Expat Infidelity Poll

Help... We moved our monthly Expat Women Poll from our Home Page to our Polls section this month, when ExpatWomen.com underwent it's March makeover. The problem now seems to be that the Poll is a bit too buried on the site and we need more responses.

Granted, some women might be scared to commit an answer to a question about infidelity... but given that our Poll is completely anonymous and no ExpatWomen tracking device whatsoever will find out who said what (we assure you), we hope you will click on this link and take the 5 seconds you need to click on your multiple-choice response to the following:

Question:

What is Your Experience with Infidelity Abroad?


Possible Answers:

• My Partner Has Had An Affair, But I Have Not
• My Partner Has Had An Affair, And I Have Too
• My Partner Has Not Had An Affair, But I Have
• I Suspect My Partner Has Had An Affair
• I Want To Have An Affair
• We Have Both Been 100% Faithful

Thanks in advance for your help!

Want to Win a Web Award?

If you have ever wondered how web experts would view your web site or blog, here is a great way to get some feedback and potentially receive some valuable recognition for your efforts...

The US-based Web Marketing Association has just announced it's 2008 call for entries to its annual WebAward Competition, with the deadline for entry being 31 May. You do not need to be a US-based company to enter. The entry costs US$195 (or US$99 for non-profits), but the sweeteners are:

(1) There are 96 (!) categories in which they typically announce several winners per category; and

(2) Every site entered receives rankings (and sometimes valuable judges' comments) across different selection criteria, so you can see just how you are doing and get some focus on how best to improve your site.

Last year, in our first year online, we entered ExpatWomen.com just to get some feedback from what we saw as 'real' web experts. We ended up winning (which they noted was primarily due to our content, rather than any super-interactive feature on our site) a Standard of Excellence award in our Online Community category.

This award was undeniably nice to show our sponsors and supporters, but more useful to us were the scores, rankings and two pages of extremely valuable feedback from their volunteer judges. That alone was well-worth the price of entry. (We will not be entering this year, but that is because we still have such great feedback to work on from last year.)

Now, in case you are wondering if they hand out awards to 'just anyone'... here is the list of the top 12 winners last year (note that Disney's name is mentioned twice), and here is the MyCoke site (aka another big name, Coca-Cola) that won last year in the Online Community category.

After approving the (exactly) 444 Expat Women Blogs on our site, I know that some of you have some really fabulous sites and blogs - so I hope some of you enter and win - then be sure to tell us, so we can showcase your winning blog here on our blog.

Good luck Everyone!
Andrea.

Are You An American Expat Lawyer?

Hi Everyone, This post is specifically for American Expat Lawyers, who might be able to help Amy Montemarano at the Drexel College of Law in the US:

"I am writing an article (and extending it into a book) on international legal careers and would like to interview (through email & telephone) ex-pats who were graduated from a U.S. law school and are now working in other countries. The article/book will feature "profiles" of how U.S. lawyers found their jobs working abroad. The intended audience is law students. The article will be placed in legal newspapers/magazines and will also be put on the website of Drexel University College of Law. The book will hopefully be published by the ABA (or similar legal organization) in its career division. I will run all final drafts of the interviews to confirm accuracy and make sure there is nothing confidential in what is said. This is being written in my professional capacity as Assistant Dean of Career & Professional Development at Drexel College of Law. Please contact me if you are interested in talking about your career. I anticipate gathering interviews from April through May 2008. Thank you."

If you can help Amy, please contact her directly via:

Amy Montemarano Esq.
Assistant Dean of Career & Professional Development
Drexel University College of Law
3320 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
(215) 571-4720
amymonte@drexel.edu
www.drexel.edu/law

Many thanks!

Expat Mentoring in BR Anchor News

Hi Everyone. Have you ever heard of BR Anchor Publishing? If you are a HR/Relocation Manager and you have not, then read on...

BR Anchor Publishing was started in the US in 1990 by Beverly Roman. Since that time, Beverly and her daughter Amy (who has recently assumed the company reins and moved the business to Florida) have built the company into a destination of choice for HR/Relocation Managers - in terms of expert advice and relocation resources customized for individual companies. Their newsletter database, for example, has over 7,000 subscribers. If you are interested, you can subscribe to their (now one-page-only) monthly newsletter via this page on their site.

This month's newsletter has just been sent out and I want to thank Amy and Beverly for publishing our Expat Mentoring article as the cover feature. If you are a HR/Relocation Manager and want to boost the success rate of your company’s expatriate assignments, take a quick read to see three simple ideas for you to help your expats link into the benefits of mentoring abroad.

Fancy Vietnam in June?

Hanoi, Vietnam, is the place to be this June if you would like to participate in the 2008 Global Summit of Women - nicknamed the "Davos for Women" because of "its focus on business and the calibre of women who participate".

The Forum is now in its 18th year. Last year, the Forum was held in Berlin, Germany. It hosted 1,000 participants from 95 countries, including 44 women government Ministers, as well as top women corporate, entrepreneurial and NGO leaders. You can see the video from last year here on the Globe Women website.

This year, the theme will be "Women and Asia: Driving The Global Economy". The program promises another fabulous array of VIP speakers, plus break-out sessions aligned as following:

• Leadership Development track;
• Entrepreneurial track;
• Micro-Enterprise track; and
• Issues track.

Dates are: Thursday 5 June - Saturday 7 June.

If you decide to go, please let me know, as I am going for the first time and would love to meet you there.

Best wishes, Andrea.

Note: On Wikipedia, "Davos" is explained as a municipality in the district of Prättigau/Davos, in Switzerland. It is described as famous for being the host to the annual meetings of the World Economic Forum (WEF), the annual meeting of global political and business elites, which is often referred to as simply Davos. To read more, click here.

Got an Expat Blog in Asia?

Hi Everyone, I talked today to the Founder and CEO of Expat-Advisory Services (EAS), Anthony Galloway, and to the Managing Editor for EAS, Naomi Robinson - both based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

The EAS web site, with the catch-phrase "The Insider's Guide to Asia" has been up for about four years, so if you are in (or have been in) Asia, you may have heard of the site. Currently, they cover Cambodia, South Korea, Vietnam and Laos. They have plans to expand to another three or four countries this year - so they are growing.

Anyway, Naomi kindly asked me to help promote their Blog in Asia competition. Basically, each month, the best blog post submitted to EAS will win US$100. At the end of the year, their "best Blogger" will be awarded US$1200. Now that would be a nice end-of-year bonus to travel somewhere exotic within the region!

To see more details about the competition, please Click Here. Good luck Expat Women in Asia Bloggers! :-)

Andrea

International Women's Day

On March 8 (and/or in the week prior or after), thousands of women around the world get together in some shape or form to celebrate International Women's Day (IWD).

According to this great United Nations (UN) link: "[IWD] is a day when women are recognized for their achievements without regard to divisions, whether national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political. It is an occasion for looking back on past struggles and accomplishments, and more importantly, for looking ahead to the untapped potential and opportunities that await future generations of women."

Did you do anything for IWD? Go to a luncheon? Participate in an organized fun run? Get together with your girlfriends? Or watch some IWD videos on YouTube? :-)

This year, I had the pleasure of attending a breakfast function for my local women's network in Australia: the Sunshine Coast Business Women's Network (SCBWN). The guest speakers for the morning were Hariati and Serena - two of the first female pilots to fly for Royal Brunei Airlines.

Hariati and Serena were incredibly inspirational. These women grew up in an Islamic society, on an island (Brunei) of only around 300,000 people. They both spent their childhood dreaming of being a pilot, but given that women were never allowed to do that in Brunei, it would have been easy to let go of their dreams... but they never did. They studied the subjects that they hoped one day would help them be pilots and they never lost faith in their dreams.

In 1999, both Hariati and Serena saw the advertisement by Royal Brunei for one (yes, just one) female pilot cadetship. They told us at the breakfast of their overwhelming sense of joy that day - as they knew that their dreams and hard work had not been wasted - they knew that they finally had a chance to fly high in the skies. (For the record, the women did not compete against each other, as one of them did not apply until the following year, due to age restrictions.)

Hariati and Serena both overcome some amazing odds to achieve the success that they enjoy today. For that reason, I am trying to interview one of these wonderful women as a Success Story for ExpatWomen.com in an upcoming month. The women are keen - but I am just needing to navigate through some "company security barriers" first. Wish me luck.

In the meantime, here are three inspirational quotes that I scribbled down from their talk, so you can share a little in some of the mottos that these ladies live by:

• "Women who want to be as good as men, have no ambition" (Serena was given this quote on a coffee mug, which she still uses it every day)

• "Write your own history, shape your own future"

• "N o t h i n g is impossible - n e v e r give up on your dreams"

Happy International Women's Day for last Saturday! Andrea.

Other IWD links:
Aurora's IWD page (UK-based)
Wikipedia's IWD page

Expat Women March Newsletter - Now Online

A very warm hello to everyone on this beautiful day. Our March newsletter is now online here. We managed to send the newsletter to half of our Members today. The task will be finished tomorrow, for those who missed out today. Please bear with us. It takes a couple of hours to send to all of the newsletter groups, so occasionally we run out of time (or encounter technical hiccups) and the task then gets spread over two days. If you have not joined us yet, we invite you to sign up now, so you do not miss the next inspirational dose in April!

One feature in the newsletter that has not previously been mentioned on this blog is the Double Vision in Mexico article. This was an interview that Jill and I did last year with Elena Bucciero of (A)WAY magazine in Belgium, about living in Mexico. (A)WAY published the interview in their hard-copy magazine in January/February 2008, as part of their regular feature showcasing what it is like to live in different countries as expatriates. If you are moving to Mexico, or have just moved to Mexico, you may be interested in the article.

If you think you live in an interesting expat location and you would like Elena to consider interviewing you in the future, you can contact Elena via this online contact form (remembering to mark it for Elena's attention). Elena says: "The idea behind this 'interview-type' piece is to tell other expats what it is like living in various countries worldwide - to give them a 'flavour' of the lifestyle, people, food, culture, etc. as well as information about all the other things which are really important to expat families - education, healthcare, accommodation, cost of living, etc."

By the way, if you are in Belgium and you do not already subscribe, I encourage you to seek out the magazine at some point - it is very nice (they sent me a copy) - and 15,000 readers must be onto something, right? (I saw on their website that a two-year subscription costs 30 Euros.)

Have a wonderful weekend, Everyone! Andrea

Thank You Expat Women Mentors

Those of you who have a keen eye may have noticed that our new-look web site does not include the "Forums" or "Mentors" sections that we had in the past. Well, your eyes are not mistaken, those sections are not hidden anywhere on the new site... sadly, those two sections have both been taken off the site, due to spam and maintenance issues. (We announced the withdrawal of the Forums in our February newsletter and we are going to announce the withdrawal of the Mentors section in our upcoming March newsletter.)

The good news is that we have started looking for more creative, user-generated ways to stimulate online expat women networking. We hope to have an alternative networking format to replace the Forums and Mentors sections later in the year.

A H-U-G-E thank you to every single one of our 150 or so Expat Women Mentors, who volunteered their time and wisdom on our site. You are all wonderfully generous women and you really did make a difference!

Thanks for your support everyone, Andrea.

Want Some Tips On Writing & Publishing Your Book?

Anyone who is interested in getting some tips and insights on writing and publishing that book that is inside of them, I highly recommend taking a read of last week's discussion on Barbara Gabogrecan's Micro Biz Navigator Forum for Guest Experts, facilitated by Jo Parfitt, a British expat woman in The Netherlands:

http://www.forum.micronavigator.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=184

Jo, and some of the other published authors who participated in the discussion, share some really great insights that we could all learn from, if we are thinking of writing/publishing a book.

Go for it!

Television Opportunities

Hi Everyone, You may notice on our ExpatWomen.com home page that there is a prompt to visit this blog which says: "Want to get our gossip first? Read our latest news and find out how to be on television!"

If you're new to the Blog and want to know what the "television" bit means, here is an explanation...

From time to time, media (journalists for newspapers, magazines and television shows) contact us looking for Expat Women to feature in various projects. If you scroll through the previous postings, you will see some examples.

We started trying to find women to match the opportunities, but then we decided just to post the requests on this blog as they came through, as there are surely more of you 'out there' that we don't know about, that might appreciate the inside goss.

So, if you are interested in these types of opportunities, just keep an eye on this blog. ;-)

Cheers, Andrea.

Welcome to the New ExpatWomen.com!

Dear Friends,

It is with much pleasure that we unveiled today our new home page. As mentioned previously, the home page is complete, but it will take us a week or two to change over the colours properly on all of the other pages, so thanks for your patience on that.

Full thanks for the new design go to:

1. Beth Nori, of Nori Studios, who has been an ExpatWomen Mentor for us in the UK. Beth wrote to us like a guardian angel one night and miraculously translated our ideas for our new top banner into reality within two days. If you ever need a web designer, we highly recommend Beth! and
2. Our regular web designer, Ines Castro of Blu Concept in Mexico, who spent many, many, many hours with me developing the rest of the home page. Ines, for your patience and persistence, we thank you immensely!

Loyal ExpatWomen.com readers will notice that the feature format on the home page looks different. This is to better profile the selected features and also to rotate the feature concepts from month to month. So, if your favourite feature is not there this month (eg. Book of the Month or Business Idea), just keep a look out in future months.

Home Page features for March:

Special Report: From Chennai to Shanghai: Expat Executive Women in Asia. This is the article that we mentioned in a previous post, that was written for ERC's Mobility Magazine (which they published in February). It is the result of interviews with seven expatriate women working in Asia. Thanks go to Nancy, Christa, Julianne, Basia, Cisca, Lesley and Sarah for their participation. You can read the article and see all of their photos here.

Success Story: Ambassador Sharyn Minahan, Australia's Ambassador to Denmark, Norway and Iceland. Sharyn has had experience abroad in Argentina, Spain, France, Chile, Mexico and is a very interesting woman.

Winning Story: Welcome to the Dark Side - Depression in Cambodia. Yes, we know, not the usual cheery fare, but an excellent account of a very real issue - all over the world. It's very well-written and full credit to the author, Bronwyn Sloan. She fully deserves her US$100 (our lucky last winner of the US$100, as that promotion has now ended) just for the courage to speak out. Congratulations Bronwyn.

Expat Confession: Infidelity Online. This was a very real confession from one of our members. (Name and location changed on request) Has this happenned to you?

New Book Giveaway: Thanks to our friends at Explorer Publishing in the UAE (namely Kate Fox - thanks Kate!), we have a great new book giveaway every month. Instead of five individual winners scoring one book each, Explorer are helping us to give away one complete set of Explorer Mini-Guides (16 in total, and more being published all the time) to one lucky member - who hopefully loves to travel. If you have not got around to joining up yet, please do so here for the chance to w-i-n.

New Bronze Sponsor: Clements International. A very genuine welcome to Clements International, who are a leading provider of trusted and reliable insurance services for expatriates, covering more than 170 countries. If you need automobile, personal, property, life, business, school and/or any other form of insurance, please support Clements, who we thank sincerely for supporting us.

Okay, thanks everyone and we wish you all a wonderful weekend! Andrea

Want to Write for Culture Smart?

Dear Expat Women Writers,

A good friend, Jo Parfitt of the ExpatRollercoaster.com, has been asked to source potential authors for some upcoming Culture Smart! books. If you think you can write about 30,000 words in an upbeat style about what it is like to live in one of the following countries as an expatriate, please email Jo and she can connect you with the series editor.

The countries are: Jordan; Syria; Tunisia; Mongolia; Bosnia Herzogovena; Slovakia; Nigeria; Tanzania; Venezuela; Columbia; and Ecuador. This is a great opportunity to gain a reputation as a country expert and an author. It will apparently earn you GBP1000 (a one-off fee).

If I had lived in any of those countries, I would do it! A thousand Pounds helps pay for the next exciting trip right? Go for it! Andrea.

Face-Lift Update

Hi Everyone, Just a quick update on ExpatWomen.com's face-lift. All going well, we are pleased to report that our mad efforts over the past couple of weeks should be unveiled on March 1! :-)

The navigation bars (that need to be changed manually, on every single page) will take another week or two to update to the new navigation bar colour (which will not be pink). So thanks for your patience on that.

The top banner will however keep our famous pink branding - but it will be a 'new' pink. We hope you will like it.

Thanks and enjoy your day/evening! Andrea

HSBC Offshore's Global Expat Survey

BREAKING NEWS: HSBC Bank International (one of our generous Gold Sponsors) just unveiled an ambitious project to conduct the largest ever survey of expats. Can you please help?

Here's what HSBC said: "The project aims to give more than 2000 expats across four continents the opportunity to have their say on what life is really like for people living and working away from home. The survey will look at opportunities that come with starting a new life in a foreign country away from home, and the challenges and difficulties that they may face at home and at work. The survey will also reveal how new technology helps expats start their new lives and manage their professional and social affairs. It will also find out how expatriate children’s lives differ from the lives of the friends they leave behind."

To make your opinion heard, please visit this link.

Thanks Everyone!

Women Inspiring Women

Hi Everyone, please let me share with you a good news story that I've been meaning to share for some time...

After appearing on our home page as our Mentor of the Month for December, Vicel (a Filipino expat woman in Afghanistan) wrote to us recently to share her excitement about being subsequently contacted by a Filipino researcher to participate in a very interesting study on the values and traditions of Filipinos living abroad. Vicel was also excited that her story inspired her sister’s friend so much that her sister's friend is no longer overwhelmed with anxiety about her move soon to with her husband to Tanzania. That’s fabulous Vicel. Thanks for the good news, and here's cheers to women inspiring women, all over the world! Andrea.

Intelligent Women Drink More?

I read something very interesting the other day, when I was Stumbling around on the web. The article was entitled "Intelligent People Are Prone to Alcoholism - Especially Women". Written by Stefan Anitei, Science Editor, Softpedia.

The results quoted were apparently the results made by the Medical Research Council and published in the American Journal of Public Health. They claim that "women are particularly prone to drink heavily in their thirties, if they have an over-the-averge intelligence". If you are interested, you can read all about it here.

Regards, Andrea.

An Expat In India?

Hi there, Julia is looking for expats in India, to survey for her Masters thesis on cross-cultural adaptation in India. Please help Julia if you can, thanks.

"I would like ask for your help to contact non-Indian expatriates or family of expatriates living in India regarding their success while working and living abroad. This research is issued by the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

It has been found that expatriates do not always perform as successful in the foreign country as they did in their home country. Some causes for these personal differences have been found in personality characteristics. Through this new research we would like obtain more certainty about the determinants of cultural effectiveness; in this case, job success. A lot of money could be saved when one could predict which employee is going to be cultural effective and thus successful in an international assignment.

To help me with my research, please click on this link (the survey should take you about 10 minutes). Hopefully you are able to help me and in this way help me graduate. Thank you very much!"

Yours sincerely,
Julia Wijnmaalen
Turfsingel 41
9712 KJ Groningen
The Netherlands

Face-lift for Expat Women

Ladies, it's time ExpatWomen.com (mainly the home page) gets a face-lift. We're working on this behind-the-scenes right now, but any ideas are more than welcome here. All going well, you should see a new-look Expat Women home page in either March or April. Thanks and stay tuned...

Got Something To Confess?

Dear Friends,
Following on from the positive feedback that we have received about the Expat Confessions section on our site, we would like to put a book together of both these confessions and new confessions, to help expat women the world over feel supported and that they are not alone in struggling with some/all of these issues.

If you have additional topic ideas, or things to confess that you have struggled with as an expat, ALL ideas are welcome via: contactus@expatwomen dot com. The topic ideas and/or personal confessions are purely voluntary and they will be kept anonymous in the book. (We can easily change names and locations.)

Thanks in advance for your support and for your contributions! Andrea

Family Matters Survey - Please Help Robin Pascoe

Hello Everyone. I would love you to help Robin Pascoe with her new "Family Matters!" survey.

This survey is different from other expat surveys in that it focuses more on the family and the impact of relocation on all of the family members. It was released today by my good friend, Robin Pascoe, aka the Expat Expert, in collaboration with one of her sponsors, AMJ Campbell International.

Robin has been running her Expat Expert website for 10 years now (congratulations on your anniversary, Robin!), devoting countless hours to helping expat women all around the globe. I encourage you to help Robin if you can, as a small way to contribute back to someone who has been helping expat women for many, many years.

The survey took me 30 minutes. You might be quicker. Thanks in advance, your willingness to help is genuinely appreciated.

Andrea.

British Expats Running A Business Abroad? Television Opportunity

If you are a British Expat running a business abroad who is needing some help, Anne Stone might just be able to make your day...

"I work for a London based TV Production Company called RDF Television- we make programmes such as Secret Millionaire and Faking It. I am doing some research for a new documentary series for Channel 4.

I am looking for someone whose dream of running a life and a business overseas has not gone to plan. Maybe it’s cash flow problems, language barriers or simply cultural differences that are making things difficult. The idea of our program is to help families get back on track – we want to help them save their dream.

We are looking for British couples who might welcome some advice to help rescue their business. I wondered if you knew of anyone who might be interested in talking to us. Thank you so much for your help. Anne Stone"

If you are interested in contacting Anne, please contact her via:

Anne Stone
Casting Producer
RDF TELEVISION
The Gloucester Building
Kensington Village
Avonmore Road
London W14 8RF
tel. +44 207 013 4115
fax. +44 207 013 4001
anne.stone @ rdfmedia dot com
www.rdftelevision.com

Expat Women February Newsletter now online

Hi Everyone, Our February newsletter is now online here. Members who did not receive the newsletter today should receive it tomorrow (as we had some hiccups in the sending process today and need to complete it tomorrow).

If you are subscribed to our newsletter with a Yahoo email, the newsletter may have gone to your spam folder, as sometimes happens with Yahoo accounts. To fix this, you are welcome to give us a new email account, or we encourage you to white-list the email address: admin @ expatwomen dot com (as per these instructions).

Thanks and enjoy your day/evening, Andrea.

Have You Seen Amazon's New 'Kindle'?

Hi Everyone, If you haven't seen Amazon's video for their new 'Kindle', take a look here. It is amazing what technology can do these days. What a great invention for internationally-mobile women like all are. And very interesting technology for the many authors and would-be authors among us.

Thinking further ahead... Imagine a day when school students only carry Kindles to and from school, saving their backs from lugging heavy school bags (filled with heavy text books) to and from school each day. Imagine book clubs sitting around with members only referring to their Kindles. Or instead of packing your holiday books for beachside-reading, you just pack your swimmers and your Kindles. Imagine. :-)

Can Anyone Help Jamuna (Expat Survey)?

"Hi, I'm a student from Malaysia University of Science (USM). I'm a MBA candidate doing research on Expatriate Adjustment. This is a 10 minutes anonymous survey on Expatriate's Adjustment. Its totally anonymous, no email address request. It takes 10 to 12 minutes! You can do halfway, Quit and Continue later. The results will be available to public. Please help me to give a broad distribution. The link to the survey is here. If you need more info from me, please let me know. Thank you so much for your help. Regards, Jamuna."

Jamuna Sulaiman
MBA candidate
School Of Management
Malaysia University Of Science (USM)
Penang, Malaysia
Contact: 6012-4587903
Email: jamuna.sulaiman@yahoo.com

Dr Anees Janee Ali
Lecturer/Supervisor
School Of Management
Malaysia University Of Science (USM)
Penang, Malaysia
Contact: 604-6533888 (ext: 3434)
Email: aneesali15@yahoo.com

Expat Women February Home Page now online

Depending on which time zone you are in, it is already a new month! That means new features, new interviews, new winners and new poll results. To see everything new, please check out our Expat women February Home Page which is now online and ready for viewing.

Some highlights this month include:

* Success Story - Amy Smilovic - An American who started her fashion business in Hong Kong (because she did not want to stay in the same company and report to her husband in American Express at the time) - and who now sells her fashions in over 200 stores

* Mentor of the Month - Carol - An American in Saudi Arabia - who served as a US Diplomat for 20 years before leaving the Foreign Service to marry her love in Saudi Arabia. Carol was a huge contributor to the Saudi Arabia forums on our site last year and we thank Carol sincerely for all of her volunteer contributions to ExpatWomen.com. Carol is now famous because she is also quoted in the Pink Magazine article below. Go Carol!

* Book of the Month - Saffia Farr (British) - A great book about her adventure when she moved (pregnant) to Kyrgyzstan with her water engineer partner Andrew. Saffia has a great wit and humour in her writing, as she talks about witnessing the 'Tulip Revolution' after political mayhem erupted during her stay there. Saffia is another gutsy woman - when traditional publishers would not publish her book - she decided to do it herself. Go Saffia.

* Business Idea - Emma Bird (British) - Emma talks about moving to Italy, starting a business in Italy, and writing a book about all of this - including her top five tips for starting a business (specifically in Italy, but also very useful for other countries as well).

* Special Report - Where Have All The Accountants Gone? - an interesting article written specifically for us by Lorraine Flaherty of Kathbern Management and ANZfinancejobs.com.

To read more, jump onto our home page. Thanks everyone, enjoy your day/evening!

Andrea

Foreign Relations in Pink Magazine

It's official - you guys really are the flavour of the month. First it was More Magazine (US) that ran an article about women working globally in their Dec/Jan edition, and now it is PINK magazine (US) that features an article by freelance writer Renuka Rayasam, entitled "Foreign Relations: Here's what those you work with overseas really think of American businesswomen" in their Jan/Feb edition.

I got quoted a couple of times, from an email interview that Jill and I did last year with Renuka. They seemed to only use the controversial quotes - eg. one about California blondes (remember, Jill is a Californian blonde, so that one was primarily from Jill's experience) - and one about (executive) women often having a tougher uphill battle than (executive) men abroad. We did say other interesting, intelligent things, I assure you. But hey, this is media, and isn't any publicity better than no publicity?

Thanks Renuka for the inclusion - it was actually genuinely appreciated. :-)

PS. If, you are a Tyra Banks fan (aka Supermodel, America's Next Top Model, The Tyra Banks show etc), then there's a double-incentive to buy the Jan/Feb magazine, as she features both on the cover and as their feature story inside. I confess, I am a fan - as she openly admits to being thrown daily "you cannot do this because you are black" comments in her career, before she got to where she is today. To me, she is like Oprah in many ways - not only do they both have their own talk-shows, but they both exemplify women who are gutsy and determined - and they do not let the naysayers (or negative people) get in the way of achieving their dreams. Go Tyra.

Expat Executive Women in Asia

Hi everyone. Last year, I wrote ExpatWomen's second article for Mobility Magazine (a monthly publication from the US-based Employee Relocation Council - ERC, which apparently has more than 30,000 hard-copy subsribers, plus online readers).

Great news, the article has finally been published and is now available for viewing here. It does not look as good on-screen as when you see the hard-copy of their magazine with the beautiful pictures (including the photos of the wonderful women interviewed), but the content is still the same, and I hope you enjoy it. :-)

From Chennai to Shanghai: Expatriate Executive Women Working in Asia is basically a summary of my interviews with seven expat executive women working in Asia - about their role, their highlights/successes, their challenges and their advice to employers (given that the audience is typically employers and HR managers). We have scheduled the article to be featured on ExpatWomen.com in March.

My very genuine thanks to the now-famous seven women featured:

Nancy Reisig
(American - Ford - Chennai, India)
(Nancy has now returned to the US)

Christa Avery
(Canadian - KPMG - Sydney, Australia)

Julianne Rogers
(Australian - British Airways - Tokyo, Japan)

Sarah Stuart
(American - Baker Hughes - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

Lesley Gibb
(Scottish - Major Worldwide Apparel Brand - Hong Kong, China)

Basia Kruszewska
(American - Element K - Chennai, India)

Cisca Wikkeling
(Dutch - Asia Pacific Access - Shanghai, China)

I would love to do something similar for a European-based HR magazine, so if you are an executive expat woman sitting in Europe, please get in touch with me for a possible interview. Thanks Friends!

Andrea
contactus at expatwomen dot com

ExpatWomen.com Farewells Jill

If you have ever read this blog in the hope of some behind-the-scenes news that has not yet been publicized more widely in our Members' Newsletter, then today is your lucky day... here is your insider's dish from 'Hollywood'-ExpatWomen-style...

"Finally, some sad news: Jill is stepping aside from ExpatWomen.com to focus on her upcoming move back to California, USA. Jill has lived as an Expat Woman for 9 years in Paris and 5 years in Mexico City. Moving back to the US as a single mother with two children is an incredibly gutsy move and will require all of Jill’s time and energy in these coming months. I personally want to thank Jill for her two years (one prior to launch, and one after launch) of every-day-dedication in helping to build ExpatWomen.com and its growing reputation as an essential community site for expatriate women around the globe. Anyone who would like to send their best wishes to Jill is invited to do so via [jill at expatwomen dot com]." Taken from our upcoming February Members' Newsletter

We updated the About Us page on our web site today, so wanted to share the news with you here on our Blog at the same time.

Adios Jill. We wish you all the very, very best!

Andrea
(and every expat woman that you have helped in the last two years)

Singapore Wandering Wok Tour, 10 - 19 July 2008

Anyone interested in joining Pauline Lynch (an Australian) on a foodies' tour of Singapore, 10 - 19 July 2008, during the Singapore Food Festival and the Great Singapore Sale, please contact Pauline at wanderingwok@tpg.com.au, or check out Pauline's advert on our Singapore page here. 8 nights of Luxury, a visit to the Raffles Culinary Acadamy, and much more. (Please tell Pauline where you heard about her tour. Thanks.)

Canadians: Want To Be In A Documentary Series for Expats?

Hi Everyone, Is started really well. Here is a new media request, this time if you are a Canadian abroad:

"I am writing to you in regard to a documentary series i am working on about Canadian expatriate experiences abroad. The series is being produced by Nextfilm productions for the Discovery Channel Canada and Channel 5 in the U.K. The angle we are exploring concern Canadians who move to another country to pursue an new life either through a new job, opening a business, following their dreams or retirement but who encounter significant obstacles to their new life, either they run afoul of the law, fall prey to scams or find themselves in the middle of a natural disaster. We hope to provide something of a cautionary tale encouraging Canadians planning such a big life change to do their homework. I'm hoping that you can help."

Many thanks,
Amy Walton
Associate Producer
NextFilms
366 Adelaide St. W. Suite 300
Toronto, ON
Canada, M5V 1R9
T. 416-531-2500 xt. 580
F. 416-603-7545
awalton@nextfilm.ca
www.cineflix.com

If you are interested, please get in touch with Amy directly, and mention how you heard about her request. Thanks.

Any Australian Expat Women abroad from NSW?

Here's a Radio Producer looking for Australian expat women abroad, from New South Wales (NSW):

"I am a Radio Producer for the ABC based in NSW and produce a Statewide Afternoon program across NSW. I am hoping to make contact with NSW expats to do some radio interviews. Nothing too serious - just where they are, how they got there and what they're doing sort of stuff. I've done this in the past in SA and it has been tremendously successful. Family and friends love to hear them on the radio and they get to tell some great stories. Obviously the hitch for me is actually making contact, so I am hoping you... could send my details to and ask for people to make contact if they were interested." "If you can help I would appreciate it - to make sure this is not a crank email you can access our website on www.abc.net.au/midnorthcoast - my biog isn't there at the moment because I am just new to NSW but you could take a look at Presenter Fiona Wyllies blog. Regards,
Pam."

Pam MacIntosh
Statewide Afternoon Producer
ABC Radio NSW

If you fit the bill and are interested, please contact Pam directly - and let her know how you heard about this. Thanks.

Want to be on Canadian TV?

Yes, another one this week. (Maybe now that it's January, production companies are ramping up their research departments.) This time, a Canadian TV program:

"Hello there! I am with a Toronto-based production company called Matter of Fact Media. We are currently producing a series with CTV, the Canadian broadcaster for their Travel and Escape channel called "Exotic Lives." I came across your website and was intrigued. Could you kindly... let me know how best to proceed with your members? Kindest regards, Marilyn B. Fabrizio, Researcher/Production Coordinator, Matter of Fact Media, 258 Wallace Ave, Suite 104, Toronto, ON, M6P 3M9."

mfab@rogers dot com

If you are a Canadian and interested, please contact Marilyn and let her know where you learned of her request. Thanks.

Are you an Aussie Expat abroad?

Here's another media request: This time from Paul Edwards, an editor in Australia:

Expat Tales
The Age, Melbourne, is looking for Australian expats to feature in this weekly column, which runs in the Careers section. Members may contact the editor for more information: paul.edwards@westnet dot com dot au

If you are an Aussie expat abroad and would like to be featured, please contact Paul directly, and let him know where you learned of his request. Thanks.

Want to be on UK TV?

Hi there. More and more, we have been receiving emails from TV producers looking for expats with interesting stories to interview. Must be a hot topic. ;-)

Anyway, we thought we would post some of these requests on our Blog from now on. If you are interested, please get in touch with the relevant people. Thanks.

Today's request was from Nicky Huggett:

Nicky: "I work as a documentary producer for a small production company in London. We are currently filming a series for Discovery and for the Current Affairs department of one of the UK terrestrial channels – and I am looking for people who would consider telling their stories about moving abroad and becoming an expat. The series will focus on people who have dreamed of a new life abroad and then lived the dream, only for it to all go terribly wrong (hopefully with a happy ending!) I was just wondering if you might be able to help me in terms of advice about finding people to speak to? I know it is a bit of an ask but if there is any way you can help I would be extremely grateful. Don’t hesitate to let me know if you need any more information about the series. All the best, Nicky."

Nicky Huggett
Assistant Producer
Cineflix Productions
79 Fortess Road
London
NW5 1AG
nhuggett at cineflix dot com

(If you contact Nicky, please tell her how you learned of her request. Thanks.)

Expat Women January Newsletter Now Online

Hello everyone. We just finished sending out the January Newsletter to all of our Members. If you are not already a Member, please check out all of our interviews and news here - including our interview with expat celebrity supermodel Gail Elliott, Rebecca from Nest, Hilly and Bettina – authors of When Abroad Do As The Local Children Do and our Mentor of the Month – Andreea G in Belgium. To sign up as a Member and receive these monthly newsletters direct to your Inbox, please click here. Thanks everyone and enjoy your weekend!

Happy New Year - with Expat Celebrity Supermodel Gail Elliott

Happy New Year to Everyone, all over the world! It is already 1 January 2008 here in Australia and waking up this morning to the possibility of a sensational new chapter in your life is a wonderful feeling. It is like we all get to wipe the slate clean again every January 1. What an opportunity.

Our January Home Page is now online. We are very excited this month to feature our interview with Celebrity Expat Woman - Gail Elliott. Gail is a British Supermodel who rose to fame in the 1980s. She is a friend to the likes of Cindy Crawford, Yasmin Le Bon, Elle Macpherson and Helena Christensen and has lived the high life - strutting the global catwalks for famous designers such as Gianni Versace, Calvin Klein, John Galliano, Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Prada and Marc Jacobs to name just a handful. She has graced magazine covers such as Vogue, Bazaar and Elle, but now spends her time developing her own fashion label and stores for Little Joe NY. I talked to Gail about her first expat experience in Japan - which stands out to me as an example of why we should never give up - despite when it gets tough abroad and people take advantage of you. If Gail had given up when she came across obstacles in Japan, she never would have made it to the top!

For the record, Gail was a truly delightful woman to interview. She always answered her emails personally and was incredibly humble. I wish her every success with her new fashion label. In my opinion, she deserves success.

Other features this month include:

Jill's interview with Rebecca Kousky - the founder of Nest, a nonprofit with a mission of giving micro-finance loans to female artists in developing countries and an online artistic community. Nest’s micro-finance loans allow women to create and/or maintain small arts-and crafts-based businesses. Nest raises funds for loans via its online store. Nest sells clothing, accessories and home merchandise created by successful international artists and designers to discerning customers who want their purchases to make a difference.

My interview with US travel personality, Marybeth Bond, of The Gutsy Traveler, who recounts her experience of being on the Oprah Winfrey show... as well as discussing the book, A Woman's Europe, which she edited for Traveler's Tales (Publisher).

Jill's interview with Hilly van Swol-Ulbrich & Bettina Kaltenhäuser who wrote the great book, 'When Abroad Do As The Local Children Do', aimed at 8-12 year olds who are moving abroad.

And my interview with our Mentor of the Month, Andreea G, in Brussels, Belgium. Andreea moved from Romania to Belgium many years ago to study International Affairs. She loves it so much that she is still there and shows no signs of leaving just yet. Find out why...

Congratulations to Lula, for winning US$100 for her Winning Story of the Month, Pencils and Apples: A Clash of Cultures.

The five winners of the giveaway book, The World Is A Kitchen, will be announced in our Member Newsletter, which will be sent out on January 3 or 4.

If you are not yet a Member, please support our site and sign up now for our monthly newsletter. We would love to welcome you into the ExpatWomen Online Community.

Thanks and Best Wishes for a Healthy, Happy and Prosperous 2008,

Andrea.

Happy Holidays

Dear Expat Women around the world,

Thank you for your support this year. We all know that moving to a new country and even returning home after a long absence can be stressful. We want to thank all the women who have visited our site and found help in our pages.

I especially want to thank the expatriate womens clubs and local expat country websites all over the world who have listed their link in our Country Links section.


I wish you all the very best over the holiday season and may 2008 be incredibly successful for all!


Warmest wishes,


Jill Lengre

End of Year Reflections

As 2007 draws soon to a close, I am feeling very reflective. I read this quote today that I wanted to share with you, to help us all remember that whatever we have been through in 2007, there is still surely something for which we can be grateful. The quote was cited as an anonymous "Old Saying", so maybe you have heard it before:

"I once was sad because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet."

And while I'm sharing quotes, here is still my favourite this year, from one of our Expat Women Bloggers:

“At the table of life there are knives in the back, and forks in the road. I keep a spoon handy, in case life dishes up dessert.” In Search Of Dessert

May 2007 conclude for all you with a big plate of dessert!

Warmest wishes Everyone, Andrea.

Glocals, Expat Research & Happy Holidays!

Greetings everyone! Apologies for the lack of blog posts lately. Like you (we are guessing), this whole festive season (if you are in a location and/or culture that considers this a festive/holiday season, of course) is quite mad. Lots of commitments. But lots of good, quality, catch-up time with friends/family.

GLOCALS: We saw the term 'Glocals' on this site recently and we just loved it. Has anyone seen it used before? It sounds so simple, globals and locals, but we confess that we have never seen it used online before. The site was formerly known as GenevaOnline, and they describe the site as "a community of friendly globals (expats) & locals in Switzerland".

EXPAT RESEARCH: Nina Cole, who you may remember had a spot in a newsletter a few months back, has asked us to make a mention that she's now looking for more help please: "You can contribute to improved HR management of expats and their families! Your input as an expatriate is essential to a research study currently being conducted by Dr. Nina Cole from Ryerson University in Toronto Canada. Please go to my website and click (up the top) on ’07-08 Sabbatical in Asia’. If you are the spouse of an expat, then click on ‘Spousal Questionnaire’, and take 5 minutes to complete it. If you are an expat employee, then there are three short ‘Expat’ questionnaires to click on, which will take 15-20 minutes to complete. Please email me completed questionnaires via n2cole@ryerson.ca. Copies of the results of the study, due mid-08, will be available upon request. Thank you for supporting this effort to improve the management of expat employees and their families." Nina Cole

HAPPY HOLIDAYS: For those of you preparing to close that laptop and enjoy some well-deserved time-off this December/January, we wish you all the very best. May you return refreshed and ready to live amazing lives abroad in 2008!

Warmest wishes,

December Home Page - Online Now

Our new Home Page for December is online now. Be sure to check out our interviews and the winning Story of the Month (Congratulations Apple!). The December newsletter should be sent Monday 3 or Tuesday 4 December (US time). Have a great December!

Expat Women December Newsletter

Here's a sneak preview of what's in store for our December Members' Newsletter:

For our December Success Story, Jill interviews Dr Glenda Stone (an Australian) - the incredibly inspiring woman behind AuroraVoice in the UK.

Andrea interviews our Mentor of the Month, Vicel (Filipino) in Afghanistan. Read all about Vicel's first impressions of Afghanistan and why she doesn't want any other women to go through what she went through.

Jill tells us what she learnt in Denver, US, in late October, at the Employee Relocation Council (ERC) Conference which attracted 1,500 people from all around the globe.

Andrea interviews Lucy MacCauley, Editor of our December Book of the Month, 'The Best Women's Travel Writing 2007'.

Jenny Early (a young Brit in The Netherlands) helps us out by interviewing Barbara Rogoski (American) - the "spiritual teacher in a business suit". Barbara relocated to the Netherlands many years ago and now runs her innovative business, 'Authentic Matters'.

Andrew Apps (Goodhealth Worldwide) writes an article for us about what to do when your partner is abroad and you are worried about their medical care (which was raised as an issue by one Member in our Forums recently).

Our Expat Confessions writers serve up their answers to our Party Animal and Holiday Sadness confessions. If either of these scenarios sound like you, you might find some ideas/feedback that will help you feel better about and/or improve your situation.

And that's not all!

We hope to send the newsletter out on December 3 or 4, US time. If you are not already an ExpatWomen.com Member but would like to be, please sign up Here. (If it takes 10 seconds or so to click over, please bear with us. It's hopefully only a 72-hour glitch. Thanks.)

We really appreciate your support and best wishes for this last week in November.

Expat Women in MORE Magazine (U.S.)

Yes, it's true, we just read the article ourselves (thanks to Toni Summers Hargis who kindly sent it to us today). Granted, our three mentions are only small, but all media mentions are very welcome and we thank Michele Marchetti, the freelance writer who contacted us several months ago when researching her article for MORE magazine (a magazine for women aged 40+) about working abroad.

The article is a great read, full of examples of real-life women who took the plunge to work overseas, in various parts of the globe. So if you're contemplating working overseas, or you are already abroad and love reading stories about women like yourselves, you can pick up a copy (if you're in the US) now - it's in MORE Magazine's December/January edition.

Or read it online here...
http://www.more.com/more/story.jsp?storyid=/templatedata/more/story/data/1193846921107.xml

Expat Women -- Want to win $100?

Dear Expat Women,

We are looking for your expat stories. Our reader submitted story section is very low on stories this month. One reason is that we switched to a dedicated server and the service was unavailable for a few days, but now you have no excuses!

We all would love an extra $100-- especially now that holiday session is approaching!

If you'd like a chance at winning US$100 US dollars, submit your story on our ExpatWomen website Here.

So, what are we looking for in a story? An Expat Women Story is about a real-life experience that you have had as an expatriate woman. We welcome stories of both positive and negative experiences, because we believe that this is a more accurate reflection of life’s ups and downs. Try not to leave out any of the details – our readers want to re-live the experience exactly how you felt it.

We cannot wait to "read" from you!

Edit of 24 November: It is possible that our story database is still playing up, so to be safe, please copy and paste your story into an email to Jill here. Thanks.

How to ensure you always receive your ExpatWomen Newsletter?

Dear Expat Women Newsletter Subscribers,

We want to ensure that you are able to receive our monthly newsletter and so are requesting that you add newsletters@expatwomen.com to Your White List.

(We recently added our own anti-spam measures on most of our email accounts. If you send us an email, all you will be required to do is hit reply to an email you receive to confirm that you are a real person and not a spam bot!)

Add us to your White List

Unsolicited, unwanted emails, fake newsletters, and lots of advertising emails are commonly known as "Spam". Spam has become a huge problem for those of us with email accounts. It's reached such proportions that most email services and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have put some sort of blocking or filtering system in place or have begun relying on self-proclaimed blacklists to tell try to tell the good guys from the bad and filter out a lot of this "Junk".

This has also caused us a huge problem in that many of you use ISP's or email providers such a Yahoo, who auto send our replies to you, or our newsletters to the junk folder-and you don't see them. Even when we receive an enquiry email from you asking where your newsletter is, when we reply, this also ends up in your junk folder and you don't receive this email either!

But there is a solution. Add newsletters@expatwomen.com to your White List now, before your delivery is interrupted in any way. Of course, every email system is different, so check your email software’s HELP file. You can also contact your ISP's customer service support for their specific instructions. Many provide tutorial that will make life easy for you to achieve the task of White Listing email by providing you with step by step instructions for achieving this.

Many popular email programs, including Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, etc., don't provide a convenient way for you to White List the email sources that you want to receive email from. Normally you can go into the SPAM or JUNK folder, find the email, and right mouse click on it to add it to your list of secure emails.

It is best to contact customer service or the Postmaster at the company that provides your email or Internet connection (your ISP). Explain to them that email from ExpatWomen.com is mail that you asked for and value. Ask them if they can White List the email address for you.

They'll probably ask you for some information:

Sending Address: admin@expatwomen.com
Domain: @expatwomen.com

To ensure that your email is delivered to your Yahoo Inbox (not the Bulk/spam Mail folder), you can instruct Yahoo to filter it to your Inbox.

Here's how:
• Open your Yahoo mailbox.
• Click Mail Options.
• Click Filters.
• Next, click Add Filter.
• In the top row, labeled From header: make sure contains is selected in the pull-down menu.
• Click in the text box next to that pull-down menu, then enter the address in the "From" line of your most recent MMEHelp.com.
• At the bottom, where it says Move the message to:, select Inbox from the pull-down menu.
•Click the Add Filter button again.

More info http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/original/abuse/index.html

If you are using Hotmail, you can ensure that email is delivered to your Inbox by adding our "From" address to your Safe List.

Here's how:
• Click the Options tab.
• Select Safe List. (It's under the heading Mail Handling.)
• In the space provided, enter the address in the "From" line of your most recent expatwomen.com email.
• Click Add.
• When you see the address you entered in the Safe List box, click OK.

New Home Page & November Newsletter

Good news, our new and updated November home page is now online. Our November Newsletter should be sent out on Monday 5 November (US time), all going well. We are going through some more server changes behind-the-scenes this week, so we thought it best to wait until next week to send out the Newsletter. Best wishes for a great November!

PS. If you missed any of our previous Newsletters (jam-packed with interviews and interesting features), you can read them all Here.

Personal Branding Summit - 8 November 2007

We want to return favour to Megan Fitzgerald and mention an upcoming event at her request. Megan is an American expat in Italy. She is also a Career & Branding Coach who helped us out with an Expat Confession recently about A Portable Career. If you are interested in a free telesummit on Personal Branding, with a big list of guest speakers, please see Megan's blog entry for a further explanation of the event and some details of all of the guest speakers. Thanks.

PS. Megan tells us that the entire event is completely volunteer and that their goal is to raise 100,000 USD for their social cause partner KIVA (who facilitates small loans to entrepreneurs from developing countries to help them aspire to economic independence).

Final day at the Worldwide ERC Conference

Friday was the final day at the conference. I met many workforce mobility professionals from around the globe as well as real estate professionals from the United States.

I attended many interesting sessions (Ask the Experts on Critical Global Mobility Issues and Ensuring Consistent and Professional Destination Services in Every Corner of the World) on global mobility, providing an opportunity to learn and network.

I also visited the exhibition hall where many companies where marketing their services to companies to help them areas such as tax and immigration, housing, destination service, relocation amoung others.

The final speaker at the conference, Scott Friedman who is a humorist, made us laugh about the events and speeches that took place over the two-day event. And made us think about not taking ourselves so seriously.

Things to think about as I wait for my plane back to Mexico.

Jill at the Worldwide ERC Conference

I spent a very interesting day at the Worldwide ERC Conference taking place in Denver, Colorado. There are about 1500 professionals here from corporate relocation managers to destination service providers from real estate agents to relocation companies. The two-day conference is full of interesting sessions with speakers from all over the world. In fact there are people from over 60 different countries.

The day started with keynote speaker Marshall Goldsmith PhD, a well known executive coach. He told us to focus on changing only one thing about ourselves at a time and really make that happen. One area he said everyone can improve (even the CEOs he has coached) is sending negative messages. How many times do we say "No, that is a great idea!, "But I agree with you." Why do we use these negative words when we really mean to send a positive message? These are small "transactional flaws" performed by one person against the other, which can lead to negative perceptions that can hold any executive or person back.

I spent the day going to interesting sessions such as "Next Best Practices in Global Mobility", "Managing Multi-national Teams in a Global World--Can we Get it Right?", and "Make a Wish--Blue Sky Service Delivery Models." I promise to tell you all I have learned in my write up for the December newsletter.

My goal at the conference is to meet as many corporate relocation managers as possible and spread the news about our website. Another goal is to learn what everyone views as the main issues from their expatriates (before, during and after assignments) so Andrea and I can address those issues in our articles and interviews to help women expatriates like you.

Tomorrow is the final day of the conference with many interesting sessions to listen to! I will write again Friday.

Did You Email Us?

If anyone emailed one of our expatwomen email addresses last week, sadly, the emails (most likely) did not get through due to a technical hitch at our end. If you tried to contact us in the last seven days, please re-send your email. Thanks for understanding - and best wishes to you, Andrea & Jill.