Expat married life rocks (the boat)

Anyone who has ever decided to move abroad knows that expat life brings its challenges (I am lonely. I hate the food. I don’t understand anything.) and advantages (I just met the hottest guy/chick.) For married people who decide to move abroad, it brings a whole different set of issues as well.

In a Wall Street Journal’s column titled “The marital strain of life abroad,” Alan Paul shares his experience moving to China with his wife. He says that different schedules, extensive travel, lack of friends and pre-existent marital problem are not unusual reasons for expat marriages to fall apart.

“Furthermore,” he writes. “Some people move abroad and go a bit haywire, in light of the easy availability of prostitutes, the ability of Western men to draw young, attractive girlfriends and, some would say, a culture more open to infidelity. The same impulses and sense of freedom and adventure that lead some of us to form bands or buy motorcycles, send others reeling into darker corners.”

I have seen this happen “more than once” in Prague.