The most rewarding time in my life was the period I spent as an exchange student in the Netherlands. For years I dreamed about going back to Europe, and I finally made it. The Web made my second move abroad dramatically different.

Not only could I visit online message boards where expatriates discussed how to handle culture shock and traded anecdotes of life abroad, I could listen to foreign radio on my computer before I left.

Expat Forum

The Expat Forum's Expat Chat message boards are a good place to get acquainted with expatriate issues. A lot of American expats with stories to tell seem to hang out here, and they readily answer questions from aspiring fellow escapees.

There are boards here devoted to various countries from Switzerland to the Philippines, though some are much heavier on questions than answers. The Expat Forum also features a few pertinent news stories, and sells topical books.

The Outpost Expatriate Information Center

This site was set up for transferred Shell employees, but the contacts, Web links, and book recommendations for countries all over the world can be useful to anyone interested in moving abroad.

It's awfully dry if you're an adventurous type hopped up on the romance of living abroad, but then corporate transferees aren't living in that context. This sort of hand-holding and mediation of the foreign culture can be reassuring for any culture-shocked expat, though.

The Escape Artist

This site has pages for individual countries with links to job-hunting sites, media, maps and more. Read excerpts from the magazines "The Transatlantic American" and "International Living" to really whet your appetite for breaking away.

NewsDirectory or www.ecola.com

NewsDirectory is an impressively comprehensive index of links to English-language publications all over the world, including local expat papers like the Paris Free Voice. Good ones can go a long way toward clueing you in about a particular city and its English-language community.

Live Radio on the Internet

Here you can find more than 2000 live Internet feeds of radio stations around the world. It's a dream for anyone homesick for another country and its language and music.