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MAGAZINE

STORIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

MAGAZINE

STORIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Girl Gone International’s FREE International lifestyle magazine!

Light as air, readable anywhere. The only free lifestyle magazine for women living, loving, working, studying or travelling abroad.. or hoping to!

Why Do I Feel So Lonely? It’s Not Just You

Why Do I Feel So Lonely? It’s Not Just You

PSYCHOLOGIST, sam capon, on loneliness abroad  Life abroad can be exhilarating. Dopamine, the chemical that provides pleasure, pumps through us as we explore different places, try new foods and have different experiences. What an achievement! We've left our old life...

Global Pride Parade Roundup 2021

Global Pride Parade Roundup 2021

June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month in commemoration of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising. The Uprising is considered a turning point in the Gay Liberation Movement in the US. At first these marches were a political sign and protest, but over the years an element of festivity has...

‘Why do Muslims fast during Ramadan?’

‘Why do Muslims fast during Ramadan?’

In the weeks leading up to Ramadan, billions of Muslims around the world begin googling “Ramadan start date.” This is in preparation for what is considered as the most sacred and challenging month of the year in the Islamic community. Sara Hamouda is one of the...

Letter From the Editor: Let’s Unpack Travel

Letter From the Editor: Let’s Unpack Travel

Dear Readers, Girl Gone International (GGI) is not a travel group. I know, you’re probably reeling after reading that statement, but let me explain. While it might be safe to assume that most of the women in GGI are travelers or have traveled at some point in their...

Recycling Urban Waste to Create Work for Women

Recycling Urban Waste to Create Work for Women

It all started with Camille.  Camille is a mother of three living in a low-income community in Lagos, Nigeria. She runs a small store on her street. In the community where Camille lives - similar to communities where approximately 66% of Lagosians live - uncollected...

Interview with Rosemary: On Finding Love Abroad

Interview with Rosemary: On Finding Love Abroad

Girl Gone International (GGI) interviewed Rosemary to discuss her experiences in finding love abroad and outside her comfort zone.  Meet Rosemary Ajuka, a former radio host, activist and innovator. She currently works in International Marketing. Although she lives in...

Connection to Community through Face Masks

Connection to Community through Face Masks

A connection is “a relationship in which a person or thing is linked or associated with something else.” At the start of the pandemic, the world connected through the shared practice of sheltering in place and keeping your distance. That if we must leave our homes or...

10 Tips to Help You Transition to a Happy Life Overseas

10 Tips to Help You Transition to a Happy Life Overseas

Clinical psychologist Dr. Melissa Parks from Intentional Expat give us her to life-saving tips to help you transition to your new life overseas. 1. Be aware of where you are . . . And not just in terms of your physical location. Living or traveling overseas involves a...

Moving Abroad Do’s and Don’ts

Moving Abroad Do’s and Don’ts

Moving abroad is a wonderful experience. There is something exhilarating about packing up your life and starting a new journey in a place that’s different from where you grew up. Whether you’re looking for a fresh start or an opportunity to explore a new corner of the...

Better Your Health By Following These 6 Easy Tips

Better Your Health By Following These 6 Easy Tips

For as long as I can remember, I was always in the kitchen with my mom, cooking and baking. Partly because it was a chore but mainly because I wanted to learn how to prepare a delicious meal. From the age of 10 I started collecting healthy recipes. I grew up in the...

How Empathy Can Help You Make Friends in Unfamiliar Places

How Empathy Can Help You Make Friends in Unfamiliar Places

My journey to empathy In 2011 after a failed relationship, I found myself fighting with depression and anxiety in my professional life; so I packed my life into two suitcases and left my family and friends to go “find myself” in a small town in China. I was relieved...

On the Cover: Carla Talks About Life Abroad

On the Cover: Carla Talks About Life Abroad

Carla is part of the Global Girl Gone International (GGI) group and GGI Mallorca — a city she loves for it’s vibe, the way life goes by slowly and getting to enjoy nature. It might not be her favourite place in the world — but it does tick a lot of boxes! Carla gave...

From Lurker to Leader: How GGI Has Helped Me Grow

From Lurker to Leader: How GGI Has Helped Me Grow

In the Beginning... I have always been fascinated by leadership, as a researcher, but also simply as a person wondering how different people from different cultures and backgrounds can work together in a way that brings out the best in each person. The leadership...

The 2020 GGI Holiday Gift Guide

The 2020 GGI Holiday Gift Guide

The 2020 GGI holiday gift guide is here! This guide features GGI small business owners and artisans from our communities around the world. As we head into the 2020 holiday season it’s important for us to recognize that this year is unlike any other before. We’ve all...

How to Plan the Perfect Road Trip

How to Plan the Perfect Road Trip

A road trip can be the adventure of a lifetime! Getting behind the wheel (or jumping in the passenger seat) has always been one of the best ways to discover new and little-known places in your own backyard, but there are many people who have yet to experience the...

Menopause Leads to New Beginnings

Menopause Leads to New Beginnings

The beginning of an adventure It is World Menopause Day —18 October 2020 — which has given me 'pause' to reflect back to November 2014. I’d arrived in Mexico aged 49 years, with my partner and our son, who was five at the time. Prior to this the UK was my home. Now...

GGI Book Club: Homegoing, a Novel by Yaa Gyasi

GGI Book Club: Homegoing, a Novel by Yaa Gyasi

I’m in awe of this nove, Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi! Gyasi speaks so poignantly; history (and often herstory) is very much just a retelling of one’s story; the quote above is the core of the novel. Yet, there is more to that story, which is carefully demonstrated in this...

Dealing with International Divorce

Dealing with International Divorce

An international romance is the stuff of modern-day fairy tales, but what happens when it all goes wrong? Signs could be pointing to an international divorce - and that is never easy,  GGI’s Macrui Dostourian advises on what to do when you decide to go your own way...

An Introduction to Eco-Tourism & Ethical Travel

An Introduction to Eco-Tourism & Ethical Travel

So The way you decide to travel has a massive downstream effect on the local community, economy and environment, which is why eco-tourism and ethical travel are taking center stage. We talk to biologist Katie Lutz, a full-time biologist who explores the world every...

Single Life Abroad: Dating in Paris

Single Life Abroad: Dating in Paris

When it comes to finding romance overseas, there's no denying that dating in Paris is something many travelers hope to experience. In Issue 4 of our GIRLGI magazine we talked to single women dating overseas. One of those women was Lily Heiss, a Canadian freelance...

10 Best Websites for Finding a Remote Job

10 Best Websites for Finding a Remote Job

The idea of finding a remote job that lets you work from home is being embraced by more and more people every day. Some come to the decision by necessity, while others simply desire to strike more of a balance between their personal and professional lives. But if...

How To Find a Job Overseas

How To Find a Job Overseas

Job searches are never without their difficulties, and if you're hoping to find a job overseas in another country the task can feel even more daunting. Not only do you have to deal with the built-in stress of job hunting itself, but you also have consider the...

How Americans Can Vote From Abroad in the USA Elections

How Americans Can Vote From Abroad in the USA Elections

As an absentee voting veteran now living outside the U.S.A., I’ve decided it is my patriotic duty to share with our readers just how to vote from abroad. But first, a story... The second time I was able to vote in an United States election was way back in 2004. Bush,...

8 Tips for Female Solo Travel

8 Tips for Female Solo Travel

Solo travel is often credited for being the catalyst for many GGI's decision to move abroad. But whether you intend to stay overseas long-term or are just looking to escape your daily routine for a while, when you go at it alone you need to be prepared for some...

The Pros and Cons of Having a Baby Overseas

The Pros and Cons of Having a Baby Overseas

Giving birth while living in a foreign country presents its own set of challenges. In this multi-part series we talk to several moms who decided to have a baby while living overseas: Doula and mother of three, Australian Emma Vassallo in Germany offers tips on how to...

Giving Birth While Living Abroad

Giving Birth While Living Abroad

Giving birth while living in a foreign country presents its own set of challenges. In this multi-part series we talk to several moms who decided to give birth while living abroad: Doula and mother of two, Australian Emma Vassallo in Germany offers tips on how to...

Making Childbirth Abroad a Positive Experience

Making Childbirth Abroad a Positive Experience

Giving birth while living in a foreign country presents its own set of challenges. In this multi-part series we talk to several moms who experienced childbirth abroad: Doula and mother of two, Australian Emma V in Germany offers tips on how to create a positive...

The 10 Best YouTube Travel Channels

The 10 Best YouTube Travel Channels

We have all been grounded for half a year. 6 months of cancelled trips, lost adventures and missing family and friends. The world just as quickly show signs of opening up as it shuts down again and travel restrictions change and evolve in response to second and third...

How to Start a Business Franchise Overseas

How to Start a Business Franchise Overseas

For anyone living overseas or thinking of moving to another country, setting up a business franchise can be a daunting process. There are likely to be to linguistic, cultural and legislative barriers to overcome not to mention the tasks of obtaining premises and...

7 Secrets to Getting a Job Teaching Abroad

7 Secrets to Getting a Job Teaching Abroad

Teaching abroad has allowed me to live my dream of inspiring young people about my home. Where is that home, exactly? Wherever I choose to make it - my home is the world! Working as an international teacher seems to be the world’s best kept secret and even now I am...

How to Survive Your Partner’s Move Abroad

How to Survive Your Partner’s Move Abroad

Generally speaking, when one half a couple lands a job that will require them to move abroad, they need to think about their partner's well-being before 'yes'. As work opportunities in today’s global village takes employees and adventure-seekers further and further...

ICE Says Student Visa Holders Have to Leave the United States

ICE Says Student Visa Holders Have to Leave the United States

Update: On July 14, 2020 the Trump administration rescinded its decision to force student visa holders to leave the U.S. if not enrolled in in-person classes. For more information, read this article from The New York Times. People emigrate and immigrate to new...

10 Tips to Help You Make Friends Abroad

10 Tips to Help You Make Friends Abroad

Making friends abroad can be intimidating in the best of times. Fortunately Jess and Rachel have experienced all the highs and lows of living abroad - after moving to Beijing and Paris respectively - and now they're ready to share their top friend-making tips with...

New Post-COVID Travel Restrictions for EU and USA

New Post-COVID Travel Restrictions for EU and USA

To say that the world has changed in the past six months would be an understatement; the Coronavirus pandemic has both uprooted and grounded us. Many have lost their jobs, trips, visas, and routes home. The economy has slowed to a crawl across the globe, passports...

How to Overcome the Moving Abroad Blues

How to Overcome the Moving Abroad Blues

Growth is more than simply reaching traditional milestones and living the life others want for us. Moving abroad means you reach that conclusion way ahead of your peers who've decided to follow more traditional routes. Give yourself some credit as you are on an...

5 Ways to Cure Homesickness

5 Ways to Cure Homesickness

Moving to a new country, city or continent can be very much like breaking up a relationship. It doesn’t matter if you were the dumper or dumpee: that feeling of loss can follow you to your new home and make it difficult to settle. That heavy feeling is what is...

All About GGI WeChat groups!

All About GGI WeChat groups!

WeChat groups are how GGI communities are built and nurtured in China. From our events to your daily needs! We don't use facebook or WhatsApp but WeChat, China's super app! It is a bit of a closed ecosystem but scan our QR code at the bottom of this article within...

The Best Coffee Shops in Shanghai to Cozy Up With a Book

The Best Coffee Shops in Shanghai to Cozy Up With a Book

The Cafe Life Finding a reading spot where the staff and space are welcoming can be a daunting task in a city like Shanghai. But there is hope! Many GGI Members in Shanghai are avid readers, and we have put together our personal guide for the best coffee shops in...

48 Hours in Guangzhou, China

48 Hours in Guangzhou, China

Make the most out of a weekend in Guangzhou, China If you have the chance Guangzhou is definitely worth a trip. Modern and old colonial mix together in this beautiful river city. A huge city, that is surprisingly easy to travel around by bus, metro, and taxi. If you...

5 Amazing Communities for Women Living in Shanghai

5 Amazing Communities for Women Living in Shanghai

1) LesQueers (LQ) This community is dedicated to Shanghai’s LGBTIQ community. LQ focuses on empowering the LGBTIQ community through events and their soon to be released App. LQ also has begun doing diversity and inclusion trainings for businesses and organizations...

Self-Care on International Women’s Day

Self-Care on International Women’s Day

Read Why International Women's Day is Important to Us It is that time of year again: International Women’s Day. Iconic women from our past and present spring to mind when we think of this day. Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928), an integral voice in the suffragette...

All About Skincare in China!

All About Skincare in China!

Let’s face it, being a new arrival in China and trying to fine the right skincare products can be hard! But we're here to help. Chinese winters brings deliver a plethora of obstacles, from the harsh, cold, polluted air outside to the dry heater air inside. So to...

6 Secret Foodie Hangout Spots in Chengdu, China

6 Secret Foodie Hangout Spots in Chengdu, China

The secret's out...we've found the best hidden gems for foodies visiting Chengdu, China! Chengdu, capital of the Sichuan province where most of China’s food is produced is a must-visit city for any foodie. Upon your arrival, you will notice dozens of Sichuanese...

Shanghai Living – Books, Music and Getting lost

Shanghai Living – Books, Music and Getting lost

Rebecca Macoskey, American, 27, lives in Shanghai, China How in the world did you end up in Shanghai? Accepted a teaching position at HongQiao International School right out of college and have been here since! What was your first impression in this city compared to...

48 Hours in Xiamen, China

48 Hours in Xiamen, China

Xiamen, China is located on the coast, across from Taiwan, between Shanghai and Hong Kong. It is a beautiful tropical Island with tasty local snacks, friendly people, and amazing views. DAY 1 When you arrive a good starting point is Zhongshan Road. Get off the BRT at...

5 Questions with Latin Electropop Singer Javiera Mena

5 Questions with Latin Electropop Singer Javiera Mena

Chilean Indie Star Javiera Mena is one of the most important singers on the Spanish-speaking electropop scene. Javiera who is the first openly lesbian artist from Latinamerica to play Coachella, brought her unique retro sound to Shanghai and we managed to grab a chat...

Say Hello to The Women Responsible For GGI China!

Say Hello to The Women Responsible For GGI China!

Michelle Ibarra – GGI Asia & Oceania Regional Manager Work? Graphic design small business owner, Teacher, Project Manager, Podcaster Why China? Work, travel, Asia is the best. After living and working in Argentina, S.Korea, Spain, and Holland I wanted a new...

48 Hours in Chengdu, China

48 Hours in Chengdu, China

48 hours in Chengdu, China Chengdu is the central hub of Sichuan, known as the city where the old come to rest and the young become lazy. The laid back lifestyle, spicy food, and pandas are what attract many to the city and eventually call this place home. Directly to...

GGI Confessions: Living Abroad in Brussels

GGI Confessions: Living Abroad in Brussels

Els Queekers is living abroad in Brussels I am a Girl Gone International because... I have an urge to discover unique places, meet different cultures and turn strangers into friends. Being a GGI has made me realise how much empowerment you can get from others -...