Mind the Gap: Staying Connected Across Distances

Now that you’ve moved to another country, you’re spending your time exploring your new home, getting government paperwork and appointments done, navigating language barriers and cultural differences, drinking absurd amounts of coffee, and meeting an endless stream of new people. It’s exhilarating, complicated, exhausting, and beautiful—and very important to be present.

So, how are you supposed to manage your new life as well as your old one? 

Let me just go ahead and say that it’s not easy. From a practicality standpoint, navigating time zones is difficult. There have been many times where I’ve sent messages to friends and family at 3:00am their time. It can also be hard when the funny and strange things you’ve experienced since moving don’t make total sense to people back home. But it’s incredibly important (and worth it!) to continue sharing your life with your people in the US.

With this blog, I want to share four strategies that I’m using to keep in touch with my stateside loved ones!

Circles and Frequency 

An awfully math-sounding subheading... Sorry about that. However, I want to pause and explain how I’m going to categorize each of the four strategies highlighted in this blog before we dive in. 

The first criterion is “circle,” referring to your inner, middle, and outer social circles. These refer to the level of closeness that you have within your relationships: your inner circle includes close friends and family, your outer circle covers acquaintances and social media mutuals, and your middle circle is everyone in between. 

The second is frequency: monthly, weekly, and daily. This typically corresponds with how close you are with people—high frequency communication for your closest people, and vice versa. Keep these things in mind as you strategize how you want to keep in touch with people back in the States. 

Now onto the four strategies!

Personal Newsletter

I decided to create my own monthly newsletter to share longer stories and updates with my inner and middle circles. 

First, I created a Google form and shared it over social media and text for anyone to sign up. I recommend having one question for people to put their first and last name and a second question for them to put in their emails. Keeping it short and simple encourages people to sign up, as well as compiles all of the emails in one place. Super easy to copy and paste later!

Then, I created a design on Canva. I really enjoy the design aspect of this strategy because it’s sort of a creative outlet for me; however, it’s also more fun for the people receiving the newsletter when it’s eye-catching and organized. My September newsletter included various stories, a meal of the month, an entire page dedicated to photos, and more. I would encourage you to adapt the sections to align with your personality and adventures, and don’t hold back on photos—they’re what everyone loves most! 

Circle: middle

Frequency: monthly

Travel Instagram

Rather basic, I confess, but it might just be the tool you need to reach the widest range of people in your life, or your outer circle.

I first started my travel Instagram when I embarked on my Spain study abroad. It was my goal to do a daily post featuring new vocabulary, the meals we ate, and the sights we saw. I’m proud to write that I accomplished this goal thanks to Canva and spotty WIFI, and I ended up doing the same thing when I studied abroad for a second time in London.

That pattern, however, is not very practical for a full year abroad.

Instead, I’m now doing weekly photo dumps on my travel Instagram with a list of highlights from the week as the caption. It’s amazing to share the many highs and lows that occur within a short span of seven days with so many people. 

Circle: outer

Frequency: Weekly

Shared Album

This is another practice that I started when I first studied abroad. I created a Shared Album in the Photos app and added both immediate and extended family, as well as my closest friends. In this album, I put pictures, videos, and vlog updates so my inner circle can share in the sights and sounds of my life abroad. 

This is a great strategy for family members and friends that don’t have social media. For example, both of my grandpas comment on many of the photos as if it were their own version of social media—they’re precious. I try to update it every couple of days or once a week whenever I’m on solid wifi. I put the most photos in the shared album and try to add comments to some of them to introduce new friends, iconic places, crazy stories, or funny commentary.    

Circle: inner

Frequency: weekly (or whenever you have WIFI) 

Messages & Phone Calls 

While I don’t think the importance of these methods need much explanation, it’s still worth highlighting. With WhatsApp, I tend to send voice memos and texts at all hours of the day (shoutout to my family chat who often receives animated messages at 2:00am their time). It’s super easy to do and doesn’t require any coordination on either party’s end. 

Phone calls are a bit more difficult, both with time zones and the cost of international calling. Pero ¡vale la pena! To avoid costs, I recommend using WhatsApp, which allows both video and voice calls. Although it’s difficult to navigate time zones—trust me, my home is an awkward 8-hour gap from my abroad home—I encourage you to find even 30 minutes to call your loved ones. It is so sweet to be able to hear the voices and see the faces of home, and to share the crazy experiences we’re living. 

These seem like small practices, but I like to think of these as inviting my U.S. people into my daily life abroad. For me, it means a lot to me when my college roommates send a message like “I just had hummus with lunch” because it not only means that they’re thriving in their daily lives, but they’re thinking of me, too. Just because we aren’t face-to-face, doesn’t mean we can’t share the highs and lows of everyday life!  

Circle: inner

Frequency: daily messages, weekly calls 

Mind the Gap

Even though it requires extra effort, making international communication and updates part of your routine will keep people in the loop with this amazing adventure. You get to choose how often you update, but here’s what I would recommend based on the methods I’ve shared in this post: 

• Personal Newsletter - middle circle, monthly
• Travel Instagram - outer circle, weekly
• Shared album - inner circle, weekly (or whenever you have WIFI)
• Messages - inner circle, daily 

Keeping in touch with people from the U.S. isn’t a chore, it’s a practice that’s important for relational maintenance. After all, it’s an honor to be able to leave our home, even if just for a year or two, knowing that there are people back there rooting for us. Remember: home isn’t a place; it’s the people that we share this life with.