Do you ever feel like you don't belong in the country you were born in?

[OptimusPrime69]

Originally Posted by MarisaMay

Got up this morning, it is a beautiful spring day, the tide is in and two kookaburras are sitting on the pool fence looking out at the water. I would not want to be anywhere else in the world right now!

Cool, youre looking at some birds and water. Can pretty much do that anywhere where birds and a body of water exist.

[BigCityDreamer]

Originally Posted by frimpter928

Countries I have felt at home the most are Portugal and Brazil, and to a certain extent Chile. But Portugal is where I would live. From the food, lifestyle, architecture, weather, pace, mindset, etc. It's just more me. To me the US is too focused on the individual and not the community. Much more materialistic too, the US that is. I am not like that. I like living life with a certain sophistication, but not in a materialistic and pretentious way.

There is definitely a focus on making money and achieving economic success in the United States that a lot of people would consider extreme and out of balance. I have to agree with that.

But it also means that more people have a higher material standard of living. Everything is a trade-off.

[frimpter928]

Originally Posted by BigCityDreamer

There is definitely a focus on making money and achieving economic success in the United States that a lot of people would consider extreme and out of balance. I have to agree with that.

But it also means that more people have a higher material standard of living. Everything is a trade-off.

But you can find a certain balance too. A lot issues Americans face is because of the materialism and because of the individual. The ethnic group that sees the least rates of depression and anxiety in the US, are groups like Hispanics, where there is more of an emphasis on the community and family.

So I think there can be a balance. Think of places like Chile, where the standard of living is pretty good and mental health and happiness tends to be healthy too. You can have both, but the US is one extreme of that spectrum.

Like all things in life, balance is key, and I don't think the US is a very balanced society in how its structured nor in the mindset and culture of its people.

[Anhityk]

This is probably a little-known fact for foreigners, but there are two (micro)ethnicities of Estonians: the northern Estonians (the Estonians proper) and South Estonians. The Estonians proper have played the first violin and apparently due to the so small population of Estonia the South Estonians have never been allowed to practice their identity not talking about any 'separatism'. But it doesn't matter, the irrefutable fact is that until the early 20th century, books were printed in two Estonian languages...
But despite the lack of a formal sense of 'national identity', the discerning observer will notice the differences. I've met many people in my life, both from the north and the south. Yes, of course, people today change their place of residence and there is a strong there is a strong tendency for regional disparities to disappear. I may have dozens of weaknesses, but one of the strengths I have is but in general I am a person who is often after just a brief contact to "feel" how a person in general is. The southern ones are in general more polite, simpler, friendlier, warmer. The northern ones are colder, ruder, somewhat less happier. (The coldest people are believed to be the people of north-west, btw interestingly that is the same area where the swedish colonists lived)
No particular rocket science is needed to notice it. The genetic image of Estonians also differs and for such a small country the gene difference between north and south is large. (The more you go south, the more "r1a-n" everything becomes, the more you go north, the more "finnmongolian" everything becomes. )
Most of Estonian political leaders of national awakening era, and almost everything related to culture, art, creation, music, singing, poetry - study the genealogy of these people and you will reach the south Estonia.
In short, I believe that if the total number of Estonians had been larger, we would very probably have had two countries here.
In my profile, I have specified my location. (Yes, of course there are other criteria too, such as the general worldview.) After this long post I think it is needless to say with whom I feel more, with whom less connected.