Thrive On Through Blog

The first Christmas you spend abroad without going “home” has a way of lingering in your memory. At first, it feels like a practical decision. You check flight prices, look at your calendar, talk it through with family, and decide it makes more sense to stay put this year. And for a little while, you might even feel okay with it. Then comes December, and you realize that the season feels different in ways that you didn’t quite expect. The streets are filled with lights and Ch

There are certain things you think you can carry with you unchanged when you move abroad. Your routines. Your personality. Your favorite holiday traditions. You imagine everything fitting neatly into your new life, as if your old world and your new one will merge without friction. And then the holidays arrive, and suddenly you realize nothing fits quite the way you imagined. For me, this realization came in the shape of a Christmas tree. When I first moved to France, I held o

There are years when December arrives and you feel ready. You have your plans sorted, you know what you’re doing for Christmas, you feel grounded in your routine, and the whole month passes with a sense of calm anticipation. And then there are the other years. The years when December feels a little heavier. The years when the whole second half of the year felt like a long plot twist you didn’t see coming. Nothing dramatic or catastrophic, just a bunch of small things that pil

There are parts of expat life you can prepare for. You can research the culture, practice the language, look up the best neighborhoods, and memorize which metro line goes where. You can pack the right shoes, the right adapters, and the right notebook for your first café journaling session abroad. But no one warns you about one of the most universal expat experiences: the complete and total collapse of your immune system the moment your plane touches down. When I moved to Fran