Thinking of Moving Abroad?
A curated companion filled with resources for living abroad, reflective prompts to ensure you are being intentional about your journey, and resources to enable your transformative journey abroad.
Why are you moving abroad?
How does it align with your values?
Who, what or where would you want to honor before leaving your current home?
What situations would speaking the local language create meaningful connection?
Explore the full guide now:
- Cultivate the Expat Mindset
- Say Goodbye with Purpose
- Integrate into a New Culture
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Thinking of Moving Abroad?
Contents
Introduction
Moving abroad is transformative. Whether you’re embarking on this journey solo, with a partner, family, or even pets. It also changes whether you’re relocating by choice or moving for someone else’s opportunity. This Journey will shape you in profound ways. At House of Peregrine, our mission is to help you be intentional about your choices and cultivate the life you want so you can thrive and not just survive through the highs and lows of this incredible life change.
There are plenty of sites that lay everything out for you step-by-step. The HOP Guide is designed to inspire you to blaze your own paths so you can truly take the path less traveled and create your dream life. Moving abroad challenges you in ways you can’t fully anticipate—we’ve been there and are dedicated to making the journey lighter for those that come after us. That’s where the true beauty of the Peregrine journey lies, in embracing the unknown, being up for the journey and knowing there is a worldwide community that gets it.
We are creating the infrastructure for international living so you can chart your own course. We are curating events, content, products, and services that culminate in a vibrant ecosystem for global players, so you can focus on your vision of the future.
The Key is to first reflect on aspects of your inner world and values. This is where the real magic happens. Then you have an amazing starting point for turning your relocation into a journey of beautiful transformation.
It’s now.
Cultivate the Expat Mindset
Embracing the Expat Mindset with Gal and Maayan from Smoozitive
“Craft your life story with intention.”
Moving abroad begins in the mind. The difference between a fulfilling expat experience and a challenging one often lies in mindset and intentionality. In this episode, Mickelle is joined by sisters Gal and Maayan, founders of Smoozitive, who have relocated an incredible eight times across different countries. Their motto—smooth transitions with a positive outlook—captures their empowering approach to expat life.
This conversation explores the emotional and mental strategies that lead to successful relocations, exploring:
- The importance of understanding why you’re moving and aligning your journey with your values.
- Practical ways to embrace uncertainty and see change as an opportunity for growth.
- How to build resilience and confidence by leveraging your unique strengths and experiences.
- Gal and Maayan also discuss the challenges of the expat experience, sharing personal stories of transformation and their mission to help women navigate moves with clarity, positivity, and self-compassion.
Journaling Prompts
- What is your “why” for moving abroad?(outside of any obligations, what are you running towards?) Make sure to check How this aligns with your personal values (link to our personal values quiz)
- Close your eyes and imagine your perfect day. Then your perfect week. Write this Down. (really take your time on this one. What are the details that come to mind? Working out, time you work, what you eat, how you move through the day, pets, kids, how often you see them and when? No detail is too much)
- Then imagine what would make you feel most satisfied in the country you are considering moving to. What would be your perfect first day? Your perfect week? your last Week? Last day?
- This will help you navigate the way you want your life to look like in this chapter
- Think about a time when you faced significant change. Maybe it was becoming a parent or attending university, buying a house or moving in with a partner. What did you learn about how you deal with change from that experience, and how can you use those lessons to design this next chapter? (write this down)
- What strengths, skills, or experiences do you already have that you can bring to your life abroad? How can you intentionally use these to thrive? Where will you need support
Complete on your own or through our survey. All your responses will be emailed to you.
Say Goodbye with Purpose
Ending a Chapter, Saying Goodbye to the Place and People You Love
“Every corner, every conversation, every small ritual holds a piece of the life you built—saying goodbye means acknowledging their place in your story.”
Saying goodbye is one of the hardest parts of living abroad. It’s not just about leaving a place; it’s about honoring the chapter you’ve lived there. In this episode, Mickelle talks to her close friend Kris Herwig, who recently moved from Amsterdam to Sweden after years of building a deep, connected life in the Netherlands.
Together, they reflect on the emotional and practical aspects of saying goodbye with intention, creating closure, and finding ways to carry the memories forward and the ceremony that Mickelle created for her to do at her going away party that really gave it a lot of meaning and beauty.
This conversation covers:
- Honoring connections: How Kris gave 100 handwritten postcards to the people and places that shaped her life in Amsterdam to say goodbye.
- Finding closure through ceremony: The importance of rituals and meaningful goodbyes to create space for the next chapter.
- Navigating grief and celebration: Why goodbyes are bittersweet and how they help us transition into a new phase of life.
Journaling Prompts:
- Who, what or where would you want to honor before leaving your current home? How can you acknowledge their impact on your life? Can you identify 5 or 6 “places” that you had moments that you want to honor? Who would you like to witness your honoring of your time in this place with these people?
- What rituals or ceremonies could you create to celebrate this chapter and prepare for the next one?
- Reflect on a time when you had to say goodbye. What lessons did you learn, and how can they shape your approach to future transitions?
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SHOP
Book your Hello/Goodbye Ceremony consultation with Mickelle
Landing Well. Grounding Into Your New Place
“Every conversation in a new language is a bridge to belonging.”
Integration into a new culture goes beyond learning a language—it’s about understanding the customs, embracing the quirks, and building meaningful relationships. In this episode, Mickelle is joined by Mariska van der Meij, founder of Mama Dutch, who specializes in helping internationals gain confidence in Dutch conversation and feel at home in their communities.
Mariska’s journey—growing up in the Netherlands, traveling the globe, and immersing herself in diverse cultures—inspires her to empower internationals with the tools to navigate life abroad. She shares her insights on how intentional language learning and cultural curiosity can transform an expat experience.
This conversation conversation covers:
- The emotional challenges of learning a new language as an adult and how to embrace vulnerability.
- Cultural differences that surprise newcomers, like Dutch dinner invitations and pragmatic etiquette.
- Mariska’s approach to teaching Dutch to parents through targeted, situational vocabulary and real-life practice.
- How learning a new language unlocks hidden parts of our personality and strengthens relationships.
Journaling Prompts
- What’s one cultural norm in your host country that has surprised or challenged you? How can you embrace it to feel more connected to your new environment?
- Think of a time you felt vulnerable while learning something new. How did that experience shape your growth? How can you apply that mindset to integrating into your new culture?
- Write a list of three specific situations where speaking the local language could make a meaningful difference in your daily life. What small steps can you take to improve your confidence in those scenarios?
- Reflect on how living in a new culture has changed your perspective. What parts of your personality have surfaced that you didn’t expect?
