Expat Stories: Miss Expatria Shares about Blind Confidence, L'Amour in France, Rome & Walking Off Cliffs

Christine Cantera is a freelance writer, editor and translator, as well as the author of BootsnAll's WhyGoFrance Travel Guide.

She is also the first featured "story" in the the new "expat stories" series you'll be reading on this blog. 

 

Miss Expatria

I first "met" Christine as @MissExpatria in 2008 on twitter. She was most certainly an enabler of travel addiction back then through her Miss Expatria blog where she shares about her adventures in the south of France and with the gay mafia in Rome. She became a judge (along @michellefabio, @mybellavita and @tinatangositaly) in my Expat Snapshot contest - a contest requiring entrants (expats in Italy) to complete the sentence: “You know you are in Italy when…”. Her insights into life into life in Italy made her a valued addition to the judge's panel. 

Since then I've seen Christine publish a book on her expat adventures, Miss Expatria, as well as continue to write freelance and be featured in major media. And she's now an author for WhyGoFrance.

I admire Christine for many reasons. Her ability to paint piercingly poignant snapshots of expat life with her words. Her unabashed honesty in her sharing of experiences. And her come hell or high water commitment to building a life for herself abroad.

As part of the "Expat Stories" series, I've asked Christine to share her story of how she came to be an expat, her reflections on it and any lessons learned she'd like to share with other expats who may benefit from her words of wisdom.  So without further ado...

 

So Christine, can you share your story of how you went from living in New York to splitting your time between the south of France and Rome...  

In Which PowerPoint Leads Me To Rome

By the time I had hatched my plan to move from New York to Rome, I had logged in many years in the corporate world. And it’s a good thing, because I needed to use all of my accumulated experience in getting my bosses, my HR department and my team on board with my decision.  

It helped that I was absolutely, 100 percent convinced it would work, but there was a lot of managerial handholding along the way. I came up with a solution for every concern they had - from “quitting” my job and being rehired as a freelancer, to IM chat training sessions (hey, it was 2001), progress reports, PowerPoint presentations and even a non-paid vacation/trial run several months before my departure date. 

It took a Herculean effort, but eventually and with great fanfare I was bid addio and moved to Rome with a company-issued laptop, a trunk with all my possessions and no return ticket. For several years, I had the best of both worlds - the security of a corporate job with the frankly awesome experience of doing as the Romans do, every single day. 

In Which L’Amour Leads Me To France

But then the corporate world caught up with me, and when we lost our client my team and I lost our jobs. I had some good fallback offers waiting for me in New York and I took one of them, on one condition - that within a year I could make it virtual and move back to Rome.

In the meantime I had met and fallen in love with a fellow American expat living in the South of France. Cal is a freelance writer, and although we met while I was visiting the South of France we had gotten to know each other through daylong IMs as we each worked from our respective Internet cafés. So when it came time to move back with my new virtual corporate job, to the South of France I went.

Life went on as usual, albeit more French, for another year or so until it happened again: they lost the client, and I lost my job. And then, metaphorically speaking, I walked off a cliff.

In Which I Walk Off A Cliff

Moving back to New York was not an option. The time had long since passed when I’d thought of this as some sort of little year-abroad experiment. I lived here now. My entire worldview had shifted six hours east. There’s no running back “home” when you realize you’re already there.

But more importantly, the corporate life was no longer for me. For one, I wasn’t sure how many chances I had left to find a high-level company that would accept a long-distance virtual employee. Secondly, I had to admit that something fundamental inside me had changed along with my location. And I’m not talking some kind of precious, Eat Pray Love philosophical shift - I mean it came as a surprise to me that the concept of a corporate job was as foreign as working on an oilrig, or as a souk vendor. It was as if I’d suddenly lost the ability to speak a language - my mind just came up blank. it simply was not an option anymore. 

I’d always been able to write and I was a hell of an editor, so I asked Cal if he would take me on as a partner in his freelancing business that he had through Elance. I’d been given a bit of time before I had to return yet another company-issued laptop, and we put it to good use: he bid me out on everything he could find, and within a week I’d started landing editing gigs and then writing gigs. 

By the time I had to send back the laptop, I’d made enough to buy my own and the walk off the cliff had turned into flight. My freelance career - yes, after 20 years of employment, I’ve finally found a career! - has allowed me the luxury of working to live, instead of living to work.

 

Reflecting on your story, what do you feel are the strengths, qualities or talents that helped you realize your goal of living and working abroad?  Do you have any ”lessons learned” to help guide or inspire other current or aspiring expats?

I think blind confidence was my main strength at the time of my decision to move abroad, and it’s also helped me throughout my expat life. I simply knew that it would work, and everything else after that just became inevitable. 

However - and this is a lesson learned - having confidence must also carry you through the times when everything doesn’t go the way you planned, in that you have to be flexible and just plain “wing it” some of the time and maintain enough confidence to know that it will all work out in the end.

Practically speaking, language skills are a MUST. I’ve lived fully immersed and I’ve lived almost exclusively expat, and there needs to be a combination of the two to make it work. And for that, you’ve simply got to know the language.

 

So what does the future hold for Christine Cantera?

I’m thrilled to say that I have no idea! My dream would be to hole myself up in Suite 511 at Hotel Byblos in Saint-Tropez and write a sequel to Miss Expatria, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon. So it looks like I’ll have to limit my immediate future to traveling around France for WhyGo, improving my night photography, and musing about expat life on my Miss Expatria blog.

 

Grazie mille for taking the time to share your story Christine!

 

EXPAT CAREER SUCCESS TIP: Writing your story is a great way to celebrate your accomplishments in life as well as uncover strengths, qualities and talents that could be keys to your personal and professional success.

What is the one thing in Christine's story, her reflections, or her lessons learned that resonates with you most?  Do the turning points in Christine's story remind you of your own? If so, what strengths or talent did you draw from to move beyond that crossroad? Are you using this strength or talent in your work? If not, why not?

Reflect on these questions. Then consider writing about your own story to see what what strengths, talents or lessons about work and life you might find. Come back and share what you discovered.

For tips on how to write your story, you can read Jo Parfitt's advice on the topic in "expat story" interview.

 

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Comments

[Lily]

I really enjoyed this expat story! Thanks, Christine for honestly sharing your experience. I've thought about becoming an expat (in the Caribbean or Central America) for the past three years, but have never been able to make it a full-time affair yet. I can't figure out the income part and found it so frustrating. Corporate work is definitely no longer my idea of a life, either. Maybe I'll look into Elance as well! Thanks for the ideas and the refreshing story.