Geopats Abroad : Chats with expats, immigrants, and locals

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When Pia moved from Finland to Shanghai with her husband and two daughters, she started a blog to document the family’s life abroad. In this episode, she reads a 2016 post in Finnish and English and looks back at the busy early months of learning Mandarin, exploring Shanghai, visiting Tongli water town, finding familiar food, and building a new life in China.

Pia also reflects on what the public blog left out, including loneliness and homesickness, why her honeymoon period in China lasted for her entire stay, and what surprised her about Shanghai’s safety, infrastructure, and optimism. She explains how living in North Carolina prepared her for China, why broad statements about Chinese culture can be misleading, and how living abroad changed her view of Europe, America, and the world.

In this episode

• Reading an expat blog post in Finnish and English
• Moving from Finland to Shanghai with children
• Learning Mandarin and adapting to daily life in China
• The private experiences left out of a public blog
• Why Pia’s honeymoon period in China lasted two years
• What surprised her about Shanghai’s safety and infrastructure
• The friends, culture, and optimism she missed after leaving
• How living in China changed her worldview

Pia's blog: https://pianshanghai.blogspot.com/

Original publication date: October 30, 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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When Jennifer left the United States, she didn’t expect living abroad to change her political beliefs, religious identity, family relationships, and sense of home so completely.

In this episode, she reads her poem “Daddy, Do You Still Believe That?” publicly for the first time. Written to her father, the poem questions the patriotic, political, and religious beliefs she grew up with and explores what happens when the identity you inherit no longer fits the life you’ve lived.

Jennifer shares how travel and life in Spain, Latin America, South Korea, Mexico, and China changed the way she understood the United States. She talks about growing up in a conservative Republican and Catholic family, watching her family struggle after the 2008 housing crisis, and finding greater financial stability abroad.

We also discuss expat guilt, political divisions within families, the hidden relationship cost of living overseas, and why returning home can feel harder than leaving. Jennifer explains how living abroad forces you to question your values, routines, relationships, and assumptions, often before you even realize how much you’ve changed.

This conversation is for anyone interested in living abroad, leaving the United States, expat identity, reverse culture shock, religious deconstruction, political differences within families, and the emotional cost of building a life far from home.

In this episode:

• Jennifer reads her poem publicly for the first time
• How living abroad changed her political and religious beliefs
• Why she addressed the poem directly to her father
• Growing up in a conservative Republican and Catholic family
• Adventure, economic opportunity, and leaving the United States
• Expat guilt and the relationship cost of living overseas
• Why people back home often misunderstand expat life
• The difference between traveling and living in another country
• Losing friendships after changing abroad
• Why returning home can be harder than leaving
• Finding identity, community, and love outside your home country
• Why the challenges of living abroad were still worth it

Original publication date: October 15, 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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Did you blog your way through your first experiences in a new place? Shannon Martin does this. She is an American who has lived in Shanghai, China for 6 years. In this two part interview she shares her first impressions of China via a blog post she wrote in 2012 with her current life in Shanghai. Shannon brings up many nuanced aspects of daily life in Shanghai that often get overlooked like personal space differences, cartoon patterned bed sheets, books, quiet places and more.

Traveling Mailbox: https://travelingmailbox.com/?ref=3422

Top 3 services that have help me while living in different countries: 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/?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

--------------------

🤸🏽Music from
Damon Castillo: https://www.damoncastillo.com/

and

Key Frame Audio , https://keyframeaudio.com/

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When Shannon Martin moved to Shanghai in 2012, everyday life in China immediately gave her a long list of things to notice: official red stamps, bicycles, relentless commerce, noise, laundry hanging everywhere, and an abundance of extremely cute things.

Nearly six years later, Shannon revisits one of the first blog posts she wrote about living in China and asks which of those early observations still hold up, what has changed, and what once felt strange but eventually became normal.

What happens to our observations about a place once we’ve lived there long enough?

Many of the things that caught Shannon’s attention during her first few months in Shanghai still existed six years later, but often in very different forms. Paperwork became more digital, private bicycles gave way to bike-sharing systems, mobile payments transformed shopping and bargaining, car horns became less common and laundry became less visible in some neighborhoods.

The culture hadn’t simply disappeared or stayed the same. It kept evolving around her.

In this episode

• Shannon’s first impressions of living in Shanghai in 2012
• Why official red stamps and paperwork were such a visible part of life in China
• How digital payments and electronic receipts changed everyday bureaucracy
• What happened to Shanghai’s bicycles after bike-sharing arrived
• How electric scooters and delivery drivers changed the city’s streets
• When Shanghai became noticeably quieter after restrictions on car horns
• Bargaining, shopping, and the feeling of “winning” a negotiation
• How mobile payments changed traditional bargaining strategies
• Why laundry hanging outside became less visible in parts of Shanghai
• Unexpected similarities Shannon noticed between Spain and China
• Personal space and how ideas about politeness change across cultures
• Why Shannon stopped blogging regularly even though she still valued long-form reflection
• Downsizing, living abroad, and how our relationship with possessions changes
• Books and travel writing that helped Shannon understand China
• What outsiders often misunderstand about everyday life in modern China
• How quickly Shanghai changed during Shannon’s six years there
• Why she wishes she had studied more Chinese
• The difference between experiencing Shanghai during the first year and after living there for years

Who this episode is for

This episode is for people interested in living in Shanghai, moving to China, culture shock, expat life, long-term travel, digital life in China, cultural differences, and how our understanding of a place changes after the novelty of the first year wears off.

About Shannon

Shannon Martin is originally from the United States and had been living in Shanghai for almost six years when we recorded this conversation. 

Before moving to China, Shannon and her husband left Florida and began traveling while she worked location independently. They spent time living in Spain before eventually deciding to move to Shanghai.

Shannon started her travel blog, Two Who Travel, as a way to document their travels, observations, and experiences for friends and family. One of her early Shanghai posts captured six things that seemed especially noticeable during her first months in China: official red stamps, bikes, commerce, noise, laundry, and cuteness.

In this episode, she revisits those observations years later.

What changed in Shanghai between 2012 and 2018?

One of the most interesting things about Shannon’s original post is that very little had completely disappeared. Instead, the form of everyday life had changed.

Official paperwork and red stamps still mattered, but more processes were becoming electronic. Receipts could be issued digitally. Payments increasingly happened through phones rather than cash or cards.

Bicycles were still everywhere, but bike-sharing companies had transformed what the streets looked like. Even noise changed. Shannon had once written that Shanghai’s constant car horns seemed impossible to control. Years later, regulations and significant fines had dramatically reduced them.

Looking back showed her how quickly a city can change while still remaining recognizably itself.

What happened to all the bikes in China?

In Shannon’s original 2012 post, bicycles and scooters were everywhere. She even considered buying a bike herself but never did. Within a few years, bike-sharing companies such as Mobike and Ofo appeared across Shanghai, making it possible to use shared bicycles instead of owning one.

At the same time, scooters became even more visible as food delivery services expanded. The quiet electric scooters created another challenge: pedestrians often couldn’t hear them approaching. Both Steph and Shannon remember having to develop a kind of instinct for scooters moving quickly along sidewalks.

Sometimes technological improvements solve one problem while creating another.

What do Spain and China have in common?

At first glance, Spain and China may seem like very different places. After living in both, Shannon noticed some surprising similarities. Family relationships can play a central role in both cultures. Group belonging and social relationships can also feel especially important.

She noticed similarities in outdoor public life too: walking, exercising outside, people gathering in parks, and outdoor exercise equipment used particularly by older residents. There were also similarities around laundry, noise, and personal space. Those comparisons are one of the recurring lessons of living in several countries.

Places that seem completely different from the outside can sometimes feel unexpectedly familiar once you live inside them.

What does living abroad do to our relationship with our material things?

Before moving abroad, Shannon and her husband gradually reduced the possessions they had left behind in the United States. Like many people who start living internationally, they discovered that objects that once seemed essential often became much less important after months without them.

Steph had experienced something similar when she moved across the United States years earlier. She shipped several large boxes of possessions to herself months after moving, only to discover that she barely wanted anything inside them anymore. Living abroad can create distance not only from a home country, but also from the possessions that once represented home.

For Shannon, photographs increasingly became enough to preserve many memories that she once kept through physical objects.

What books helped Shannon understand China?

Shannon has always used books as a way to understand the places where she lives and travels. She recommends Peter Hessler’s writing about China, including River Town and Country Driving, as useful ways to explore the country through long-form observation. She also mentions Stateless in Shanghai, a memoir that offered her an unusual perspective on Shanghai’s history and the experience of a person born in China to non-Chinese parents. 

When traveling somewhere new, Shannon often looks for books, memoirs, podcasts, and authors connected to that place. Reading while physically being somewhere creates a different relationship with the story.

You can look up from the page and realize that the history you’re reading happened in the place around you.

What do outsiders misunderstand about modern China?

When Steph asks what people who haven’t visited China misunderstand most, Shannon’s immediate answer is simple: Everything. She especially points to everyday safety and the gap between international perceptions of China and ordinary daily life.

Visitors often arrive with ideas shaped by political news, government coverage, and isolated headlines. Then they encounter a daily reality filled with mobile payments, delivery services, cafes, public transportation, busy neighborhoods, and ordinary human routines that don’t fit neatly into those expectations.

That doesn’t mean the political or social issues people hear about aren’t real. The problem is that they’re incomplete.

Understanding a country through headlines alone is very different from understanding what it feels like to buy groceries, commute, find an apartment, meet friends, solve a broken door lock, or walk home late at night.

 🌍 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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When Evan moved from New York City to Jiaxing, China, in 2006, one of the cultural differences that caught his attention was dogs. He noticed street dogs in less wealthy areas, purebred dogs in richer cities, and very different attitudes toward pet ownership than the ones he knew from the United States.

More than a decade later, living in Shanghai with his own rescue dog, Evan revisits a blog post he wrote during his first months in China and reflects on how dog culture, rescue communities, and his own understanding of China have changed. As we’re having this conversation one of his dogs is in the room with us. It was super cute. 

What can dogs tell us about a culture?

The way people keep, value, rescue, and interact with dogs can reflect broader differences in wealth, lifestyle, urban development, and cultural attitudes toward animals. Are they a companion or a status symbol or a part of the family?

In 2006, Evan saw a sharp contrast between the street dogs he encountered in Jiaxing and the purebred pets he saw in wealthier Shenzhen. Years later, he says that picture became more complicated as dog rescue communities grew and pet ownership became increasingly visible in cities like Shanghai.

In this episode

• Moving from New York City to Jiaxing, China, to teach English
• What Evan noticed about dogs during his first months living in China
• The differences he saw between pet ownership in Jiaxing and Shenzhen
• How dog culture in Shanghai changed between 2006 and 2018
• The growth of dog rescue and adoption communities in Shanghai
• Why expat mobility can create challenges for pet adoption
• How people in Shanghai react differently to dogs and dog owners
• What living abroad taught Evan and Steph about cultural assumptions
• Revisiting observations about wealth, status, and purebred dogs
• How Evan’s own culture shock changed during his first year in China

Who this episode is for

This episode is for people interested in living in China, expat life in Shanghai, pet culture across countries, dog rescue and adoption, and the ways everyday observations can reveal deeper cultural differences.

About Evan

Evan Pinto moved from New York City to Jiaxing, China, in 2006 to teach English for a year after studying Asian Studies and Chinese as an undergraduate.

Soon after arriving, he started a blog called Pinto Bean and Rice about his experiences adjusting to life in China. One early post, “You Can Tell a Lot About a Place From Its Dogs,” compared the dogs he saw in Jiaxing, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong and explored what those differences might say about wealth and urban life.

By the time of this conversation, Evan had spent years living in Shanghai and had become part of the local dog rescue community himself. His rescue dog Buddy even joins us for part of the conversation.

How has dog culture changed in Shanghai?

One of the biggest changes Evan noticed was the growth of dog rescue and adoption communities. He remembers seeing many more loose and homeless dogs during his earlier years in China. By the time of this conversation, he says street dogs had become far less common in Shanghai, while rescue organizations and adoption networks had grown significantly.

Evan also talks about the role Shanghai’s international community played in developing some of these rescue networks, as well as a recurring challenge in expat communities: people may adopt pets while living abroad, then struggle to take them along when jobs, visas, or international moves suddenly change.

Do wealth and dog ownership still connect?

In his original 2006 blog post, Evan argued that wealthier cities seemed to have more purebred dogs, while less affluent places had more mixed-breed and street dogs.

Looking back 12 years later, he says that observation still reflected something he had genuinely seen at the time, but the reality had become more complicated.

Rescue adoption had grown, especially within Shanghai’s expat community, while purebred dogs continued to be popular among some local pet owners. The shift reminded him that cultural observations can be true in a particular moment without remaining fixed forever.

What living abroad teaches us about assumptions

The conversation eventually moves beyond dogs into a broader question: what happens when living abroad exposes assumptions we didn’t know we had?

Both Evan and Steph reflect on moments when they interpreted something as uniquely Chinese, Taiwanese, or American, only to realize later that some behaviors were more universal than they first assumed.

Evan also describes becoming aware of assumptions he carried from growing up in New York, including how race, appearance, and occupation had become linked in ways he hadn’t consciously noticed before moving abroad.

Living in a different cultural environment forced him to see some of those patterns more clearly.

Evan’s first year of culture shock in China

Evan also looks back at the culture shock of moving from New York to Jiaxing.

His first month felt exciting and new, but the adjustment became harder as the year continued. He remembers struggling with language, food, isolation, holidays away from home, and the everyday exhaustion of trying to function in an unfamiliar environment.

Even simple interactions, like ordering spinach at a restaurant, could become frustrating when pronunciation and context didn’t work the way he expected.

Looking back, those experiences became part of a much longer process of learning how to live across cultures and questioning the assumptions he brought with him.

Original publication date: June 1, 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

Phil's journey learning Mandarin Chinese is nothing less than impressive. But he is humble and shares not only his experiences but very practical tips and resources that he has found along the way. Phil and I initially did this interview for the Changing Scripts YouTube channel but it felt like too long of an experience for a video. It felt like a podcast. So here we are.

🤸🏽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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Xing moved from China to Edinburgh, Scotland, for graduate school and initially experienced the city as a kind of wonderland, as he put it. Years later, he looks back at how studying abroad, culture shock, international friendships, and eventually leaving the international student bubble changed the way he understood Scotland and himself.

In this episode of Geopats Abroad, Xing revisits a story he wrote in 2005 about his first months living in Edinburgh and reflects on what that younger version of himself didn’t yet understand.

What is the international student bubble?

The international student bubble can make moving abroad feel exciting and culturally diverse while still keeping someone somewhat separated from the local culture around them. Xing describes how spending his first year mainly with international friends helped him adjust to Western culture broadly, but his deeper understanding of Scottish culture came later, when he began working and interacting more with locals. 

In this episode

• Moving from China to Scotland as an international student
• Experiencing Edinburgh as a cultural “wonderland”
• How international friendships shaped Xing’s first year abroad
• The difference between adapting to Western culture & adapting to Scottish culture
• What happened when Xing’s international student bubble began to disappear
• Writing about life abroad in both English and Chinese
• How language can change the way we express different parts of ourselves
• Looking back at studying abroad with more life experience
• Xing’s advice for international students adjusting to life in another country
• Why Edinburgh still feels like a spiritual home years later

Who this episode is for

This episode is for international students, people preparing to study abroad, expats adjusting to a new culture, and anyone interested in how our understanding of a place can change years after we leave it.

About Xing

Xing Zhao moved from China to Edinburgh, Scotland, to complete a postgraduate degree in cultural studies at the University of Edinburgh. During his time abroad, he wrote blogs in both Chinese and English about what he was seeing, learning, and experiencing. In this conversation, he revisits a piece he wrote during his first year in Edinburgh and reflects on the difference between the exciting international world he first entered and the more complicated reality of building a life there after graduation.

Years later, Edinburgh still holds a powerful place in his life. Looking back, he describes it as a place connected not only to studying abroad, but to becoming an adult, finding his place in the world, and developing a sense of home across cultures.

A different version of yourself abroad

One of the most interesting parts of Xing’s story is how differently he expressed himself depending on the language he was using. He describes his English writing as funnier and his Chinese writing as more sentimental. Writing two blogs allowed him to stay connected with people in China while also documenting the new English-speaking world he was living in.

His experience raises a bigger question many people who live across cultures recognize: does speaking or writing in another language bring out a different version of who we are?

Advice for international students living abroad

Looking back at his own experience, Xing shares advice that still applies to many people studying in another country: don’t stay only within your own cultural community, spend time with both international and local people, keep an open mind, travel when you can, and give yourself permission to experience the culture you actually moved there to experience.

He also reflects on the importance of becoming independent and accepting that studying abroad isn’t always the idealized experience people imagine before they arrive.

Original publication date

May 14, 2018

Xing’s website: https://kapazhao.com/

 🌍 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

​This week we expat chat with Xing Zhao, a Chinese Writer, Translator and former expat in Edinburgh, Scotland. Xing shares with us a blog post, Kapa Zhou, that he wrote during his first year studying in Scotland. He goes on to reflect on how his memories of that time period and how they are not fully represented in the blog entry. Xing also shared a post he wrote on the Chinese language version of this blog as advice to other international students. As someone who has taught international students both in Asia and in my passport country of the U.S, this was interesting insight to get first hand indeed.  

A special thank you goes out to Rebeca Kanthor, who introduced Xing and I.

Xing’s Info:
Website: https://kapazhao.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kapazhao/

Show Links:
-The Festival (movie), https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468736/

www.stephfuccio.com

Producer, Host, Editor: Stephanie Fuccio: https://www.stephfuccio.com/contact.html

Geopats YouTube channel: under construction

This podcast was created with (affiliate links):

• Streamyard for recording, going live, and distributing FULL videos to LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube: https://streamyard.com?pal=5673660346007552
• Buzzsprout for podcast hosting: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1907332
• Acon Digital's DeVerberate to reduce echo: https://a.paddle.com/v2/click/11427/147398?link=3691
• Tube Buddy to optimize YouTube: https://www.tubebuddy.com/globalpodcasteditors

Have your expectations about a place ever gotten you into trouble? American expat Evan, also known as my husband, was kind enough to be our first guest on the Expat Rewind show back in 2017. He shared a group email that he wrote to his family and friends back home with us.

After that episode, Expat Rewind expanded and I started to interview the guests. But his episode remained the only one without an interview portion. Since we are at the end of the Geopats Podcast rebranding process I thought it made sense to go back and reflect on his reflection, via an interview. So, this episode includes his original recording from 2017 AND at 13:51 our recent interview about his email and his recording. I have not re-edited the original episode much because I think the contrast in many aspects of the project is interesting in and of themselves. I hope you enjoy this double reflection of someone who is near and dear to me. Oh, did I mention that Evan is also my dear husband?  

Links:

-Gepik Program: https://www.korvia.com/gepik-gyeonggi-english-program-in-korea/

-Confucian Philosophy: https://asiasociety.org/education/confucianism

-Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36236125-invisible-monsters

-shoganai: Japanese word for "it can't be helped": https://www.japan-talk.com/jt/new/shoganai

-Stress definition (this is not the exact meme I saw but it's the same quote):

https://me.me/i/what-is-stress-its-the-gap-between-our-expectation-4864189

​This episode was created with:

-Steph's microphone: Samson Q2U (for the 2nd part of the episode)

-Auphonic,free online leveling software

- Producer, Editor, & Host: Stephanie (Gmail: stephfuccio)

www.stephfuccio.com

Producer, Host, Editor: Stephanie Fuccio: https://www.stephfuccio.com/contact.html

questions for audio creatives newsletter: https://stephfuccio.ghost.io/

Geopats YouTube channel: under construction

This podcast was created with (affiliate links):

• Streamyard for recording, going live, and distributing FULL videos to LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube: https://streamyard.com?pal=5673660346007552
• Buzzsprout for podcast hosting: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1907332
• Acon Digital's DeVerberate to reduce echo: https://a.paddle.com/v2/click/11427/147398?link=3691
• Tube Buddy to optimize YouTube: https://www.tubebuddy.com/globalpodcasteditors

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Have your expectations about a place ever gotten you into trouble?

In this first episode of Geopats Abroad, American expat Evan shares what culture shock looked like during his early years living abroad. We revisit a group email he originally sent to family and friends back home and talk about how his expectations shaped his experience of adapting to another culture.

What causes culture shock?

Culture shock often comes from the gap between what someone expects a place to be like and what daily life actually feels like. Expectations, assumptions, and comparisons to home can all shape how someone experiences living in another country.

In this episode

• What culture shock can feel like when you first move abroad
• How expectations affect the expat experience
• Looking back at early impressions of life in another country
• How your understanding of cultural differences changes over time
• What 20 years of living abroad can teach you about your own culture

Who this episode is for

This episode is for people preparing to move abroad, adjusting to expat life, or trying to better understand culture shock and cultural differences.

About Evan

Evan is an American expat and Stephanie’s husband. He was the first guest on Geopats Abroad back in 2017, when he shared a group email he had written to family and friends about his experience living abroad.

More than 20 years after that original experience, he reflects on what he understands differently now about culture shock, expectations, and adapting to life in another country.

Original publication date: May 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