Being an expat has a lot of advantages - and disadvantages.
It’s difficult not having any family members around. Especially for my daughter. And sometimes for me.
But on the upside when people at the fruit stand, or coffee shop, or at my daughters school realize I’m a single parent in a foreign city, they tend to look out for me.
For example, since I’ve recuperated from my dislocated knee cap summer, I’ve been to no less than 7 dinner parties.
Over the past 2 nights I’ve been to two kid-friendly dinner parties.
Last nights party led me to a Bulgarian mom who was studying fashion marketing, and knew Bulgarian, Russian, Japanese and English. She’s now taking French here in Montreal.
Then there was the young single dad who was on sabbatical.
The hosts were Colombians who recently immigrated to Montreal, and were also studying French.
With that said, do YOU see an ebook here?
I do.
How did the Bulgarian mom manage to learn so many foreign languages? I mean we’re talking about languages with different alphabets. And she can speak, write and read them all.
How does a single dad survive on a sabbatical for a year? What insights and tips can he give to other single dads? (Who have far less support and information than single moms.)
My point here is that people - not necessarily the Internet - are THE true wealth of information.
Everybody (including myself) likes to take the ‘faceless’ way out, when it comes to researching a topic.
We look up articles, we read books, we e-mail experts we’ve never seen. And it works.
But… sometimes it’s even more effective to step out of your faceless comfort zone and meet real people.
Meetup.com offers all kinds of groups in most major cities around the world. It’s an easy way to expand your horizons in a structured environment.
Wanna write an ebook about poker? Join a poker meetup group. Writing an ebook about an alternative health topic? Join an alternative health meetup group.
And don’t just be the quiet observer, ask questions. Be interested in who other people are. What they do for a living. Where they’ve lived. Listen out for unusual experiences, and ask for elaboration.
When you click with certain members, exchange numbers. The point here is to be proactive in widening your circle of real life friends.
Because as the old saying goes, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”
Meetup and grow rich,
Alexis Dawes
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