Geopats Abroad : Chats with expats, immigrants, and locals

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This week we expat chat with first time expat, Miicher, a Florida, US native who decided it was time for a change. Miicher is a teacher, an actor, a mom and a natural storyteller, which explains why her Facebook China Chronicles , where she has been sharing her experiences in Shanghai, China, have become such a hit. 

original publication date: December 18, 2018

 🌍 Tools & resources for living, traveling, and working abroad: https://geopatsabroad.substack.com/p/living-abroad-resources

🛍️ Geopats Abroad Stationary Store: https://geopatsabroad-shop.fourthwall.com/en-eur?utm_source=buzzsprout&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=geopats_shop&utm_content=episode_description

🛠️ Podcast & creator tools I use: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/p/podcast-tools-i-use

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/

🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew

Italy, ITALY, Italia has a way of bringing out the coffee lover in many of us and Hector was a victim to this caffeinated crime. Hector spent the first 30 years of his life in Mexico and then relocated to the United States. But it wasn’t until he went to Italy this year that the coffee spirit moved him. In this episode we talk about coffee and coffee culture in Italy; Austin, Texas; Mexico and our brains via a spontaneous ADHD realization. 

🤸🏽Music from
Damon Castillo (earlier episodes): https://www.damoncastillo.com/
and
Key Frame Audio (more recent eps) :https://keyframeaudio.com/

Top 3 services that have help me while living in different countries (mostly for Americans): Affiliate links so I'll get a small commission.

🔥 Traveling Mailbox: scan/forward postal service for Americans. It's saved me time, money and headaches.
https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422

🔥Chase Sapphire Credit Card: annual fee, NO currency conversion fee. Used this in many countries globally.
https://www.referyourchasecard.com/19Q/MDNYO68N38

🔥 Stackry: Shop in the U.S. and have the items shipped internationally.
https://www.stackry.com/register?referral=7118738

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Moving abroad can reshape your online identity and sense of home. After moving from Hanoi, Vietnam, to the United States, artist and art educator Anh Ta used Facebook to help with her homesickness.

Her biggest insight is simple: social media works better when you know what you want from it. From Facebook breaks and her “Only Me” posting test to finding a New York City apartment online, Anh shows how expats and internationals can use social media for connection and opportunity without letting it define their self-worth.

Anh's art: https://anhtaart.com/

What You’ll Learn About Living Abroad, Social Media, and Online Identity

• How moving abroad can change your social media habits and online identity
• How social media can help expats/internationals cope with homesickness
• How Facebook and Instagram can affect self-esteem
• How to create healthy social media boundaries
• How expats maintain friendships across countries
• How living abroad shapes memory, creativity, and identity
• How social media can create real-life opportunities abroad

How Social Media Helps Expats Cope With Homesickness

When Anh moved from Hanoi to the US in 2009, Facebook became an emotional bridge to home. She posted photos from America, and friends in Vietnam commented, encouraged her, and helped her adjust to life abroad.

By around 2014, those interactions changed as friends graduated, started jobs, and moved to other countries. Social media still helped maintain those relationships, but even a like could become a small way of saying, I remember you. I still care.

How Social Media Affects Self-Esteem and Emotional Wellbeing

Anh deleted Facebook several times during college, sometimes for three or four months, after noticing how much online reactions affected her. If a post or message didn’t get a response, she could start wondering whether she’d done something wrong.

Taking breaks helped her separate social media from her self-worth. Close friends still found other ways to stay connected, including email and letters.

How to Create Healthy Social Media Boundaries

Anh developed a simple test before posting on Facebook: she’d write the post and set the audience to “Only Me.” Then she’d ask whether she was sharing something useful or mainly looking for reassurance and approval.

If the post had a purpose, she’d publish it. If it came from insecurity, she’d delete it. The goal wasn’t to stop using social media, but to understand what she wanted from it before publishing.

How Moving Abroad Shapes Identity, Memory, and Creativity

Anh’s art draws from home, domesticity, memory, women’s roles, cooking, and her childhood in Hanoi. She creates prints, paintings, and three-dimensional structures using projection, light, paper, fabric, sound, and other materials.

Living in the US gave her access to an art education she hadn’t imagined in Vietnam. Her long-term dream is to combine fine art, food, and immersive experiences.

Artist Portfolio Website vs. Instagram

Anh treats her professional online identity differently from her personal social media life. Her portfolio website supports gallery proposals, exhibitions, and job applications, while Instagram helps artists share work and connect with galleries.

For Anh, the platform matters less than knowing why you’re using it. Professional visibility and personal approval don’t need to serve the same purpose.

Online Friendships vs. Real-Life Connection

Social media helps Anh maintain friendships across countries, but she doesn’t see online contact as a replacement for closeness. She especially values emails from old friends or professors who take time to write about their lives and ask about hers.

She found her New York City apartment through online connections, showing how social media can become a path to relationships, opportunities, and real-world experiences.

original publication date: December 7, 2018

 🌍 Tools & resources for living, traveling, and working abroad: https://geopatsabroad.substack.com/p/living-abroad-resources

🛍️ Geopats Abroad Stationary Store: https://geopatsabroad-shop.fourthwall.com/en-eur?utm_source=buzzsprout&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=geopats_shop&utm_content=episode_description

🛠️ Podcast & creator tools I use: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/p/podcast-tools-i-use

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/

🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew

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Steve left the UK for a trip to Spain quite a number of years ago. After that trip he ended up living in Greece for a year and just reached his 6 year anniversary in Asia this month. After living a number of years both on and offline in mainland China, he moved to Hong Kong earlier this year, where he now works as a Life Coach.

​Like yours truly, he has been an avid user of online technologies and social media from the beginning and has a lot of stories of wonderful and not so wonderful things that have happened online. And, also like myself, he has a lot of questions about what the hell we are doing online and how sustainable our virtual selves are going forward. His expat geographic life and VRL (virtual reality life) do in fact seem to affect each other in a rather interesting way, so have a listen and let us know what you think.

original publication date: November 19, 2018

 🌍 Tools & resources for living, traveling, and working abroad: https://geopatsabroad.substack.com/p/living-abroad-resources

🛍️ Geopats Abroad Stationary Store: https://geopatsabroad-shop.fourthwall.com/en-eur?utm_source=buzzsprout&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=geopats_shop&utm_content=episode_description

🛠️ Podcast & creator tools I use: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/p/podcast-tools-i-use

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/

🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew

What is independent podcasting like in China? Chinese National Forest, who is one of the Hosts of the new music podcast 主唱死了 Podcast (The Singer Is Dead): https://zhuchangsile.xyz/, about this , joins us for this mini episode for Geopats to share his podstory. And he promises to come back for a full Global Podcasting show episodes on Geopats in 2020. Thanks Forest! 

🤸🏽Music from
Damon Castillo (earlier episodes): https://www.damoncastillo.com/
and
Key Frame Audio (more recent eps) :https://keyframeaudio.com/

Top 3 services that have help me while living in different countries (mostly for Americans): Affiliate links so I'll get a small commission.

🔥 Traveling Mailbox: scan/forward postal service for Americans. It's saved me time, money and headaches.
https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422

🔥Chase Sapphire Credit Card: annual fee, NO currency conversion fee. Used this in many countries globally.
https://www.referyourchasecard.com/19Q/MDNYO68N38

🔥 Stackry: Shop in the U.S. and have the items shipped internationally.
https://www.stackry.com/register?referral=7118738

Send us Fan Mail

Social media, online identity, digital privacy, and screen time can all change when you move abroad, especially when better internet access and new online communities expand what’s possible. Egyptian YouTube creator Mai Hindawi explains how moving from Cairo to the UK changed her relationship with social media, content creation, representation, and the boundary between IRL and her “virtual reality life.”

Mai's YouTube channel: Intellect Grime

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh1XXAWClU4QKAxnH8ksKEQ

What You’ll Learn About Social Media, Online Identity, and Living Abroad

• How living abroad can change your online identity
• How internet access affects online participation
• Why representation matters for Arab women on YouTube
• How social media screen time affects offline life
• How to create digital privacy boundaries
• Why creators don’t need every social media platform
• How YouTube comments can build online community

Living Abroad and Building an Online Identity

Mai grew up in Cairo and moved to the UK at 17 to study philosophy. After her first year, she started Intellect Grime to share philosophy, poetry, books, languages, art, and ideas.

Better internet access, easier access to technology, and being near London’s YouTube community helped creating feel more possible.

Internet Access, Representation, and YouTube

Mai rarely saw Arab women creating the intellectual and educational YouTube content she wanted to make. She didn’t want separate conversations; she wanted more people contributing to the same ones.

English vs. Arabic Online

Egyptian Arabic was Mai’s first language, but most of her online life happened in English. She found many Arabic-language websites harder to navigate and considered making short Arabic videos to maintain the language while living abroad.

That raised a wider question: if so much online information starts in English, who gets easier access to it?

Social Media Screen Time: The Five-Hour Phone Day

Mai used the Moment app to track her phone habits and discovered she’d spent about five hours on her phone in one day, picking it up roughly 100 times.

She began trying to keep phone use under an hour and reduce the micro-distractions pulling her away from offline life.

Online Life vs. Real Life: Creating Digital Boundaries

While trying to find an opposite for IRL, “in real life,” Mai creates another acronym: VRL, “virtual reality life.”

Online and offline life aren’t completely separate. Steph gives the example of WeChat in China, where work groups, friendships, and plans all happen through the same app.

The question becomes how much space VRL should get before it starts consuming IRL.

Digital Privacy: What Should You Share on Social Media?

Mai shares philosophy, books, languages, art, and ideas online, but she doesn’t want to turn doctor’s appointments, lunches with friends, evenings at home, or ordinary private moments into content.

Her test is simple: would you feel comfortable if a stranger knew this? Would you feel comfortable if a family member or acquaintance saw it?

Your online identity can be public without making your entire life public.

Social Media Strategy: Why Creators Don’t Need to Be Everywhere

Mai used YouTube and Instagram for Intellect Grime, then created a Facebook page even though she didn’t like Facebook. She felt pressure to be everywhere, but posting everywhere isn’t the same as building community everywhere.

YouTube Engagement and Online Community

Mai spent years watching YouTube without commenting until she realized creators might actually read and respond to what she wrote.

By the time of this conversation, Intellect Grime had around 200 people, and the quality of their comments mattered more to her than passive numbers.

How Living Abroad Changes Your Relationship With Social Media

Moving from Egypt to the UK didn’t create an entirely different online Mai, but it changed her access, confidence, and sense of what was possible.

Greater access also means deciding what doesn’t get access to you. Your VRL can expand your world without consuming your IRL.

original publication date: October 23, 2018

 🌍 Tools & resources for living, traveling, and working abroad: https://geopatsabroad.substack.com/p/living-abroad-resources

🛍️ Geopats Abroad Stationary Store: https://geopatsabroad-shop.fourthwall.com/en-eur?utm_source=buzzsprout&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=geopats_shop&utm_content=episode_description

🛠️ Podcast & creator tools I use: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/p/podcast-tools-i-use

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/

🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew

Send us Fan Mail

Sowmya Vajjala is a Data Scientist, a Computational Linguist and one of the most intelligent and down to earth people you will ever meet. She is from India, lived in Germany for her PhD program and then taught at Iowa State University in the U.S., which is where I met her. She has since moved to Toronto, Canada, where she was during this conversation. Personally, she has impacted my life in ways I am only beginning to understand.

​But that is all explained in the podcast itself. Her perspective on if living in different countries impacts people’s online experiences is very different than what we have heard so far in this podcast. This honest, matter of fact approach to the messiness of online life as it currently exists is, frankly, refreshing. I think you are going to appreciate this very different point of view on social media, geographical movement and why we do what we do online.

original publication date: October 7, 2018

 🌍 Tools & resources for living, traveling, and working abroad: https://geopatsabroad.substack.com/p/living-abroad-resources

🛍️ Geopats Abroad Stationary Store: https://geopatsabroad-shop.fourthwall.com/en-eur?utm_source=buzzsprout&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=geopats_shop&utm_content=episode_description

🛠️ Podcast & creator tools I use: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/p/podcast-tools-i-use

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/

🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew

Have you ever seen someone light up over the mention of a name? This is what happens when Heather Welch’s name is mentioned in the podcasting world. She doesn’t just spread peace and serenity via her off the grid and nature podcast, Sunshine and Powercuts, her existence and general character ARE these things. Add her technical prowess and organizational skills and you can start to see how she can put together the Sunshine Summit twice a year. In this episode we talk about her specific podcasting experiences from rural New Zealand and how she complement’s her local podcasting community with the strong, illuminating one she has built online.  

Heather’s Info: 

Twitter:https://twitter.com/SunPowerPod

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SunshineAndPowerCuts/

Sunshine and Powercuts website: https://www.sunshineandpowercuts.com/

Sunshine Summit Live: https://www.sunshinesummit.live/

Sunshine Summit videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZU1dsOW0NsH7KZkgIN5r7g/featured

Her interview on the Waves of Tech Podcast with Dave and Steve Lee (Founders of International Podcast Day):

https://thewavesoftech.com/off-the-grid-living-with-heather-welch/

If you like this episode, feel free to 

Links:

-Podcast Brunch Club, Wellington Branch: https://podcastbrunchclub.com/wellington/

-International Podcast Day: 

Heather’s session https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEWoSCw7d6s

but there are 6 years of other sessions on this YT channel also

-International Podcast Association: https://internationalpodcastassociation.org/

-Emily Prokop, The Story Behind Podcast, http://thestorybehindpodcast.com/

-Anchor https://anchor.fm/

-Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/

-Podcastage YouTube

🤸🏽Music from
Damon Castillo (earlier episodes): https://www.damoncastillo.com/
and
Key Frame Audio (more recent eps) :https://keyframeaudio.com/

Top 3 services that have help me while living in different countries (mostly for Americans): Affiliate links so I'll get a small commission.

🔥 Traveling Mailbox: scan/forward postal service for Americans. It's saved me time, money and headaches.
https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422

🔥Chase Sapphire Credit Card: annual fee, NO currency conversion fee. Used this in many countries globally.
https://www.referyourchasecard.com/19Q/MDNYO68N38

🔥 Stackry: Shop in the U.S. and have the items shipped internationally.
https://www.stackry.com/register?referral=7118738

Send us Fan Mail

Living in Thailand as an expat means learning fast about Bangkok life, culture shock, visas, local laws, and the gap between the country you imagined and the one you actually live in. Allison Maciejewski’s first year in Bangkok included political unrest outside her home and visa runs to Cambodia, giving current and future expats a practical look at what changes once Thailand stops being a destination and becomes home.

What You’ll Learn About Living in Thailand as an Expat

• What living in Bangkok as an expat is really like
• What expats should know about political unrest in Thailand
• How Thailand visa runs to Cambodia worked
• What Songkran and Thai New Year traditions are like
• How regional Thai food differs beyond Bangkok
• Why culture shock can last for years
• Why learning Thai doesn't eliminate communication problems
• How living abroad changes your sense of home

Living in Bangkok as an Expat: Housing and First-Year Expectations

Before moving to Thailand, Allison imagined backpacking and inexpensive, stripped-down living. Instead, she and her girlfriend found a one-bedroom apartment in Thong Lo for less than $800 a month before utilities, with security, a gym, and a rooftop pool overlooking Bangkok.

The experience quickly challenged what she thought life in Thailand would look like.

Political Unrest in Thailand: What Expats Should Know

Soon after Allison arrived, protests filled Sukhumvit Road outside her building. At first they seemed peaceful, but bombings later occurred near places she regularly visited, including MBK and Siam Paragon.

She began researching Thai politics and reconsidering what protections foreigners have abroad. Rights and assumptions from your home country don't automatically follow you when you move somewhere else.

Thailand Visa Runs to Cambodia

One cheerful photo looks like Allison is sightseeing in Cambodia. She was actually completing a visa run from Thailand.

She took a bus to the border, crossed into Cambodia, visited a casino, bought cigarettes, posed near a shrine, crossed back into Thailand, and returned to Bangkok that day.

After two visa runs, she decided she wanted a more stable legal status.

Songkran in Thailand: Thai New Year Traditions

Allison's first Songkran turned into a day of hoses, buckets, ice-cold water, and powder rubbed onto people's cheeks.

She learned that Songkran was more than a giant water fight. The water represented renewal and cleansing for the Thai New Year. She “played water” for several years before eventually preferring to stay inside.

The Parts of Expat Life That Stay Uncomfortable

Outside Don Mueang Airport, Allison photographed a child working beside an adult cleaning the roadside. She'd already seen children working elsewhere in Southeast Asia and realized she was becoming accustomed to something she didn't want to normalize.

Living abroad didn't always give her clearer answers. Sometimes it made questions about migration, inequality, work, and opportunity more complicated.

Isan Food and Regional Thai Cuisine

In Nakhon Phanom in northeastern Thailand, Allison discovered grilled sausages made with pork and fermented rice, served with vegetables and green chilies.

As a former chef and food writer, traveling beyond Bangkok showed her how much Thai cuisine changes by region. Her food photography also reflected respect for street-food vendors who may spend decades mastering what they make.

Motorbike Travel in Southern Thailand

A photo from Khanom shows Allison on a motorbike beside the Gulf of Thailand, surrounded by quiet beaches beyond heavily developed tourist areas.

Years later, she saw freedom in that photo. Thailand gave her distance from an NGO career that had consumed much of her life and opened space for travel, curiosity, and a different pace.

Culture Shock and Learning Thai

Four years into living in Thailand, Allison still experienced culture shock in ordinary moments. Asking a 7-Eleven employee not to give her a plastic bag could still end with her carrying three home.

She'd also spent years learning to speak, read, and write Thai, yet could order food and not be understood because she'd used the wrong tone.

Familiarity didn't mean complete understanding. Even after years abroad, small moments could still make her feel like a beginner.

Moving From Thailand to Prague

After about four and a half years in Thailand, Allison moved to Prague and became a newcomer again.

This time, she approached visa problems and unfamiliar systems with more patience. Thailand had taught her that frustration doesn't make bureaucracy move faster and that living abroad requires becoming more forgiving of yourself and others.

How Living Abroad Changes Your Sense of Home

The Thailand photos that once looked strange and exciting eventually became familiar. Bangkok streets, food stalls, Songkran, beaches, and temples became part of a place Allison knew.

Then she moved and began again.

The photos capture a short but important stage of expat life: the period before the strange becomes ordinary and the foreign becomes home.

original publication date: September 25, 2018

 🌍 Tools & resources for living, traveling, and working abroad: https://geopatsabroad.substack.com/p/living-abroad-resources

🛍️ Geopats Abroad Stationary Store: https://geopatsabroad-shop.fourthwall.com/en-eur?utm_source=buzzsprout&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=geopats_shop&utm_content=episode_description

🛠️ Podcast & creator tools I use: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/p/podcast-tools-i-use

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/

🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew

Shankar is a Writer, Podcaster and he claims to be a newbie to coffee. However, after having this conversation with him and hearing his coffee experiences in his home country of India, I beg to differ. I think he is a bonafide coffee fanatic and a discriminating one at that. We chat about his first coffee experience, coffee culture in Northern versus Southern India and why he intentionally does not use a coffee grinder at home. In between the laughter, Shankar teaches us about the growing coffee culture in India, especially in his current city of Bangalore, the I.T. capital of the country AND where his brother (hi Vishnu!) and he spend a lot of time in coffee shops researching their Writer & Geek Podcast. 

🤸🏽Music from
Damon Castillo (earlier episodes): https://www.damoncastillo.com/
and
Key Frame Audio (more recent eps) :https://keyframeaudio.com/

Top 3 services that have help me while living in different countries (mostly for Americans): Affiliate links so I'll get a small commission.

🔥 Traveling Mailbox: scan/forward postal service for Americans. It's saved me time, money and headaches.
https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422

🔥Chase Sapphire Credit Card: annual fee, NO currency conversion fee. Used this in many countries globally.
https://www.referyourchasecard.com/19Q/MDNYO68N38

🔥 Stackry: Shop in the U.S. and have the items shipped internationally.
https://www.stackry.com/register?referral=7118738