Reaching Out on Social Media

Hello, world!

My train of thought today veers from the heavy topics to a more light-hearted one. 

I thought I would share my favorite social media platforms for reaching out to others who have moved/worked abroad or those who are thinking of doing so, primarily in the field of Speech Language Pathology (SLP). I will continue to add to this list as I discover more resources.

Facebook Groups:

• SLPs Going Abroad - a special shout out to this group, administered by an SLP who moved abroad. I have been fortunate to connect with some really awesome SLP's who are 'in the same boat as me' (i.e. have/are experiencing the trials and tribulations of transferring their degrees internationally). 
• Speech Pathologists at Large
• Travel Therapists

Twitter Hashtags:

• #MoveSLP - this hashtag was created by @WeSpeechies administrators.
• #WeSpeechies - this hashtag was created by Australian SLP's. The weekly chats have enabled me to connect with an informative group of SLP's from all over the world.
• #SLPeeps - this hashtag enabled me to link up with a supportive bunch of American SLP's, who I had the honor of meeting face-to-face during the 2014 ASHA Convention in Orlando, Florida. 

#SLPeeps at #ASHA14.   Photo credit to LessonPix.

Blogs:

I have stumbled across a few blogs about traveling SLP's within the United States (nationally):

• Keeping up with the Joneses
• The Ramblings of a Traveling Speech Therapist
• Talk it Out - Traveling Speech Therapist
• Wandering Ways with Travel Speech Therapy

I have not come across any blogs about SLP's traveling/working abroad (internationally). As I blindly navigated my way through this process, I thought this area needed some attention. That is why I started this blog.

An array of blogs and websites appear when you Google search ' working abroad'. I would love to hear from anyone in any line of work who has traveled and worked abroad. It is always inspirational to hear other people's stories.

What have you used to get in touch with people around the world?

Have a great day, 

Maree

What Visa Do I Need?

Hello, folks!

Today we're going to talk about Visa's. Boring, I know. Nonetheless, it's very important for international travel of any kind.

The U.S. offers a range of non-immigrant visa's for temporary stay for tourism, business, visiting, studying and exchange purposes (find out about each of them here). However, applicants who hold these visa's are restricted from employment outside of their visa's conditions. Basically there are two pathways to obtaining the right to work in the U.S.:

1. Temporary, non-immigrant employment visa based on the planned employment purposes. The caveat is that the candidate must be sponsored by a company. The paperwork required to file for sponsorship can be time-consuming. Unfortunately, more highly-skilled, foreign candidates can be declined employment in place of a lesser-skilled, citizen (my husband experienced this difficulty trying to find work in Australia a few years ago). Even when sponsorship is successful, this temporary visa lacks stability because the company can forfeit sponsorship at any time, and there are lots of requirements to satisfy in order to maintain or extend it. You can find more info about non-immigrant employment visa's here.
2. Immigrant visa for permanent residence. This includes family immigration, inter-country adoption and fiance (marriage) visa's. The advantage of this route is that once a permanent immigrant visa is obtained, you have a permanent "right to work" that is not tied to any specific company. The downside is that the route to obtaining said visa can be long and relatively expensive, as outlined here. 

America prides itself on its independence, and so it should. However, the consequence of it not being a part of the Commonwealth made it difficult for me to obtain the right to work here. Classed as a visitor, I was denied employment, health care and indefinite stays in the U.S. I felt like I'd been stripped of my identity. Consequently, my husband and I chose to go down the immigration path for permanent residence in our respective countries. Perhaps the most interesting experience of the process was the medical examination. These were my lasting thoughts:

...prepare to walk in single file from room to room for a two hour period, naked under a thin hospital gown, being poked and prodded in all places imaginable. In other words, say good-bye to your dignity! 

So, was the year-long, grueling process for permanent residency worth it? In my opinion, yes. Arriving into the U.S. on a permanent residency visa for the first time, I actually felt like this country wanted me. I am now entitled to health care, employment, and that pesky social security number which is required for sooooo many things. 

Here's a shout out to anyone else out there who has gone/is going through visa processes to work in another countries. No matter where you are in the world, I would love to hear your stories!

Have a great week,

Maree

Culture Shock!

Travelling to a new place is exciting. Moving to a new place is a whole different ball game.

During the long-distance portion of our relationship, Greg and I would save up enough money to visit one another every 6 months. He worked the red-eye shift at Walmart (difficult for a person who prefers a ‘normal’ sleep schedule), and I worked in a coffee shop (difficult for someone who hates coffee).  We knew we would only have a couple of weeks together, so we would make an effort to visit different attractions and see and do as much as possible within that time period. I think you generally see what you want to see when travelling. You don’t really experience the differences between two countries until you are living somewhere else, both good and bad.

I try to embrace my uniqueness, and it does come in handy for those times when you want to be noticed e.g. interviewing for a job or making friends at the local tennis club. The other day, three employees in Publix (the local supermarket) asked me where my accent was from and struck up conversation, interested to hear all about my life. American’s think Australia is some kind of exotic oasis where everything is trying to kill us. They love icons like Steve Irwin and Crocodile Dundee, to the point where I’ve been asked if I know them – “Oh yeah, he’s my Uncle” I once replied. Basically, it’s ‘cool’ to be an Aussie in the States.

Getting back to my point – when you live somewhere new, you need to work to earn money and do all those tasks that ‘normal’ people do. You do things 10x slower than everyone else because you’re learning a new way of doing things. You constantly experience the feeling of moving one step forward and two steps back. No matter how hard you try to ‘fit in’, there’s always someone there to let you know that you don’t. There’s two words for this:

Culture Shock! 

No one can ever prepare you enough for it. But you do grow because of it.

I thought I would share a few of America’s idiosyncrasies:

• Everything is about convenience – drive through banking; drive-through pharmacy; drive-through Krispy Kreme Doughnuts; electric garage door openers; the mailman not only delivering mail to your mailbox but also picking up any mail you need to send. (I must say I have grown to enjoy the latter two conveniences)!
• FOOD. EVERYWHERE. There are billboard advertisements for fast-food restaurants every few hundred meters along the freeway. There are so many chain restaurants that I am constantly hearing about new ones. In Australia, you can almost count them on one hand.
• Cheap beer prices. (I also appreciate this one)!
• The health care system is complicated (let’s no even go there, or this blog post will never end)!
• I am constantly learning new lingo. Here’s a few of my favourites:

1. It’s “How are you doing?” in America, not “How are you going?” like in Australia. American’s will reply to the latter with “Going? I’m going nowhere. But I’m doing well, thanks”.
2. ‘shopping cart’ for ‘shopping trolley’
3. ‘gas’ for ‘petrol’. People will ask "Have you got gas?" – makes me laugh every time.
4. ‘Quick Lube’ / ‘Jiffy Lube’ is the name of some mechanic stores. 
5. ...and last but not least, you say ‘I’ve lost my flip flop” when at the beach, not “I’ve lost my thong”. (From personal experience, you only make that mistake once)! 

On that note, have a great week! 

Maree