Living in a foreign country has a lot of positive traits: adventure and growth. BUT, there is one thing living abroad can’t offer, personal face-to-face bonding experiences with loved ones. From the past 10 months of living in China I have come to learn of some clever ways on how to connect with family and friends back home.

7 Ways

 How to Love Long Distance (Abroad or In Country)

1) Send emails, letters, pictures and/or videos

Emails are quick and easy. Depending on how far you are letters could be too slow. A letter from China to America takes about 3 weeks on average but snail mail is precious. Handwritten letters really depends on the country you are living in. You can also send pictures via email or if you have an iPhone you can share your pictures using Photostream. Videos are another  excellent form of sharing moments. When my mother and stepfather sent us our Christmas presents I video taped our reactions opening them up. One more video idea for you to try, if you’re in a different country have some new friends in the local language sing happy birthday to someone you love. (or a creative birthday video in general using Kizoa, here)

2) Schedule Skype or FaceTime dates

Video chat is one of the greatest inventions to come out of the 21st century. I am so very thankful. I have come to realize that if you are living in China (the firewall country) FaceTime (on Apple devices) is the best (clearest) form of communication.

3) Send virtual postcards

I personally love thoughtful creative gifts so I have sent family and friends pictures with writing on them using PicMonkey. I like to think of these pictures like virtual postcards. I would send them for “just thinking of you” and birthdays. If you already do this, which websites do you use that you would recommend?

A picture I took of a Chinese dog that made me think of my sister.

A creative way to send birthday wishes to a friend.

4) Send care packages

This love language is more for people who are in their home country and how they can love on others who are out-of-their element/ comfort zone in a foreign country. One of the greatest ways to love on an expat is to send them a care package. For me personally I have enjoyed photographing and keeping those photographs as keepsakes to document love that was wrapped in a box.

Our friends were the sweetest. They sent us a felt Christmas tree for our first xmas in China.

Care package from my father and grandmother.

Care package from my mother-in-law

5) Give gifts via the internet

My mother and I have used this form of connection for birthdays and Christmas. Amazon gift cards are sweet! They have expanded my opportunity for a bigger virtual library. You could also order things via the internet in your home country to be sent by mail locally. (This is a lot cheaper than mailing.)

6) Be consistent with your blog

If you are living overseas family and friends will want to know how you are doing and the best way is keep them  updated in one swoop is to be consistent with a blog, even if it’s just a post monthly. While I have been living in China I sometimes put personal updates on my blog (here) and have made my traveling news (Penang, Kuala Lumpur, and Hong Kong) user friendly to all scopes of people.

7) Have a monthly newsletter to keep people updated

If you like to be more personal or more exclusive I know that some expats locally who send out monthly newsletters via email to their loved ones that works just as great as blogging.

What ways have you loved on someone abroad? If you are an expat how do you stay connected to your loved ones during the year, holidays and birthdays? 

10,000 Smiles

To the people who make a difference in the world.

You can make a difference today, smile!

You can participate in the 10,000 Smiles Project by voting at the end of this post on the picture that made you smile. [smugmug url=”http://aprilmaura.smugmug.com/hack/feed.mg?Type=gallery&Data=29641970_szBLxB&format=rss200&x=1″ imagecount=”100″ start=”1″ num=”100″ thumbsize=”Th” link=”smugmug-lightbox” captions=”true” sort=”false” window=”true” smugmug=”false” size=”M”]