I've noticed from a few of the introductions on here, that some of you are British and living in another country just like I am. I'm from Essex (no Essex girl jokes please!) But I've lived in America - in the mid-Atlantic states - for two years. Upon my travels I met my American husband and here we are! A lot of people think it was my dream to live in America but while I was never against the idea, my husband's job meant that I had no choice but to move out here. We will continue to live here for a few more years at least and then we'll see what the future holds for us.
I miss my friends and family and my dog but other than the people it hasn't been that much of a wrench moving out here. I love travel. It's in my blood! Before moving out here I'd done a fair amount of travelling especially around Europe, and there's still loads more places I want to visit. As you can imagine the pandemic put a stop to that! So it wasn't a struggle moving here and getting used to a new set of people and cultural norms and so on.
For those of you who are British (well even those of you who aren't) and are living abroad, what's it been like for you? Why did you move in the first place? Do you see yourself living there permanently?
And for those of you who are wondering, it's actually my dream to move to Scandanavia! But we'll see what the future holds.
I am not at all British but I believe that it is OK for me to comment so in that case I will. I am an Indian from Delhi but I now live in the US. I first lived in California and stayed there for two years because of my job in IT. At that point in time, my plan was always to return home. But then I was offered a job in Seattle and although I accepted, I thought I would go back to India when my contract finished. That was ten years ago and I am still here! I really don't know what will happen in the future but for now I am very happy to call America home and my life is pretty much here. I have a good career, a fantastic group of friends and most important of all my girlfriend.
I enjoy challenges so shifting to the US was not really a struggle for me. Of course I missed my family and friends and so many other things, but I was still very happy to be here. The culture and way of life was of course very different to what I was used to. But I consider myself to be a very open minded fellow and I'm not afraid of new experiences. Also I have traveled before coming to live in the US, so visiting new places and meeting new people wasn't an issue for me.
I suppose one of the few strange things that I have encountered here is that many Americans know very little about my culture compared to their knowledge of other nationalities here. For example it shocks people that I speak fluent English. But of course I do - English is one of the official languages of India! it was only when I came here that I encountered some expressions I had never heard before which caused confusion which is strange because I would say that in India we follow the American way of speaking English rather than the British way - even though we were once a British colony!
I have taken my girlfriend to India so that she could meet my family, see where I'm from and understand a little more about my way of life. She enjoyed, it was something different for her, but I'm glad she was able to experience this way of life.