There’s more to living abroad than telling croissants from crudités, Christina Henry de Tessan discovered.

The daughter of a French father, islander Henry de Tessan speaks fluent French and holds the passport of that nation, but even dual citizenship couldn’t prepare her for an extended stay in Paris.

“I was an avid traveler,” Henry de Tessan said, “and I thought it would be more of the same. I got over there and discovered that being an expatriate is another beast.

“Your backdrop, context and support system are gone.”

Henry de Tessan decided to find how other women had contended with the rigors of life abroad.

An editor for Seattle-based Seal Press, she contacted writers world-wide; her call for essays brought 80 responses from women all over the world.

She went abroad herself, moving to France in 1999. Upon her return a year-and-a-half later, Henry de Tessan gathered essays from other expatriates world-wide in “Expat: Women’s True Tales of Life Abroad,” the collection from which she reads Jan. 9.

The 22 essays touch on the realities of life abroad – not the resorts of the vacation getaway, but the day-to-day struggle.

The expats describe trying to negotiate the Japanese job market and Prague grocery markets.

They write about celebrating American holidays alone, or with fellow expats.

For all the diversity of their adopted homes, the Henry de Tessan contributors turned out to be similar in several respects – universally well-educated, middle class women and, with a few exceptions, Caucasian.

“I was trying to get people who went by choice and not for work,” Henry de Tessan said, “who went because they were curious to test themselves.

“That turned out to be a function of privilege. I guess if you aren’t privileged, you may not feel the same impulse.”

The test, she said, was how the women functioned in isolation and without cultural reference points.

All the women traded the comfort of the familiar for the heightened alertness that comes from the new; in a situation where nothing can be taken for granted, even minor daily tasks may seem monumental, and so do small accomplishments.

“You find your way in small ways,” Henry de Tessan said. “It might be writing a cover letter or finding a blanket. It might be renting an apartment or making a friend, if that’s what you need.

“You’re in this world where you can’t take anything for granted, so the accomplishments mean more.”

In fact, some may have tested themselves more than their anthologist.

Unlike Henry de Tessan, who lived with her husband, in a country familiar through family roots, most of her essayists moved alone to places as far-flung as Belize and Bangladesh.

Many of the essayists in “Expats” write about a transformation of their notion of life abroad, as they trade the naive perspective of the initiate for the deepened understanding of the seasoned practitioner.

And many, like the writer who strengthened her Jewish roots by observing Yom Kippur in Japan, reconfirmed core identity by the contrast with present setting.

Henry de Tessan rediscovered the old adage: Everywhere I go, there I am.

“I was definitely going to reinvent myself,” Henry de Tessan said, “but I was still stuck with being shy. I packed clothes I didn’t wear in San Francisco because I thought I would have this great night life in Paris, but of course I didn’t.”

But, she admits, the French sojourn did change her in unexpected and enduring ways – helping her to become more courageous in general.

In the months following her trip, Henry de Tessan traded the Bay Area for Seattle, a move that was less intimidating than it would have been prior to her Paris venture. Rather than satisfying her wanderlust, living abroad has only whetted her appetite for the expatriate experience.

“I thought I would get it out of my system, but no,” Henry de Tessan said. “I am looking forward to more travel.”

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Christina Henry de Tessan reads from the anthology she edited, “Expat: Women’s True Tales of Life Abroad” (Seal press, 2002), along with book contributor, Seattle writer Karen Rosenberg at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 9 at Eagle Harbor Book Co. “Expats” features 22 essays on the joys and perils of living abroad from women living all over the world. A book-signing will follow this free event. Call 842-5332 for more information.