Girl Gone International Magazine March 2013 by Anne Scott

G IRL G ONE

Launch Issue Lifestyle Magazine for Globally Minded Women March 2013

I NTERNATIONAL

Secret Address Book SPAIN Love & Live it Like a Local

Career Abroad No language? No Experience? No Problem

Bi-National Love 7 GGI Meet-Cutes

Afghanistan International Women’s Day Special Report

Latitude with

Attitude

SURVIVAL GUIDE

TO YOUR 360 DEGREE JOURNEY

10 LinkedIn

Steps to Success My International Kitchen

AUSTRIA – AUSTRALIA

Fashion across the Hemisphere

TRAVEL & ADVENTURE 14. Must Have Travel Apps 16. My Secret Address Book - Off Season SPAIN 22. Confessions of a Girl Gone World Wild 24. Secret Surfing in Scotland 27. Quick Chat with a Girl Gone Travelling 28. Afghanistan Adventure

GGI CONTENTS

LOVE & SEX

32. Online Dating - how they do it in Paris 34. 7 Bi-national Meet Cutes 39. International Wedding Special 44. Breaking Up Abroad

ART & DESIGN

48. GGI Sarah Schilling spreads her creative wings 50. Global Art Happenings you need to know about

SURVIVE & THRIVE

53. Make money from your photos 54. Get Inspired. GGI Claire in Bermuda shares how she turned her observations about the island into a job 56. Volunteering in the Red Light District. GGI Cara’s experience 60. Career : No language? No experience? No problem! GGI Jen’s advice 61. 5 Must Have Communication Apps 62. 10 Ways to Kickstart your LinkedIn Profile Find & follow our GGI Button to jump to a page, read an extended article on the website or connect to our other platforms!

16 24

PEOPLE & LIFESTYLE

104

114

66. International Women’s Day Special Report : Women in Afghanistan 70. International Women’s Day Celebrated! 73. 10 GGI Must Haves 74. 4 GGI Profiles. Girls you wish lived next door! 80. Going International For the First Time. Newbie GGI Jillian on her first time in Hong Kong

HOME & KITCHEN

85. My International Kitchen, Austria - Australia 89. 3 Superfoods you need 90. GGI Olive’s parallel journey - life and food 92. A Cheese and Beer Taste Adventure in Ireland 96. My International Home

MIND & BODY Flip to page 64 to find out about how to be a GGI Member, upgrade to a Pioneer Member, how you can get involved in GGI, how to subscribe to the Magazine and how you could be in the next issue! Flip to the back page to see what’s coming up in the next issue.

100. Expat to Repat: Crucial Survival Guide 104. 6 Ways to Start Your Day Right 106. Friendship and Food 108. A GGI’s Reflections on Life

FASHION & CULTURE

111. Travel Beauty Secrets 114. Fashion : Latitude with Attitude 118. London Fashion through the eye of a Boy Gone International 121. A GGI on Music 122. 5 Books to transport you to another city! 124. Best New TV Series

GGI EXTRAS

127. Behind the Scenes 130. GGI HQ Loves & Likes

Girl Gone International ANNE SCOTT Editor in Chief MEGHAN KLEIN Creative Director Features Editor MACRUI DOSTOURIAN Lifestyle Profiles Editor LEAH MOUGOYANNIS Fashion Editor DALE ROLFE Travel and Adventure Contributors TAMARA BONILLA, LIDIA LAFUENTE CIRUELO, NIKA STAROSTKA, ANDREA MCCAFFER, LUCIE MILLAR, RENATA GARCIA-MENACHO Survive and Thrive Contributors LAINEY SCOTT-CAMPBELL, CLAIRE HATTIE, INA BRIDGES, CARA VAN DER MERWE, JEN MCPHEE, gemma avey, lynn sikora, kathryn young People and Lifestyle Contributors jiLLIAN STEWART, MANUELA GREENHOW-FAHNER, SAPANA LONKAR, JENA HONEYCUTT GOEBEL, JOY PALOMO, UNA MCGIRR Fashion and Culture Contributors SARA AGUAS, ANNA HOGREBE, ADRIANA MUNDY, ANNA ZENEVITS Love and Sex Contributors Linda Tu-Lihn Doen, Linda Ashcroft, ZOEY YEH, EMMA VASSALLO, JAN CARTER, BELEN COVIELLA, EMMA OCKS, JESSICA ainlay, lena olsson, CAROLA BUTTERS Home and Kitchen Contributors ELODIE LOVE, JOANNE RICHARDS, OLIVE AGUAS, Art amd Design Contributor SARAH SCHILLING Mind and Body Contributors NAOMI VAN DEN BROEK, RACHEL KLEIN, MARA PELLIZZARI, NICOLA TORDOFF-SOHNE, alexandra anders COPY EDITORS MAEVE CURTIN, ANNA HOGREBE, ROSE FINLAY, NATHALIE ROGERS, JOANNE RICHARDS, INA Bridges CONTRIBUTING DESIGNERS Merret Thomsen, Mara Pellizzari CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Mara Pellizzari, Lainey Scott-Campbell, Meghan KLein, Anne Scott, Nicole Trilivas, Lush Wedding Photography, Vera simon, masson-photo

Featured EDITORS MACRUI DOSTOURIAN In honour of International Women’s Day, Macrui’s deeply compelling feature article is the result of her painstaking research into the life of women in post-Taliban Afghanistan.

GGI Credentials:

US & S.America - Paris - London - Germany Mother, a lawyer on leave from the law and a Floridian on leave from the sun.

LEAH MOUGOYANNIS

DALE ROLFE

Leah tirelessly sought out and interviewed super interesting GGIs living all over the world for our GGI Profiles Feature.

Our Launch Edition Fashion Editor takes up our challenge to look at trends from a unique global perspective.

GGI CREDENTIALS:

GGI Credentials:

Dublin - France - Switzerland UAE - Germany. After 15 years in Aviation, Leah now writes, models, works in the fitness industry and is devoted to her son & German-Greek husband.

Sydney - Sweden - Hungary Dale has just received her Hungarian citizenship and can’t wait to explore her grandmother’s home country as soon as possible.

Welcome Girl Gone International started out in 2010 in Hamburg – my 10th city in 10 years. My 10th start over. In cities 1 to 9 it took about a year to find my new ‘family’ because apart from walking around with a “I am new, please be my friend!” sign, I couldn’t think how to find them. I tried expat clubs and women’s institutions but I couldn’t find the circle I was looking for. I decided that City 10 would be different. I would find a way to bypass the tough starter months and fast forward to those oh-so-good bits that we all know make this lifestyle so amazing. I wanted to find other girls who’d ‘gone international ‘ to laugh and drink wine with, who understood this crazy roller coaster journey I was on – because they were on it too. I wanted to hang out with locals who’d once lived abroad too, who were happy to welcome me in from the periphery. So I went off on a mission to find them. And in Hamburg I did – 1500 of them! Since then, GGI has quite literally found its legs as girls, including myself, started to move on from Hamburg taking GGI, our unique approach and brand with them. We now have vibrant face to face communities all over the world offering light hearted events for girls living, working, studying, travelling and there. Flip the page and you can see how far we have travelled together and meet the Community Managers – my GGI family and some of the most brilliant people you could ever hope to meet. And that for me is GGI - meeting incredible like minded women, friendship, support, opportunities and synergy. To connect us all, we are building our new big global home at girlgoneinternational.com. It is a work in progress so do what you do best – be one step ahead and sign up free now. Very soon we will have active global and city forums, groups and exclusive social network. The GGI global site and GGI City mini sites will also be packed with content that you will love. We hope you love GGI so much that you decide to upgrade to our Pioneer Membership. While no 2 international lives are the same, we share an energy. It is my job to ensure that the GGI Magazine and sites captures this and Meghan’s to actualise it in the only lifestyle magazine and website in the world written for you, about you and by you. This issue is dedicated to every woman who has ever fallen in love with a place, a person or a possibility, packed a bag and headed out into the world to chase it.

Anne Scott Global Community Manager & Founder Editor in Chief anne@girlgoneinternational.com

to the first ever issue of the Girl Gone International

Magazine!

“Where I was born and where and how I have lived is unimportant. It is what I have done with where I have been that should be of interest.” -Georgia O’Keeffe Throughout the process of designing and creating this magazine for Girl Gone International, I have most enjoyed the opportunity to visualize all the amazing stories and experiences that other GGI’s have happily shared. There is something to be said about all the courageous women who have left their place of familiarity and comfort in search of exploration, love, understanding, career, or family. Their shared experiences are what makes current and future GGI’s continue on with this pursuit. Putting together the first issue has taken many late nights and lots of hard work but it has been an absolute joy for me. It would not be possible without all the women who sought it in their hearts to volunteer and contribute their time and effort. I sincerely hope this magazine can offer insight and make a difference in your life, inspire you to get involved in your community, make new friends or understand a different culture than your own! Keep learning, exploring, and most importantly keep in touch!!

Meghan

Global Community Support Manager Creative Director and Editor meghan@girlgoneinternational.com GGI HQ Amsterdam

FIND OUT WHERE YOU CAN MEET OTHER GGI’S FACE-TO-FACE GIRL GONE INTERNATIONAL ESTABLISHED CITIES

HAMBURG, BERLIN, AMSTERDAM, LONDON, GLASGOW, EDINBURGH, MADRID, VIENNA, OTTAWA

GIRL GONE INTERNATIONAL CITIES COMING SOON PARIS, NEW YORK, PALMA, FRANKFURT, REYKJAVIK, ATHENS, KINSHASA

GIRL GONE INTERNATIONAL

community managers

Merret Thomsen, 32

Hamburg I got my first taste for living abroad while studying English every summer as a kid in England. Both the experience and the language have proved invaluable to me, first at University then in my job in an international advertising agency. I also spent a long time travelling, 1 1/2 years in Australia followed by flat-sharing with 3 English boys in Hamburg. Those were both the best and toughest times of my life! I have been back in Hamburg for almost a year. Day-to-day, I work in social media as a Community Manager and I love Art Direction. I am big networker, an organizer, a creative and a sinner when it comes to tasty yummy food. I love to bring all of this to GGI. I dedicate many hours to our big, friendly GGI community of 1500 women, organising fun events and moderating our forums. I love to make people happy, to motivate and support. Together we have made GGI the first port of call for international women making Hamburg their new home.

Merret Cheers,

Nathalie Rogers, 33

Vienna & Athens I have been a Girl Gone International from birth. I was born in Mauritius to a half-English, half-French father and a Greek mother who was born and raised in the UK. At a young age we moved to London for 2 years then to Greece. I returned to England to attend boarding school, study at University, work and obtain a Masters Degree in Marketing. After all of that, I moved back to Greece where I met my half-Greek, half-Austrian husband and we relocated to Vienna due to the economy. Although I have my hands full raising my 18-month old daughter, I can never be busy enough to keep me happy, so I expanded this wonderful community to Vienna and Athens as I jump between both cities for work. I love to do what I do best, event planning and social networking to create a fun, friendly, active and very welcoming â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;homeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; for all us international girls.

Nat

Lots of love,

Sonia Kennebeck, 32

Hailley Griffis, 20

New York

Ottawa

I was born 32 years ago in Malacca, Malaysia to a Malay-Chinese mother and a German father. My parents decided early to make me a Baby Gone International at ten months old when they moved to Germany. In my first passport the German authorities wrote underneath my chubby baby photo „Height: Still growing“. Accurate as always! So I grew up in Hamburg then moved to the United States when I was 21. After five years in Washington, DC I moved back to Hamburg to continue my career as a journalist and took my American boyfriend Keith with me. Later, we had a long-distance relationship for a few years, similar to many other bi-national couples. Now we have finally settled in New York and that is where I will start up our first Stateside GGI.

I was born in Ottawa and lived in various parts of the country as a result of being in a military family. By the age of 16, my interest for international cultures piqued and I participated in a semester exchange in Hamburg, Germany and traveled to Norway the following year. I then started my Bachelors degree, a double major in Political Science and Communication, in French, at the University of Ottawa. I’m now in my 3rd year and work in the tech industry as a public relations coordinator and social media manager and can‘t wait to implement Girl Gone International in Ottawa. GGI is exactly the kind of group I had always been looking for, and now I get to help create it.

Sonia

Hailley

Rachel Evans, 23

Reykjavik - Coming Soon I was born and raised in Shrewsbury, England, a town next to Wales that nobody has heard of. I left school at 18 and not knowing what to do, moved to France for a summer job. From then on I had the travel bug. I have lived in Austria, Australia and Germany. My boyfriend and I met in Hamburg and now we are off to Reykjavik! I work from home as a freelance artist and also love to get involved with as many interesting projects as possible. I have met so many amazing friends via GGI and have had so many great opportunities from it. GGI is so friendly and open and the camaraderie and energy is incredible – I can’t wait to take it to Iceland!

Rachel

Sarah Henvey, 28

Olive Aguas, 30

Glasgow

Amsterdam

I’m a born and bred bonnie wee lassie from Scotland! If you asked my parents, they would tell you that from the moment I started studying Spanish at the tender age of 11, I had a bee in my bonnet – I would call it a dream – about living abroad, being able to speak a million languages and falling in love with a Latino heartthrob! 17 years later and I have more or less ticked all of the boxes – I went on to study more languages at University and spent two years sunning myself in Spain where I worked in Marketing and became fluent in Spanish. Even more exciting, during all of that, I found my Latino heartthrob and last year we were able to live out our joint dream of travelling the world together. We touched down in 9 countries over 6 months and met amazing international friends that we will treasure for life. I am now a ‘GGI Bride to Be’ and in the midst of planning what will be our fabulous international wedding next year! The world is such an exciting place and I’m looking forward to meeting lots of worldly GGIs in my amazing city – Glasgow!

Sarah

I come from the hipster city of Portland, Oregon. Traveling, food and people is at the heart of who I am. My journey began 10 years ago when I left my loving family behind in pursuit of big city living in London and a career in international marketing. After 5 years with an 8 month stint in Leeds, West Yorkshire, I was itching for something new so I moved to Hamburg, Germany. I felt very isolated there and found it hard to meet new friends so I was so happy when I discovered GGI Hamburg and met some lifetime friends. After 3 years, Amsterdam called to me. Experience told me that friendships were what I would need in order to make the city my home, so within a month I had established GGI Amsterdam. It was the second GGI group and has grown really quickly. Amsterdam is a truly international city and we love to collaborate closely with other Amsterdam groups – the synergy created is electric! I love this stunning city and being surrounded by the new friends I’ve met through GGI Amsterdam and old ones who have relocated here from Hamburg! I am looking forward to meeting even more shining faces during our next events and doing whatever I can to help women transition into their new lives here. Tot ziens!

Olive

Tamara Bonilla, 26

Madrid

I got my first chance to live abroad 3 years ago when I was invited to participate in the Youth Olympic Games as part of the organizational team. Living in Singapore was an incredible experience. My next move was to San Francisco. My German boyfriend was to be relocated there for 6 months and having been in a long distance relationship with him for the past 3 years, I didn’t want the distance to be any greater. I quit my job at Real Madrid FC and joined him there. This time it was not so easy. I found it very difficult to make friends in the U.S.A. particularly when people knew I was only there temporarily. Of course, I understood their reluctance to pursue a friendship with me but it was quite a lonely time. After San Francisco I moved to Hamburg. It was a completely different story. After just one GGI event, I made some great friends and those girls became my little circle. 2 months later I moved back to Madrid for work and started up GGI Madrid. Living abroad is not easy and is full of ups and downs. We all go through the same thing so GGI is incredibly important for all of us because it is a support network. Whether in a new city for a few months or years, we are here for you, face-to-face and online.

Tamara Besos,

Veronika Dlouha, 26

London I don’t know exactly when or how it happened, but from as far back as I can remember I have always wanted to live abroad. I wanted to use the languages I learned at school, I wanted to see the places I saw in the textbooks and I wanted to experience day-to-day life in a different country. So after graduating from high school, I decided to study politics for 3 years at a University in England. I wanted to become a diplomat representing the Czech Republic worldwide. I went on to do my Masters in Vienna and now I am back in my first love, London, enjoying life in a big city. In the end I didn’t go into politics but I find that every day I apply what I learned to my HR career and through GGI I still get to represent my country. As well as that I am a big foodie and I absolutely love the gastronomic scene here. I enjoy discovering different parts of London and am very much looking forward to meeting other GGIs to share stories, tips and experiences.

Veronika

Belén Coviellas, 29

Edinburgh I was born in Asturias on the beautiful Spanish northern coast. When I was 3 I told my mum I wanted to learn English because I wanted to move to New York, so she took me to English lessons. When I was 12 I went to England for the first time to study English. The day I saw London for the first time was the day I knew I wasn‘t going to stay in Spain much longer. I spent 3 summers in England and one in Ireland. I then studied languages and spent 1 year studying in Edinburgh. I did a Masters Degree in International Affairs and moved to Sarajevo to work for the Spanish Embassy. After Bosnia, I went to Brussels and then back to Edinburgh. Now I live in Glasgow with my half-Fijian, half-Scottish boyfriend. I love being a GGI Community Manager because I meet other brave and adventurous international girls. What I like most about GGI is the sense of community it brings to the girls in different cities. With GGI you‘ll never walk alone – I don‘t know why I have the Liverpool football anthem stuck in my head but it sums up how I feel about GGI and my motivation to bring it to Edinburgh! x

Belen

Maya B, 26

Berlin I grew up under the Central Asian sun, but always knew I wanted to travel the world. When I went to the US as a teenager to attend high school, I knew I would never have just one home again. I went back to Asia to get my Bachelors in Politics and was obsessed with going to Europe. Although I originally wanted to go to France, I ended up in Germany and loved it! Four cities, one Masters in International Economics and five years later, I am juggling my job in IT marketing, another Masters in Management and – thank goodness – a no longer, long distance relationship. I went to the very first GGI meeting ever and I am so amazed at how our community has grown! I have met so many amazing women in Hamburg and am thrilled about being a GGI Community Manager in Berlin! Why? Because GGI means truly international girls from literally all over the world, fantastic ideas, new friendships, positive vibes and surprising opportunities!

Maya

Kattina Famoso, 34

Petra Opělová, 23

Hamburg

London

GGI LinkedIn Community Manager

Brought up in Mexico, my interest in living abroad, travel and cultures started at 8 years old. My grandmother would take me on short trips to small Mexican towns which sparked the curiosity that now drives me to explore the world and know more about people. Having been born in the U.S., I decided to leave Mexico and pursue my college education in the States where I later met my other half. Fast forward 12 years, I am now in GGI’s founding city, Hamburg. As a career woman, I know first-hand the hurdles you must overcome when relocating to a new country and attempt to continue your professional occupation. That’s where GGI LinkedIn can make a difference. My aim is to make GGI LinkedIn a hub of useful and relevant resources for 21st century global women looking for employment, have employment, or are preparing to job search. By having this community, which focuses on issues of career and work, we can foster networking and share information to enhance all us GGIs’ career prospects.

Katt ina

GGI Social Media Manager

I’m an explorer. I was born in the lovely Czech Republic but that quickly became too small for me. Growing up I always dreamt of living somewhere else, experiencing different cultures and a new way of life. I then moved to the UK to start my BA in Public Relations – it was life changing. When I finished my degree, I migrated south to London where I work in a tech PR agency. I also worked in China for a while and I fell in love with it! That’s why I have started learning Mandarin. As the Czech proverb goes: “You live a new life for every new language you speak. If you know only one language, you live only once.” Being international means many things to many people. For me it’s about exploring, discovering, and learning not just about the people and country you live in but also about yourself. Simply said, it makes your life way more exciting!

Pet ra

GIRL

GONE INTERNATIONAL

“We shall not cease from exploration” T.S. ELIOT TRAVEL & ADVENTURE

HAPPY Travelling! Being international travellers, relocators and major social communicators, we are lost without our smart phones. GGI brings you our top-twelve ‘Apps’ for iPhone and Android to help you get to places with ease, communicate with the taxi driver who is literally trying to take you for a ride and ensure you can order that much needed glass of wine. To read even more about GGI’s choice travel apps click here!

JETLAG GENIE

This smart little app for iPhone and Ipod Touch costs about €2.50 and can help you beat jet lag. Input your destinations and the app will calculate a plan for you. It will prompt you to take a nap, seek darkness or get out of bed a little earlier on the days before you travel.

ACUWEATHER

Voted the “Best iPhone App” by the 2012 Mobile Awards, it features weather forecasts in 22 languages and ‘pushes’ severe weather alerts. It will give hourly and 15 day forecasts for 2.7 million locations worldwide – ideal for the GGI traveller. To add to the fun of this app it also has animated radar, satellite, videos and interactive maps.

GOOGLE TRANSLATE

This invaluable free app covers 57 languages and is compatible with iPhone, iPad and Android. It can translate using voice recognition. You can access your translation history even when you are offline enabling you to preplan your conversation and questions before you arrive at your destination! Genius.

SITorSQUAT

With 95,000 toilets listed worldwide this service means you need never be caught short again. The downside is this app is only for purchase from USA iTunes. Us girls of other nationalities will just have to continue sneaking into hotels!

TRIPOSO

Our most favourite travelguide app ever! This free app is compatible with iPhone, iPad and Android. Use it to plan every aspect of your trip and access current resources including what to do and when in any city.

travel & adventure

TRIP SPLITTER

Work out who has paid for what without all the maths and arguments. The free version of this iPhone and iPad app supports two travellers whilst the paid-for version allows multiple travellers. Attach photos of receipts or events and record individual payments between people.

AIRBNB

We would have ended up in many a sticky floored hostel without this free iPhone and Android app. Rent anything anywhere from a budget room or apartment to a treehouse or igloo. The ‘Help I need a place tonight’ function is a life saver.

FLIGHTTRACK PRO

This app costs around €8.99. It features updated flight times, terminal and gate numbers and terminal maps. You can forward your airline confirmation e-mails to plans@tript.com and flights appear automatically in FlightTrack Pro. It works with over 1000 travel sites. Features include automatically syncing your itineraries with Tripit, share flight status by email, Facebook or Twitter, covers more than 16,000 airports world-wide and full international flight coverage with 1,400 airlines.

PACK THE BAG

The Monica Geller of the app world, this little beauty is free and compatible with iPhone and iPad. With check lists galore and sharing functions, you will be an uber-organised packing goddess.

TRIPIT

If you are constantly on the go, you need Tripit in your life. It is a clever travel organiser which helps you organise and share every aspect of your travel plans. It is super easy to use. You simply forward all your confirmation emails, flights, car rentals, accommodation to your Tripit address and it creates an itinerary for you, replacing all those horrible printouts you clutch to your chest and rifle through desperately as you race around the world.

YELP

SKYSCANNER

This free price-comparison app is compatible with iPhone, iPad and Android. Find cheap flights per day, month or year. It doesn’t always detail some budget airlines such as RyanAir but it is still a must have. We particulary love the month and year views to help choose the cheapest dates to fly.

Free for iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry, Palm and Windows. 50 million contributors leave their thoughts and suggestions for everything from restaurants to nail salons. You can quickly search for businesses near you, tap quick links to find nearby bars and restaurants, add tips, photos and draft reviews after your visits and look up addresses or phone numbers for thousands of businesses.

My Secret Address Book

OFF SEASON SPAIN

We’ve fallen in love with all things Spain. In this edition of ‘My Secret Address Book’, 5 GGI’s with intimate insider knowledge, tell you what to do and where to go to live and love it like a local! 16

travel & adventure

MADRID By Tamara Bonilla

Get dressed up and go out – Fortuny Palace either for dinner, drinks or dancing.

Go Dancing – Oh Cabaret for crazy theme nights. Eat Churros – Chocolateria San Gines is the oldest place in the city, founded in 1894.

Sit and read a book – Paseo del Prado-Recoletos

is a magical place with beautiful fountains and statues. People Watch – Plaza de Santa Ana has many terraces and is always buzzing with people. Watch the sun rise – Jardines de Sabatini has great views with the Royal Palace in the background. Watch the sun set – The striking Debod Egyptiantemple. Get ice-cream – Homemade Italian ice-cream at Gelateria romana. Just 7% fat! Eat local food – Try Cocido, a typical dish from Madrid in Casa Carola. Buy local produce – Agriculture Chamber of Madrid on the first Saturday of every month is a foodie’s paradise. Potter around a market – San Miguel Market is the oldest one in the city. You can go grocery shopping or have some tapas there in the morning and early afternoon. Best shopping – The gay neighborhood around Fuencarral is full of shops and restaurants. Watch films – Cines Renoir or Yelmo is ideal for original version movies (look for V.O. in the listings). Catch musical festivals or gigs – There is always something going on in Palacio de los Deportes. The Real Madrid basketball team plays there plus it hosts great concerts and shows. Go for a run – along Madrid Rio and its river shore. Enjoy a sunny day – at Casa de Campo. You can choose between the zoo, the theme park, a bbq or a paddle in the lake.

Grab a bargain – El Rastro flea market is open every Sunday morning.

Take Photos – City Hall has great views from the top.

Avoid – Lavapies is a great multicultural neighbor-

hood but take care at dark due to the high number of squatters. Explore outside Madrid – Take the 20 minute fast train to Toledo and feel transported back to the middle ages. Do nothing – The Retiro Park is perfect for relaxing. Treat yourself – Medina Mayrit is a Spa built in an old Arabian water deposit. Perfect to escape from the city stress. Enjoy the best view with a cocktail – Hotel Oscar looks over Madrid and has an amazing cocktail menu. Have a coffee – Sip away at the Cafe del Espejo surrounded by beautiful Art Nouveau decor. travel & adventure

BILBAO By Lidia Lafuente Ciruelo

Enjoy the best view with a cocktail –

Alhondiga Bilbao entertainment centre has an amazing rooftop terrace. Watch films – Multicines Bilbao shows mostly independent films. Catch musical festivals or gigs – Kafe Antxokia is your best bet. Go for a run – Through Park Campo Volantin. Explore a little bit further – Go to Getaria and have lunch in Hotel Saiaz while looking at the sea and sexy surfers. Treat yourself – Abandoibarra Relax in Lesaka or Hotel Atxaspi in a private mini spa. Don’t leave without – Visiting the architectural masterpiece the Guggenheim Museum which houses a large collection of modern and contemporary art. Places to Photograph – Abandoibarra, Ensanche, Casco Viejo, Bilbao la Vieja and Atxuri.

travel & adventure

Accommodation – The new Ganbara Hostel and B&B Aliciazzz are perfect for the demanding budget traveller. My favourite affordable boutique is the Palacio Urgoiti. Get dressed up – Drape yourself all over the terrace of Hotel Dominé which faces the Guggenheim Museum. Go Dancing – The districts of Casco Viejo and Bilbao la Vieja. Watch the sunrise – Stroll around Kobetamendi Park situated at the top of Castrejana and watch the sunset over the Cadagua valley. Later, head over to Etxebarria Park and watch the sun set from there. Get ice-cream – Gelati Gelati or La Hosteria Marchese del Porto Best place to have a milkshake – Heladeria Alaska on Marques del Puerto. Have a coffee – El Muro Bar in Alameda de Urquijo Sit and read a book – The Mediateka of Alhondiga library in Plaza Arriquibar. People Watch – La Gran Via street and Ercilla street are top of my list. Enjoy a sunny day – Golfo Norte Bar in Itxasgane. Also Barrika is a great place to have a drink with friends and enjoy the view. Hondartzape Restaurant in Gorliz is a bit expensive, but excellent. Try local food – Try ‘pintxos’ in the areas of Plaza Nueva, Diputación, Ledesma or Las Arenas and the Irrintxi Bar in Las Mercedes Street. Buy local produce – The Ribera Market is utterly unique. Google opening times as it closes for siesta. Best shopping streets – Rodriguez Arias Colón de Larreategi and La Gran Via.

ALICANTE

By Andrea McCaffer I live – in Alicante province because we have the

luxury of the beautiful coastline and one of the most mountainous areas in Europe to admire just a few kilometres inland. Quietest Beach – El Paraiso La Vilajoyosa has a mixture of sand and pebbles but worth it just to see the beautiful colour of the sea and appreciate the peace and quiet. Best Beach – Cala Playa Tio Ximo in Benidorm, or around the area of La Fustera, Benissa. For a more traditional sandy beach, San Juan is the largest and cleanest. Treat yourself – Visit the Sha Wellness Clinic for a treatment or have a drink on their amazing terrace and take in the wonderful views. Splurge on a hotel – Barcelo’s Hotel Asia Garden Benidorm is extremely luxurious. You must try their Thai massages. Places to photograph – Take a walk up to the lighthouse in Albir for breathtaking views of the sea below. Eat – Nísperos are little round orange fruits which taste like cinnamon and vanilla. Eat straight from the tree or as a jam or preserve. Utterly delicious and vital to the area’s economy. Hike – Ponoig mountain in Polop or the Sierra de Bernia in Altea/Calpe or Puig Campana in Finestrat, or Aitana also in the area are hiking heaven. Have a coffee – in La Cala Benidorm in a lovely modern cafe called Cafeteria Yago. Surprisingly good touristy things to do – Visit the natural waterfalls in Les Fonts del L´Algar in Callosa d´en Sarria to swim, picnic and relax. Go for a run – A good flat 5km run is along the Albir and Altea beach.

Best drive route – It is definitely worth a drive from the coast into the mountains to get to the little village of Guadalest which is drenched in culture with its castle and beautiful river. You can eat decently priced local food there too. Enjoy the best view with a cocktail – In the Plaza de la Iglesia, Altea, there is a quaint cocktail bar called the Mascarada which has a rooftop terrace looking onto the plaza and church. Eat tapas – In Altea’s old town (Casco Antiguo) go to Chef Pirata for fab quality meals and tapas, excellent value for money and friendly staff. My favourite restaurant – L´Obrador, also in Altea’s old town. Their homemade paté and ‘espaghettis a la marinera’ is a must. Lungo Mare in Javea, a bit further up the coast does great Italian. For more traditional food – Meson Los Curros in Tangel near San Juan will meet your expectations if typical Spanish food is your thing. Sit by the water – The Playa del Albir is a pebble beach but well worth a visit day or night. Off peak it doesn’t tend to be overcrowded. Get dressed up and go out to – Zensa in Denia, a trendy chill out bar. People watch – Playa Levante in Benidorm, there’s not much there that you won’t see! travel & adventure

PALMA DE MALLORCA

By Nika Starostka and Anne

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I adore the sun, breathtaking views, sea and mountains, flea markets and friendly people. Palma is a beautiful, busy city all year long, with a cosmopolitan feel and special “ambiente” - Nika. Watch the sunrise – Puerto de Valldemossa Watch the sun set – Palma Cathedral Best Beaches – Hundreds to choose from. Niki loves Cala S’Almunia, Sa Rapita and the east coast for small, wild beaches. Anne loves the beach walk from Colonia St Jordi to Es Trenc. Both recommend getting a car, choose an area and beach hop. Get some culture – Caixa FORUM, Teatro Principal and the Auditorium de Palma Sit and read my book – under a shady tree on the beautiful Passeig Born Morning coffee – Bar Bosch at the top of Born. Luxury Breakfast with a view – Mar i Cel Seaside Lunch Restaurante Hotel – Portitxol Tapas and wine – La Bodeguilla People Watch – The area called Puerto Portals is a posers and people watchers paradise with plenty of bars, restaurants and super yachts. Explore by car – Head inland and explore the villages. Hit the west coast, Valldemossa and the mountain towns all around. Best drive route – Follow the west coast from Palma via Portals Nous, Santa Ponsa, Camp de Mar, Port d’Andratx, Valldemossa arriving at Puerto de Soller. Take the fast tunnel back into Palma. Get dressed up and go out to – Nikki Beach or CUBA Colonial Go Clubbing – Pacha Mallorca in Palma Nova or go to Abraxas or Tito’s in Palma. Guaranteed Hangover – At La Bolsa on Paseo Maritimo. Keep an eye on the screens as drink prices go up and down on their ‘stock exchange’ and buy when they are cheap. Dangerous! Go horse riding – Ride from Rancho Grande down to the beach. Check out special off-peak day excursions on +34 971 85 41 2. Be romantic here – Cappuccino Grand Cafe Get ice cream – Gelats Soller in Soller. Try unique Mallorca flavours like Fig, Almond, Ensaimada, Sesame Seed, Soller Orange, Lemon

Nika.

Mallorca was my home and haven for 5 years. The air pressure, humidity, light, earthy colours, smell of juniper and warmth combine to make this place heaven on earth. - Anne Eat vegetarian food – Bon Lloc Eat Pinxtos (tapas on sticks) – La 5a Puneta Buy local produce – Santa Catalina market Best shopping street – Jaime III Antique & vintage market – Consell (sundays), Mallorquin local products – Santa Maria del Cami Best restaurant : Neo Cultural and La Boveda Dinner with a view – Hotel Saratoga Restaurant. Head to the 7th floor for a great view. Eat Meat – La Rueda in Genova. Order La Entraña. Eat Pizza – La Baranda in Santa Catalina Enjoy the best view with a cocktail – Mood Beach Enjoy a rare rainy day – shopping in El Corte Ingles and visit inside of cathedral Go for a run – Paseo Maritimo to Portixol promenade Get sporty here – Santa Ponsa Country Club Best museum – Es Baluar Art Gallery – Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró Drink beers – bars around Santa Catalina or La Lonja Areas to avoid – Arenal Where to find some friends and enjoy a few drinks – In GGI Nika’s bar called Vintage Santa Catalina travel & adventure

Confessions of a girl gone world wild

Nicole Trilivas is a corporate escapee turned frequent ex-pat and bohemian author who writes books about bad-ass girls doing stuff they shouldn’t do.

* I cut in line to get into the Vatican. * I jumped metro turnstiles in Paris. * I snuck into Pompeii without paying. * I ate McDonald’s in Singapore. * I left Australia without ever seeing a kangaroo. * I let some South African guy on a rented moped drive me home in Goa, India even though I didn’t really know him or where I was going. * The first time I got drunk and threw up was the first time I was abroad – I was in Prague, and I was 17. I very clearly remember throwing up and thinking to myself, “well, this is stupid.” * I left a Greek wedding early. (By early, I mean 2 a.m., but the party didn’t end until 7 a.m.) * I went horseback riding in Argentina after staying up drinking Malbec the night before. I hadn’t yet slept, and I was fast and reckless and almost clothes-lined myself on a Eucalyptus tree. That’s what a D.U.I on a horse looks like. * I got kicked out of a hooker bar in Panama because some blonde Canadian chick that we randomly met at the hostel tried to buy drugs. * The first time I traveled alone I got homesick in the south of Italy, and actually considered leaving one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to in my life. I remember calling my mom from a train station in Naples and crying afterwards.

* I used a shady AT M in Brazil and had $300 stolen from my bank account. * I was too broke to gamble in Monte Carlo or even get into the casino. * I spent the Fourth of July in Austria eating Wiener schnitzel. * I’ve been to Amsterdam 13 times and still shamefully have never made it to the Anne Frank’s house.

* I ran through Karlsplatz fountain in Munich at about 5 a.m. I was late for my flight so I didn’t have time to shower. I spent the whole of my trans-Atlantic Lufthansa flight picking leaves out of my hair and smelling like dirty fountain water. And I was in one of the middle seats. * I booked tickets for a holiday in Edinburgh for January 1st, unaware of Hogmanay – one of Europe’s biggest New Year’s Eve parties so I missed it. It was like booking a trip to Rio in February and not knowing about Carnival and turning up a day late. * I went on a yoga retreat in Morocco to detox but I spent the whole trip smoking British cigarettes with a guy from Manchester. * I accidentally smuggled half a joint on an international flight to Pisa. When I got there, a huge German Shepherd jumped all over me and I bent down to play with him because I missed my dog. I only realized what I had done a few days later. * During a layover in the Narita airport in Japan, I spent a massive $70 US dollars on a t-shirt for my sister because Lost in Translation had just been released and she was obsessed with it. I was so out of it from the flight that I couldn’t figure out the exchange rate in my head. * I cut Milan out of a backpacking trip because I had recently watched the Sound of Music and I wanted to go to Salzburg to do the tour. I did it with a bunch of big Australian dudes who gave each other side hugs and sang every word with me. It was awesome. * I snowboarded the Canadian Rockies, but because I was still a beginner, I was too scared at the time to go on anything but green trails. I still consider it a wasted opportunity. READ AN EXCERPT OF NICOLE”S NOVEL HERE

GGI speaks with Nicole Trilivas.. Why are you a Girl Gone International?

At the height of the recession, I was working in New York as the creative director of a cool, young advertising agency. It was there, chock full of job security and stability that I decided to finally silence the persistent nagging that comes built into the heart of a writer who is not writing. Despite the consensus that it was “a bad idea”, I moved to Europe and later traveled to Australia to write my debut novel. Before and after, I have made traveling and exploring other countries my priority in life.

Did you work while you were abroad?

My company let me work remotely for them for a few months (win!). This only worked short-term though. I would love to have the kind of job that would let me work from anywhere all the time! Before moving I had lived at home saving for nearly 4 years. Uncool? Very. Worth it? For sure.

What was your biggest expense while traveling?

Definitely the plane tickets. Once in a country I backpacked and that can be very cheap, especially in Asia and South America, as long as you’re cool with hostels and budgets. I’ve met people who have traveled around the world for a year on less than what rent costs in most American cities.

Do you have a guiding philosophy?

Yup. There’s a great Anthony Bourdain quote that goes: “If you’re twenty-two, physically fit, hungry to learn and be better, I urge you to travel — as far and as widely as possible. Sleep on floors if you have to. Find out how other people live and eat and cook. Learn from them — wherever you go.” I will always find a way to travel.

So tell us about your first novel...

PRETTY GIRLS MAKE GRAVES is a pretty girl’s ugly story told in borrowed voices. It is not based on my own life as everyone seems to think! It tells the story of Justine, another Girl Gone International. Sparked by a break-up with her married lover, Justine trades in college to live abroad, and descends into a destructive reinvention.

What will you be doing in 2013?

Mostly scheming away on my next novel, and being terribly bohemian by living off canned soup, wearing a beret, and indulging in delusions of grandeur. Follow me on my (mis)adventures at www.NicoleTrilivas.com travel & adventure

Girl Gone

ADVENTURING

Scotland is world famous for its whisky, bitter temperatures, golf, Nessie.. secret surfing?!

Aftera gap year working in the

GGIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Lucie Millar, a designer, maker, surfer, snowboarder and skateboarder loves nothing more than plunging into freezing waters in the name of adventure and where better than in her home country of Scotland!

24 43

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French Alps turned into a decade, I returned home to Glasgow, Scotland to take up my studies again. I left Scotland as a teenager and returned a couple of years shy of thirty with mixed emotions and feeling like an immigrant in my own country. In my experience I have found the easiest way to get to know a new place and meet people is to take up a sport. A friend who runs the oldest board sport shop in Glasgow initiated me, along with my two sisters. into the secret world of Scottish surfing. My sisters and I never even thought of the gender divide although looking back we generally tripled the population of female surfers on most of the breaks we surfed. Surfing has introduced me to lots of great characters, it has given me a new perspective of Scotland and also informed my studies as a designer. >

IMAGES

We surfers are a very friendly but secretive tribe. If I told you the name of half of the locations we surf, I would be shunned. However here are a few photos to whet your appetite. I do promise they are in Scotland. Take a drive see what you find or contact Jamie at Clan Skates on 0044 141 339 6523 for an initiation into Scotlandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s secret surfing world.

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ICE SWIMMING

FAMOUS SCOTTISH SURF SPOTS Thurso facing the Atlantic is the most northern surf spot on earth and hosts the world famous O’Neill Cold Water Class surf event each year. It sits at the same latitude as Oslo, Moscow and Juneau in Alaska so bring your 6mm wetsuit to enjoy these ideal conditions which, temperature aside, rival Hawaii. Pease Bay has a good beach break and a more challenging reef for better wave riders. The Hebrides is a cold paradise of islands on the west of Scotland blessed with ivory sand, emerald water, grey seals and dolphins. Check out Tiree, Barra, Lewis, loch filled South Uist and rugged North Uist for starters.

travel & adventure

Anne

On my recent Erasmus exchange to Turku, Finland I decided to go to Saariselkä in Lapland for a weekend with friends. While there, we took a drive up into Norway for the day. Our final destination was Bugøynes where we planned to have lunch then go for a traditional sauna and a swim in the Arctic Ocean. As we crossed the border, the scenery changed dramatically to fjords, permafrost. The trees got smaller and older. The sun popped up for an hour, painting the sky shades of pink and violet. This far north in early December the sunrise and sunset are one and the same so it was pitch black by the time we arrived at the beach even though it was only 1pm. The air temperature was around minus 18 degrees and the water temperature was approximately 6 degrees so yes it felt cold. As we giggled our way from the beach to the sauna, a stingy warm feeling took over as the adrenaline surged and the blood rushed back into our veins. As my Grandpa used to say, banging your head off a brick wall is lovely when you stop!

Lucie

Debbie

Girl Gone Travelling

Laura

Laura Hyland

(38) from Dublin, Ireland loves to travel whenever the opportunity arises. We take a sneak peek into her suitcase and ask her about her favourite destinations.

Where did you last go on holiday?

Santander in Spain. My sister Debbie lives there and it is such a beautiful city with stunning architecture, delicious food and a unique culture. Like other parts of Spain, Santander is family orientated. There are some wonderful playgrounds, the beaches are beautiful and restaurants are very child friendly. The temperatures are also quite moderate compared to southernSpain, which suits the Irish complexion much better!

In my suitcase you’ll find:

Great hair products! My hair tends to puff up in the heat and humidity so I use Lee Stafford’s Beach Babe Sea Salt Spray,which is brilliant at taming frizz and creating curls. I bring a good moisturising shampoo and treatment for washing my hair. La Roche Posay Sunscreen is suitable for all skin types and this year I’ve started wearing the tinted version with an SPF 50. For a weekend city break I pack jeans and comfortable shoes for daytime sightseeing, and a dress and heels for evening glamour. I also have portable games or toys to keep my children amused!

My favourite city is:

New York. I love the buzz I get every time I am there, it’s a complete feast for the senses with so much to see and do. My cousin Donal lives there and owns two bars in Manhattan, Highlands and Whitehall. He is a wonderful host and looks after me so well every time I visit.

What books do you read on your travels?

Escapism! I’m pretty shameless about my reading material lying by the pool. The last book I read was Jojo Moyes, Me Before You. I cried! My next book is former politician Mary O’Rourke’s autobiography. She was always a colourful character in Irish politics and I’m looking forward to reading what she has to say about her former colleagues in government.

What is your dream trip?

To go back to Dubai with my husband where we spent our honeymoon! My favourite restaurant is The Noodle House in Emirates Towers. It has long communal benches and because they don’t take bookings, you never know who you might be seated with. travel & adventure

Girl Gone to.. Afghanistan Renata García-Menacho’s job often takes her to the most dangerous and unstable countries in the world. Here, she tells GGI how it all began

Is it a good

or bad sign that I always seem to end up in places that even the villain in James Bond ‘Skyfall’ considers dangerous? I am not sure, but I am certain it was always in the cards and my career as a consultant in the field of development cooperation makes it inevitable. My Girl Gone ..To Dangerous Places lifestyle all started back in my University days when, at 18, I simultaneously studied Economics in Frankfurt and worked for an international organisation. The organisation wanted to open a new branch in Afghanistan. The team was led by a very good Afghan-German friend of mine. The objective of the organisation was not only to give Afghan students the possibility to develop their potential and to participate in internships abroad, but also to encourage

travel & adventure

international students to experience the Afghan reality at work. Life took me to different places but my thoughts kept returning to Afghanistan and so I decided that it was time to fulfill my dream... I wanted to see if I could contribute. Luckily, my Afghan-German friend was planning a trip to Kabul and he took me with him. I remember that my boyfriend at the time tried to stop me from going by offering me a trip to the Caribbean. My parents, knowing me much better, only said that they knew they couldn’t stop me and that they would pray that everything would go well. On the way to Kabul, we stopped in Istanbul, where almost all of the passengers left the plane. As we approached Afghanistan, the few women left on the plane started to

change from their Western clothes into long shirts with long sleeves and covered their hair. They tried to talk to me in Dari. They would never had thought for a second that a Peruvian girl would be on a plane to Kabul. I wanted to see the real Afghanistan and was lucky to be able to spend several days with my friend’s family in Kabul. I celebrated the religious holiday Eid with them and saw for the first time the sacrificing of a calf as an offering to Allah. The family split the meat and gave part of it to the people in need – and as I saw first hand when I accompanied my friend to a refugee camp in Afghanistan, there are a lot of people in need. It was distressing but I was warmed to see people like my friend making efforts to bring change. For example, together we visited a well-known Afghan businessman to raise money to build a football field for the camp children. I also had the privilege of sitting in on an interview with a woman from the Afghan Parliament. Later the same day I saw the most famous Afghan group perform while they were recording their latest CD. I have so many memories from my time there. I remember sitting on pillows on the floor and feeling like I was on a flying carpet. I was at my happiest flying kites in the Kabuli hills, like in the book The Kite Runner. I walked through the streets, down “Chicken Street” and visited the little jewellery stores and drank famous Afghan pomegranate juice which is best in the world.

The experience that touched me the most however, was when I saw little girls running down the streets on the way home from school – just as I did as a child in my hometown, Lima, during the era of terrorism. Do I recommend visiting Afghanistan? While the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office do not, I have to concur with the Lonely Planet, “Afghanistan is a truly rewarding country and once in Afghanistan, there’s something about the people, the history and even the air that can get in your blood and promise to draw you back again.” And I did go back again, a year later to work on a development project in Mazar-e-Sharif.

‘I was the happiest flying kites in the Kabuli hills, just like in the book The Kite Runner’ During each visit and subsequent visits to other developing countries, I have learned to be more thankful for what I have received in my life. My friends and family are alive and not shot at in the streets, I have the same rights as men, the opportunity to go to school and to wear what I want. I have learned to be grateful for this chance to travel and see the world first hand. Read about Renata’s adventures in Mazar-e-Sharif

travel & adventure

GGI TWITTER PROJECT : Each week, one Girl Gone International in a different part of the world will tweet about her life, her thoughts and experiences in her adopted city or while on her travels

“I AM IN LOVE WITH CITIES I HAVE NEVER BEEN TO AND PEOPLE I HAVE NEVER MET”

LOVE & SEX

Single Girl Gone International Shop online for men in Paris! Internet Dating by: Zoey Yeh

Amongst

us international girls, internet dating holds no stigma. At Girl Gone International events, women talk openly about meeting their partner online and moving country for love while singletons like me compare online dating battle scars and triumphs. I have my fair share of stories to tell. Originaly from China, I move a lot due to work and often find myself without friends to make an introduction or a BFF to be my wing-woman in a bar. So I routinely get online and bypass the frustrating months of waiting. There are of course downsides; the creeps, the annoying messages, the winks and the spammers. I was therefore delighted when I moved to Paris and discovered a whole new approach to finding lust / love online which is spreading world wide.

love & sex

The pink and perky, adopteunmec.com, is where the idea of an online boutique for girls to shop for boys began.

PROS

It has grown into a popular site among young urban types who enjoy the tongue and cheek premise and mischievous tone. Its success undoubtedly lies in giving women full control. We can browse an online catalogue of eligible men and virtually ‘buy’ ones that take your fancy by dropping them into your shopping basket. Even better, your profile is hidden while you search. The – rightly or wrongly – objectified men can only offer themselves up as ‘products’ to be perused and as such, can only contact us ladies once we have put them in our cart.

It is empowering to have control over which guys can see and connect with you. It keeps the creeps at bay.

And put them in my cart I have. I have been like a sugar-buzzed kid in a candy store. I have not quite found the perfect fit yet but I am enjoying window shopping for now, and where better than Paris?

CONS

It is geared towards heterosexuals and offers no option to search for females if boys are not your thing. It is all in French. IN THE USA HerWay.com is a similar site up and running in the States. IN THE UK bagabloke.co.uk is launching soon.

Control

Safety

adopteunmec.com has strict sign-up checks and is only available in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg. Outside these areas you will flag up as a ‘Compte Suspect’ and required to send further info to prove your eligibility to sign up.

Ease of Use

If you can shop for shoes online, you can shop for boys!

Fast

There is no long questionnaires to fill in because the site does not try to calculate matches and compatibility which, let’s be honest, never works anyway.

Free

It won’t cost you a cent!

Access

Download the app so you can browse while you wait for your tram.

7 GGI Meet-cutes Loved up GGIs tell us their story of how they met their soul mate

I met my boyfriend on the second day of my holiday

Lena & Giacomo Sweden & Italy

Now living in Palma de Mallorca

1st Met each other 2009

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in Thailand. I was backpacking with a friend and on a rainy evening after dinner I saw this handsome Italian guy with a big group of people. He joined some guys at the table next to us and asked if we would like to join them. We started to talk and we kind of just ‘clicked’ straight away. We arranged to meet up the next day at 10pm but as I found out later, he had somehow overslept! At the time, I thought I would never see him again but as fate would have it, we found each other again two days later on Valentine’s day. From that moment on we haven’t been apart and have been moving around the world. Almost 5 years later we are still going strong!

Emma & Theo Dublin & The Netherlands

Now living in Singapore

1st Met each other 1998

I have

never been one for remembering the dates of specific events that have occurred in my life, however I do recall every tiny detail of that evening of September 20th 1998 as if it were yesterday. I was living in Dubai and working as a Stewardess for Emirates. After having spotted him there in the crowd a mere few nights before, I marched into The Alamo Bar, with a fierce and confident determination to acquire this handsome and charismatic Dutchman, a Hotelier, who went by the name of Theo. The wonderful thing about it is, he later admitted he had

Jan & Matt United Kingdon & France

Now living in Aquitaine

1st Met each other 2000

also come in that night to seek out that mysterious Irish high-heeled brunette in the red dress he had spotted a mere few nights before! One wedding, seven international moves and 2 beautiful children later, we are still laying our hats down on new lands. We have met hundreds of interesting colorful people, learned languages we barely had heard of before we left our native homes, formed wonderful friendships and experienced invaluable moments. If you have the chance of a few years of international life.... take it!

I met my husband, Matt, in western France

in 2000 while we were both working for a holiday company. I lived in grim staff dorms, which I had been hoping to swap for the more luxurious accommodation where some staff members lived, including Matt. One day, cycling home, I swerved to avoid hitting a small child and fell off my bike, right into the path of Matt. I grazed my knees, which at the age of 21, is not a great look. However, my future husband took pity on me and scooped me up. I chose this humiliating moment to ask if I could move into his two-person accommodation with him. Given my state, he didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have the heart to refuse. After a few weeks, we were more than just flatmates. We weathered the next two years living in different countries while I finished my studies. In 2002, I moved to France to be with him. We got married in 2010 and we now have a fifteen-month-old daughter. Vive la France! love & Sex

I had been living in a small German city for almost

Jessica & Dani American & German

Now living All over the world

1st Met each other 2006

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three years when I met Dani, who is from that very same place. That means we had been sharing the same cafes, trains and streets for that long without meeting until I was about to move to England to study for a Masters. As fate would have it, Dani was also moving to England one week before me, to finish her Bachelors. And so within a month of meeting, I, the American, and Dani, the German, moved to England and started a relationship and a life there for 4 years. In February of 2010 we were both coincidentally freelancing and realized we could be working from anywhere. It was cold, dark and dreary in London that winter and we imagined how great it would be to travel for a year. Three years, four continents and thirty countries later we are having the time of our lives traveling and running GlobetrotterGirls.com!

Meghan & Andree The U.S. & Germany

Now living in Amsterdam

1st Met each other 2009 I met my husband at a beer festival one evening while out partying with Erasmus students 8 years my junior. I remember spotting a very tall handsome gentleman coming my way. Without even thinking, I jumped in front of him, looked up and blurted out ‘Whoa…you’re really tall!’ He looked down at me, curious as to who this strange little person was. After some more conversation, he and his friend agreed to come dancing with my friends and I at a local club. We had a fun and flirty connection on the dance floor and by the end of the night we were caught making out all over the stairs. During the days that followed we couldn’t get enough of each other. I went back home to the US and after eight months of Skype, a couple of visits across the Atlantic and my graduation, I packed my bags to move to Europe. We got engaged in Istanbul, were married in Germany and are now living very happily in Amsterdam!

Belen & Kieran Spain & Scotland

Now living in Glasgow

1st Met each other 2010

I met Kieran through a friend when

she invited both of us to the same New Year’s Eve party. It was a private party in the top of a building just opposite Edinburgh Castle and gardens where the celebrations take place. As the clock chimed 12, he came closer to me and kissed me.

After that – fireworks. And I mean literally as they were throwing them from the castle just above our heads! love & Sex

I was in South Africa for a wedding and subse-

Emma & Olaf

Australian & German

Now Living in

Hamburg, Germany

1st Met each other 2006

quently to travel. I was travelling on my own and found a tour group for a week’s camping and walking tour in the Kruger National Park. There were 12 of us on the tour. On the second day we were nearly stampeded by rhinos. It was actually very exciting and well, you know what they say about adrenalin and love! That night Olaf arranged for his friend to sleep in my tent so I had no choice but to sleep in his and that’s how it all started. At the time, Olaf was living in Cape Town and I was living in Sydney so we had a long distance relationship and our love deepened over the internet. He came to Australia 6 months later. We’ve now been living in Hamburg for 3 years and have 2 amazing young daughters.

My Big Fat International Wedding Swedish Carola and Scottish Ben chose a big (semi-) traditional wedding in Glasgow

The

bride-to-be, Carola, sits across from me slightly flushed from her two-hour killer Bikram yoga session but looking happy and relaxed. She is a Swede (or ‘turnip’ as her father-in-law likes to call her) and multi-lingual but her accent echos her international life with its hints of Glaswegian, Brummie and Spanglish. So what do you get when you cross a Turnip with a Haggis? Anne: Let me ask about you, your life as a GGI and your upcoming international wedding. Carola: Aye, OK ¿Por qué no? Did you always want to live abroad? Ever since I was a wee one I wanted to live in the sun. I love the way Sweden is so organised and ‘perfect’ but I think I always knew that I was meant to live in a sunny country. When did your GGI journey begin? In 1997 I moved to Marbella to run a restaurant in Marbella with my then boyfriend Mikael who like me had wanderlust.

I loved life in Spain and I was totally sold. That chapter closed and I went to Paris before moving to Mallorca to stay with my best friend Lotta. So besides enjoying the sun, what do you do? In Mallorca I worked as a PE teacher at a private English College and in hotels, restaurants and bars. In 2006, I joined my first yacht as a stewardess. I am now based in Cannes and I am the Chief Stewardess on a 50-meter Super Yacht that charters. Is that where you met Ben? Yes, in 2007, a handsome boy joined the motor yacht Tatasu in Palma where I worked. It was love at first sight..for me! That boat is also nicknamed the “Love Boat” love & Sex

because several now married couples also met there. Given that, of course it wasn’t long before we got together! We worked side by side on various other yachts including one in Israel. Some couples might shudder at the idea of living and working together in such close quarters 24 hours a day but we loved every second of it and it intensified our feelings for each other. How do you spend your time off together? We both love to cook. Food is very big in our life. Our friends find this funny at times. We spend hours thinking and talking about food and wine. It is a bit of an obsession! But I think sharing a passion is very important in a relationship. How did Ben propose? He proposed two years ago in my favourite place in Mallorca, Hotel Portixol. We had a lovely meal but I was suspicious throughout as Ben didn’t finish his meal, which is unheard of! I said yes straight away.

love & sex

Of all the fishes in the sea, why did you choose Ben? He is my best friend and we see the world the same way. He is kind, loyal and funny. I feel better when he is with me, he makes me feel safe and loved. If we were ever shipwrecked he would be my one desert island item! So why did you decide to have a big wedding instead of running off to get married at sea? I guess we wanted a big celebration and an excuse to get both sets of family and friends together in one room. With friends willing to travel from as far away as China, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. How did you plan your big international wedding? Planning the wedding was very hard, since we were working apart due to the nature of our jobs. We had help from Ben’s family in Glasgow. Without them it would have been impossible even though I would have loved to do more myself. But thanks to the help of lovely friends and family we managed it. What about your wedding dress? I decided that I wanted to wear midnight blue, the colour of Sweden and Scotland. I came up with my own design and had it made. It is 100% silk with a cowl neck and a full circle skirt.

Why did you choose a humanist ceremony? Humanism fits perfectly with who we are and how we feel about life and love. We wanted to choose our own vows and select the wording. For us, it was important that the wedding was relaxed and fun. We are not very formal people and a big traditional wedding would have made me nervous. How did you incorporate your Swedish and Ben’s Scottish roots into the wedding? In Sweden, weddings are a little less traditional than in Scotland. My family is not very traditional either so I really wanted to keep it focused on love rather than religion.

However, we both love the old Scottish Celtic traditions so our guests were welcomed by a bagpiper, the boys wore kilts. I chose the Mumbai Theme Tune by A.R. Rahman as our entrance song. We literally ‘tied the knot’ by doing the ancient Celtic marriage ritual of hand fasting which is where the celebrant wraps cloth around our joined hands as a way of confirming our union. It was incredibly romantic. My father gave me away too which is not at all Swedish as the couple normally walk down the aisle together. As for the Swedish influence, I had to warn Ben that it is customary for people to jump up and kiss the bride when the groom leaves the room. But that works both ways so I had to keep the toilet breaks to a minimum! There was also a heavy Spanish presence at the receptions so there was a lot of table-banging and chanting ‘que se besen’ to get us up on the table to kiss! It got a bit messy!

So where will you call home? Palma is the place we call home. We have spent a lot of time apart and we hope we will be able to set up a home there soon. I can’t wait for us to have our own little ‘casita’ with a big kitchen where we can entertain our friends and family. We are both close to our families and hope to have them visit as often as possible – we love having a big international family!

Get sneak peak at Carola’s Secret Address Book to Glasgow’s West End! Read more about Humanist Wedding Ceremonies. love & Sex

When did you meet your fiancé?

I met Juanito on a holiday in Mallorca...yes, a holiday romance! We were engaged in six days and in January 1971 I moved to Mallorca to be with him. We worked hard and within a year we put a deposit down on a souvenir shop in Magalluf.

When did you get married?

Juanito said he would finish work on the 31st October so I said “Ok, we’ll get married on 1st of November then” and we did! So at the age of 21, I opened my first business and got married!

So why get married in Spain?

I knew that it would be financially impossible for his family to come to England. In comparison, it wasn’t too expensive for my friends and family to come to Mallorca as back then, the concept of ‘package holidays’ had began. In exchange I said I wanted it to be a ‘proper English-style wedding’ with a best man and bridesmaids.

How did you plan the wedding?

I arranged the wedding myself and we married in the church in Calvia. I bought my dress here. We had a wonderful reception at the Hotel Palmanova and then we took the ferry to Alicante and drove to Marbella for our honeymoon.

And what happened next?

International Wedding 1971 GGI Pioneer Linda Ashcroft’s story ‘I am a GGI because.. from a very young age I knew I would live abroad as I loved everything different from the norm. After leaving school I went to Brussels to learn French and in 1970 I spent six months in Bilbao to learn Spanish before moving to Mallorca.’ 42

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We were married for 15 years during which time we opened three more shops. We have two wonderful boys, Luis born in 1975 and Daniel born in 1979. I chose not to work full time and the years I had with the children when they were small were the best of my life. I loved being a housewife and mum. My husband was a workaholic and we drifted apart and separated amicably in 1987. He later remarried and has a lovely 23 year old daughter and we regularly get together as a family!

A GGI Legacy..

My son Luis lives with his lovely Polish girlfriend in London and Daniel married his equally lovely Dominican wife here in Calvia in March 2011. Last September they made me a grandmother when Leon was born! Strange they seem to have gone for GGI’s too!

Girl Ran Away! Argentinian Maria decided to elope to Canada with her French fiancé

am Argentinian. Theo is French. We met in London. He proposed , I said ‘ Oui!’. Then the cold sweats and sleepless nights began. Not because I had committed to spend my life with this big hairy Parisian man but at the logistical, political, linguistic nightmare that lay ahead. Our families barely knew each other. His parents, in their 60s spoke not a word of Spanish or English, nor mine a word of French. Not that that would stop my Dad showing off his schoolboy language ‘skills’ circa 1965. Where on earth would we have the wedding? That was the only thing I could think about. How could I possibly ask people to spend a small fortune to fly thousands of kilometers to see us get married? A couple of friends in a similar situation had recently got married in Buenos Aires and their partners’ close family had made their way over and it was a great success. But they had planned their wedding for three years and their families had saved up to make the trip, had booked time off work and made it a holiday of a lifetime. Nor did they have any language barriers to contend with. We didn’t want our happiness to come at the expense, quite literally, of the people we love. Nor did I want to wait years to get married. And I did not relish the prospect of spending my big day being a simultaneous translator to tipsy uncles. So after much tearing of hair, sums and tantrums, we decided to run away. To Canada. Nobody would ever think to look for us there. The bridesmaids dresses became an upgrade to first class. The sit-down meal for 70 became our intimate wedding ceremony on the shores of frozen Lake Louise.

The limousines became a horse-drawn sleigh ride through the snow. The bar bill became a HeliTour of the Rockies and the wedding cake became the Lakeview Suite at the Fairmont Chateau. Did we feel guilty as we sipped champagne and picnicked in the snow before our private helicopter whisked us back to our five-star hotel? Did we miss our family and friends as we sat roasting marshmallows around the campfire after an evening trekking across frozen sheets of ice in the canyons? Nope. Not a chance. Were we scared at the reaction that we would get when we went home and told everyone what we had done? Absolutely. But in the end, our families were completely understanding and probably slightly relieved. For our friends, it didn’t come as a surprise - probably because after a few glasses of cava I had Facebook ‘checked in’ at the bridal suite of the hotel. Oops. Having eloped, I would recommend it as an option for any Girl Gone International. Sure, if you have the budget for it, your families can speak the same language, the distance to travel is not too far or your dream is to have your loved ones witness your marriage, celebrate with you and unite your families for the day, then this is not the option for you. But if you prefer intimacy, ease, speed and want to focus on yourselves rather than your family and friends then do it. We had a postwedding party back in France three months later and another six months later back in my hometown so I actually felt like our wedding went on for a year! Maria’s Rockies Secret Address Book

Writer and artist Linda Tu-Linh is a Vietnamese-Canadian girl gone international who relocated to Amsterdam for love. When her relationship ended there were a lot of decisions to make. Should she stay or should she go ?

When

I lost love, but found a home

customers at the bar ask me what brought me to Amsterdam, I can see they’re one carefully measured step away from a smug “I knew it!” because I’m about to tell them. Reluctantly. Yes, I came here for a boy. And no, it didn’t work out. I’m glad you’re glad my life is that trite. A few months ago, my five-year relationship ended. The brief back-story is that my ex and I moved from Montreal to Amsterdam about 3 years ago for his work. Did moving away from home contribute to the breakdown of our relationship? No. It’s a test. For us, living abroad exposed the fundamental problems in our relationship. The specifics of why it ended don’t matter. Let’s just say there are no regrets. This is about what happens after. So what did happen after I went from planning a future with my fiance to being single for the first time in five years? Did I nose-dive into a hermetic Elliott Smith/drug binge, typical postbreakup behaviour in my 20s? No. I’d like to think I’m (slightly) wiser now. So after a moderate drinking bender and requisite rebounding, I had to face some serious questions. Namely, where the f*ck was I going to live? 44 love & sex

Should I stay or should I go ? Everyone back home assumed I would move back to Montreal. It was tempting. Montreal is an amazing city. The food options alone are enough to abandon my ham & cheese toastie and get on a plane. I have family there. I have friends offering me support, spare bedrooms and jobs. It seems easy and familiar. Yet, I decided to stay. Did I not want to go home with my tail between my legs admitting defeat? Sure, a very small part of it was pride. But mostly, in three years, I’ve managed to amass enough small triumphs to be happy about. The first year I was here, I knew no one, was unemployed and broke, was disoriented in Amsterdam and confused by the Dutch. I was lost. Now, I have a full-time job I enjoy and that pays the bills, I have my favourite dives and can list off most late-night bars (I love you, Café De Buurvrouw) and I’ve made lovely friends to drink vaasjes and share hapjes with, who are now my support system, my family. Who knew? Amsterdam is my home.

To share or not to share ? I’ve never had a roommate in the past other than boyfriends because I’ve always preferred

privacy for my antisocial/misanthropic tendencies. But now that I’m (slightly) wiser, I’m open to anything and (mostly) anyone. Financially, it made more sense to share. Emotionally too. I knew the last thing I wanted was to rent a tiny overpriced studio and languish in solitude under a thick duvet, avoiding the outside and reading Jean Rhys novels. And so the apartment hunt began. If you know the housing situation in Amsterdam, you’ll understand the two months of crippling to paralyzing anxiety I withstood while scouring internet sites and going through friends-of-friends and agencies, jumping through hoops and being perpetually disappointed by rejection after rejection, ALL THE WHILE still living with my ex. Nightmare. Luckily, I wasn’t in it alone. I had a future roomie to share the burden with. And in the end, our pains were rewarded with a flat in De Pijp neighbourhood with hardwood floors, with beautiful light.

‘Who knew? Amsterdam is my home’

What now ? Well the challenges don’t end at surviving the breakup and finding a place to live, though that was surely challenge enough. There are still visa issues to sort out (I’m currently registered in a partnership with my ex for the next year) and job hunting to tackle (rejection #4 and counting). But as the stresses and distractions are stripped away and as I settle into my new home, I’m kind of just left to think. No existential quandaries or anything, just questions like: How is it that after everything I’ve just been through, I haven’t fully resigned to cynicism? Am I really that intrepid? Why is it that I still believe in love? Am I really as happy as I feel? Not the worst questions to be asking, I guess. Read more of what Linda is up to in Amsterdam love & Sex

Girl Gone International Live it. Like it. Share it. Like Our Pages Global Hamburg Amsterdam Madrid Athens Vienna Scotland London Berlin New York Ottawa

“Life isn’t about finding yourself, it is about creating yourself”

ART & DESIGN

Sara h Schilling ‘HOME” I grew

up among books, crafts and antiques in Oklahoma’s “Green Country” in the humid Midwest. I was shy and reflective, focused and practical – a faithful first-born who always knew she was an artist deep-down. It took the sunny skies and mountain air of Colorado - the “adopted home of my heart” – and then an abrupt uprooting and adventurous relocation to Europe to make me brave enough to finally spread my creative wings. As it goes with life, joy is often mixed with tears. I imagine that is what most relocations feel like. You are skipping along just fine, feeling lighthearted and infatuated with the adventure of your new city and then homesickness hits. Suddenly, you feel fragmented and displaced. My artistic style and inspiration have developed along this same emotional journey. My work is what I call “hometown sweet” watercolor painting meets grungy, “vintage-urban” mixed media with collage elements – a commentary on how so often in life we must balance the precious and delicate with the messy and rough. Making things with my hands is the way I live intentionally; art is my expression of gratitude and faith, no matter how I might be feeling at the moment. My watercolors slow me down, help me to find peace; my collages give me the sense of puzzling together the pieces of my sometimesbroken heart to make something beautiful from the mess. I am slowly losing my obsession and need for perfection – it is more often the imperfect that inspires me now: vintage papers with tattered edges, grungy graffiti on the overpasses and in the subway, cracks and patina on the aged buildings all over Europe. It is so breathtaking, the way our lives intersect with and play off of an imperfect and crumbling world and still manage to create beautiful, magical moments. This is the heart of my work: choosing joy and keeping faith to make a home and a family no matter where we are, no matter what challenges face us in life.

art & design

Under the Sa me Stars

watercolor and paper collage on canvas It’s certainly a counter-intuitive thought, but I have the feeling that being physically separated from so many people I love somehow has freed me up to learn how to be closer to them in spirit. I dream sometimes of my friends and family, even of people I haven’t spoken to in years (and sometimes of people I’ve never even met) and when I wake up the sweet fellowship lingers as if we truly had just been spending time together in the same room. Any kind of separation is just terrible, of course. But I’m trying to think of it this way: what a precious opportunity to learn a limitless kind of love – a love that knows not the boundaries of time and space – and to feel in the depths of your heart that we are so much more connected to one another than we think. Read more about Sarah’s GGI life blog: aPicturebookLife.blogspot.com

Art & design

GGI ON ART Throw away your guidebooks,

shun the tourist traps and get your culture vulture on!

NEW YORK

GGI’s Creative Director Meghan and her globally dispersed arty-knowall friends list the art happenings and spaces you should know about in the coming months.

What NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star Where The New Museum When February 13 – May 26 2013 www: newmuseum.org 1993 was an important year characterised by controversial and important issues; attempts at peace in the Middle East, the AIDS crisis, plus national debates on health care, gun control, and gay rights. This exhibit features work created in New York City during this very important year for art. 50

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PARIS

What The Angel of the Odd – Dark Romanticism Where Musée d’Orsay When March 05 – June 09 2013 www: musee-orsay.fr Deliciously dark and sinister. Explore the dark side of romanticism through the works of Goya, Füssli, Max Ernst and the Expressionist films of the ‘20s along with an outstanding selection of 200 other works.

SAN FRANCISCO

What Girl with a Pearl Earing Where de Young Museum When January 26 – June 2013 www:girl.famsf.org The Hague’s Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis goes on tour for the first time in 30 years. The exhibition features 35 paintings including the masterpiece Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer and and the painting Vase of Flowers by Rachel Ruysch, one of the few female painters of the Dutch Golden Age.

COPENHAGEN

What Frida Kahlo & Her World Where Arken Museum When September 7 – January 12 2014 www : arken.dk Revel up close and first hand, the colourful paintings of Kahlo, Diego Rivera and other contemporary Mexican artists and get an insight into the life of Mexico’s most controversial and political figures of the last one hundred years. MEGHAN RECOMMENDS: ART 21 I absolutely love to watch these 45 minute segments. 3 artists are interviewed about their themes and how they are incorporated in their work. pbs.org/art21/

AMSTERDAM

What Rijksmuseum reopening Where Rijksmuseum When From April 13 www: rijksmuseum.nl/en After a decade-long refit, the 80 roomed museum has been completely redesigned and restored to its former glory. View the old masters then get back on your bike and cycle through the unique bicycle tunnel that cuts through the museum. Go to the unmissable Van Gogh Museum and then the brand new shaped-like-a-bathtub-butnoone-knows-why Stedelijk Museum.

“FOLLOW YOUR HEART. BUT TAKE YOUR BRAIN WITH YOU”

SURVIVE & THRIVE

Girl Gets Snappy

How to make money from your photos

6 tips for success! Lainey Scott-Campbell

One

thing we all have a lot of is digital photos, often from locations all over the world. Instead of letting them gather dust on your hard drive, why not turn them into extra pocket money? We ask photographer Lainey ScottCampbell of LSC Music & Media Services for some tips.

Do I need to be a professional photographer to make money?

No. All you need are high quality images to create your own ‘microstock library’ on websites such as iStockPhoto or ShutterStock, which then offer the photos for sale to people and companies looking for images without the expense of commissioning a photographer.

How much money can I make?

While you can make some cash from stock photography, it is difficult to make a full time living out of it. Photos typically sell from just 25 cents to a few Euros depending on the website, so to generate as much cash as possible you need to build libraries of thousands of photos. The royalties you receive also vary between 10 to 80%, so scrutinise the terms and conditions before you sign up. The price you will get for your photo depends on its size, who is buying it and what it is going to be used for. Even if you get some photos accepted it doesn’t mean that people will buy them, but it doesn’t hurt to try!

Can I use my iPhone photos?

Er, no. Probably not. Each photo that is submitted will be scrutinised by the website to make sure it is up to standard. If you only use a basic digital point and shoot camera your chances of having your photos accepted are low but not impossible.

1. Your images need to be high quality - make sure they are sharp, have no blur or noise.

2. Forget about why the photo is personal to you.

Is it marketable? Top selling images have a concept, idea or good general use. Spend time working out what the websites are looking for. 3. To double your chances of selling images, choose a niche market. In time you will become known to buyers as specialising in a particular subject. 4. Does it infringe on any copyrights? Avoid any brand names or labels. 5. Look at the websites top 100 sold photos to identify what is popular. 6. Images with people are top sellers but you must submit a model release with the photo.

How can I up my chances of selling my shots?

1. Convert the photo to jpeg file format at the highest quality. 2. Use editing software such as Photoshop (or if that is too expensive, Gimp is a free alternative with lots of YouTube how to videos) to touch it up. Crop out unnecessary objects, enhance colours and reduce noise. 3. Choose 10-15 good keywords for your images so they jump to the top of the search. You can look at similar images to give inspiration. e.g. ‘sky at night’ might also be stars, moon, clouds, dark, midnight.

Which stock photo website should I use to sell?

iStockPhoto.com have a complex pricing system. Dreamstime.com sell on a credit system. Stockxpert.com - the more images you sell the higher the commission. Shutterstock - One of the most popular for buyers. Other sites to check out are Clustershot.com and Corbisimages.com survive & thrive 53

Girl Got Inspired Turning negatives into positives and profit in Bermuda! By: Claire Hattie

Moving

abroad doesn’t always go smoothly and sometimes it may not work out as you planned. It may be cliché but using a little positivity and self-motivation to take yourself out of your comfort zone can make a huge difference and may even put you back on the right track - or on an even better one. Having studied international business and languages at University, becoming a Girl Gone International was always a natural progression for me!

‘I am a Girl Gone International because I am passionate about life and want to live it to the full.’

Unfortunately, I made the big move for, in hindsight, the wrong reason. Instead of moving somewhere that suited me and my career path, in 2006, I moved to Bermuda to be with my long-term boyfriend. After the initial euphoria of moving somewhere new, it wasn’t too long before I found myself in a very bad situation. I split up with my boyfriend and found myself alone in a strange country and in a career that I had no interest in. Luckily, although I was still relatively new to the Island, I had made an effort to keep my independence and make my own friends. I was overwhelmed to find that these new friends were a great support network who rallied round me, offering me options of places to stay while I found myself an apartment, introducing me to new people and even inviting me to spend Christmas and New Year with them. Once things had settled down, I had a big decision to make. I had taken a decent job in the financial 54

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industry but it wasn’t something that I was passionate about, unlike the career in marketing I had left behind. While 22% of the Bermuda workforce is made up of ‘expats’, there are strict work permit restrictions so getting a job in that field would prove very difficult. Was it worthwhile staying? Rather than running home, I decided to make the most of my time on this beautiful island and signed up for various classes like salsa and ballroom dancing, landscape painting, Indian cooking and beginner’s Mandarin, accepted every social invitation and generally concentrated on getting out of my stay-at-home comfort zone while having as much fun as possible. In fact, I was having so much fun that I found it hard to fit in everything I wanted to do and was amazed one day when a group of friends started complaining about there being nothing to do in Bermuda. I thought that was a ridiculous comment and had to prove them wrong, I sent an email

to everyone a few days later with the subject heading, “Nothing to do in Bermuda?”. I listed all the upcoming events and signed it off with, “if you choose not to do any of these, you aren’t allowed to complain for a whole month”. It was so well-received that I started sending out the list to my friends every week. Some of them started forwarding it on to their friends and before too long, I found that I was getting requests from complete strangers to be put on the mailing list. Then in 2010, I created a website and a corresponding Facebook page which was very simple to do, called Nothing to do in Bermuda? (NTDIB). I thought it would just be my friends looking at it but within a couple of days I already had 50 likes on the Facebook page, mostly from people I didn’t know. From there it went a little crazy and people seemed excited that there was a resource like this with local events. As the site grew in popularity, it became increasingly difficult to manage on top of my fulltime job so I felt very fortunate when a local publishing company gave me the opportunity to work fulltime on NTDIB earlier this year. It has opened up so many other opportunities and allowed me to keep the home flag flying as Vice President of the Caledonian Society of Bermuda, organising various Scottishthemed events throughout the year, including St.Andrew’s Day Balls, Burns Suppers and Bermuda’s first ever Highland Games this summer. Not only am I finally back on the right career track, but I am doing something that I find personally fulfilling. It is a great combination of my love for marketing, social media, people and most of all, my love for Bermuda.

Thinking of working in or visiting Bermuda? Find out more

See Your City Through the Eye of a GGI

When we arrive in a new city for the first

time, we hit it head on with eyes wide open. We feel the full impact of its unique way of doing things and the differences, good and bad, smack us in the face. So yes, we mutter under our breaths, grumble and complain, “at home we do it a different way..”, “why is it so difficult to..”. Yet, as a GGI living in a city which is not ‘ours’ (yet) we are in an enviable position because what we may be doing is spotting gaps in the market that are often invisible to others, unveiled only to us against the backdrop of our own previous experiences and observations in different countries. Gaps that with a bit of hard work and drive, we could fill. As well as all the moaning, we often fall madly and enthusiastically in love with our new city. Its quirks enthrall us, we are overawed by its beauty, captured by its personality and even the most mundane things are novel to us. So start thinking – what services are lacking, what can you not find, what products do you miss, what information would you love to have at a click of a button, what could be done better, what are they doing back home that they aren’t doing in your adopted city yet? See your city through the eye of a GGI and you could soon be setting off on a very different type of journey.

Anne

Girl Gets Involved Cara Van Der Merwe goes from tourist to local via volunteering to support prostitutes in Hamburgâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s infamous Red Light District.

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“I am a Girl Gone International because I am South African and have lived in Sweden, the Netherlands and now Germany. I am a modern nomad, I can find a way to feel at home in any place and find the idea of settling down in one place terrifying.”

A sure fire way to quickly become less of a tourist

and more of a local is to volunteer in your community. Admittedly, the type of volunteer work Cara is involved in may be considered extreme and far removed from bake sales and fun runs but it has given her a unique insight into a hidden world inhabited by many of our sisters – foreign women living in Germany. When Cara and her husband moved to Hamburg they chose to live in a hipster area called St.Pauli right on Hamburg’s infamous Red Light District, the Reeperbahn. A shopping street during the day, it transforms into a pulsating nightlife zone called the Kiez after 8pm. But night or day, it is characterised by its unrestrained sexuality with the predominance of brothels, sex shops and cinemas which sit blatantly alongside prestigious offices and world class theaters.

Cara tells GGI her story: “The area intrigued me from the minute I made it my home. I heard through an American friend about a team of women from the Salvation Army offering

support to prostitutes working in the Red LightDistrict. I see myself as a liberal person so was immediately interested and decided to volunteer to join them. I really wanted to get involved in my neighborhood community and exercise my German and for me, this was a logical choice.

‘The type of volunteer work I am involved in may be considered extreme.’ My other motivation was my own piqued curiosity and desire to find out whether my impression of the legalized German sex industry, as something that seems to work well giving sex workers the right to job contracts, social security and public insurance, was correct. I have also always held the belief that prostitution should be legalized throughout the world as it would offer the women who work in the sex industry more protection and safety. Even ultra conservative countries like Saudi Arabia have prostitutes, and some say it is the

oldest profession in the world, so Germany was correct to legalise it in 2001, right? Other questions I had included why do the women do it? What happens behind closed doors? How does the actual ‘business’ work? What kind of men buy sex? After some training, I became part of the Salvation Army team. I quickly discovered that working with the women in the brothels was going to be even tougher than I thought. My first discovery was that the main motivation for most foreign women working in the brothels is survival. Some are actually lured here with the promise of a job in a restaurant or hotel, but are then forced into prostitution by a boyfriend who becomes their pimp. Unlike prostitution, pimping in Germany is illegal. Others are left by their husbands, and with no formal education, find themselves in dire straits. How do you support a handful of children and your extended family on the salary you earn at a fast food joint? The brothel has a simple policy, the women

have to pay 150 euros rent per 24 hours to use a room. This is the only way another party can legally earn money from prostitution. These rooms have a double bed, toilet and shower. Once a day, a maid comes to clean the room. Any extras like a TV or radio, have to be bought by the women themselves. They also need to buy their own clothes and make-up. The minimum they are allowed to charge per customer is 50 euros which gets a man 15 minutes and can include sexual intercourse. The women can make their own prices for customers who want something more ‘exotic’ than simple sex. When you do the math, women only start earning their own money after their third customer. If they cannot pay their rent for ten days they are kicked out and are not allowed back until they have paid their outstanding rent. As many women live in these rooms, this is a very scary prospect. The men I usually see in the brothel tend to be very normal looking. The women have told me that the younger men tend to just walk through and stare at the girls whereas the older men are usually the ones who have money to spend. I have seen men there who wear a Rolex and tailored shoes; I have seen men who look horribly dirty and stink of old

sweat, and I have seen handsome young men who leave me puzzled as to why they don’t just go to a bar and charm some girl into their bed. I do not wish to speculate on what type of man pays a woman for sex but something that has become clear to me is that many of the men who visit brothels here in Hamburg seem to think that these women want to sleep with them and earn money in this way. The women in prostitution do in fact encourage men to think that they want to sleep with them for obvious reasons – most men do not like the idea of sleeping with an unwilling woman. Therefore, these women want to make themselves look as available and willing to have sex as possible. They flirt and tell them how much they want them. There have been times when I

have been convinced by their ‘performance’. Their femme-fatal-act is, however, just a façade. I have seen many of the women break down completely when you give them a hug or when you sincerely ask them if they are okay. They tell you about their children and of how scared they are about their families finding out they are working in prostitution. Sometimes the women want you to pray for them and other times they just want to hear about your own ‘normal’ life. I try to give them comfort in the minutes that I have with them. I tend to have a difficult day on Thursdays because I feel emotionally exhausted from talking to the women and carrying their heartbreaking stories around with me. You might find yourself asking why I bother to continue to volunteer in this area.

There are two main reasons. I do it because I personally would want any emotional support I could get if I had ended up in a situation where I felt that prostitution was the only solution. The women I meet are girls living abroad too, just like me. I also do it because I feel it is the right thing to do. These women are seen as part of a problem in society â&#x20AC;&#x201C; problems donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get resolved or go away if you ignore them. They get resolved by understanding. I am still figuring out what my new impression of the sex industry is and processing what I have learned.

My impression used to be that if a woman is willing to sell sex and a man wants to pay for it, then as long as they are consenting adults, it is fine. Now, I am not sure whether it is that simple. If a woman does really decide to do this by herself without any coercion, I would find it strange, but would accept it. The thing is, many of these women do it because they see no other chance for themselves. In that case, it seems as though it is not really a free choice despite that fact they pay taxes and are offered retirement plans. Overall, volunteering has helped me appreciate what I have.

I certainly feel fully involved in my community, increasingly integrated and certainly initiated. Read more about Cara

We asked some of our GGIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s to tell us why they volunteer. Here is a round-up of their top 20 answers! 1. Meet people with similar interests 2. Discover the inner workings of my city 3. Raise my profile 4. Understand the culture of my location 5. Increase self-confidence and self-esteem 6. Gain a sense of pride and identity 7. Overcome shyness 8. Good for my health 9. Integrate faster into my city 10. Practise a language 11. Connect with my community 12. Expand my network 13. Boost my social skills 14. Combat depression caused by social isolation 15. Gain experience and advance my career 16. Use my skills and talents for the good of others 17. Exercise compassion, open mindedness and positivity 18. Have fun and escape day-to-day routine 19. Make friends with locals as well as internationals 20. Hone workplace skills like teamwork and problem solving survive & thrive

CAREER TODAY, GONE TOMORROW No language skills? No experience? No problem! How GGI Jen McPhee landed a top job abroad.

he last thing my older brother said to me before I moved my life to Deutschland was, “How the hell will you get a job, you don’t know a single word of German?”. Fear not brother dear, I do know more than a single word of German, I know a whole phrase; “Sorry, mein Deutsch ist noch nicht perfekt.” Couple that with a cute smile and you can melt even the most German of Germans. So as I ventured into this “foreign” land I wondered, was my brother right to think that I would never get a job without speaking a word of German? Hmmm.. Everyone speaks English right? Surely big firms will be looking for an English native speaker? I was right, but also very lucky. Ok, so here’s the deal. After 7 months of travelling the world – before I met the love of my life and decided to move to Germany – I was still in “holiday mode”. After 4 months in Hamburg struggling with the language and boring myself to tears pretending to be a domestic goddess by – all my friends will vouch for this – preparing gourmet dinners in the form of breakfast cereal or beans on toast and doing anything except cleaning up the apartment, I realised I was not built to be a housewife. I decided that I absolutely needed to get a job. I dutifully updated my CV, adapted it to the German style, read everything I could get my hands on about the global firms with offices in Hamburg and embarked on writing applications on Step Stone. I invested a lot of time updating my LinkedIn profile and the German equivalent Xing and joining groups and conversations on those platforms. All my hardwork paid off. I got an interview at Ernst & Young which, just as an aside, taught me some valuable life lessons I feel I should pass on: 1: Arriving in plenty of time is recomended. I did not. I couldn’t find a building which is possibly the size of the White House and equally impressively labeled. 2: Take out tongue piercing in plenty of time before interview. Doing it when you are already 5 minutes late is both nerve racking and likely to end in tears.

survive & thrive

Bottom line ladies is that I got the job. And why did I get the job? I led with my personality. What I lacked in language and experience, I made damn sure I made up for in soft skills, confidence and likeability. I now work for a global firm in marketing for EMEIA (Europe, Middle East, India and Africa). Like our Editor, you might have wondered why is the title of this article,“Career today, gone tomorrow”? Well, despite landing the job, I was not sure I could survive in a German working environment where it seems powerpoint presentations are as normal as brushing your teeth and attention to detail is a “must have.” I have never been a perfectionist and never will, but you know, the mantra ‘fake it til you make it’ has worked for me. It has made me seize every opportunity and rise to every challenge, even if that means labouring over version 25 of those beloved powerpoint presentations!

‘I realised I was not built to be a housewife’ My final words, dear friends would be whether you are in a job, looking for a job or neither of the above, try to stay in the moment. It is too easy to complain, or wish we had something else. But the fact is most of us are very lucky in lots of different ways. If you are job hunting, focus on your strengths. Arm yourself with as many other coveted skills as possible. On paper I did not have the “experience” for the job but the boss really liked my personality and my appetite to achieve so he hired me nonetheless. Each of our situations and circumstances are different but one thing applies to us all – you need to believe in yourself, be proactive, go many extra miles and sooner or later, you will get ‘lucky’ too.

Read GGI Gemma Avey’s story

hAPPy chatting It's good to talk

2.VIBER

Viber lets you make free calls if the person you are calling also has the Viber application. Watch out, calls or messages placed to non-viber users will go through your local mobile phone provider but overall, a nice alternative to Skype.

4.iMESSENGER

iMessage allows anyone with an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch to send free text, video and pictures to each other through Apple’s internal network as long as you have Wi-Fi or 3G running. To avoid accidently sending costly texts when abroad without an internet connection, go into the message settings and switch ‘send as SMS’ off.

Lynn Sikora and Kathryn Young discuss the best communication methods, tools and apps all expat women need to know about.

1.whatsapp

Instant messaging application for smartphones. You can send instant free text messages, images, video and audio media messages. You can see when your message has been read and you have the option to show the last time you were ‘last seen’.

3.PATH

Path is a social network which acts like a very clever, easily searchable journal shared with a maximum of 50 contacts – your ‘inner circle’. It has many brilliant functions for example, next time you take a trip to a foreign city, find out what your friends have done there via Path’s search.

5.GOOGLE

Google+ Hangouts is a free group video chat service. You can video chat with up to 10 people, face-face so you can hang out online with friends from back home or have a family get together. You can also use the new “Hangouts on Air” free feature to host a live streaming event and let it bejoined and watched by everyone. Girl Gone International will be doing live Hangouts too. Watch or take part by joining the Girl Gone International group on G+

survive & thrive

10 Steps to Build a Great Profile on LinkedIn! Despite LinkedIn’s boundless capacities for marketing yourself and business, few of us ever tap into its full potential and instead treat it, incorrectly, as simply an online CV. As a job-huntress – and prospective employee – you need a strategy and your profile has to reflect the skills and experience that will make a future employer sit up and take notice. Now, you may be sitting there reading this thinking “Where do I start?” Simple – from the beginning……

Mia Calhoun

Account Executive - Directories Job Quest Software, Nationwide Insurance American Intercontinetal University

3. KEYWORDS Recruiters always look for keywords when searching for prospective candidates, so your ‘personal brand’ needs to reflect what you are looking for. To say that you are a ‘Photoshop Superstar’ under your name will usually not drive recruiters your way. If you are an Experienced International Sales & Marketing Director then this needs to be your brand. You will regularly appear in searches when recruiters use these keywords – experienced, international, sales & marketing and Director. Avoid generic, overused words that have lost their meaning. WORDS TO AVOID ARE: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Creative Organisational Effective Extensive experience Track record Motivated Innovative Problem solving Communication skills Dynamic

Give yourself the edge – provide examples of you being creative as opposed to just describing yourself as such.

survive & thrive

1. SEE ME Your photograph will tell a story, it needs to show you at your ultimate best, be professional – keep the pouting lips to a minimum! – and reflect the position you are applying for e.g. professional positions require professional people, marketing and design usually more creative etc.

2. WHO AM I? You know how good you are. Unfortunately, employers are not mind readers so they need to know about you in the form of a ‘headline’. This sits just underneath your name and needs to be good enough to attract interest. This is you, your brand – it’s what will make you stand out from the crowd. Never leave it blank. 4. WHAT HAVE I DONE? Your professional profile needs to accurately reflect your job experience and achievements and at the same time reflect your CV – you need a profile that not only helps you get found but entices people to contact you once they view your profile. The most ideal situation is to list only relevant positions e.g. ones that have professional substance behind them. Forget detailing you were good at making Pizzas when you worked at the local Pizza place for two months five years ago. If you are involved in other activities then place these after your educational qualifications and not within your professional profile. 5. IMPACT Make yours impactful by clearly describing your central skills and what you can offer them. Use an upbeat and highly professional tone to describe yourself in the first person. The goal of the summary is to clearly describe what you do while boldly illustrating your energy, confidence and enthusiasm for your work.

6. REALISTIC Your professional profile also needs to be realistic about what you can actually do. Listing that you can pilot a light aircraft will not help you much if you are applying for a role as a Human Resources Director – nice to have especially at party time, but irrelevant. Stating that you managed a 500,000 euro recruitment budget would be more relevant but only if you actually did. I am sure at some stage we have all been sitting at an interview where we have overstated our capability or responsibility levels and wished a great hole would appear in the floor as we struggled to answer the question “So when exactly did you win the Nobel Peace Prize?”.

8. FIRST IMPRESSIONS Just like a normal interview, prospective employers and recruiters will judge you on your LinkedIn Profile appearance. It is advisable that you don’t just put any old garbage into your profile in the hope you will get lucky. You need to take the time to write, re-write, write again, re-write, write. Spend time putting together your profile before you place it on LinkedIn, this will ensure your profile is not changing every few hours which in reality could cost you dearly. The dream job you are looking for could pass you by because you haven’t been methodical in writing and placing your profile. 9. EMAIL ADDRESS Use a sensible, professional email address. This is good : miacalhoun@gmail.com This is not : mia_hottie_85@gmail.com

7. LOOK AHEAD Unless you are aiming purely for a sideways move, then you need to be aiming for the promotion which is not forthcoming in your existing company. If you are a career hunter then aim for the next role, for example if you are currently a Sales Manager then why not aim to be a Regional Sales Manager? Avoid “In 5 years I see myself...”. Recruiters at this stage are not interested. They want to fill the role now, not in 5 years time. 10. TOP TIP! Add or change a few key words within your profile every week to ensure more views on your profile. This will only work if you have your notifications tab set correctly. In the next issue – How to show off your achievements to attract a future employer. Skills and abilities – which ones will be relevant? Qualifications – why list them and which are relevant, along with a few other hints and tips to get you that job through LinkedIn!

Join our group! survive & thrive

GGI Membership – Free www.girlgoneinternational.com Global Website Global Conversation Forums Guest Posts & Articles City Mini-Sites Join our GGI Social Network Create a Profile Join Global Groups & Discussions Join your City’s Groups Ask questions in the Forums Contact other Members Email & Chat Access Your Own City’s Forums View GGI Events & RSVP Join in the conversation

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UPGRADE TO A PIONEER PASS!

Be one of our first founder subscribers! SAVE : Pay Only £10 per year. Prices will go up soon. SUBSCRIBE: 4 issues of GGI Mag & exclusive sneak peeks! CONTRIBUTE : Get involved –> KARMA : If you have ever made a friend from a GGI Event then your purchase will allow other international girls to make friends too. Pay it forward!

Write for the Magazine Guest Blog Post on the Website Manage a Group Forum Start Conversations Ask and Answer Questions Start a GGI in Your City Pin to our Pinterest Board Tweet about your GGI life Take part in a Google Hangout Get a Pioneer Pass then contact us!

SUBSCRIBE NOW!! enter to Be part of the next issue!! Each and everyone of you is invited to participate in the 1st GGI photography contest for our summer issue coming out this JULY 2013. We would like nothing more than to display the wonderful talents of like-minded international women in our online magazine via your very own photographs. Submissions will be taken up until MAY 30th. Please send only high resolution (minimum 300dpi) photos of your interpretation of a ‘Girl Gone International.’ We will be choosing 8 photos for each of our sections to be displayed throughout the magazine and 1 photograph for the cover of the magazine. For more details and specific submission requirements please email meghan@girlgoneinternational.com GGI is looking forward to seeing all the wonderful creative and talented submissions in the coming months! Thank You and Good luck! Meghan Klein GGI Creative Director

All of you are the stars!

“Not all those who wander are lost”

PEOPLE & LIFESTYLE

International Women‘s Day Special Edition

Women in Afghanistan

Tracing Tea / Shutterstock.com

The Veil Has Been Lifted, but Old Traditions Continue to Suppress Women

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people & lifestyle

International Women’s Day - Special Report Written by: Macrui Dostourian

Like many nine-year-old girls, Shereenjan liked to play practical jokes, have fun with her

friends and “run around like a boy, getting dirty and into all sorts of scrapes.” Unlike most nineyear-old girls, though, Shereenjan was engaged. And unlike most engagements, this one was not a cause for celebration, as Shereenjan had been given to her husband’s family to settle a dispute that arose between the two families when her father accidentally killed the groom’s brother. Shereenjan told her story to the BBC’s Afghan Women’s Hour: she describes being forced to live in a barn, fed irregularly if at all, and beaten on a daily basis. In short, her husband and in-laws were taking their revenge on her. Once she reached puberty at the age of 12, she was married to the family’s eldest son. Even when she bore her husband not just one, but two, much-coveted sons, she was still treated as little more than a farm animal.

Marriage in Afghanistan

Stories like this are sadly not uncommon in modern-day Afghanistan. Under Afghan law, the legal age of marriage is 16, but the Afghan Ministry of Women’s Affairs and international NGOs estimate that around 57% of women are married even younger. Moreover, few women choose their husbands – 70 to 80% of marriages are arranged by parents or other family members – and few women meet their husbands before their wedding day. Many women are married, as Shereenjan was, to settle family disputes, while others are married to provide money for their families, as traditionally the groom’s family must pay a bride price to the bride’s family. It is not uncommon for women to be essentially sold for marriage to older men or as second, third, or even fourth wives. Given how marriages are arranged, it is not surprising that according to UN data, 87% of Afghan women “are beaten on a regular basis.”

Women as property

Although not founded in Islam or even in current civil law, under Afghan custom a woman belongs first to her father and later to her husband. Like all property, she can be exchanged, sold or discarded. people & lifestyle

Judges will typically conclude that a woman has engaged in zina if she and a man were alone together. Human Rights Watch estimates 50% of women currently in prison in Afghanistan and 100% of the girls in juvenile detention facilities are there following convictions for moral crimes. Gulara, now 22, knows first-hand the consequences of attempting to flee domestic abuse. She was married against her will at 15. Her husband and inlaws were beating her and “treating me in a really bad way,” so she went to a women’s shelter. After her husband promised to stop hurting her, the shelter returned her to her family. On her return, the violence “day-by-day got worse and then I was forced to run away.” She turned to a friend for help, and her friend’s brother agreed to drive her to a neighboring country where she had relatives. Gulara and her friend’s brother, however, were arrested at the border. She is currently serving a 7-year sentence for running away and zina.

Women’s health

In poor families where resources are scarce, parents usually opt to spend their limited income on their sons’ food, education, and medical expenses. After all, a son will take care of his parents in their old age, and will eventually bring in his own wife or wives to help the family, while a daughter will simply end up in another family.

The Scales of Injustice

Women who attempt to flee from enforced marriages or abusive situations are usually charged with “running away.” Although the criminal code does not categorize running away as a crime, the Afghan Supreme Court has issued instructions to lower courts that running away be treated as a crime. In the course of running away, a woman might have contact with a man who is not a relative. She then will likely face additional charges for having or attempting to have sexual relations outside of marriage, known as zina. 68

people & lifestyle

Assuming a girl marries well – and this means a husband who does not beat her too much and can provide for her reasonably well – she must still contend with numerous, unspaced pregnancies wreaking havoc on her body and with giving birth in a country that has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. A woman dies every two hours because of pregnancy or childbirth-related complications in Afghanistan. The WHO reports that in 2010, a woman’s lifetime risk of maternal death was 1 in 32. These deaths are usually caused by haemorrhaging or obstructed delivery and are preventable if skilled assistance is available. Unfortunately, most women in Afghanistan give birth at home and assisted by unskilled attendants. Even when a woman can access and pay for medical services in complicated cases, hospitals are understaffed and under-equipped. Amid the grim reality of life as a woman in today’s Afghanistan, some women are challenging societal constraints. Sosan Firooz, a 23-year-old Kabuli actress, is one such woman. Firooz is Afghanistan’s first female rapper. She sings in Western clothes, without a headscarf and in front of men. Defying threats against her and her family, she asks, “How long should we keep this silence? There’s a need for people to rise up. And others should follow.” Meena Rahmani is also trying to change her society, one

strike at a time. Rahmani spent most of life in Pakistan and a few years in Canada, but returned to Kabul in 2009. Noticing that the streets were deserted after 7pm and that there was nothing to do, she came up with the idea of opening a bowling alley. A few years later, she opened up Strikers Bowling Alley. Challenging the attitudes of conservative Afghans who say a woman should not be running such a business, she says, “Ultimately I am doing something for the Afghan nation. I would like other Afghan women to join me. Let’s do it for Afghanistan.” Firooz’s and Rahmani’s courageous stance against the conservative norms that would keep them shut away behind domestic doors shows that women’s lives in Afghanistan have improved considerably since the fall of the Taliban. There are now more than 60 female members of Parliament and 2.7 million girls attending school. But women in Afghanistan still live in a society that values men and boys more highly than women and girls, where arranged marriages are the norm, and where a woman’s quality of life is totally dependent on men. Until these attitudes change, the stories of women who dare act on their visions and dreams will continue to be the exceptions rather than the norm.

Lizette Potgieter / Shutterstock.com

“There is a path to the top of the highest mountain” – Afghan Proverb

The Woman with No Nose One of the most notorious cases of women’s suffering include that of Bibi Aisha, a woman who, at the age of 12, was given to a Taliban fighter to settle a dispute, much like Shereenjan. After enduring years of abuse, she fled, but her husband found her. He took her to a mountainside and cut off her nose and ears, and left her bleeding to die. She went to the US for reconstructive surgery and was granted asylum to stay. The NGO Women for Afghan Women was instrumental in her case, assisting her not just back in Afghanistan, but also helping her settle into her new home in the US.

Karzai Attempts to Negotiate with the Taliban, Sacrificing Women’s Rights Originally seen as a champion of Western-style women’s rights, President Hamid Karzai has been attempting to draw the Taliban into peace negotiations. For example, he endorsed a code of conduct drafted by a council of clerics that allows men to beat their wives in certain circumstances and encourages separation of the sexes. As NATO allies prepare to withdraw in 2014, many fear that the small achievements for women’s rights will be scaled back even more.

Women’s International League, 1922

International

Women’s Day can be traced back over 100 years. It has taken on a new global dimension for women in both developed and developing countries, becoming a rallying point in the year to build support for women’s rights and participation in political and economic arenas. The way in which it is celebrated in each country depends on the culture and issues faced by women there. In some areas there are political rallies, government activities, community campaigns while in others, business conferences, networking events, 70

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Image : wikipedia

102nd International Women’s Day, March 8th 2013

fundraising activities or parties. As women who live internationally in a world which ‘no society treats its women as well as its men” (United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 1999 and reiterated in all subsequnet reports) we see and are exposed to so many more gender issues than we may ever come across back home. The severity of the difference in equality varies by country; Nordic countries such as Sweden, Norway and Iceland have the smallest gender gaps while in the developing world women face unfairness that can be hard to fathom.

International Women’s Day My Personal Experience By Katy Miro

8 March 1990. USSR

I wake up to the smell of tulips – my dad had already gone out to buy them despite the snowy weather outside. Speaking of my dad, it looks like he is wearing....an apron?! Well, yes! Today he is the one who takes charge of preparing breakfast. All the family is at home because it’s a public holiday. My mom and I are treated like queens. My father and brother give us very nice presents. Yesterday there was a party at school and the boys prepared a surprise for us - a talent show. They danced and entertained us girls and our teacher received a gift and flowers too.

8 March 1997. Israel

As he did in the Ukraine, my dad brings us flowers before he leaves for work. It is not a public holiday. It looks like he is among the minority of men who are aware of this day. At school, boys don’t greet the girls and the female teacher is the only person to draw attention to the meaning of this special day. Later, when I come back from school and switch on the TV, it’s mentioned during a program, explaining the background for this day and showing some dry statistics. There are seminars and dedicated lectures in cultural centers, focussing on equal rights for women.

8 March 2012. Hamburg

Far from my family, it is my husband who brings me flowers to mark the day. There are no signs anywhere in the city that this is a special day. While so cherished and widely celebrated in all post-Soviet Union countries it does not seem to have the same weight attached to it. I do however go to the GGI International Women’s Day event. There are 90 other young women there. The British and American ladies tell me they had never really heard of this day before. We raise money for Oxfam who are campaigning to amplify the voices of women small scale farmers and producers so that their rights to equality and self-empowerment are realized. By the end of the night everyone goes home with new friends and an understanding of how important this day is to women the world over and how it is still relevant to all of us in this day and age.

On March 8th Last Year c

Photos right to left: 1. Istanbul 2. Egypt 3. Somalia 4. Sudan 5. Brazil 6. United States 7. France 8. Singapore

Istanbul: A topless demonstration was staged by women in bruise-like makeup to protest against domestic violence. Egypt: Women marched for equal rights and a gender balance in Egyptian politics. Somalia: Women held a parade, only possible since Islamic militant group Shabab was ejected from Mogadishu. Sudan: An estimated 572 women prisoners and 117 children were released by the Sudanese Ministry of Interior to mark the day. Brazil: Brazilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first female president strived to approve a law fining companies that pay female employees less than men. United States: The UN fund for gender equality announced $10.5 million in grants to groups working to empower women in Asia, Africa, the Pacific, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe and Central Asia. France: Before his election, FranĂ§ois Hollande, promised he would put equal numbers of women in government and improve equality. France suffers from a 25% average male-female pay gap. Singapore: Domestic workers celebrated a parliamentary proposal to legislate a weekly day off for workers after a 10-year-long campaign calling for fairer work rights.

GIRL GONE INTERNATIONAL

Girls Gone International

PROFILED

Sapana Lonkar

Sapana, 29, left her home in Pune, India for the U.K in 2009, and is currently living and working in Berlin, Germany as a Business Analyst.

I am a Girl Gone International because... I left my home in India to simply explore and experience new cultures. What was the first obstacle you had to overcome since moving abroad? It was to understand, accommodate and integrate into this new culture, and to adapt to a new way of thinking and living. Do you feel at home there? I must say that in the beginning it was very difficult, but Girl Gone International has made it really so much easier for me. I must admit, however, I do miss home from time to time. Are you able to speak the native language of your new country? In the beginning I couldn’t, but my skills have greatly improved since taking German lessons and this has enabled me to do my work without problems. What is the biggest cultural difference you noticed after you moved? The first thing I noticed was that you need to be on time even for dinner at someone´s home! People need to check their calendar to simply catch up over a cup of coffee, and you need to make appointments for everything at least a week or two weeks in advance. There is not a lot of room for spontaneity! Also females do not shy away from walking around each other nude in the gym dressing rooms!

Name three things you crave from your homeland that you are currently living without? Indian food, our colourful festivals and overt friendliness. How often do you have the opportunity to visit home? I have always made it my goal to fly home to India every six months to spend time with my family and friends, and I always have a blast! What are your favourite haunts for the perfect evening out? In Berlin, the authentic Italian restaurant Marianna is perfect for a special evening. When I´m in Hamburg I love the Alex Pavillion on Jungfernstieg. It is a wonderful location to catch up with friends. The surrounding view of the Alster Lake is beautiful. Do you see yourself staying in your current country for good? No I don’t think I can see myself growing old here in Germany. I will definitely at some point in my life, want to return to India. What advice would you give any girl contemplating going international? You always need to examine how green the grass is on the other side to help prepare your mind to face the challenges, both good and bad, in a wonderful albeit strange new world. When was the last time you did something for the first time? Although it was awkward and embarrassing, I did it! I showered nude in the gym in front of all the other nude females! I would never do this in India! >> people & lifestyle

Jena, 32, is from Houston, Texas. She left America in 2009 for Luxembourg and is currently busy with her three young children and enjoying being CEO of the home.

Jena Honeycutt Göbel

I am a Girl Gone International because...

I always wanted to return to live in the country I visited as a student and picked up a one-of-a-kind souvenir – my now-husband.

Did you move abroad alone or with family? I boarded the plane five months pregnant and with a two-year-old daughter. I only threw one tantrum, otherwise the trip went great.

Do you feel at home there?

Completely and not at all. Luxembourg is a vacuum that sucks you in and never wants to let you go.

What was the first obstacle you had to overcome? Parallel parking on a hill in winter.

How did your little girl adapt to the move?

Our daughter adjusted to the change quicker than us. She took it as just a normal adventure in her young life. She picked up the languages very quickly and knew Luxembourgish for “Do you want a candy?” in no time at all.

What was the biggest cultural difference you noticed after you moved? Ladies dress very nice here. Even a trip to the playground seems cause for high heels. I sometimes feel like a bag lady in my American sports casual attire.

Do you see yourself staying in your current country for good? I struggle with that question every day.

Are you able to speak the native language of your new country?

What advice would you give any girl contemplating going international?

Any funny faux pas?

How often do you have the opportunity to visit home?

Luxembourg has three official languages. I can get by on German, English, and a lot of miming. Ordering Filet Americain and being very surprised when served a glob of raw beef.

Name 3 things you crave from your homeland that you are currently living without? Fresh tortillas, Starbucks, and more freezer space! 76

people & lifestyle

Check out expat networks/clubs like Girl Gone International. They are a great way to meet friends and they are full of help while first getting settled.

Once a year, but my mother has moved to platinum status as she often flies here.

When was the last time you did something for the first time? Today, “tried” out the ER at the hospital – don’t ask.

Joy Palomo

Are you able to speak the native language of your new country?

Oh but of course! As long as I’m not required to use proper sentence structure! Or verbs. Seriously, I speak solely in nouns!

What is the biggest cultural difference you noticed after you moved?

Older women tend to stop you on the street to tell you what you’re doing wrong with your child. Apparently I always underdress them. Even when it’s 30 degrees out.

Any funny faux pas?

After only two weeks here, I managed to lock myself out of the house without my mobile phone. Both of my young boys were strapped into their high chairs inside. It was quite frowned upon.

Name 3 things you crave from your homeland that you are currently living without? Mexican food, shopping at Target, and gasp... craft beer! Don’t tell Germany I said that.

Joy, 34, hails from Chicago, Illinois,

USA. She has previously lived in both Mexico and Spain, and is a stay-athome-mom in the stunning Taunus area of Frankfurt, Germany where she has been living since 2010. I am a Girl Gone International because... I love starting a story with “When I lived in…”

What was the first obstacle you had to overcome?

I had to realise that just because I had lived abroad before, that didn’t necessarily mean it would be easy to adapt to this new country right away.

Do you feel at home there?

Yes! There is an amazing network of women here who I found online and plenty of wine, which always helps!

How often do you have the opportunity to visit home?

Why go home when family can visit us and see the world! We try to get home once year.

What are your favourite haunts for the perfect evening out?

Great friends to spend a night out with is the most important thing, but it´s safe to say that no matter where we go, we almost always end up in an Irish Pub!

Do you see yourself staying in your current country for good? I would love to be here long term, but forever is not a word we tend to use.

What advice you would give any girl contemplating going international?

Don’t think too long or hard about it, just go! As they say, it’s the journey, not the destination.

When was the last time you did something for the first time? I had my first German fender bender last week. Whoops! >>

people & lifestyle

Una, a Communications Director

from Dublin, Ireland has been living in Singapore for the past 5 years with her family and has previously lived in London, Brussels and Vancouver. I am a Girl Gone International because...

Una McGirr

My husband Brian was offered a banking role in Singapore at a time when he was working in London and commuting home to Dublin at the weekends. It took me at most 3 seconds to make that decision. Singapore is a very small island city-state that sits below Malaysia and above Indonesia. It’s only about 270 square miles in size, so you can drive around it or across it in an hour.

The first obstacle you had to overcome?

That’s a tough one, as I have two obstacles I’m personally still struggling with 5 years later. Firstly, there are crazy drivers everywhere! Using side and rear-view mirrors, I’m told by local friends, is a sign of weakness so driving is a brave act of guaranteed disaster at some point. The second one is the Asian concept of KIASU which shows through in every aspect of Asian life. It translates from a Hokkien word which literally means ‘fear of losing’. So you have drivers insisting on cutting you off to be number one, or shoppers butting in front of you in a queue. Take that idea and multiply it across every aspect of life, and it all gets pretty wild!

How do you think your children are adapting to international life? I was amazed how quickly they adjusted to life in Asia. They are pretty sociable and independent kids so found friends and settled into school without any hitches. However, we have made a point of keeping them as Irish as possible, with lots of Skype and email with family at home. Theo has gone back to family every summer for the last 4 years, spending his holidays there without us, so he is completely connected to life in Ireland and exceptionally close to cousins and grandparents. When they do get a little 78

people & lifestyle

homesick, I remind them that they are very lucky to have two homes, one in Dublin and one here and this happens to be where we are for now. Even the unrelenting heat doesn’t seem to bother them, and we have plenty of visitors so that also fills the gaps.

Do you feel at home there?

Being honest, no. Asian living is just so far beyond the realm of everything I’ve ever known. It’s noisy and fast and very hot. Singapore sits on the equator so we have no seasons other than hot summer, 365 days a year. This makes it very difficult to track the year, when everyday’s the same as the last. Asian culture is incredible but it’s a stretch to feel part of the community here and integrate.

Are you able to speak the native language of your new country? Mandarin and Bahasa Malay are the two main languages spoken on this tiny island. I have a few basic words of Mandarin and doubt the vocabulary will develop much past that!

Any funny faux pas?

Realising that in some public toilets in Singapore, the toilet paper is left outside the cubicle near the wash hand basins to economise on loo roll!

Name three things you crave from your homeland that you are currently living without? Tayto crisps, Kerry lamb, Club Orange.

What are your favourite haunts for the perfect evening out?

We have a cool enclave of bars and restaurants called Ann Siang Hill, which is home to an amazing array of brilliant restaurants and bars, many of which are in old Chinese shop houses. It is very chic, and always a perfect spot for a bite and drinks on a Friday night. If we have guests in town, we love The Fullerton Bay Hotel overlooking the water and the iconic Marina Bay Sands.

Do you see yourself staying in your current country for good?

No. It’s not a country anyone stays in “forever”. It is a very transient country. Foreigners make up 35% of the overall population, about 5 million and the expats tend to stop off for 5 years en route to Shanghai, Hong Kong, or back to Europe. It’s also a phenomenally expensive place to live, so very much a come/enjoy/leave kind of place.

What advice would you give any girl contemplating going international?

Go for it! It’s an amazing opportunity. But make it priority number one to reach out and make friends immediately. Once you’ve got a few buddies, everything else falls into place.

When was the last time you did something for the first time?

Attended my book club on a beautiful 40 foot boat last week on the Straits of Jahor, enjoying the balmiest of winds and the best of bubbles! That, and telling my daughter to step away from the cobra two weeks ago in the Botanical Gardens. Read more Profiles on the GGI website

Jillian

Going INTERNATIONAL the first time..

From Glasgow to Hong Kong Jillian Stewart, 19 tells GGI her story

people & lifestyle

Before…

Last year my life as a 2nd year Uni student was all vodka tonics, tv and Topshop. As I study international hospitality and languages, I thought it was time to live up to the ‘international’ part of it messy holidays with my mates to Malia were just not going to help me in a future job interview! I was incredibly lucky to be offered a paid 6 week internship at the Asia Literary Review magazine in Hong Kong. It all happened pretty fast so I didn’t have much time to process it all. As I had never been away by myself, I didn’t know what to expect or how to prepare, so I threw my laptop, lippy and a few pairs of high heels in a suitcase and just went. I was massively nervous

beforehand and very conscious about Asia being so far away. But it was those same thoughts that gave me wee bubbles of excitement too.

During…

The first thing that struck me when I got off the plane was the heat. It smacked me in the face despite it being 10pm at night. I met a father and daughter on the plane and shared a taxi with them to my hostel on the edge of the city. From then on I was completely alone. I posted on Facebook that I was alive and then crashed into bed. The next day I was absolutely starving. The whole city smelled of delicious noodles, so I decided to head out. I was completely disorientated as the buildings loomed so high overhead. I jumped on the metro, which was crammed with people shouting into their phones and little kids staring at me and took my hungry self to a restaurant recommended in my Lonely Planet. As a young woman alone, I felt safe and relieved that everyone spoke English. I did feel a bit alien and didn’t know how to interpret the fact that noone would sit beside me on the metro or in a cafe. By day five I had had enough of my own company and was feeling low and lonely. I decided to do

something about it. I had read about the Hong Kong Brew House so I went there, ordered a beer and kept my ears open for English speakers. It was the 4th of July so it was all of 10 minutes before I heard some Americans. I downed my beer and went over to them, smiled my best ‘I am not a weirdo’ smile, told them I was on my own and did they mind if I joined them? It wasn’t easy to do, no-one likes to put themselves out there and admit they are alone, but it was the best thing I could have done. I spent the next five weeks hanging out with them. We ate out most nights as dinner would cost only 50 HK dollars (cheap) and I gave up vodka tonics at 80 HK dollars a time in favour of cheap beers in the China Bar. Everything was new and exciting and I felt I could debut the new grown-up me as I was so far away from home. Although not as far as I thought, as one night a boy I had gone to school with walked in. I learned it is true what all the more experienced GGIs say, it really is a small world!

As for my job, it was scary to walk into an office and be the new girl, but there was no alternative. It was a small office on the 17th floor in a prestigious street. By the time I got there each morning I was exhausted. I had never seen so many people in my life and I couldn’t get used to the speed of the city, the energy of its inhabitants or the noise. I found the work ethic pretty intimidating. With 18 hours a day not unusual, I was quite embarrassed by my easy 11-4pm job. >> people & lifestyle

It did give me lots of time though to explore the city. My office was entirely made up of British women who had found work with the magazine while living in HK. I did mostly administrative work, but now and then I was given manuscripts to read which was a real privilege. I found out that I was the 3rd intern to have worked there. The other interns had ended up staying, because they had fallen in love with a boy or the city. I had done neither so after my 6 weeks - which felt like 6 months crash course in life abroad – I went home.

After…

I arrived back in Glasgow the same, but different. Before I went to Hong Kong. I assumed I would always live in Glasgow, but now I find I don’t want to. I am very career focused and think there are much better opportunities out there and it would be a mistake to limit myself for the sake of one city, my preconceived ideas or the expectations of others. The economy is not the greatest and I think the graduate job market will be more competitive than ever so I want to do as much as possible now to differentiate myself from my peers. I also want to have the transferable personal skills that employers will be looking for - resilience, flexibility, bravery, adaptability and cultural awareness.

people & lifestyle

I am off to France next to do my university Erasmus year abroad. While my friends are nervous about it, desperate to know where they will be placed and hope to go in pairs. I am the opposite. What I have learned so far is that the unknown is the most exciting destination of all! Jillian’s Secret Hong Kong Address Book

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10 treat yourself!

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must haves

1. Therm-O Terra eco-thermal glass vessel. The ultimate eco-chic alternative to plastic bottles. We love this healthier way to transport our drinks around the city. 22 euros, www.aquaovo.com 2. Jeeves and Wooster lamp shades Canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get enough Downton Abbey? These British bowler and top hat shades will light up your life. From 190 euros, innermost.net 3. The Clock Greenford This shabby chic wall clock is a must have for all your global communication needs. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll never phone your Grandmother at 3am again! 69 euros, maisonsdumonde.com 4. Pets Rock cushion. Pick up a Charlie Chaplin Pets Rock couch cushion and add a bit of humor and style to your living room! 35 euros, welovecushions.co.uk 5. White and Black Harmony Leather Satchel Classy and practical, these two tone bags have space for your Laptop, Tablet, Vogue and everything else a girl needs. Beautifully made and hand stitched. 142 euros, zatchels.com 6. Line Posters You might be using it every day, but have you ever thought of your local transportation network as a piece of art? Now you will. If your city is not on the List yet, it could be tomorrow, just send a request. 24 euros, lineposters.com

7. Rockport Janae Zip Booty These shoes are made for walking. Made with adiprene by Adidas for hours of painless walking! Hallelujah!150 euros, rockport.com

8. Worldscape Lantern The perfect gift for your fellow world residents. 12 euros, discovery-24.de

9. Rocky Platinum Whisky set Crack The Irish way is not always the solution, but in wee doses it can solve little problems. 42 euros, maisonsdumonde.com 10. Yucatan Throw 100% Lambswool. We all need to retreat to our sofa from time to time. Do it in style with this look-a-like Missoni print! 189 euros, www.avandeo.de By Manuela Greenhow-Fahner CLICK HERE for more must haves! people & lifestyle

“HOME IS WHEREVER YOU ARE”

HOME & KITCHEN

Austria - Australia

My International

Kitchen Joanne Richards

Austria – Australia We get our bearings by restaurant hopping. We navigate the city via its cafes and delis. We explore by visiting local produce markets. We connect at parties over local specialities and etiquette. We practice our first words on waiters. We integrate through invitations into homes to enjoy generation-old recipes. We feel at home when we can confidently fill our baskets with hitherto undecipherable products in the supermarket. Inspired and deeply influenced by the culinary culture, styles and traditions of the places we live and visit, we go back to our kitchens to experiment and recreate. Our dishes capture those elusive qualities of the places we have been and the people we have met, allowing us to relive happy chapters of our lives. Australian artisan chef, food blogger and international girl, Joanne Richards, shares some recipes from her private collection.

For many of us, food is our first point of entry into a new country

Crispy Wonton Skins Luisa’s Kartoffelsalat

I first met my boyfriend’s Austrian Mum Luisa back in 2007 and realised that while she might not enjoy cooking per-say, after 20+ years of doing it she certainly is talented at it! I can’t remember if I first had Luisa’s potato salad in Australia or Austria but I do know it is a big hit at any event it is served. It has even replaced my mother’s recipe – which contains apples and salad sauce – as my favourite. It is particularly good the next day after a party to cure a hangover should you have one, and has been requested multiple times by friends. 86

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I grew up in Darwin, in the tropical north of Australia where the temperature year round never drops below 30ºC (86ºF) in the day time and the weather consists of two seasons; wet and dry – my tip: you want to visit in the DRY season! Being so close to Asia, Darwin has some fantastic Asian food and Asian influences. My Dad made these for me one day and I was so impressed, I begged him for the recipe. Originally made with crab meat, I found them a lot easier to make with prawns (have you ever tried to extract crab meat from blue swimmer crabs?!) and equally delicious. They are perfect dinner party and entertaining food and the dressing is so more-ish, I’d suggest making double every time.

Luisa’s Kartoffelsalat (Potato Salad) Ingredients:

2kg salad potatoes Garlic (1-3 cloves to your taste) Spring onions (2-5, depending on size) Salt to taste 5 tablespoons mayonnaise 1 teaspoon mustard 1-2 tablespoons white wine vinegar 1-2 tablespoons olive oil Half a stock or soup cube (chicken or vegetable) dissolved in 3 tablespoons boiling water A pinch of curry powder Cracked black pepper to taste

Method:

Cook potatoes whole in salted water until soft (approx. 15 - 20 mins), then put them into cold water and peel them. Alternatively, you can peel the potatoes prior to cooking if you prefer.

Once peeled cut them into 3mm slices and put into a large bowl. Chop the garlic and the white part of the spring onions not too finely and place them over the still-warm potatoes. Put the mayonnaise in a small mixing bowl and add the mustard, vinegar, olive oil and a scant teaspoon of salt. Potatoes need quite a lot of salt, so the salad sauce should taste quite salty. Add the dissolved stock cube and curry powder to taste and stir well. If the sauce seems thick, add an extra tablespoon or two of hot water and then pour over the potatoes. Mix carefully, so as not to mash the potatoes too much. Cut the green of the spring onions in small rings, put them over the salad and mix again. Taste and add a little extra of anything you feel is lacking. Don’t worry if it tastes salty, as the potatoes will absorb the salt over time. If you’re satisfied with the taste, take the pepper mill and cover the salad with black pepper. Allow to cool, then mix again just before serving. >>

Luisa's Kartoffelsalat

home & kitchen

Crispy Wonton Skins

Topped with Prawn and Lychee Salad Ingredients:

Vegetable oil, for deep frying 1 packet square wonton skins

Dressing

1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped 3 red Asian shallots, peeled and finely chopped 3 tablespoons lime juice 2 tablespoons fish sauce 2 tablespoons grated palm sugar (or caster sugar)

Salad

200gm (1 cup) cooked chopped prawn meat (or crab meat) 95gm (1/2 cup) diced tinned lychees 135gm (1 1/2 cups) bean sprouts, trimmed 4-5 spring onions (scallions), cut diagonally into thin strips 3 tablespoons finely sliced Thai (or normal) basil leaves 1 long red chili, deseeded and finely chopped 30gm (1 cup) coriander (cilantro) leaves

To serve

3 tablespoons salmon roe 3 tablespoons fried shallots (optional) Makes about 12, which would serve 4 as an appetizer. 88

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Method:

You can either bake or fry the wonton skins. Fry: Fill a wok or deep-fat fryer one-third full of oil (at least 5cm / 2 inches deep) and heat to 180째C (350째F) or until a cube of bread dropped into the oil browns in 15 seconds. Gently lower two wonton skins at a time into the wok and cook until crisp on both sides. To create more of a cup shape, cook between two wire mesh spoons or put the wonton into a ladle and slowly lower it into the oil. Drain thoroughly on paper towels.

Bake:

Preheat to 180째C (350째F). 1. Brush wonton skins lightly with oil, arrange in muffin or mini muffin tins. 2. Bake 5-7 minutes until golden brown and crisp. Either way, wonton skins can be cooked ahead and stored once cool in an airtight container overnight. 3. To make the dressing, use a mortar and pestle to pound the garlic and shallots together. Work in the lime juice, fish sauce and sugar, pounding until the sugar dissolves. Alternatively, mix the ingredients into a paste using a small food processor. 4. To make the salad, combine all the ingredients and gently mix in a large bowl. 5. To serve, put a little of the prawn salad on top of each wonton skin, then add a little salmon roe on top. Serve the dressing on the side for people to add however much they wish. Sprinkle with fried shallots if desired. Click Here for More of GGI Recipes

SUPERFOODS GGI will be powering up with in 2013 If you love quinoa, you will adore this ‘new’ ancient grain. This nutrient powerhouse is native of Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Egypt where it is harvested whilst the grains are yellow and then set on fire in the fields so only the straw and chaff burn and not the seeds. This ‘roasting’ process gives the green wheat a unique smoky aroma and nutty, toasted taste. It is not gluten free. Use it instead of rice or couscous.

CHIA SEEDS

FREEKEH

Chia, not to be confused with chai tea, is a species of flowering plant found within the mint family. Native to central and southern Mexico and Guatemala and rich in omega-3 fatty acids, it is gluten free, high in antioxidants and super high in dietary fibre. Chia seeds can be sprinkled raw onto almost any food and can be added to bread and muffin recipes.

Also known as Inca Berries, Pichuberries and Goldenberries, this super fruit is the next big thing for 2013. They have 166% more antioxidants than cranberries and double the amount of fibre as prunes and dates. Not only that, they are also a great source of potassium, vitamins A and C. During this year you will see these goldenberries being used in juices, jams and one of our favourites, ice-cream.

CAPE GOOSEBERRIES home & kitchen

Fresh Food Inspirations

My parallel journey with life and food By Olive Aguas

a Girl Gone International from Portland, Oregon with 10 years in Europe under my belt, my life has had many chapters. New countries, new jobs, and new relationships. My very latest chapter had a rather unglamorous start in a supermarket in Hamburg. I had just relocated to Germany and the layout of the supermarket was completely alien to me. All the products were for German cuisine and everything was in a very foreign language. I instantly felt paralysed. I was more than out of my comfort zone. I started depending on my German husband who loved cooking hearty German farm food, to do all the shopping. After 6 months of gaining significant weight and unhappiness, I started to look for other options for my diet. After extensive research, I found that shifting to a lifestyle without meat and dairy would be far healthier and could help me lose weight. So instead of doing another fad diet, I decided to make a lifestyle change and eat more vegan food. This was a major change for me and I quickly discovered so many new tastes, world cuisines, fruits and vegetables. However, it was the discovery of a raw Chocolate Strawberry Tart with pecan date crust in a vegan cookbook that set me on my new path. From the minute I saw that raw dessert, using minimal whole food ingredients, sweetened only with strawberries and dates and bursting with flavor, I was on a raw mission.

home & kitchen

I poured myself into every raw food blog and cookbook I could find. Without really intending to, I became completely raw and lost all that excess weight. I was on a high. I felt like I was walking on air because my diet was light and full of whole flavorful foods. I was so blown away by this new way of eating that I started a blog called The Bee’s Knees Kitchen. I wanted to share with my family back home all the raw food that I was discovering. I spent my weekends creating blog posts and became obsessed with food photography. The blog started to have a lot of followers and it opened my eyes to a new gem in my life. After about 6 months of raw eating, I found a balance of eating vegan and raw while still being able to eat out socially without gaining weight. I had found my balance. I was relearning how to live life in another country my way. A few years later I moved to Amsterdam in the middle of a divorce. I was jobless and once again, starting over. I reflected back on the last years and realized that food could in fact be my salvation. I focussed my energy, scraped together my savings, enlisted the support of friends and transformed the Bee’s Knees Kitchen from a simple blog into a business. I now run cooking workshops in different locations, foodie events, Amsterdam’s first food contests and teach raw food techniques in clients’ kitchens. I have re-learned how to live life in another country my way – more than once – and found the one true love that keeps feeding me with creativity, love and now an income!

For any questions regarding vegan and raw food, or general foodie info pLease contact : Olive Aguas – Vegan and Raw Food Chef Olive@beeskneeskitchen.com

Have you turned your passion into your profession? Share your story! Contact: anne@girlgoneinternational.com home & kitchen

A TASTE ADVENTURE IN IRELAND Beer and raw milk cheese pairing in Ireland Curry and lager. Steak and red wine. Stilton and port. Champagne and strawberries – all classic food and beverage pairings that have stood the test of time. But what happens when adventurous taste buds veer away from the tried and tested for an evening of cheese and beer? Some unexpected flavour harmonies apparently.

Written By: Clarie Camilleri Australian living in Ireland

home & kitchen

Seaweed

in the cheese, oyster-flavoured stout – at first glance this may look like a particularly hallucinatory passage of a James Joyce novel but on a cold winter’s evening in Dublin, I traversed some new culinary ground to sample some unique pairings of Irish raw milk cheeses and craft beers. The tasting event took place in The Porterhouse, an independent Irish brewery, specialising in hand-crafted beer and was hosted by Slow Food Dublin to celebrate Terra Madre Day, a worldwide Slow Food celebration held every year on December 10 to reconnect communities with local food. Raw milk is given a bad rap in mainstream media, citing doom and gloom regarding dangerous microorganisms and bacteria that are not killed off by the process of pasteurisation. Often overlooked however, are the unique qualities that come from raw milk, often likened to the “terror” that you experience in regional wines.

First up was the St Tola Ash Log, an organic goat cheese rolled in traditional food grade ash when fresh, which slows down the development and maturation of the cheese. The St Tola Ash was a beautiful example of a creamy, soft goat cheese that was slightly acidic with a nice contrast provided by the ash. It was paired with the Temple Brau beer, an Irish lager. While the pairing was okay, it was suggested that a cider may have been a good coupling but regardless, the cheese was just exceptional. The Temple Brau lager, which is the Porterhouseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s top-selling lager, was also paired with Durrus, a raw milk cheese made on the Sheepâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Head peninsula in West Cork in the far southwest of Ireland. Durrus, an iconic washed-rind Irish cheese, has that beautiful golden rind and a semi-soft paste that differs depending on the size of the wheel of cheese. We sampled the smaller cheese, which meant the paste had a different consistency to the larger Durrus wheel due to the ripening process. This was a lot more earthy, yet still creamy. The Porterhouse Red, a traditional red ale, was paired with the Glebe Brethan, a cheese made from unpasteurised Montbeliarde cows

milk, a breed which originates in the mountainous Jura region of eastern France. This was a better pairing with the caramel notes of the ale matching the strength of this Comte-style cheese. The Glebe Brethan was a beautiful sweet and nutty cheese that carried well with the stronger red beer. This was a better pairing with the caramel notes of the ale matching the strength of this Comte-style cheese. The Glebe Brethan was a beautiful sweet and nutty cheese that carried well with the stronger red beer. >>

home & kitchen

Above from left to right are Bellingham Blue, Dilliskus and Durrus.

The next one, Dilliskus, is one of my all-time absolute favourite raw milk Irish cheeses. The first striking thing about this cheese is its purple speckles running through the cheese. Next is the smell. It has that minerally ozone smell – caused by the purple speckles which are actually a local seaweed from the Dingle Peninsula, in south-western Ireland, where the cheese is made. It has all the wonderful characteristics of a semi-hard raw cow’s milk cheese, again that nutty buttery goodness but coupled with the mineral saltiness of the seaweed that lifts this cheese to another dimension. Dilliskus is symbolic of exactly what this evening was hoping to promote, the regionality and uniqueness of cheeses in Ireland. As is often the case, the story behind the cheese is just as worthy of savouring. Dilliskus is made by Maja Binder, a German who is Swisstrained in the art of cheesemaking. Maja’s mother lived in Ireland and, after visiting so often, she decided to apply her craft locally and call Ireland her home too. The wonderful story of this cheese is how this Girl Gone International met her husband Olivier,

who sells the seaweed along with his smoked mackerel and other fish. They began to travel to the local market in Tralee together and well…it was love. As it was for me when I tried the Oyster stout. It is deliciously smooth and has something that you just can’t quite put your finger on. It is a decadent stout without being heavy. Astoundingly, fresh oysters are incorporated into the conditioning tank, which gives this stout a unique unrivalled quality. Our final cheese of the evening was the six-month-old Bellingham Blue, a semi-hard raw cow’s milk cheese that has the piquancy of a Stilton. It is a blue that smacks you in the mouth pretty hard, being salty and sharp but with a creamy background. The Oyster stout lifted the Bellingham and stood up to its strength quite well. Now that your mouth is watering and you are excited about trying out this new taste sensation I will leave you with a rule of thumb. Pairing beer and cheese seems to work much like wine – the fresher the cheese the lighter the beer - easy to remember and equally as rewarding. Cheese and beer… who would have thought?

home & kitchen

Mohair Flecos Blanket, €100, Zara Home

Whitlock and Co. Pillow Cover €32.57, Etsy.com

Flea Market, check out your local flea market for green glass bottles of all shapes and sizes.

French Bistro inspired wall clock, average price €199, kare-design.com

Bann Coasters, €10, Zara Home

Emerald

We will be digging round flea markets, rambling through interior stores and foresting through online shops on the hunt for gorgeous accessories to inject this lush, vivid jewel colour into our international homes. Miho Big Deer Wall Trophy The Emperor Wall Decoration, approx €100, Bellakoola.com

La casa de cotó, crotched floor cushion, €48, Etsy.com

Tate and Lyle Golden Syrup Grocery stores or English food suppliers

Geronimo Studio, Amazonia collection, various prices, DENY Designs

Amanda Catherine Designs Pantone 2013 Emerald Green print posters €12 each, Etsy.com

MY INTERNATIONAL HOME

How Elodie Loveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s international life influences her interior style I am a Girl Gone International because

I have lived in many countries, am one half of a bi-national couple and feel good among international, open-minded people.

My blog is called Madame Love www-madame-love.com

I work at DDB Tribal in Hamburg as a senior online project manager.

My dream job is to run my own small interior

design shop with a small cafĂŠ.

I love my adopted city Hamburg because

of the interesting people, all the interior design shops and because of all the water: the harbour, the lake and the canals. 96

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My interiors style is a reflection of me, my life and my travels. My taste is eclectic and deeply influenced by the countries I have lived in...

France

I love the French touch. Just like my mother, I always have a bunch of French flowers in the living-room, on the fireplace or on the coffee table.

Germany

From living in Berlin and now in Hamburg, I am exposed to a lot of Scandinavian design which finds its way into my home. I love Danish interior design brands such as House Doktor and Bolia.

Britain

My husband is British and we stayed together for a while in Britain so I am also very interested in British designers and stylists. I am a big fan of the English interior stylist Abigael Ahern, who massively inspires me and gave me the courage to paint my living in very dark colours. I am very happy about the cosy effect it has on the space.

Japan

I travelled there in 2008 and brought back a lot of decoration items and little bowls for the kitchen. >>

home & kitchen

Vases

I try to always bring a least one vase back with me when I go on vacation. Remembering where they come from when I am making a flower arrangement makes me smile.

Globes

I collect vintage globes. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the perfect collection for those like us, with global minds living an international life. It reminds you where you come from and where you want to go one day. They also look fantastic arranged on top of the bookshelf.

Last Year

my travels

I travelled to Venice, Dubrovnik and Corfu with my husband in May. For my birthday, we went to Antwerp and Amsterdam and it was really great. I love those cities and the architecture in that part of Europe. In Antwerp, we stayed at an amazing B&B called Feek Suites.

This Year

I travelled to Stockholm in February to the Meet the Blogger Conference and I loved it. I will spend a long week-end in London to celebrate our ten year anniversary. We will probably be staying at the Hoxton hotel in Shoreditch.

Bucket List

A visit to Korea, Vietnam and Singapore. Read about our Blogger of the Month 98

home & kitchen

Favourite Piece

I found an old wooden ladder in a flea-market in Hamburg. I like to put candles, small bouquets or display books on the steps.

My creative space

I am lucky enough to have a crafting room at home with my sewing machine, my fabric collection and a lot of little crafting accessories such as feathers. I love displaying them in different glass jars, old olive jars and yoghurt pots.

My collections

“If you get a chance, take it. If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said it’d be easy, they just promised IT WOULD BE WORTH IT”

MIND & BODY

Girl Gone Home By Anne Scott

Our lives are not always about moving to new

places. Sometimes we find ourselves moving back ‘home’ to where it all started. Here we offer you our GGI Expat to Repat Survival Guide and talk to Naomi about her 360 degree journey

Why it’s scary: You are closing the

door on a vibrant, hugely exciting chapter of your life, willingly or unwillingly. Your sense of identity may have been strongly linked to your ‘foreigner’ status and you have loved living and being ‘different’. You worked hard to settle in and adjust successfully to life abroad and now you are sad that it is over. You grieve for faces and places and may feel like a stranger in your own country. Going through a massive transition, you may feel vulnerable, lost and very emotional. You are not sure how you will fit in to your old life or what will happen next.

How to deal: Look at the move as

another adventure. Forget the notion that you have to fit back in. You don’t. You have changed and developed. You look at things differently, you are bicultural, you have a global perspective. Embrace it, don’t fight it. Don’t fall back into old patterns, create new ones. Let this new chapter in your life be a progression of your overseas chapter, apply what you have learned about life and yourself and keep going and growing. Accept that this is a time of adjustment, reinvention, renewing and rebuilding. It is a golden opportunity. You are once again on a discovery. Apply the new international you to everything that is to come!

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mind & body

GGI’s Expat to Repat Survival Guide Sanity-savers Reach Out If you are really suffering, get some help. Find someone who Be a tourist! Get a guidebook and re- has been through a similar situation or discover your country or city. Explore, take photographs and fall in love with it from a different perspective.

Do what you couldn’t Do things

that you wished you could have done when you were away. Hang out with your Dad. Go to your friend’s wedding. Enjoy shopping in a country that caters for your body shape – no more crying in changing rooms! Eat all your favourite foods. You know what is on your list.

Own it Write a list of your accomplishments acquired while you were abroad. Work them into your CV, your LinkedIn profile etc. Celebrate them and congratulate yourself!

Keep going

Sustain your accomplishments. Did you learn Spanish while you were away? Enrol in an advanced class or do some language exchanges. Continue your personal development.

Find a retreat Find a safe place,

whether that be a park bench or your bathtub. It is ok to step back, take stock and recharge. Your brain is processing a lot of change. Your feelings are legitimate, you may be going through the emotional stages akin to bereavement, so give yourself a break.

Keep in touch ‘Home’sick?

Facebook / Skype the friends you left behind. Sure, you’ll shed a tear but you won’t feel so detached and a chat with a good friend always fixes things. But don’t do it at the expense of building your new network.

invest in some professional counselling. www.internationaltherapistdirectory.com lists professionals who have experience living abroad. If you were repatriated through work, ask your HR rep for assistance.

Find other girls gone international

We are everywhere. Either come to a GGI event or if we are not in your city yet, then pioneer the GGI community where you are! You can also find other internationals on internations.org or meetup.com. Of course, Google and Facebook are also great search tools to find a new liked minded, international circle or network.

5 GGI Happy Quick Fixes!

At GGI headquarters we are a happy little lot so we put our heads together to come up with our universal magic potion for surviving change and thriving. 1. Remember the past with a smile, plan for the future with excitement, but always live for today. Stay in the moment, appreciate the now and you will be happy and at peace. 2. Be grateful for every little thing. Feel it. Write it down. We love the Gratitude Journal app www.happytapper.com 3. You can’t always control your circumstances or other people but you can control your reaction to it. Take charge of your thoughts. Cultivate happy ones. 4. Behaviour breeds behaviour. Be friendly and open and you will find those around you behave the same way. 5. Meet people and situations with flexibility and an open mind in order to make yourself available to new possibilities. mind & body

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GIRL GONE HOME Written by: Naomi van den Broek New Zealand

My year

abroad in Amsterdam was an amazing, frustrating, challenging, unforgettable experience. I met incredible people and had experiences I had never dreamed of. I returned home somewhat unwillingly after I had been unable to get a residents permit, despite being married to a Dutch citizen. We had also travelled for five weeks on our return journey, and as our date of arrival in New Zealand grew closer I found myself getting more and more impatient to get back into the swing of a routine after a year of waiting and not working. Without realising it, I had subconsciously expected on my return that things would be different. When we got to the arrival gates we were greeted by my two nephews. I burst into tears at the sight of them. It certainly felt like we’d arrived home. That night we had a Welcome Home dinner at my sister’s house and it was then that the feeling of déjà vu began to set in. The night before we left for Holland we had had a Bon Voyage dinner at my sister’s. It felt like

time had morphed those two evenings into one and that we had never left. The feeling increased that evening, driving up main roads that were still coned off into single lanes, past empty sites and ruined buildings. We had returned to a city devastated by over a year of daily earthquakes that had continued in diminishing amounts over our time away. Neither one of us was expecting to come back to a city rebuilt, but we were both astonished by how little seemed to have changed. Reality began to set in. We had no jobs, nowhere to live and had exhausted our savings trying to realise our European dream. It was a bittersweet time, reconciling the end of one dream with the birth of another. However, in my time away I had become a more patient person. A year of waiting on the Dutch immigration department to decide my fate had given me a greater ability to live in the moment. I was lucky in Amsterdam to have a community of amazing women with flexible timetables to enjoy these moments

In some respects I’m lucky in the fact that my broken city is a blank canvas that allows me to come up with creative improvements. My advice for any other girls going home is to reflect on the positive aspects of your international experience and see how you can integrate them into your ‘old’ life, appreciate your old friends and find areas where you can continue the growth that the fresh soil and brighter sunlight of your experience afforded you, whether that be personally or professionally. And remember, as my international friends reminded me when I left, I will always have the key to their hearts and homes wherever I may be.

NigelSpiers / Shutterstock.com

with, to be challenged by and grow with. International women living abroad are a special breed. They are energetic, proactive, and fearless – you have to be to survive the experience of being uprooted and transplanted somewhere with different soil. Us New Zealanders tend to suffer from what I call Island Thinking. We are boxed in by water on all sides and our dreams can only extend so far. I came home thinking ‘continentally’. In Amsterdam I did things I would never dream of doing in New Zealand. I taught a cooking workshop, I had a stall in a market. I was a DJ on a breakfast radio show. It was surprising to me that being in a bigger place with more people in it, made me more confident and proactive rather than less so. This attitude has shaped my return. For instance, frustrated at the lack of performance opportunities for female performers in my hometown Christchurch, NZ I have founded a women’s theatre collective and staged our first performance.

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6 ways To make the best start to your day How does your day begin? One too many hits of the snooze button before running out the house? Maybe you’re new in town and checked in your old daily routine at the departure gate? Perhaps you are dealing with sensory onslaught, mental adjustment, time differences, unfamiliar foods and alternative customs? Make it a priority to cultivate the right morning routine to help you manage stress, support well-being and dramatically improve your health. Here are six ways to treat yourself with TLC from the minute you wake up.

Find your rhythm

A good day starts with a good nights rest. Sleep is fundamental to health and wellbeing, we need this time for rest and rejuvenation but good quality sleep is often something we’re inclined to sacrifice in order to gain an extra hour or two in the day and this is despite the links made between sleep deprivation and obesity, diabetes, stroke, cardiovascular disease and depression. To make sure you get a good nights sleep and re-set your internal alarm clock you need to stimulate your ‘third eye’ – the pineal gland which is responsible for regulating your circadian rhythms by producing melatonin. This gland is sensitive to light and dark and requires its daily and nightly dose of both in order to operate optimally. Make sure you get outside for at least 20 minutes of natural daylight every day (even on cloudy days) and when you go to bed try to make your bedroom as dark as possible. It also helps to wind down any activities an hour before bed. Turn off the TV and your laptop (The light from computer screens mimics daylight), dim the room, avoid too much noise and stimulants that contain caffeine (tea, coffee, soda drinks, chocolate) to give yourself the best chance of a good nights sleep and in the long term, discover your natural sleep

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Nicola Tordoff Sohne : Health, fitness and well-being professional, originally from the UK and now living in Amsterdam. Founder of thedailycalorie.com and ladolceeater.com

rhythm. It’s worth getting into the habit of sleeping and waking at the same time each day. Creating a sleep routine that incorporates a wind down and regular sleeping hours will really improve the quality of your sleeping and waking hours.

Drink

It may sound trivial but a mug of hot water with the juice of half a lemon added is one of the most beneficial things you can add to your morning routine. One of the main reasons for this is due to the alkalizing effect of lemon juice. During sleep your body has worked hard to gather up toxins ready for disposal upon waking, starting your day with an alkalizing drink, aids the natural daily detoxification process. Your body is also constantly striving to achieve the ideal PH balance as slight variations from optimal can have detrimental consequences for your health. In an acidic environment your body struggles to carry oxygen rich blood and nutrients to the cells, cells that are starved of oxygen and nutrients will die and leave an even more acidic trail behind them. An acidic environment robs you of energy, as it’s your PH balance that runs the electro chemical show and is therefore responsible for all

bodily functions. If that’s not enough, a hot lemon start to your day will also boost your immunity with a healthy shot of vitamin C. It will also help to keep you hydrated, your skin clear and help you balance your weight. Goodbye morning latte!

Move

Stretching is what most people do quite naturally on waking, it’s a very instinctual response to waking up as it stimulates blood flow, creating a natural energy boost that also stimulates the brain. A good stretch helps to warm up and lubricate the joints and keeps your muscles flexible, thereby improving your range of motion, mobilising the spine and minimizing the risk of lower back pain and injury. It’s worth taking 5 or 10 minutes out of your morning to go beyond the standard sleepy cat stretch and take yourself through a more extensive full body stretching session. Doing so will not only protect your body but lead to a clearer mind and increased energy levels throughout the day. If you’re the kind of person who thrives on an early morning exercise session then try to fit your work-out in before your day begins. A positive, energetic start to the day will boost your endorphins, making you feel as happy as Larry and the extra uptake of oxygen to the brain will keep your head clear and focused. You’ll also be inspired to make healthier choices throughout the day. If you’re a morning exerciser then make sure you have a light breakfast before you train. One of the biggest exercise myths is that exercise before breakfast will help you get leaner. It’s actually more likely to deprive your brain of fuel, which will cause fatigue and compromise the effort you put into the work-out. Early morning work-outs certainly have their benefits, but they’re not necessarily any better than any other time, it’s largely dependent on the individual and at what time your hormones are most balanced and your energy levels are high.

Breathe

Don’t discount the idea of stepping into the spiritual realm of meditation – it’s been improving lives for more than 2400 years! There are some amazing benefits to be had from deep breathing and silencing the mind, even just for a few moments. If it was good enough for Buddha, then surely there are some benefits for us ungodly lot! Science would be inclined to agree, since the men in white coats have started to document the many benefits of meditation on our health and wellbeing… so it must be true then! The brain activity of Tibetan Buddhist monks makes for some interesting findings and there is strong evidence that regular meditation will not only offer a greater sense of wellbeing and encourage a more compassionate mind but through alleviating stress, it can slow down the ageing process, help to overcome depression and anxiety, reduce obesity and prevent heart disease. Amazing! Aside from all that, an essential aspect of meditation is to focus on breathing and this in itself will provide a host of beneficial outcomes that will improve concentration, alleviate fatigue and combat tension.

Eat

In the words of Joss Stone ‘you’ve heard it all before, but it bears repeating’, breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. Skipping breakfast has been linked to obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Eating a breakfast loaded with sugar is nutritionally depleting and will cause a mid morning crash in energy levels followed by cravings for more sugar. A healthy, balanced breakfast within an hour of waking is optimal in stabilizing blood sugar levels and kick-starting the metabolism. You’ll avoid the mid morning cravings and feel more in control of your appetite throughout the day. A good breakfast can also improve mental performance, giving you greater powers of concentration and alertness. It will also help to increase your energy levels, making you more physically active throughout the day – and less likely to skip that gym class. The ideal breakfast contains a good balance of all the macronutrients – fat, carbohydrate and protein. To make sure you’re getting the best quality macronutrients in your diet choose your fats, carbohydrates and proteins wisely and always try to get maximum nutrition from your calories. A nutritionally empty calorie will only stimulate your appetite for more. Nourishing fats include avocado, eggs, coconut oil, nuts, nut butters and seeds. Healthier carbohydrates are found in whole-foods such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, pulses, and whole grains. These foods are high in fibre and rich in vitamins and minerals. Healthy protein options include eggs, lean organic and free-range meats and poultry, fish, natural yoghurt and tempeh. Try to avoid over-processed carbohydrates like sugary cereals, white bread, pastries and muffins. If your plate is full of white and beige foods, it’s a bad sign. Make your breakfast colourful, whole and fresh and you’ll naturally avoid many refined sugars, processed food and unhealthy fats. For some healthy breakfast ideas and recipes, download my free ebook ‘7 days of Superfood on a Budget’ from

Laugh

I’ve borrowed this one from my husband. Every day, whilst eating his breakfast he switches off the depressing news and watches a few minutes of something that is sure to make him laugh. It’s a great way to start the day on the right foot. Laughing is great for positivity and they do say it’s the best medicine.

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International Foodie Friends in Amsterdam They say opposites attract and that is true of us on many levels. Mara is a tall, Italian brunette who comes from the snow capped Italian mountains and loves design, technology and all the mod cons. I’m a fair haired, little English girl from the green hills of Yorkshire who likes old things (as in vintage not dinosaurs) and time tested traditions. I’m a health and fitness junkie who eats chia seeds, juices collard greens and has to train hard to stay in shape; Mara prefers gin to the gym and has the metabolism of a racehorse (yes it is annoying). Our paths first crossed at a potluck lunch for expats on International Women’s Day (8th March) and despite our differences, we discovered that we share an invaluable expertise – we’re both experts in eating! This was to be the foundation of a solid international friendship. Hooray for home made gnocchi ‘just a like a mamma used to make’, the best tiramisu I’ve ever tasted and the revelation of the chocolate salami. I spent more time at Mara’s (and subsequently down the gym) than I did at home. Over in the British corner the self confessed anglophile Mara would get all giddy about afternoon tea in vintage china, Yorkshire puddings and apple crumble. She even tolerated some of my more healthy delicacies such as chlorella, hemp protein and raw cocoa nibs. We are the little piggies and Amsterdam is our mud! LaDolceEater.com is our way of recording and sharing experiences of good food and wonderful people from all over the world. Our most cherished meal times often revolve around family – think of the stereotypical Italian al fresco lunch at a long table packed full of family and friends, old and young or the typically British afternoon tea which transcends generation differences and appeals to granny, mother and daughter alike. Whilst living abroad, it’s important to find our international families to enjoy these moments with. We like to ask people to share with us their special meal – whether it’s a childhood favourite, a much

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loved restaurant, a family recipe, a guilty pleasure or an everyday staple, it’s always a beautiful way to meet new people and understand something about them. What could be sweeter in life than to be surrounded by good food and great friends – that’s La Dolce Eater!

Hey good lookin’ what you got cookin’?

...find out more at ladolceeater.com

7 Days of Superfood on a Budget Our free downloadable ebook

We’ve put together some of our most loved, healthy dishes that are budget friendly, simple to make and most importantly, delicious! 7 Days of Superfood on a Budget is a free digital recipe book from la Dolce Eater. Visit our website to download your copy. Enjoy the benefits of healthy eating – which include weight loss, an increase in energy, beautiful skin, better quality sleep, increased motivation and a clear mind. Like our Facebook page if you’re an expert in the art of eating and socialising!

www.ladolceeater.com facebook.com/ladolceeater twitter/ladolceeater pinterest.com/ladolceeaterNL

• 35 recipes including: 7 breakfasts 7 lunches 7 dinners 7 savoury snacks and lighter meals 7 sweet treats • Contains many gluten free, vegan or vegetarian recipes which are clearly indicated with a symbol system. • As well as the recipe you’ll find nutritional information and insight into why our 35 chosen foods are ‘super’ for your body and mind. • Lots of nice photography – for those who enjoy a bit of food porn. • Easy navigation with interactive table of contents and index. Click on your favourite superfood to be taken directly to the recipe.

Battle of the poached eggs. See how Italy beat China in kitchen to table efficiency! (www.ladolceeater.com)

REFLECTIONS

Hoover dam, Neveda Oct. 2012

Tillamook, Oregen Sept. 2012

A reflection of the self through travel and photography By Rachel Klein, Columbus OHio www.dayontheranch.com

I am a Girl Gone International because life is fun when you can explore, celebrate and cherish new cultures and people. These new experiences teach you about yourself, help you understand and respect others and bring happiness. I have chosen four photos that capture a relection of the world through my eyes. 108

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Bryce National Park, Utah Aug. 2012

I can remember the train ride I

took from Prague back home to Berlin like it was yesterday. It was evening. The low sun made the river valley glow with this wonderful, warm light. Gazing out over the trees, I reflected on my recent trip. Against that beautiful moving background my eyes would occasionally change their focus to ten or so inches in front of me, and for a moment Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d become conscious of my own reflection. When I think about traveling, I think about how the pass

Boulder, Utah July 2012

ing sites and the new experiencesallow you to reflect on yourself. When I catch myself in that window, it reminds me to remember who I am but also remain open to the changes that come with covering new ground. As a photographer, I am fascinated by truly being able to see, to process and to appreciate all that is around us in everyday life. This theme of reflection - reflection of shape, light and object reminds me to be wholly present and to use all new experiences as opportunities to reflect and grow. mind & body

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“Give a girl the right shoes, and she can conquer the world” - MARILYN MONROE

FASHION & CULTURE

Non Stop Beauty Essentials

For girls always on the go

Sarah Aguas, our L.A. based Beauty Editor divulges her travel beauty basics

Living in LA,

we have the chance to go on mini vacations all over the great state of California. Snowy mountain excursions, psychedelic desert trips, relaxing beach lounging – we’ve got it all in reach. With all this climate variation, it’s essential to have the proper upkeep. I’m always throwing things into a bag for my next adventure. Working on daily fashion and beauty newsletters (thezoereport.com) I’m exposed to hoards of new fashion and beauty items. But I’ve found that by knowing my tried and true standbys and having an idea of new trends – I’m able to run off anywhere with no worries besides where’s the next party! Sarah’s Tumblr is: turquoisewatertwins.tumblr.com/ 6 mind & body

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1. PREP

A flawless face comes from an easy routine. All you need is a good cleanser, toner, face moisturizer and eye cream.

CLEANSER Neutrogena Fresh Foaming Cleanser – foamy types remove makeup and freshen everything up. T ONER Neutrogena Alcohol-Free Toner – removes residue and hydrates. FACE MOIST URIZER Murad Pore and Line Minimizing Hydrator – the most important step to stay young!

Sarah Aguas, Los Angeles CA *In 2013, I will be travelling to my childhood home, Portland then Palm Springs / Coachella Music Festival, Hawaii, Mexico, Croatia. *The last time I did something for the first time was... I flew to Rio de Janeiro by myself to meet my Aussie friend who was traveling for Carnival, I just bought a ticket and showed up – surprise! *I am a Girl Gone International because ... I’ve been to Europe to visit my sister a few years back. I loved being so close to other countries and being able to hop a train and grab a chocolate croissant in Paris. *My fantasy destination is ... Anywhere with a beach. Give me a bikini, cool drink and some palm trees and I’m happy as can be. Any city surrounded by beaches is my heaven....Rio, Barcelona...other beach cities I haven’t been to yet! *My favourite App is ... Instagram! And for music, I love Soundcloud – you can find EDM mixes from all over the world and it’s instant party music at your fingertips. 112

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Travel Beauty Basics

2. BASICS

If you’re just tackling the everyday or meeting up for drinks, have your face prepped for the entire day from start to finish. BB CREAMS This new trend is a moisturizer, SPF, skin corrector and light foundation all in one. Your fave brand is sure to have a version.

EYE CREAM Clinique All About the Eyes –

a girl’s best friend! Find one you like and use it every night.

BRONZER Guerlain Terracotta Bronzing Powder- has a shade for every coloring. CONCEALER Look like you’ve had a full night of sleep, even though you may be running on empty! Thanks, YSL, we’re well rested! MASCARA Every respectable girl needs Dior Show in her life. Trust me and try it once! EYELINER MAC can be found all over the world. Do brown for day and then switch to black for an evening splash!

3. A LiL’SPARKLE This is where you can go wild. Keep an eye on trends and feel free to go luxurious and colorful. The more you have fun with your look the more you can enjoy the little (or large) things in life. EYELASH CURLER Give your eyes a pop with the most loved favorite by Shu Uemura. EYE SHADOW Francois Nars never disappoints. I love seeing what new colors debut. Pick up a new one to use every season! SHIMMER MAC Pigment can be used all over the face. Everyone needs versatility when traveling.

LIP COLOR Why not have a couple on backup? Chanel makes everyone feel like a real woman!

Now!

You’re ready to go anywhere in the world and look fabulous – work trips, thrilling adventures or down the street to the store. Last but not least, pick up blotting papers to fix your face in a second.

BLOTT ING PAPERS why put on a whole new face?

Blot away the day wear and tear with Shiseido Blotting Papers.

Latitude

with Attitude By Dale Rolfe in Sydney

Nothing

quite marks the differences between the Northern and Southern hemispheres than the seasons... and attitudes to ice-cream. For Scandinavians, a cup of salted caramel gelato is a delight when temperatures ‘hit’ 15 degrees. Picnic blankets, short sleeves and brightly painted toenails are the ideal accessories for such a balmy day. In similar temperatures. Australians are swaddling themselves in cardigans and scarves and wouldn’t consider icecream at any temperature lower than 27 degrees. When summer does hit the south of the world it is marked by mango-slick hands and listless days at the beach meanwhile, on the other side of the world Londoners tuck into hearty beef pie and cosy up inside art galleries and theatres. What is undeniable though, north or south, regardless of the mercury, Girls Gone International know how to bring style and drama to any occasion. 114

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Winter into Spring Style Tips

*Danes, Parisians and Lon-

doners know that rugging up doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to mean blending in. Work layers to maximum advantage; leather jackets add edge and warmth to floaty dresses. Colourful knits add contrast to basic staples and embellished accessories transform monochromatic outfits. *Try a cape instead of a traditional wool coat to add drama to your outfits while remaining elegant and refined. *Bundled up as you are, make sure your accessories are louder than usual; wear a bold scarf, statement shoes or carry a show-stopping bag to give your look some pop.

Summer into Autumn Style Tips

* Australians, New Caledo-

nians and Indonesians know that a belt is their best friend. Cinch dresses and flowing tops with belts in classic leather or metallic chain at the waist or ribs to create a flattering silhouette. *Warm weather doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t mean having to bare lots of skin. Wear a sheer printed blouse with a neutral camisole, dress up in light fabrics with striking jewellery and wear wide leg pants or cigarette pants in cotton for more demure summer options. *Try trends like playsuits, onesies and printed pants in luxurious fabrics to ensure these looks are more grownup.

Always in fashion:

Australia: Dewy skin, maxi skirts, metallic sandals and a carefree attitude. London: Vintage jewellery, luxury, tailored jackets and winged eyeliner.

Trending now:

Australia: Coloured denim, jewel tones, rose-gold accessories, sunglasses with tropical print frames, sustainable fabrics. London: Berry lips, graphic prints, metallic jackets, jacquard fabrics and brocade skirts.

Trends on the way out:

Australia: Ombre hair, neon everything. London: Studded accessories, lace dresses.

Celebrities we like to emulate:

Australia: Miranda Kerr, Kate Bosworth. London: Poppy Delevigne, off-duty models.

Seasonal fashion crimes:

Australia: Scarves with singlets (vest top), wearing flip-flops to the office and short shorts. London: Wearing black, black and black, Doc Martens with dresses.

Sally

Globe Trekker

Girl Gone International discovers what stylish women on opposite sides of the world are wearing! Sally, Sydney, 28 Ainsley

Ainsley, Sydney, 28 In summer-autumn my go-to outfit is: a floral dress and cute ballet flats which is perfect for pretty much everything from going to festivals, meeting friends for brunch, a day of shopping or a nice walk in the sun. What piece of clothing can’t you live without? I couldn’t live without a black blazer. It immediately dresses up jeans or a dress and takes you from a day to night look. Where are your favourite places to buy clothes? I like David Jones for it’s range of brands and Sportsgirl for trends. SABA and Country Road are great for good quality classic pieces and Kmart and Big W for cheap basics or cheaper alternatives for trends. What are the worst trends you’ve seen in Sydney? I’m hating the too-short shorts that are in fashion right now. Even if you have the figure, they still make you look trashy. My going-out outfit is: skinny jeans, a singlet and a blazer with simple heels, a statement necklace and my new Mimco handbag. 116

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In summer-autumn my go-to outfit is: a floral dress - long or short. There are so many amazing patterns out at the moment and it’s such an easy item to dress up or down. Plus, floral patterns always makes me feel like a lady. What piece of clothing can’t you live without? My black jeans! I have three pairs of the exact same jeans, just in case something happens to them. I wear them in every season. I don’t know what I’d do without them. Where are your favourite places to buy clothes? Sydney is so spoiled for fashion markets, there’s one on pretty much every weekend. My favourite ones are the Kirribilli markets there’s a really good mix of new styles, vintage, and absolutely gorgeous accessories. Plus, there’s the added bonus of checking out your purchases by beautiful Sydney harbour. What are the worst trends you’ve seen in Sydney? Crocs. What did anyone’s feet do to deserve them? I can’t even talk about it... just eugh. My going-out outfit is: I’m so smitten with the beautiful patterned dresses at the moment, and love all the gorgeous pastels but sometimes you just want to throw on something bright – any excuse to wear that new orange lipstick, let your hair down and get loud.

Elzbieta, Warsaw, 29

Sian

In winter-spring, I would normally wear: a beige coat and brown knee-high boots. What piece of clothing can’t you live without? Skinny pants -they make your legs look gorgeous and long. Where are your favourite places to buy clothes? Malls outside the city in Warsaw - they are not overcrowded like in other European cities and I can focus on what I want to buy. What trends don’t you like in Poland? I don’t like it when guys and girls wear sports clothes all the time. When I go out at night I wear: a dress - black and classy. And high heels are a must.

Sian, wales, 33

Elzbieta

In winter-spring, I would normally wear: my Ralph Lauren bubble bomber jacket when it is really cold. Alternatively, a long coat with a detachable furry collar. When it is milder, I wear a cream or bright pink belted mac or a gilet over my favourite Dolce and Gabbana denim jacket. All season I am in flat knee-high boots with a quilted effect. What piece of clothing can’t you live without? Tights, whether plain or patterned. Where are your favourite places to buy clothes? I love outlet malls, my favourites being McArthur Glen all over Europe. The one just outside Rome is amazing. I do an annual trip to Florence to The Mall to treat myself to some past season Gucci, Stella, YSL, Fendi, Cavelli etc. What trends don’t you like in Europe? Wedged trainers of any kind. In the UK, I hate the whole trashy Jersey Shore/Geordie Shore influence – big cleavage, orange tans and 2 layers of fake eyelashes. When I go out at night I wear: High wedge – not the aforementioned sports variety – if I am going to be on my feet all night or navigating the uneven paths of Cardiff. I wear heels if I can perch on a stool all night. I adore Bodycon dresses at the moment. Severely flattering! fashion & culture 117

GGguys Fashion Fashion, trends and travel through the eye of a Boy Gone International... Men â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Brothers, friends,

lovers... no matter where we roam, we have them in our lives. Whether you dress them or dress for them, we could all do with a bit of insight into the male style psyche! We accosted some severely well dressed international men and asked them to reveal their fashion secrets..

Eye up the boys! Can you guess where they live? Turn the page to find out!

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..LONDON! A. Rodrigo Crespo

Age: 34 Nationality: Spanish Home City: Madrid Job: Sales & Marketing You will find me shopping at: Azzaro In 2013 I will be wearing: Clothes made from natural materials – cotton, wool, etc., as opposed to polyester I get style inspiration from: French cinema My favourite designers are: Paul Smith My favourite brand is: Benetton London workwear is definitely: Suits When going out men in Spain wear: Shirts and chinos Trends I don’t like are: Low crotch trousers I love to see a girl wearing: Glasses & scarf I don’t like to see a girl wearing: Too high, high heels The style capital of the world is: Paris The shopping capital of the world is: Hong Kong This year I will travel to: A secret island in the Canaries If I could live anywhere I would live: All over Italy as a nomad

C. Lawrence Lang

Age: 39 Nationality: British Home City: London Job: IT Project Management You will find me shopping at: Zara, Banana Republic, Ted Baker, French Connection, Hawes and Curtis In 2013 I will be wearing: Blue paisley, dots and blue and mustard trousers I shop online at: Hawes and Curtis I get style inspiration from: Pinterest My favourite designer is: Steve McQueen My favourite brand is: Ted Baker At work men in my country tend to wear: Jeans and chinos, light blue shirts

B. Martin Norgaard

Age: 36 Nationality: Danish Home City: Copenhagen Job: Director of Product, eCommerce You will find me shopping: Online In 2013 I will be wearing: Corduroy as I love the look of it and hats because, why not? I shop online at: Amazon I get style inspiration from: Movies, TV shows and people on the street My favourite designers is: Mads Norgaard, Burberry, Dries Van Noten and Dior My favourite brand is: Zara – for their tenacity, ability to identify & copy trends, their prices and return policy London workwear: Depends on the line of work, but mostly casual/business casual When going out men in Denmark tend to wear: Trendy casual wear Trends I don’t like are: Low-riding jeans I love to see a girl wearing: High heels & a full-length elegant dress I don’t like to see a girl wearing: Short tight skirts The style capital of the world is: Berlin for “arty & underground”, Copenhagen for “cool & cutting edge”, Paris for “classic & haute couture”, Rome for “bling & gaudy” At work men in my country tend to wear: Jeans and chinos, light blue shirts Going out men in my country tend to wear: Blue jeans and grey or black t-shirts, shirts and jackets Trends I don’t like are: Baggy and bling I love to see a girl wearing: Coloured or patterned stockings and skirts I don’t like to see a girl wearing: UGGS and anoraks The style capital of the world is: Rome The shopping capital of the world is: London This year I will travel to / go on holiday to: Verona, Venice and South Africa If I could live anywhere I would live in: Hong Kong

GGI ON

MUSIC

Amor de Dias The House at Sea

Released: January 29th Record label: Merge Records The collaborative efforts of Alasdair MacLean (The Clientele) and Lupe Núñez-Fernández (Pipas) meander between effervescence and melancholia in this brilliantly peripatetic release.

Nightlands Oak Island

Adriana Mundy

Music journalist Columbus, Ohio : Rome : London Adriana lets GGI in on 4 new must have albums all released for 2013

Parquet Courts Light Up Gold

Released July 2012 in America on Dull Tools and to be released April 15, 2013 in Europe on What’s Your Rupture / Mom + Pop. This quartet of Texans have accomplished quite a refined record considering it’s conception through punk rock ideals and raw lyricism..and they’ve only just scratched the surface.

Released: January 22nd Record Label: Secretly Canadian This sophomore album from David Hartley (also of The War on Drugs) feels like an amalgamation of methodically written, laminous love songs well suited for rainy walks, sunny drives and, well... general indulgence.

Yo La Tengo Fade Released: January 14th Record Label: Matador

It’s been 3 1/2 years since we’ve had any new music from Yo La Tengo and though this is a quieter release than some may have anticipated, it’s every bit as mellifluous and eloquent as ever. fashion & culture

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I am

Anna Hogrebe Explore Berlin, Paris, Poland Half Blood Blues By Esi Edugyan

Half Blood Blues tells the story of Hieronymous “Hiero” Falk, a talented jazz trumpeter and Afro-German living in Nazi Germany and his band members Chip Jones and Sid Griffiths who escape with him to Paris. Once in Paris the trio goes into hiding as Paris becomes occupied by the Nazis. While waiting for fake papers, Hiero gets arrested by the Gestapo and sent to a concentration camp. This book is as much about Berlin as it is about Paris. The narrative jumps between late 1930s Berlin, 1940s Paris and 1990s Berlin. In 1992, Chip and Sid travel back to Berlin and Poland to come to terms with their secrets, betrayals and what really happened to their friend Hiero.

I loved this book because... I especially enjoyed

the descriptions of the relationship between Chip and Sid while they are traveling back to Europe to find out what actually happened to their friend. Even though some parts of the narrative are unrealistic it is still an unexpected and interesting story set in the time of Nazi Germany shining some light on young musicians during that era.

If you like this, you might enjoy: ‘The Sense of an Ending’ by Julian Barnes 122

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a Girl Gone International because... I was born in Germany and have been living abroad for over 12 years – first in Canada and now can be found working, reading, slurping coffee, learning and arguing in Amsterdam ! Explore Moscow Snowdrops By A.D. Miller

Set in Moscow, Snowdrops is the story of Nicholas, an expat lawyer from the UK, working on behalf of foreign companies in the boom years. The narrative is in the form of a confessional letter that Nicholas writes to his soon-to-be wife. It starts off as a love story, but swiftly turns into a crime story. Nicholas falls in love with Masha, who is showing him through Moscow and he quickly becomes an accomplice to her ambitious plans. Even though there are clues or indications to what that plan is, you have to keep reading up until the end to find out what actually happened. As it says at the beginning of the book, “Snowdrops: Moscow slang. A corpse that lies buried or hidden in the winter snows, emerging only in the thaw.”

I loved this book because...Right from the start, my imagination went into overdrive trying to work out what the main character had done. You read on because you want to find out and although you have suspicions throughout, all you are certain of is that Nicholas is being used by Masha and in the end he hopefully realizes it. I highly enjoyed the descriptions of the atmosphere of Moscow in winter. Beautiful and miserable, it makes you feel like you are walking through the snowy streets with the characters.

If you like this, you might enjoy: ‘The Other Hand’ by Chris Cleave

Explore Paris The Elegance of the Hedgehog By Muriel Barbery

Throughout this book, we hear from Renée, the concierge of a Parisian apartment building and Paloma, a 12-year-old girl who lives in one of the apartments and is planning to kill herself. One part of the book focusses on the concierge, who is an intellectual interested in film, art and literature while maintaining the façade of the simple-minded concierge. The other part of the book concentrates on Paloma and her

Explore Amsterdam The Dinner

By Herman Koch

The Dinner is set in an Amsterdam restaurant where two brothers and their wives meet for dinner to discuss the outrageous act their children have committed. The book is divided into the different dinner courses. At the beginning you can’t help but side with one particular character but as the story progresses and the behavior and reasoning of the parents become more grotesque you begin to doubt all the parents and whether any has sound judgment. Twists and turns are revealed throughout the book and it is only towards the end that the true magnitude of what the children did but also what was decided during the dinner becomes clear.

I loved this book because...I was totally

hooked from the beginning. You just feel like you need to find out what happened. However, it is also a highly disturbing story and none of the characters are good or bad, they all show their ugly faces at some point or another as the story unfolds. It makes you think about how far you would go to protect people that you care about. A nice little extra, if you happen to be in Amsterdam, you can visit the restaurant that The Dinner is set in, it does exist.

If you like this, you might enjoy: ‘Amsterdam’ by Ian McEwan

‘profound thoughts’ and insights gained while observing her parents, which all ultimately lead her to believe that the only way to escape is to commit suicide. When a Japanese businessman, Kakuro Ozu moves into one of the apartments their three lives become entangled. I loved this book because...Of the character descriptions and their interactions with other people and each other. Paloma’s diary entries are especially funny, while ringing very true of any teenager’s experiences. The friendships that are developed throughout the story, especially the one between Kakuro and Renée is almost heartbreaking. The ending is poignant and very fitting.

If you like this, you might enjoy: ‘Life of Pi’ by Yann Martel Explore New York Netherland

By Joseph O’Neill Despite the title, this book is about New York and set in New York. The narrator is Hans van den Broek, a Dutchman who after living in London, moved to New York with his wife and son. However, after September 11, the atmosphere in New York changes and Hans’ marriage falls apart, leaving him alone in the city, after his wife Rachel decides to move back to London with their child. Hans starts playing cricket, a game he loved as a child but realizes is played by different people and in different settings in New York. Chuck Ramkissoon, who is obsessed with building a cricket stadium, takes Hans under his wings. Years later, Hans recalls their friendship after Chuck is found dead.

I loved this book because...I thought that this story accurately and beautifully captured the atmosphere of post 9/11 New York. The Dutch countryside also receives some attention as Hans talks about his childhood. The descriptions of cricket were interesting though sometimes slightly long-winded. Hans’ way of describing events is similarly lengthy and might not be to everybody’s taste. In the end, I enjoyed this book not as much for the story, but for how the story is told.

If you like this, you might enjoy: ‘Canada’ by Richard Ford

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GGI roundup of the best

TV series

to buy, rent, download and stream!

GIRLS

HBO series, started April 2012 We can’t get enough of this very gritty and realistic comedy-drama. Set in New York it follows the lives, loves and sex drives of 20-somethings in New York. Not a cosmo or Louboutin in sight.

NEW GIRL Fox, started 2011

Guaranteed to make you all warm and cuddly on the inside, wet yourself laughing and run out to buy fake eyelashes a la the adorable Zooey Deschanel, this comedy is GGI HQ’s favourite – we want a Schmidt in our life! If you like this you will adore The Mindy Project. Season 1 is currently airing. 124

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If you prefer your NY super saccharine, try The Carrie Diaries, SATC’s prequel.

MASTERS OF SEX Showtime, starts September 29

Set in the 60’s and starring Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan, it revolves around the lives of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, whose scientific sex research helped kick off the sexual revolution. We can’t wait! Until then, catch the UK’s Mr. Selfridge, a.k.a. the new Downton Abbey.

THE AMERICANS FX, started January 30

We can’t get enough of this Cold War espionage drama set in the 1980s. It stars Keri Russell as a sleeper KGB agent masquerading as a doting housewife who is actually an ass-kicking spy. If you are addicted to Homeland, you will love this. If you like complicated conspiracy TV: Zero Hour is also worth checking out.

RAY DONOVAN Showtime, starts June 30

Set to be the explosive crime series of the year, the scrumptious Liev Schrieber leads the A-list cast as Ray Donovan, “fixer” of the problems of Hollywood’s rich and famous power players. Like ‘fixers’? You’ll love Scandal created by Grey’s Anatomy’s Shonda Rhimes. >>

HOUSE OF CARDS Netflix, available from February 1

Kevin Spacey leads this powerful political drama. We are hooked. “To be a successful leader, one must learn how to slip a knife between the shoulder blades of one’s victim and let him feel as if he’s been hugged,” sums it up. Want more power mad politicians? Watch the superb comedy The Veep.

THE FOLLOWING FOX, started January 21

Our horror pick stars Kevin Bacon as an FBI profiler chasing a serial killer with a murderous cult in this psychological thriller.Full of suspense,it goes full throttle from Episode 5. You’ll get into this if you are a Dexter fan.

RED WIDOW ABC, starts March 2013

When Marta Walraven’s husband is murdered, she must do whatever she can in order to protect her children – including getting involved in the world of organized crime. If you like female-driven dramas, you will also like The Good Wife. 126

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Girl Gone international Behind THE SCENES

Boss always looking over my shoulder

The Bed Office

Posh Hotel Bar Office

Tro p ic a l O ffic e

Events all over the world

s l i ta

ck o C

Dinn er

Drinks

Defence Exclu s

Sunday Brunch

ive P artie

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Boot

k or W r Afte

Cam p

Charity Events

Special Dinners

ps o h s k Wor

“People asked me before I left, ‘do you have friends [there]?’ I would just shake my head no, thinking to myself, But I will.“ Eat, Pray, Love

INSTAGRAM PICKS BRKFSTLOVER Anthology TUMBLR Awelltraveledwoman WRITING STYLE www.everywhereist.com PINTEREST Bethany Salvon Beersandbeans GROUP BLOGS Life in Tamale – downright funny tales from a group of 18-25 year olds from the UK in Ghana. dasibatamale.wordpress.com CHARITY VID Radi Aid’s Africa for Norway... Africans unite to save Norwegians from dying of frostbite. Whaaaaat? Check it out! www.africafornorway.no FREE EXERCISE VIDEOS www.thinqfitness.com MP3 Andrew Johnson withandrewjohnson.com

IN MY BLOGOSPHERE 1. Sarah Shaw www.mappingwords.com 2. Kaleigh Aubry www.tastes-good-to-me.com 3. Carolina Baker www.carolinabaker.com

TWITTERATI @almostfearless @mashable @TheCultureist

START MY DAY David Lloyd Sports Club, Amsterdam MOTIVATOR Simon Sinek

IDOL Writer and professional poker player Victoria Coren

SPOTIFY MOST LISTENED TO Alex Clare, Calvin Harris, John Legend, Bat For Lashes, Tom Odell, Nina Simone, Mumford & Sons, Peter Fox, Wiley, Faithless, Pablo Alboran, Yasmin Levy, Nero, Swedish House Mafia, Florence and the Machine

FACEBOOK LIKES Iamexpat in the Netherlands TinyBuddha Matador Network WEBSITES untappedcities.com bloglovin

GGI Head Likes an

TRAVEL MUST HAVE Kindle Fire

RELAX Meditation Society of Australia’s Learn to Meditate Podcast WISHLIST FitBit Flex Activity and Sleep Tracker

SHOP asos.com boutiques FITSPIRATION Strong is the new skinny! I love the book, Body Sculpting Bible for Women by James Villepigue and Hugo DRINKING CherryActive MAGAZINES EasyJet Mag Company Lonely Planet’s Traveller

TIPPLE Hendricks, St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur and Fever Tree Tonic and cucumber slices APP JUNKIE Flipboard and Pocket

OBESSION Iphoneography Pixlr Express+ App CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT My Apple family: Iphone, MacAir and iMac

Anne

ON MY BODY Boat neck tops. I love Peony Lim’s Smocks. FOOD PORN Falling Cloudberries

ON MY FEET Kurt Geiger and Jeffery ALWAYS IN MY BAG Tangle Teezer Hairbrush

MAKEUP BAG YSL Touche Eclat Mac Foundation

BAXTER

PODCAST Amateur Travel amateurtraveler.com

TRANSPORTATION: 5th hand Gazelle Dutch bike

BRAIN FOOD ted.com HAPPY PLACE Reading and drinking wine at ReadingLasses. UK’s only licensed bookshop and owned by my family!

BEST BOSS:

VITAMINS Acia Berry, B Complex, Co-enzyme Q10, Omegas

BEST TRAVEL GUIDES NFT Wallpaper Guides NYT 36 hours in...

MY DRINK Vodka and Soda water with lemon (VSL) TAKE MY COFFEE Espresso with lemon twist or soy latte

COLLECT MAPS of all kind

TAKE MY EGGS Scrambled with sea salt and rosemary WATCHING NOW Girls and New Girl BEST MUSICAN Andrew Bird

GET RECIPES The Daily Green for veggie recipes thedailygreen.com PunchFork to search recipes online punchfork.com

PODCASTS RadioLab NPR fresh air READ NEWS ON Feedly APP NPR or Gawker MUST HAVE TECH Apple TV VLC streamer

TO RELAX Paint or DIY crafts

dquarters nd Loves

GET GOSSIP Buzzfeed BOOK I LOVE Jonathon Franzen Freedom BOOK I HATE 50 Shades of Grey

BEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME Princess Bride

FAVE FB PAGE Marina Abramovic and GGI

MAGAZINE INSPIRATION Monocle and Wallpaper

DESIGN WEBSITES Dezeen ArchDaily

Meghan ART BLOG My Love for you is.. myloveforyou.typepad.com

FAVORITE ARTIST OF THE MOMENT Ai Wei Wei and Li Hongbo

MODE OF TRANSPORT My Dutch bikes!

FOR READING Mini iPad or my NOOK MY FASHION BASICS Uniqlo jeans TOMS MUST HAVE BEAUTY Kiehls tinted moisturizer Benefit cheek stain YSL liquid foundation MAC brown liner Burts Bees chapstick

Coming up in the 2nd issue JULY The Dark Side of Love Abroad What to do when it all goes wrong? A special report on divorce and custody abroad

A Body For All Seasons

Exercise and eating for all hemispheres!

Sex With Germans

A completely unscientific and explicit report on German men and sex. We leave no question unasked or unanswered!

Quiz What kind of traveller are you? 10+ Genius Ideas

To earn extra cash - anywhere!

Homesickness

A must-read guide to how to overcome it

How To Pack..

Never miss an issue of Girl Gone International!

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Your Entire Life Into A Suitcase

Get The Global Food Buzz What’s hot, what’s not and where

Cabin Crew Secrets

The Anti Jet Lag Diet you need to know about

From Austria To Argentina

How GGI Angela Tot found true happiness and the meaning of life in death

Baby Gone International!

Giving birth in a foreign country. Invaluable advice from GGIs who have done it

Career How Cathy Leung successfully started all over again and how you can too Where On Earth Is Home?!

GGIs tell us where ‘home’ is for them

From Russia With Love

We follow Alice Lucas’ new life in Siberia

Loneliness We break the taboo Fashion New City New Style?

Country Cliche Couture - can you pull it off?

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