Think now is a bad time to move abroad? Trying to shush your dreams that don’t stop just because… well… everything else has?

The world might feel off limits right now, but this is the perfect time to start feeding the dream. There is no time like the present (in fact, isn’t lockdown just a series of present moments one after the other?).

Without lifting more than a finger to swipe and tap your phone, this is the perfect time to:

Reflect
Reprioritize what is important
Readjust your sails toward your true desires

Maybe you’ve been ignoring things you really want for things you thought you ‘should’ want or ‘should’ be doing. What’s the point of that! If you’re living someone else’s life, you might also be stuck in their quarantine one day.

If you have always dreamed of moving and living abroad, here are ten ways how you can focus on a move abroad without really moving at all.

First, a question: What country have you always dreamt of moving to? Focus on that country as you read on:

Ten ways to start (mentally) planning your life abroad…

Turn on Netflix
Watch movies from the country (or countries) of your dreams. Watch through the lens of ‘wow, I could live there someday’ and see how you feel when you identify more closely with the culture and language that way. Imagine yourself going to the movies with new friends you make while abroad, and what it would be like watching local movies like this.
Order books on Amazon
Head to Amazon and order books written either by authors from that country, or books about that country. This helps you to understand a lot of context that you otherwise don’t have when you move abroad, and it also gives you cultural references that, when shared with locals in conversation, help you to connect.
Join a Facebook group
There are countless groups on Facebook for expats. Just go to Facebook and search: “Expats in France/South Korea/Japan/Colombia” to get started. Read the comments, ask some questions. yourself. Fellow expats are a lifeline, especially when you first move abroad, or even before you take the leap.

Tip: Consider joining Wanderful, the world’s largest travel community for women. Members communicate online, but are often your friend on the ground when you land in real life. Odds are, at least one of Wanderful’s 40,000 members lives in the country where you want to move.
Make a local dish
Search for a popular local recipe and head to your shopping app and order the ingredients online so you can made it from home! Will it taste right? Probably not. But food is an international language all its own. Having made this dish is a conversation starter when talking to locals.
Learn a little bit of the lingo
Download a free language app like DuoLinguo and practice a little bit of the language. I always emphasize that speaking the language is not a prerequisite for moving abroad. Once you’re there, however, you will need helpful phrases to start, and becoming fluent should be a goal once you choose to stay.
For now, the more familiar you are with the sound of the language also helps it to feel less foreign, which helps you feel a little calmer when you are listening to locals chatting away and don’t really understand what they are saying. It is empowering to know you can go home and learn more of the language each day.
Peek in on their pop culture
Google “most popular singer in…” or “most popular song in….right now” and find a local artist. Plug their name into YouTube to find videos of their songs and interviews on local television. You’ll find a lot this way!
Read the paper
Google English Language Newspaper of… and read the local news. Many countries have an English-language newspaper with current news. This is one way you would like stay up to date when you first move there, and until you speak the language.
Get lost in a map
Look up the country on Google Maps and randomly drop pins into streetview. Find the capital, look for grocery stores, see where schools are located, what are towns called on the borders with other countries … just explore! The best way to learn to get around when you move abroad is to take the time to study the maps, not only so you don’t get lost, but so you have a good sense of what is around you.
See the sights
Visit TripAdvisor for Top 10 Tourist Attractions in that country, or in the city you want to move to. Start to imagine how you would spend your first few weeks exploring your new home.
Catch a game
Google the most popular sport in the country. If it’s different to what you know, watch some games. Sport is the heart of most countries, and understanding the games, the popular players, and how the championships work is a very easy way to fit in - even when you don’t speak the language and don’t know much else about the country.

Bonus: Google “Expats in [the name of the country] and find a few bloggers or YouTubers who put out content specifically on what it’s like as an expat or foreigner abroad in that specific country. Subscribe/follow them so you can get consistent, quality updates about life abroad in your dream destination. Expat experts often act as a bridge between foreigners trying to get settled, and the locals.

Last tip: Just for fun, check out how much a plane ticket costs to fly there three months from. Go on Airbnb and see how much an apartment costs to rent for the first month. Just open the door to what it might be like to move there once this pandemic is over. It might seem a lot easier than you think.

Good luck! And tweet me @jessdrucker to let me know how this works for you! Use the hashtag #abroadfromthecouch :)

Of course, if this awakens in you the desire to take actions on your dreams, you can hire an expat coach to help you successfully move abroad. I happen to know an excellent one (spoiler: it’s me).