Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, November 1 – One often challenging part of life as an expat (expatriate or expats are people living outside of their native country), is finding others who relate to life in a way similar to how you do, while living in the midst of a foreign culture. In larger cities, where there are more expats, there are often groups that form for this purpose. During the four years we lived in Shenzhen, I was involved with SWIC, the Shenzhen Women’s International Club. SWIC has members from all around the world! They have weekly social coffee mornings, and offer many classes, group activities, and trips. Although it is an hour drive from me now, I am still a member and enjoy going back at least once every couple of months. Songshan Lake, where we live now, is about a 30-minute drive from the area in Dongguan where most expats live. They have a much smaller group that meets once a month, and there are 8-12 people who usually attend. Today, we went to the SWIC coffee morning in Shenzhen, which is held in the lobby of the Shekou Hilton Hotel, and there were probably about 50 ladies there. I enjoyed conversation with ladies from Panama, Taiwan, UK, Canada, USA and China, and there were many more I didn’t talk to! When the majority of days I’m challenged to just find someone who I can speak to about any minor thing (whether that is with their limited English or my limited Chinese!), it’s like a social energy boost to have ladies to talk to about things I really enjoy talking about! So, thanks to my SWIC friends (old and new), I am now recharged and ready to go! Thanks to Leah also for taking some pictures today while I was busy talking :-)