Welcome to another Women around the World Wednesday. This week, we feature another lady living the expat life. I suppose since I myself am an expat, I find the stories of other expats to be very interesting. Not everyone just decides to move to a different country for a period of time. So I’m always fascinated to find others who have done similar things to me.
Lindsey is the blogger behind Have Clothes Will Travel. She’s an American who lives in Rosario, Argentina. While I have never been to Argentina, I have always been fascinated with the culture. I’m not going to lie … the thought of looking into English teaching jobs down there at some point has crossed my mind. After all, I already speak fluent Spanish having lived in Spain and worked a bilingual job in the US. So I was curious as to what the expat live down there is like.
Like me, Lindsey also combines travel and fashion. I love that! So here’s our Q&A.
Name, where you are from and where you live now
Hello! I’m Lindsey. I’m originally from a small town in Wisconsin (United States) and am currently living in Rosario, Argentina.
What made you decide to live in Argentina?
My husband and I moved to Argentina because my husband’s company had a project for him here. It’s always been a goal of ours to see the world, so we jumped at the opportunity to explore South America.
I read your life story post about getting married quickly to try to move to the UK. What has life been like since then? Where all have you moved to before Argentina?
Life has been a lot of ups and downs since then to say the least! Haha. Right after we were married and sold everything we owned. We ended up not moving to the UK and ended up living with my parents for several months. (Very long story, all in this here post.) It ended up taking us about 3 more years before we started our journey living abroad. (Persistence pays off!) So far, we’ve lived in Japan and Australia before moving to Argentina.
How long have you been in Argentina?
We’ve been in Argentina for about 4 months now.
How long do you want to stay?
Unfortunately, this isn’t up to us, but it does sound like the project my husband is on will last until March of next year, which I think will be a perfect amount of time to experience Argentina.
What do you guys do for work there?
My husband is a Senior Software Implementation Architect, and to accommodate constantly moving, I blog and offer personal styling services online, and do freelance assignments (editing, writing, etc.), and I have also been helping at an English school in the area a couple days a week.
Do you speak Spanish?
Un poquito! I didn’t know any Spanish before we were asked to move here, and I only had about 2 weeks to prepare for the move. So, I’ve been taking classes since we arrived. I can now understand most conversations, however, speaking is still very difficult for me.
What are some big differences in life in Argentina vs. the US?
What has been the hardest part about living in Argentina?
Have you experienced any culture shock there and if so, how did you experience it?
What is your favorite thing about Argentina?
What are some things you found surprising or were not expected when you moved over there?
When did you start your blog and how long have you been blogging?
I started my blog almost exactly 3 years ago. I can’t believe it’s been that long to be honest! It’s certainly come a long way since the days of shooting posts with my old iPhone, haha.
What’s the main idea/focus of your blog?
There are two main focuses of my blog, the first is to show our travels and hopefully show that traveling to different countries isn’t a terrifying or dangerous experience. It can be such a wonderful and enlightening opportunity that I hope everyone will get the chance to try in some form or another.
The second focus of my blog is my personal style posts. My goal with these is to give a little style inspiration as well as encourage other women to wear whatever they are most comfortable in – despite what is trending or what everyone around them is wearing. Nothing makes me happier than getting a message saying I inspired someone to try wearing a dress for the first time or heels or jeans, etc. Wear whatever makes you happy!
How does your life overseas impact what you blog about?
Life overseas means I blog more frequently about our travels and the culture differences that we encounter. These were topics that didn’t get a lot of blog time before we moved abroad.
Where do you hope to take your blog?
I hope to continue growing Have Clothes, Will Travel and eventually I would like to take on more writers/photographers to share their experiences. I currently have a guest post section that I feel has really added some good information to my blog. One day I would like to expand on this section.
What advice do you have for anyone wanting to start a blog?
Find a subject you are passionate about and go for it! Blogging should be enjoyable, if it begins feeling too much like a chore, you need to take a step back and reassess the direction you are heading. It’s also important to take inspiration from other bloggers, but not try to copy them. Be true to yourself, or you will get exhausted trying to keep up with the facade of emulating so-and-so of a blogger, and eventually will burn out. If you’re being true to yourself and pouring your heart into your blog, people will notice and gravitate to you.
What travel advice do you have for people wanting to visit Argentina?
Learn at least the basics of Spanish! In my opinion, the best part of visiting Argentina is getting to meet the lovely people who live here. So, being able to communicate with them will make your trip so much more enjoyable.
What parts of Argentina must people see?
Although we have been here for about 4 months we have not explored much outside of Rosario. (Terrible travel blogger, I know!) However, my current plan over the next couple months is to visit Mendoza, Iguazu Falls and possibly Salta and also spend a couple more weekends in Buenos Aires (we were only there for immigration purposes). I also want to set aside some serious time before we leave Argentina and do some hiking in Patagonia. Fingers crossed this works out, as I have heard nothing but amazing things from locals and tourists alike about all of these places.
Where do you think you all will move next?
It sounds like there is a possibility our next move will be somewhere in Europe. However, we generally don’t know for sure until we’re on the flight there! Haha.
I know you offer personal styling services. Tell me a bit more about that and what people could expect from that.
This used to be an in person service I offered when I lived in the States, but now that we’ve been moving so much it has morphed into an online service. Over phone, email and Skype (depending on what a client is most comfortable with) I offer styling services for special events (such as weddings, photo shoots, etc.) We can use pieces the client already owns or items I find online, depending on the particular client’s needs. I have also helped client’s pick out key pieces for their wardrobe for daily wear, and I’ve also helped some women clean out their closets to make room for said key pieces.
If anyone is interested in setting up a free, introductory 15 minute consultation session with me for personal styling services, please don’t hesitate to email me at Lindsey@have-clothes-will-t
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Thank you so much, Nina, for inviting me on A World of Dresses! I really appreciate the opportunity to meet your lovely readers.
If anyone is interested in continuing to follow my journey, come on over to http://have-clothes-will-tr
Here’s a bit of Rosario, Argentina
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