Living Abroad: Good or Bad Idea? (home, refrigerator, neighborhood)

[GameHog9]

Has anyone lived abroad for a considerable time and tell me their experience? I have no idea what it would be like.

[azoria]

Great stuff, I loved it.

Living overseas gives you a better perspective of America's strengths and shortcomings. There are many of both.

I'd go again. But not to Beijing. I hated Beijing. It took a post in Beijing to send me packing back to America after years of living overseas.

There are a lot of real crapholes in this world. Makes you appreciate the dependable supply of clean tap water in America, flush toilets, laundromats, electricity that comes on every you flip the switch. A bureaucracy that works (if grindingly) without bribes.

On the other hand, America has the worst public transit I've ever seen anywhere. There are laws against absolutely everything. Our love of litigation to solve every little problem is strangling US development in every sphere. We're the international laughing stock of stupid warning labels. Our public education is sub par, and it shows.

And the clothes in our stores are really ugly. You can pick out an American 1/2 a kilometer away anywhere in the world by the clothes.

[PA2UK]

Temporarily, it's great but I would not want to permanently live abroad, mainly because I already miss my family and friends so much. Although it can be really difficult to adjust and intregrate into another culture, it is exciting at the same time. The experience has been great and I wouldn't change it for anything but I am ready to go home soon.

[Mooseketeer]

I have lived "abroad" pretty much all my life and I love it. I have been in the UK for over 20 years, then I spent 3 years in the US, then Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Tahiti, Italy, New Caledonia, South America, Denmark,North Africa etc... I only spent 4 years of my 41 years on earth in France which is "my" country and I can't say I feel traumatised in any way.

As a kid I used to be a bit fed up with moving schools every few months but otherwise I did and still do relish all the new adventures, cultures, languages etc... I got to do things most people will never be lucky to do and have experienced different cultures first hand not just as a tourist.

Some places I loved, some I hated but all of them taught me something and even the bad experiences have served me well in life.

After 20 years in the UK I am still baffled by certain aspects of life/society ( like binge drinking ) and some things irritate the hell out of me but on the other hand I find that about France and any other country for that matter.

I has taught me to be more independent, a lot less "proud" of any Nationality, and more respectful and understanding of other people.

When you live abroad ( and travel a lot) you start to realise that people though very different are also linked by a great chain of common human experiences and humanity and it makes you a lot more humble about where you come from . For me anyway.

I am a nomad at heart and wish I could move on all the time. I am experiencing seriously "itchy feet" at the moment and if my fiance could get a job anywhere else in the job easily I would be packed within a day , ready and raring to go...


I do not like being in one place for too long, it makes you complacent and less appreciative of your surroundings I feel.

My idea of heaven would to be able to spend 3/4 years in a place then move on to the next.

Living abroad is exciting, enriching and a great deal of fun. It can be difficult to adjust to certain cultures and environments but certainly worth the try. The world is way too be big and varied to constrain yourself to only one tiny part of it.

I never feel very French at all , not do I feel British or anything else. I am just me and for that I thank my father for dragging me around the world and giving me a love of "otherness".


I am at my most French when food is concerned , but apart from that I love many aspects of France and many others bug the hell out of me. I have no problem acknowledging any shortcomings from the Nation I was born in. As far as I am concerned Nationality is an accident of birth and babies become what we and their environment embues into them.

ALL countries have their upsides and downsides. There are no "best" /"worst" . it is just so subjective.

If I won the lottery tomorrow ( if I started to play that is ! ) there would be no huge mansions, no expensive cars, no diamonds , no private jets for me. Simply travel and live abroad until I dropped !

[Xpat]

Its fantastic as long as you are;flexible, adventurous, curious, open minded, willing to learn and try new things, and won't miss home too much.

[nuala]

Loved the Mouseketeer post because it touches on so much that I've felt. I've lived abroad for 14 years - "abroad" for me is North America. Do I feel Russian or Canadian or North American? I don't know... This is home for me now, this is where my kids were born. You definitely have to have the nomadic streak in you - when people ask me, if I miss *home*, I always wonder inside, why would I even think of moving anywhere if I had any fear of being away from my family?

I also think that the economic upheavals may bring these thoughts of moving to the surface, I see this question coming from North Americans much more often than before. I lived through the ruin of the Soviet Union, and that definitely was one of the major contributor to my desire to move. Now living through another "interesting time", I know it's not going to be the end of the world. But if it makes more North Americans want to explore other cultures, good.

[mommytotwo]

I spent about two years in the Caribbean and enjoyed it very much, though I was happy to come back to my family.

There is no substitute for living in another country, day after day.

I was laughing at the post that mentioned knowing that the electricity would come on every time you flip the switch.

I can add to that, knowing that even if it rains your water will be crystal clear, not brown like river water, and that you will always have water pressure to flush your toilet (and not need to keep a couple 5 gallon water jugs around for emergency flushes), and knowing that *most likely* you will not lose electricity with any sort of regularity or frequency. It is very nerve wracking when you live somewhere where the food is very expensive, yet the electricity cuts in and out so that you lay awake at night wondering if the electricity will come back on and you will not lose all the food in your fridge (and then, comforted by the hum of the refrigerator and A/c and everything else, you fall asleep).

My DH and I look back at our time outside the US very fondly, and I cannot wait to bring our kids there to show them where we used to live, shop, etc.

This being said, I don't know how it would be to live abroad in a country as developed as the US is, many of my experiences would be very different I imagine.

In any case, if you'd like to do it, go for it!

[bluebeard]

Originally Posted by azoria

Great stuff, I loved it.

Living overseas gives you a better perspective of America's strengths and shortcomings. There are many of both.

I'd go again. But not to Beijing. I hated Beijing. It took a post in Beijing to send me packing back to America after years of living overseas.

There are a lot of real crapholes in this world. Makes you appreciate the dependable supply of clean tap water in America, flush toilets, laundromats, electricity that comes on every you flip the switch. A bureaucracy that works (if grindingly) without bribes.

On the other hand, America has the worst public transit I've ever seen anywhere. There are laws against absolutely everything. Our love of litigation to solve every little problem is strangling US development in every sphere. We're the international laughing stock of stupid warning labels. Our public education is sub par, and it shows.

And the clothes in our stores are really ugly. You can pick out an American 1/2 a kilometer away anywhere in the world by the clothes.

I dunno how long ago you lived in Beijing, but that certainly is a far cry from what it's like today.

[azoria]

Originally Posted by bluebeard

I dunno how long ago you lived in Beijing, but that certainly is a far cry from what it's like today.

Beijing last year. I lasted a month. The pollution was absolutely ungodly.

We quickly learned to make sure all the windows were closed and locked by 10 PM, because after 10 some kind of horrible gassy cloud of ash and soot descended on the neighborhood. Visibility was reduced to a few meters. It was hell on earth.

No amount of love or money could get me back to Beijing.

In fact I believe that today is exactly the day of the first anniversary of our escape from Beijing.

[GameHog9]

lol^

Ive been wanting to visit Germany, probably Frankfurt. I notice that many people mention they eventually wished to return. Ho hard is it to resettle in the US? Customs wont give you hell will they?