Expats (or expatriates) are people who are not residing in their homeland country.
You can work abroad, retire and move to a more favourable country of just leave your country due to economic or political conditions.
You can be a citizen of your native country but have a status of expatriate in another country.
Brits, Americans, Italians and people of other nationalities travel to different countries of the world to learn new culture, customs or just improve financial situation.
People usually try to expatriate with friends and family in order not to feel alone in a new country.
However communicating with just a few people sooner or later becomes boring.
You are lucky if you live in a country that speaks English, but what if locals hardly understand you? The best way to avoid loneliness is to find other expatriates.
In general it is not that hard.
We live in an era of informational technologies so the first and the easiest way is...
to search for friends in the internet.
Google for keywords like "Expat forum", "British expat forum" and so on.
There are a lot of very powerful resources where you'll definitely find Brits in your town or area.
Another important hint is that expats abroad usually try to keep together, so if you just appear on a forum a lot of people will be glad to help you, appoint a meeting and share their experience with you.
I bet that if you stay in the country for a long time you'll be helping other newbies yourself in a few years.
Expat forums are usually very friendly and welcoming.
Forum members got used that expats often share the same experience, same problems and same shock.
Another way to find fellows is the language courses.
If you are living in Spain search for Spanish courses and you will get acquainted with a lot of English-speaking people there.
You will be able not just to find more friends to talk to but also to adapt to a foreign culture quickly.
Local tutor is the best accelerator of merging with another culture.
Tutors know well about hesitations of expats about local food, pace of life and social customs.
Experience and questions of other students will help you not just to have a great time but to learn being local much quicker.
Expatriation is not a matter of one day.
People usually think, estimate and digest all possible details about new country before moving to a new destination.
If you are preparing for all possible challenges beforehand why don't you get ready for new acquaintances as well? Socialize! If you still don't have a Facebook, Twitter, Google+ accounts, do not hesitate to register all of them.
Add as many friends as you can.
This will kill two birds with one stone.
First, you'll be able to foster links with your friends and colleagues abroad.
And second, you will definitely find remote relatives of your friends in your new country of residence.
If you get into hardships abroad you will be able at least to ask these people to help you or to take care of you.
Do not be afraid to make mistakes if your life has changed.
Do experiments abroad and you'll see that it is always possible to find friends in the most unexpected places.