RE: Becoming an Expat, how moving out of your comfort zone makes great things happen!
By moving away from friends and family and setting up in a new country people become transformed, because everyone is in the same situation and knows how difficult the decision to move was it makes everyone so friendly and helpful.
This is soooo true!! We loaded up and moved from Texas to Panama about 7 months ago and we are finding this is definitely the case. We are all in the same boat here and it's easy to understand that we need to watch someone's kids so they can go out. Right now, we are babysitting while our friends are working out of the country! And our kids are having a blast! We really enjoy living here and the first step was definitely the hardest. Getting on the plane that first day was a killer, but after that, things have actually gone really well. It is the expat network and community here that has made life a lot more bearable. I was commenting on another post that the expat community here is even closer than our friends and family community was back in Texas...and we had family living right down the street. We literally have seen our friends here in the last 7 months more than we saw friends and family in the last 7 years. There is a definite sense of community and togetherness with expats. :) Great post.
Congratulations on the move @apanamamama. Thanks for your insight, it's great to see that even on the other side of the world to us the expat community works in the same way. We can truely say because of it we have friends all over the world who would help us out at a moments notice and us likewise. All because you went through the same experiences it's a unique bond. Enjoy your time in Panama I look forward to your posts.
Quite true about the community all over the world. I spent some time in Mexico City years ago and they had a great community there as well. Strangely, most of our expat friends here are from Texas. People in Texas apparently like to move to Panama. ;) We even met a lady who lived in the same TINY Texas town as us right before we both moved to this tiny random Panamanian town. So crazy. :) We probably never would have met had we both stayed in Texas.
That's brilliant, I have actually met 3 guys i knew or knew of in Qatar and Dubai from my little village and instantly became good friends. If I would of met them in the village we would of walked past one another!!