“Friendship is born that moment when one person says to another: What! You too? I thought I was the only one.”

Source unknown.

The honest truth is that sometimes being the expatriate partner can be a bit of a lonely old business. Whilst generally we all recognise the positive opportunities and learning that can come from our time abroad it can also be an isolating experience at times.

• Expat friends come and go, we can be wealthy in wonderful friendships one year and suddenly bereft the next.
• It can take time to find and build new valuable friendships.
• Our families back home, as much as we may love them, and them us, often just don’t get our challenges and issues.
• Our partners, despite a will to support and understand often have a completely different set of time consuming work related challenges.

For these reasons and also, quite honestly because of the sheer enjoyment we all got from a conversation back in January (see blog post below), we have decided to launch

 “Expat Partners Coffee Online”.

If you are an expat partner, male or female, living anywhere in the world, you are warmly invited to joins us. The only requirement is that you have a computer and an active internet connection. The idea initially is to meet monthly, and use the time to discuss issues and challenges close to your hearts.

The first session will be on Friday 23^rd at 12pm GMT that’s 8am EST.

We will be using some fabulous technology Linqto, which enables us to talk to each other in turn, use video (if we choose!) and have a simultaneous written conversation as well. You can visit the Linqto site by clicking on this link and test it out or yourself.

Who are we?

We are two Expatriate Coaches, Louise Wiles (Success Abroad Coaching), living in Portugal and Evelyn (The Smart Expat), living in Belgium, joined by Judy Rickatson a Director of FIGT (Families in Global Transition) living in Canada, and Tara Agakayak from Morocco of Global Niche.net.

How to Join:

Simply click on this link to access the Linqto room at 12pm (GMT) on Friday 23^rd of March.

But first go to our Facebook event page HERE and let us know that you will be joining us.

We look forward to meeting you there!