Great experiences as expat?
Posted by kevurb@reddit | expats | View on Reddit | 5 comments
Sometimes I feel like I’m being radicalized by having the more negative posts pop up on this subreddit. I read ao much of it that I’m thinking of the drawbacks much more than I otherwise would.
I’d love to hear from those that have thrived or at least viewed their outside-of-homeland experience as a net positive. Like what do you especially enjoy about where you’re a resident now?
This is my fourth country (now I citizen here), and I love the peace, the calm, the beauty, the honesty and the way that for most people, things function and infrastructure is routinely improved.
goldenvisa6387@reddit
Expat forums naturally attract more negative or struggling posts because people usually seek advice when things are difficult, not when life is quietly going well. A lot of long-term expats I’ve spoken to still describe the experience as one of the most meaningful things they’ve ever done despite the hard parts. New perspectives, more independence, deeper appreciation for different cultures, personal growth, friendships from all over the world, and realizing there are many different ways to live a good life. The difficult moments are real, but so is the growth that comes from building a life somewhere completely different from where you started.
maestroenglish@reddit
11 years in Singapore now. Nothing bad to say about my experience here. All expats I've dealt with are well educated and easy going enough. Never had a single issue with a local.
krkrbnsn@reddit
I (an American) moved to London 9 years ago with my French partner. Originally came for grad school but then stayed. Got married, started my caree over from scratch, and have since built a really amazing circle of friends and colleagues here. I recently got British citizenship so don't have any plans to leave soon.
That said, I do feel like I was in the right place at the right time. I moved to the UK before Brexit went into effect so had an easier immigration pathway due to my European partner. And as much as I enjoy the UK as a whole, there's no other place in the country I'd live than London. I love the pace, size, diversity, culture, entertainment, history, and career opportunities of the city.
cwbuecheler@reddit
I moved to France two years ago with my wife after living my first 47 years in the US. We live just outside of Paris (Saint-Cloud now, moving to Boulogne-Billancourt in June). It probably helps that she's from France and I've been visiting it for twenty years, and that I already did a six month stint here a while back, but ... I love it here and I can't imagine why I'd want to return to the US. We have family and friends here, we both have good jobs, and living near Paris means a lot of our US friends now have a reason to visit. I make less than I did over there, but our quality of life is just as good if not better and we feel much less at risk that one sudden catastrophe (health, real estate, etc) will ruin us financially forever. I could list off things that are annoying about living here, sure, but overall I'm very happy. I just wish I'd snuck in my citizenship application when you could get it with a B1 - I'm not at B2 yet so it's going to be a while!
Things I enjoy, in no particular order: the food (obvs), not having to own a car, being able to get all over the country by train, having healthcare, the incredible number of museums and other cultural institutions even outside of Paris, never having to wonder as I enter a movie theater if some nut with a gun's going to shoot it up, the milder winters, the milder summers, the easier access to dozens of other countries, the actual regulations on corporations and the fact that they're enforced, and how willing everyone is to put up with my mediocre French so long as I make some kind of effort. The whole "French people are rude" thing has just not been my experience at all.
beginswithanx@reddit
I love the country my family and I moved to (Japan). Over the years we’ve developed a great community in a great city. The food is great, traveling domestically is fun, my kid has a safe and lovely school, we love our condo, we feel like we know everyone in our neighborhood (and we live in a big city!).
Recently we realized our local baker has been saving my kid’s favorite bread behind the counter for her so there’s always one waiting for her on our weekly bakery trips (he sells out fast).