They moved abroad for work, then started looking for love. Here are their 5 best pieces of dating advice.
05.09.2024 - 02:53
/ insider.com
Dating is complicated. Finding love while living abroad can seem impossible.
I've been living overseas for more than 15 years.I had just gotten married when I left New York and moved to Singapore, so I never had the experience of dating outside the US. But over the years, I've seen it go both ways: Some single expat friends have found love, while others havemoved back home, finding it too hard to date abroad. One woman in my network even went back to New York, found a man, and moved back to Asia with him after tying the knot.
After spending over a year editing stories for Business Insider about different women's experiences — from a single mom in Spain who makes it a point to avoid single dads, to a teacher in China who relies heavily on the support of her therapist when looking for Mr. Right— I've compiled a list of dating advice.
One common thing most of them have told me is that they have no interest in returning home.
People are usually looking for more than love when moving to a new city; they also need friends.
Sonya Matejko moved from the US to Vienna in 2022 at 31. She found that dating can be a great way to explore a new city. "I learned quickly that dating a local was the best way to discover the best parts of a town and find its little hidden gems," she said.
Matejko also credits dating with helping her make friends.
"We realized on the date that we weren't a fit romantically, but he's still one of my closest friends. And this is not the only time this has happened — a guy I dated in Poland also turned into a dear friend, and I've even gone to stay with him in Brussels to celebrate his getting a new job," she said.
Dena Roché's first long-distance relationship lasted for three years and, at first, felt like a fairy tale. They would meet up in cities like Rome, London, and Paris and spend extended time in each of their hometowns, but she said it never felt real.
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"While we did spend time in each other's world, it still had that vacation-like quality. We had to maximize the little time we had with each other, we couldn't be bothered with the mundane tasks that make up a life," she said.
Luckily for Roché, the second time she met someone living far away, she was able to get him to relocate.
Candice Gallagher had faced challenges with dating in the US, England, and Switzerland, but she found it to be the most difficult when she moved to Singapore in 2019.
"I found there was a very small pool of people who fit into the same cultural space I operated in. It was like I was trying to go fishing in a very small pond," she saidabout her experience.
When she came across a video on TikTok of a group in the US who had set up a dating event, she felt inspired to do the same in Singapore.