30 Days and Counting...

Technology Makes Expat Life Easier

Moving is a booger, plain and simple. We're now 30 days away from departure and the pressure is on to get all things settled once and for all. Simple, everyday details must be attended to, things like; mail forwarding, lawn maintenance, bills set up to pay online, paper delivery stopped, cell phone service stopped, Internet service stopped, deciding whether to continue with a land-line phone service, deciding on cable service, having someone watch our home, finding a new home for our beloved pet, setting up VOIP accounts, setting up VPN service, and then there's PACKING!

Technology has certainly made living globally much simpler. I mentioned VOIP which is "Voice Over Internet Protocol" - which allows us to talk with our loved ones on their computers for free (video calls as well). Or, we can call any phone in the world very inexpensively. We've been using SKYPE with very good success for years, but there are many others.

Other applications we're using for our move to China are:
CHINESE POD - An interactive, online Mandarin study.
HAVA - A REALLY cool streaming service that allows us to watch our local cable anywhere in the world via a PC or mobile phone. Now, the streaming will only be as good as our ISP in China - so I'll keep you posted...
WITOPIA - VPN = Virtual Private Network - important to reach US based websites we would otherwise be blocked from viewing/using because of China's Firewalls (remember China is still a communist country).
BBK USA - Electronic English Chinese Translator & Dictionary with Two way Sentence Translation (Voice: Chinese & English; Interface: English or Chinese)
Nintendo DS Chinese Coach - Long a big fan of Brainage Games, we purchased the Chinese Coach and we love it!

My husband and I are technology buffs which is a testament to our willingness to embrace new ideas and concepts; the very attributes needed to be successful expats. While you don't need to be a geek to be an expat, embracing electronic technologies sure can make expat living easier.