A Family Year Abroad : How to Live Outside the Borders [Paperback]

Chris Westphal (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2001

Have you ever dreamed of living abroad? And taking your family with you? Chris and Stephanie Westphal wanted to travel, but their responsibilities with jobs and kids kept them at home. Finally, they decided to go anyway. They rented their house, put bank accounts on hold, and moved the whole family to Prague, Czech Republic, for an entire year. Funny, insightful, and inspiring, this book tells how that year abroad changed their outlook on life, and also explains how others thinking of making a change can do it, too.

TIPS ON:
* Picking a country and convincing the kids
* What to bring and how to pack
* Health and safety concerns
* Finding a job and a place to live
* Staying connected with home
* Managing finances
* Distance learning programs
* Foreign schools
* Culture shock-both abroad and back home
* Traveling with children
* Customs and shipping
* Student and house exchange programs
* Plus a step-by-step timeline to help you plan, get organized, and do it right!

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...Chris Westphal covers everything you need to know about moving to, living in, and returning home from another land." -- Jerry Camarillo Dunn, Jr., travel writer/editor for the National Geographic Society

"A lively, involving book, 'A Family Year Abroad' is much more than just a family memoir" -- The Midwest Book Review, February, 2002

"A thoroughly entertaining memoir of one family's experience living in Prague for a year." -- C. Appel, Fearless Book Review, November 1, 2001

"Anyone considering a move abroad will find practical tips in this book." -- Anne Chalfant, Contra Costa Times, October 21, 2001

"Presents an engaging story and offers helpful information...valuable for a family dreaming of embarking on an international adventure." -- Duke Gifted Letter, Fall 2001

"The book is a great resource and a nice addition to the available travel genre." -- Joan B. Peterson, Director Travel Publishers Association

About the Author

Chris Westphal is the author of one novel, Echo Valley, and has worked as a writer in journalism, network television, and public relations. He lives in Southern California with his wife, Stephanie, and their two children, Drew and Kelsey.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Great Potential Press (September 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0910707472
• ISBN-13: 978-0910707473
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #946,351 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #92 in Books > Travel > Europe > Czech Republic

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Experience, Wisdom, and Humor, December 1, 2001

By 

David A. Shapiro (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Family Year Abroad : How to Live Outside the Borders (Paperback)

In _A Family Year Abroad_, Chris Westphal invites us into his experience with a dream many of us have had--living abroad in an exotic foreign country--but which most of us never get around to making real. He weaves together practical tips with a delightful narrative of his own adventures and misadventures as an expatriate family in Prague. Combining detailed, practical tips with insightful personal observations, Chris succeeds in bringing us along on an amazing trip into unknown--an unknown that, with Chris' help, is made known to us vicariously. Reading _A Family Year Abroad_ I really came to feel what it must have been like to "live outside the borders" for Chris and his family. And while not ALL of his adventures--a night at the "opera" that featured a midget pushing a wheelbarrow across a darkened stage, for instance--made me hunger for the expatriate experience, I certainly felt that they prepared me for taking my own family abroad should we be so bold as to try it. All in all, a great read: exciting, funny, helpful, practical, poignant, and witty. It's Rick Steve's _Europe Through the Back Door_ meets S.J. Perelman's _Eastward Ha!_ with a bit of Theroux's_Mosquito Coast_ thrown in for fun. Loved it!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A lively, involving book, February 5, 2002

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Family Year Abroad : How to Live Outside the Borders (Paperback)

A Family Year Abroad: How To Live Outside The Borders is the story of the Westphal family. Chris and Stephanie Westphal wanted to travel, but since they had responsibilities to their children, the only way they could do so was to travel with the whole family. They rented their house, put their bank accounts in safekeeping, and moved to Prague, Czech Republic for a year. A Family Year Abroad is their story, packed with wisdom, experience, tips, and much more on such things as culture shock, foreign schools, traveling with kids and health and safety concerns. A lively, involving book, A Family Year Abroad is much more than just a family memoir, it also offers practical tips on how to successfully live in a foreign country and deal with changes in the family, health and safety concerns, insurance questions, the management of finances, foreign schools, and the inescapable phenomena of culture shock.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well Worth It!, October 1, 2001

By 

Sandra J. White (Fox Point, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Family Year Abroad : How to Live Outside the Borders (Paperback)

I enjoyed reading "A Family Year Abroad" for both its informative content as well as its witty and humorous interjections. The book recognizes and addresses both practical as well as personal issues that arise during such an adventure. I lived abroad for 18 months and wish that I had had half of the current and relevant information that can be found in the pages of "A Family Year Abroad." I relied on several other travel guides, and while they were helpful I felt that the information was dated. This book is packed with insightful, current, and useful information for today's traveler.