Chances are, if you’re reading this article, you’re not a “traditional” expat, meaning someone who moves abroad because their employer (or spouse’s employer) sends them on assignment overseas. More likely, like me, you’re living or planning to move abroad on your own.

Expat Women: Confessions — 50 Answers to Your Real-Life Questions about Living Abroad addresses 50 of the most pressing issues facing traditional expat women. But while the background and situations may be different, the issues we wrestle with are pretty much the same. Culture shock and feelings of isolation happen to all of us.

The book covers topics like:

• leaving family behind
• parenting bilingual children
• work/life balance
• transitioning quickly
• intercultural relationships

Authors Andrea Martins and Victoria Hepworth aren’t afraid to look at some of the toughest issues facing expats: infidelity and divorce and alcoholism.

The Authors

Andrea is an Australian, married to a French-born husband of Portuguese and Australian parents, and she’s lived as an expat in Malaysia, Mexico and Indonesia. She’s also the director of the Expat women website.

Victoria Hepworth is a psychologist. Born in New Zealand, she’s lived in Japan, China, Russia, Sweden, India and Dubai, UAE.

The Goodies

Buy the book by May 31, email the receipt to sales@expatwomen.com by 11:59 PM (New York time) on May 31, and you’ll be entered to win one of the following:

First Prize: Career, Recruitment and/or Personal Branding Coaching provided by Lois Freeke.

Second Prize: Personal Branding, Career or Executive Coaching provided by Megan Fitzgerald

Third Prize: Career and/or Executive Coaching provided by Rebecca Wells.

Fourth Prize: Career Coaching provided by my friend Anne Egros.

Fifth Prize: Blogging Consultation and Free eBook, Audio Book and More provided by Annabel Candy.

Sixth Prize: Writing Coaching provided by Jo Parfitt, author of 28 books.

Seventh Prize: Passport Career Database Access for 3 months, provided by Passport Career.

Eighth Prize: Expatriate Life Coaching, provided by Nicola McCall.

Ninth Prize: Amazon Kindle (WiFi), provided by Kindle, Wi-Fi, Graphite, 6″ Display with New E Ink Pearl Technology.

Tenth Prize: Amazon Gift Voucher for $100 provided by Amazon.

For more information and complete contest rules, go here.

Buy the Book Now

A bunch of you have responded, and here’s how the categories are breaking down to this point:

Preparing to Expatriate: 27%
Earning an Income Overseas: 19%
Health Care: 15%
Culture Shock: 15%
Country Information: 4%
Real Estate: 4%
Overseas Retirement: 4%
Other: 4%

The clear leaders at this point are preparing to expatriate and earning an income overseas. I’ll keep the poll open for another week or so. If you haven’t taken a minute to respond, please do so here.

And here’s a little news item for you: coming soon, a free e-book to help you with a top-polling issue. I’ll let you know more details in another week or so, once final poll results are in.

Did you know you could join our growing Facebook page? Just click here.

I’d really like to narrow my focus a bit, and I have some ideas about what I’d like to concentrate on. But before I make any major changes, I’d really love to hear from you.

Is there something you’d like to see more of? Less of? Here’s you chance to speak up and let me know.

Please take a minute to fill out the poll below — just choose your top three subjects, or, if there’s something missing from the list, feel free to add it. I’ll be reporting the results shortly.

You can also “like” the Future Expats page on Facebook, where it’s much easier to carry on a discussion.

Decorated China Olympics car

• Honeymoon/Tourist
• Irritation-to-Anger
• Rejection/Regression
• Integration/Assimilation
• Reverse or Reentry

You can read the entire article here

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Finance Your Life Overseas

“One of the first things I noticed about China was that all the men carried purses and the women held hands. This phenomenon shot straight to the top of my list of “Weird World Wonders” and stayed there until a mere five minutes later, when I went looking for a bathroom at the airport and came face to face with my first squatty potty.

This was culture shock, pure and simple, and I was already moving from the first stage of it – the honeymoon, or tourist, stage, which I had entered before we ever left the States – into the second, the irritation-to-anger stage. “

The article is amusing and informative, and I highly recommend reading it.