Last month, I was in conversation with Vivian of The Expat Diaries here on Substack, as part of a live panel discussing life abroad in Spain. (Note: I’m by no means a moving to Spain expert, but you’re welcome to watch the replay if you want to hear my long-term life abroad stories.)
Afterward, Vivian shared a Note outlining her version of the life abroad starter pack. I cheekily responded with a sequel: what the Five-Years-In starter pack includes.
As I keep reading and connecting with your long-term life abroad stories through Edgewalkers Collective, I’ve noticed that most of us already know the starter pack for arrival. The visas. The language academies. The house-hunting. Plenty of Substackers cover that brilliantly. What’s explored far less is what happens once you’ve hit the five-year mark.
Nobody hands you this list when you relocate. There’s no orientation packet for it, no laminated card at the embassy. It accumulates quietly instead, somewhere around year three or four — evidence of adaptation that shows up sideways, in small moments, rather than announcing itself as a milestone.
Here’s what tends to be on it.