employment of banks, offices and Wal-Mart. To some people routine is bliss and if you love your life then that’s great - but for those of you who don’t, who spend your afternoons scrolling through travel blogs and exotic photos then this book is for you. I want to open your eyes to our generation, to other 20 something’s making it out on their own.

      Your parents won’t like this book, nor will your Government, both will try to persuade you that a good job, pension and mortgage are what you should aim for in your 20’s. But what they don’t tell you is that when you are young you are free. You have no obligations to family, to children, to career. Most likely you will have no idea what or who you want to be in the future. So why is society pressuring us to lock ourselves into the system and waste the best years of our life working and paying taxes? We should use our youth to explore, create and become better people. A gap year is all well and good but how much can you really explore a country or a culture on a gap year - not that much. Personally I believe that quality and quantity go together when it comes to travelling. Spend years in a country and your experience will be one of introspection and change.

      In many Western countries, the younger generations are discontented. Youth unemployment is at an all time high and the opportunity for upward mobility that their parents had has evaporated in the face of a highly competitive globalised economy. Even the traditional 9-5 routine is becoming outdated and is instead being replaced by freelancers, contractors and remote workers. The lives and careers of your parents and grandparents no longer fit the reality of the modern world. As well as a lack of economic opportunities, for many the lifestyle their parents led is no longer appealing. Young people today want to escape the education, career, retire and die treadmill of modern life. We are here to speak to these young people and tell them that there is another way, that they do not have to try and trace the same path as their parents.

      You will be aware of the growing trend of outsourcing low level jobs, such as call centre workers, to developing countries. Companies move these operations offshore because workers in these countries are willing to do the same job for less money. This trend of moving operations to the most competitive location is only set to continue. The natural reaction is of course to limit the competition and become worked up about globalisation, but this is the wrong way to look at the situation. Instead of reducing competition to the previous level, we must rise to the level of the competition. The cat is out of the bag and it will never go back to the way it was - you need to adapt. Now is the time to engage with the world and carve your own place in it. With a global economy comes global opportunities and by staying in one place, you are restricting your options. You too can be a part of the new generation of young expats taking the world by storm and creating a new and exciting lifestyle for themselves.

      Let this book be inspiration for you from your international peers who have taken the leap to move abroad and who have not just survived, but who are (the ultimate cliché) living the dream. I hope this book sparks hope in you that it is possible to see and do what you want, that money and the career ladder is not the only way, and that you can grow and become a better human by stepping outside the conventional mould. This book includes ideas to make you think, tips on how to fund yourself and a checklist for those who want guidance to creating an international life and seeing the world. I don’t expect you to leave home forever but I want these stories to show you what life is like outside your country (be it America, Angola, Taiwan or the Philippines). I want to show you how much better it is to travel now, to do the things you want to do, rather than dream your life away for your retirement travels. I want you to see where your clothes, food and electronics come from, who makes that iPhone, and the state of global production. I want to show you how half the world lives off rice and thinks of bread as nothing more than a snack (incomprehensible for a European - bread is life). I want you to challenge your norms and welcome a new reality. I am not saying go to Thailand and do drugs, go crazy on Absinth in Amsterdam or abuse your white privilege in Africa. And I am not saying that your life abroad will always be easy, but living in a culture outside your own forces you to awaken to life, to see and feel so much more.

      In the following chapters we pull together the knowledge and experience of young expats from all corners of the globe. Read and reflect on them one by one, each chapter stands alone as an adventure into the unknown. From their stories and experience you can learn from their journey and get the inspiration you need to take the first step out of your own door and into the wider world. I am sure once you start seeing the world outside your home you cannot help but learn, be humbled and seek to better the world rather than live in your sheltered cocoon with priorities like upgrading your phone, car or house. You are in your 20’s and you are unbelievably creative and powerful - it’s time to add fuel to your fire!

      In Search of Good Aires

      Rose Hyde

      December 2014 started with a break up and ended with a death.

      Part Time Lover, Full Time Friend

      At some point a few years ago, I realised that life just wasn’t as good as it could be. I lived in a city that I didn’t like, a country I wasn’t sure if I liked and had a job that I definitely didn’t like. There was only one thing I was sure of and that was Martin. So with his support, I quit my teaching job - because I hated the education system, how much I worked and how much my friends worked. This was not life. I became a vegetarian chef and finally Mondays became something I didn’t dread. However, my mood in autumn and winter was still always low. I was also low on Vitamin D and I had developed a strange nervous energy which made it almost impossible to relax. I worked or exercised to distract myself until I was exhausted, just so I could sleep. The air around me seemed stifling. The dark British skies made the air heavy and every time I would lie down, I could feel it weighing on my chest. I needed to change more of my life. The problem was that Martin loved his job, his friends and his hobbies. He liked it here in this city and he wanted to settle, buy a house and develop his career. I started to wonder if he would mind if I left. Would he even notice if I was gone?

      The week we broke up was actually our 8 year anniversary. Not that we ever really celebrated it. I remember the first time I met him, thinking how beautiful his blue eyes were, framed by curvy and intoxicating lashes. He had recently left his career in the army and had gone travelling. He either told me war stories, or tales about the beautiful places he had visited. We always talked about travelling together and going to live somewhere else, but looking back I see things differently. It was always me who talked about living somewhere else and travelling to places together, while he just wanted a place to call home. I spent years trying to convince him our quality of life might improve if we lived elsewhere and each time he would say: ‘perhaps in the future, not now’. For most of our 8 years together life was not hard, it was fun. I spoke a language only he knew; I would crawl around him and annoy him. He would call me monkey and pretend he had rescued me from the jungle. We even had made up songs that only we knew the lyrics to and sometimes we sang real songs too. He would play the guitar and I would sing along. ‘You’re a part time lover and a full time friend…’

      At the beginning of December 2014 I came back from visiting my friends in Ireland. They had spent the better part of the week pushing me off my wall, redesigning my year, distracting me with their young baby and sticking my Humpty Dumpty shell back together again. I walked into the kitchen and said, I’m going to move out for the week. I want to live somewhere else, think about what you want to do. A week later it was over, I don’t know how to compromise he said. My heart was completely and utterly broken. This is what I had always feared; that he would chose his job, his career or his friends over us. My family are not really the touchy feely, hug and kiss type and although we talk about a lot of things, it is very rare for us to discuss and show extreme emotion, so I refused to say anything. It wasn’t just anybody I was breaking up with. Martin was part of the family. There was a distinct possibility that my mum and dad would divorce my sister and I to keep Martin, because as far as we could tell, he was the favourite.

      Plague On The House

      I dreaded the build up to Christmas and I refused to accept that it was remotely happening. I worked harder and saw more people to keep myself occupied. My amazing friends took me in and let me be a part of their lives. I was so grateful then and still am today. I found it so difficult to think and talk about what had happened.

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