Great Websites for Expats or Those Who Would Like to Be

A good friend of mine, who has traveled extensively, told me about an expat website when she found out I was moving to Europe.  InterNations offers great information for expats including city groups, forums, and guides.

InterNations provides the Who, What, Where, When and How to moving and living abroad. Some of the information is easily accessible for free. The more detailed guides and content is offered at a membership level and is fairly inexpensive at 3.95 Euros ($4.91 US $) a month.

Living Arrangements and Community

One of the articles in the InterNations magazine, "Make Yourself At Home," was an especially good read for me. This is something I can't wait to put into practice. I have no idea what my apartment in Slovakia looks like or if it has any, if at all, amenities. I know it is about 20 minutes from the school but other than that, who knows? I'm only taking two medium suitcases so my personal belongings are few. Exploration around town will be key to find those small and inexpensive items to help make the apartment my home.   

Getting to know the community will be really important for me to feel at home.  Volunteering is one of the ways to keep connected. I’ve joined the InterNations Bratislava expat group but Bratislava is about 80 miles from Trencin so I’m not really sure how many activities I will be able to participate in the city. I'll need to get connected in Trencin to be comfortable.

Visa

The Canadian Language School is taking care of the process for my Visa and I’ve applied for the FBI check, but there are other items I needed to have prepared prior to leaving the States.  One of which is taxes.

Taxes

I know the Slovakian government will take their 19 percent from my pay, however, I have other questions regarding taxes; tax filings, and pensions. I met with a tax account and I'm so glad I met with him prior to leaving the US to understand all my options. He really gave me good advice and we talked how my taxes should be filed for 2012. I strongly suggest everyone meeting with an accountant prior to any moves abroad.

My accountant asked me if I was "scared" to move abroad.  Actually I'm really not scared at all, if anything, I'm a little anxious but mostly extremely excited about this opportunity to live and experience another culture and people.

No expectations, no disappointments is the way I'm looking at it. The main thing is to keep an open mind and be flexible.  At least that's what I'm telling myself. Just all part of the Great Adventure!

I've added the InterNations link and a new link for teaching abroad website, GoAbroad in the Favorite Links section.  If you want to Subscribe to my blog, please click the "subscribe" button in the right nav bar.