So what made you want to become an expat?

[dulcemariamar]

Did you travel a lot when you were a kid? Did you hate the place where you grew up and wanted to get far away? Do you live abroad only because of your SO but would prefer to be back in your home country? 

[echo]

In my case it wasn't personal choice .my parents made the call when they moved overseas when I was young.I have lived outside of my home country for half of my life.I don't think I have ever made a 'choice' at least not consciously to remain an expat it just sort of happened what with marrying someone who doesn't share my nationality finding jobs we like and loving the country where we live.....

[frlcb]

I have always traveled, since I was little, but meeting my dh did it for me, since e lived in another country

[jennybee1018]

We became expats because we got a job opportunity that we just couldn't pass up. It came at the right time though - I lived in the same city for my whole life (28 years), and I was ready for a new adventure! I was thinking a new city in the US, but a new country was even more of an adventure!

We definitely didn't travel when I was younger but I have always wanted to. I'm honestly really happy here and am not ready to go back to the US anytime soon.

[anna7602]

I traveled to Miami a lot as a kid, does that count? I am kind of serious as I don't think I heard many English speakers during those vacations and everything I ate, from guavas to mangos to chewing on sugar cane stalks, was totally different from my regular diet in the northeast of the U.S.

Even though we didn't visit them when I was kid, I had family scattered all over and always had this view of living in other countries as being something very normal and natural. Especially since most of my family members living in other countries had immigrated there from the country where they were originally born (including my parents). The idea of living in another country didn't seem odd or intimidating to me and as I grew older, came to seem very desirable. I am not sure why. I never felt like I really belonged in the city where I grew up or even in most parts of the U.S. besides NY.

I have had highs and lows while living abroad, but I wouldn't trade it for anything and would consider doing so again. At this point, however, with kids in the picture, I am more into the idea of staying wherever we move next for a good, long time. If that's in a foreign country, that's fine, but I don't want to bounce around every 2-3 years the way I wanted to a decade ago pre-kids. It takes a lot of work and time to build a community and that is what is most important to me right now.

[pittpurple]

I wanted to travel! I was born in a country I didn't grow up in so I guess I thought it was normal to live abroad at some point in my life. I never pictured 'settling down' in Scotland, we thought we'd come here for a couple years, have some adventures and then buy a house back home. But we liked it here so much we just kept extending our stay and now here we are 8 years later.

I'd never been anywhere in Europe before moving here but DH grew up travelling and I was always jealous. So he started applying for jobs as soon as he got his masters degree and we were married and we took the first offer, totally random that we ended up here.

[Brit]

Did you travel a lot when you were a kid? Yes, a ton. It made me want to see and learn about even more places.

Did you hate the place where you grew up and wanted to get far away? Yeah, kinda. I grew up in NJ. I think there are a lot of cool things about NJ, but a lot of the people there kind of get to me and the NJ accent makes my ears bleed.

Do you live abroad only because of your SO but would prefer to be back in your home country? Nope. We are both all over pursuing any opportunity abroad that comes our way. Fortunately, I think we are positioned to be able to find expat assignments periodically - hopefully that will last!

ETA: My dad was in the military and my parents had a lot of cool stories from going to far flung (although seemingly tame now) places because of that. It always intrigued me, so I have had a desire to live abroad and have my own adventures. For me it has always been the more exotic, the better. I'm still hoping to live in some totally random out there place someday.

[Wanderista]

I'm not currently living abroad but I definitely do identify as an expat due to spending some formative years abroad and also traveling extensively. I have a lot of "expat moments". The other day I was having dinner with my mom and she said, "You're always comparing things. You're always comparing places." I told her that's just what happens when you travel a lot. That's part of the reason why I have expat friends (IRL as well as online), because I feel like we can relate to each other on a level that is different than people who haven't lived or traveled like that. I have a lot of really cultural friends and I feel like we "get" each other.

I started traveling when I was a kid. I was always whining to travel. Neither of my parents were big on traveling aside from annual summer road trips. My mom actually let me do a lot of independent traveling like to summer camps and I was a foreign exchange student. My stepfather also traveled internationally A LOT. I think that while I didn't travel internationally that much as a kid, I grew up with a lot of exposure to diversity. I was also very curious. But yeah, spending time around my stepfather and his very worldly friends probably had a bigger influence on me than I realized at the time.

I have no idea what the future holds but I'd never be surprised if I end up abroad again at some point. No specific plans to do so right now though.

[Deleted]

I decided on study abroad as a whim and that was the catalyst. I never really traveled as a kid and my first time out of the country was to go overseas for study abroad. I am currently abroad because of my SO, but I was the one who really pushed for us staying in France when he probably would have liked coming to the US. I love it here. I wouldn't say that I hated it in TX, but I didn't really fit in in my area there.

[loira]

I travelled quite a bit as a child. I never hated the city I grew up in, but I always knew I wanted to leave it. It didn't seem 'enough' for me, if that makes sense. The year I spent 'studying' abroad in Strasbourg clinched it. I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my twenties living abroad, and I have, in various countries. I've loved my expat years, but now that I'm pregnant, and with an uncertain future on the horizon (H will finish his PhD but who knows where or when he will get a job), I have become quite keen on moving back to Canada. We'll see if it actually pans out, though. I have been reading through the process required for H to get his Canadian residency, and it seems really long and unnecessarily complicated.

[Shreddingbetty]

I grew up in the Netherlands and ever since I was like11 I was telling people that I would go abroad somewhere (I guess I don't remember doing it that young but that is what some of my friends and family remember ). We traveled a fair amount when I was really young (to different place in Europe and once to Morocco). Once I was 8 my parents bought a place in CH and that is where we would go for every vacation. I went on a month long camp in the US when I was 11 (CISV: there were 12 delegations from different countries and we all stayed at a school during the week and went with host families on the weekends) and did a summer exchange (again US) when I was 14/15 (it was spread out over two summers ). I went to tennis camp in France my last couple of summers of high school (and was the only non Frenchie there).
I had a good childhood but my mom was /is pretty controlling and I was the last one of 3 and she had high hopes for me. I came to the Us for a college exchange right after high school and never went back......and here I am still almost 24 years later . I guess I always pictured myself somewhere other than the Netherlands I just didn't know where exactly. I am not a big fan of where I came from and have always loved to travel. We currently travel a fair amount although most of it is family related. It still doesn't suck . I would never move back to NL. I feel like a complete stranger there. My mom thought I would move back the minute I got divorced but she was wrong.

[potatopie]

We traveled quite a bit as kids but always just within the US and usually to the same 4-5 places. But I did learn to love airports and flying for that reason (thank goodness!).

I always liked the idea of traveling, but didn't leave the country until I graduated college and spent a summer abroad in Italy. I came back and started grad school in my home state. And I think my parents were secretly relieved that I hadn't met anybody while abroad. Then I meet and Italian guy in grad school. DH's sole desire in life is to travel to new and interesting places.

To be honest, though, I'm a homebody. I want to have a base close to family and then travel for short periods from there.

[dorothyinAus]

Did you travel a lot when you were a kid? -- only if you count annual drives from New Orleans to Little Rock through Vicksburg, and day-trips to Hot Springs.  My parents said "children don't need vacations, they have nothing to vacate from."  I think that was their excuse, but I think the truth was really more that they had three kids in expensive private school on one income.

Did you hate the place where you grew up and wanted to get far away? -- I grew up in New Orleans.  I can't imagine anyone who grew up there hating it.  It's such a unique place, really like no where else in the world and I revel in that uniqueness.  Getting out of college, I really thought about moving to Spearfish, ND, but the truth is, I really never saw myself any further away than Little Rock or Tuscaloosa.

Do you live abroad only because of your SO but would prefer to be back in your home country? -- Bingo.  I live in Australia because my husband does.  We discussed it and for a variety of reasons it made more sense for me to move to him than for him to move to me.  Should something happen to him, I will go back home to the US to be with my family and friends.

[allibally]

My dad was stationed overseas before my parent's met in Germany. And then he was stationed in Israel when I was in preschool. I just enjoyed the stories and loved the idea of people living in places different than my own. So I had a wonderlust to travel and see new places.

Just before my senior year of HS I went on a 3 week People to People trip to Australia. So than with a passport I had a even bigger urge to travel. But no desire to live someone else for the long term. Just wanted to see as many places as possible (still do!)

I became an expat out of circumstance. H was living in his home area. We had been dating and engaged at that point. I had already been on a long term 3 month visit the year before. We couldn't live in the US without a GC that was a 9-12 month process. But I could move to Switzerland immediately get married and be able to stay. It was worth it to go for the year. I learned a lot have gotten even more stir crazy about travel too. Sometimes wish I could go again to live (if the Swiss would even let us back in ) I feel unfinished that I couldn't of been more involved and started a career. Time will tell right now I would just be happy for a long weekend in Zürich as I miss my old home.

Oh and I love my hometown. I would live there forever if I could. I'm sad we can't live there. Chicago was a compromise on both our parts. I'm blessed to still be able to go. Sometimes I visits not because I want to see my family but I just want to be at home.

[GilliC]

I didn't travel internationally as a child, but we had a lot of foreign exchange students, and I did a summer exchange when I was 14. I guess that gave me a bit more confidence in the idea of "living" abroad, but I never really considered moving permanently.

I was planning on spending a summer studying abroad in university, but I ended up finding an international internship instead. The "work vs study" decision was driven primarily by finances at that point.

Joining an international company with a lot of ex-pat colleagues and experiencing the summer internship abroad opened my eyes to the possibility of becoming an ex-pat. So I joined the company full-time after university with that intention.

[azure]

I travelled quite a bit as a child and always wanted to live in Asia. After H and I finished school we decided to apply overseas. H got a job in Vietnam and I followed. We stayed there 7 years and then moved to France (where H grew up) after M was born.
I don't hate where I grew up and actually hope to move back there someday (we have recently started looking into it).
I loved my time as an expat, but I really miss being near family and with my current job I can never take holidays in the summer and I really miss the cottage.

[crimsonandclover]

We only traveled around the US when I was a child. When I was 16 I went to England for a week with an organized school trip and decided I wanted to study abroad in England. I went on a high school exchange (actually after I graduated since I was young enough still) and wanted to do it in England but they sent me to Germany. So I came back to Germany for my college year abroad and met DH - he's why I'm still here.

I'm happy with my life here, but on my own I never would have chosen to lilve outside of the US. I loved growing up in a small town / in the country and, unlike many of my classmates who just wanted to get out of there, I would have been content staying. Really, I could live next door to my parents for the rest of my life and be happy. But we're here, and 98% of the time, I'm just fine with it. I like that we moved to a relatively small town here (5500 people), so I have the hope of developing the same kind of community that I was used to growing up.

[mrsukyankee]

I was poor growing up so didn't travel, but a lot of my extended family did travel or worked in Europe, and I really, really wanted to live overseas. So, after I got enough experience in the US private school world, I applied to overseas positions in international schools. Voila.

I did want to leave small town PA, but moving to the DC & Boston areas helped with that.  I just knew I wanted to always live in a city and London was a huge dream realised.

[elenetxu]

Nothing!

I never even wanted to come to Spain. I had an entirely different idea about what life in Europe was like. Before getting a job here, I really wanted to go back to Mexico. I applied for the job in Spain on a whim, thinking I wouldn't get it. My goal was to come here, perfect my Spanish, and go back to the US and do a Master's in Secondary Ed near Lake Tahoe.

In January 2008, three months after arriving, DH bought me a coffee, said I had a pretty accent, and it was all over.

I don't ever think of myself as an expat. I'm an immigrant. I am here to be with my husband. We want to stay here because, despite the crisis, we both have work here. We recently bought a house. US immigration is a pain in the neck and I haven't had any problems with immigration here.

[travelingturtle]

My dad was military so we alternated between living overseas and living in the US. I always knew I wanted to live overseas as an adult. My H's GFIL was an expat for 14 years when my H was a kid. He (my H) heard great stories about Japan/Asia and Belgium/Europe so that's what got him wanting to go abroad. I wanted to leave where we lived in the US (Orlando) really bad. And I wanted to live overseas, yes, but I would've also been ok moving to a bigger city in the NE US.

[Deleted]

I was born knowing I'd be moving to NYC one day, it was just a matter of time. The real kick has been that my other half wanted the exact same thing. Getting here was hard enough. Staying here is even harder but nothing compares to having made it!

[Waffles]

Feb 27, 2014 4:32:32 GMT -5 elenetxu said:

Nothing!

I never even wanted to come to Spain. I had an entirely different idea about what life in Europe was like. Before getting a job here, I really wanted to go back to Mexico. I applied for the job in Spain on a whim, thinking I wouldn't get it. My goal was to come here, perfect my Spanish, and go back to the US and do a Master's in Secondary Ed near Lake Tahoe.

In January 2008, three months after arriving, DH bought me a coffee, said I had a pretty accent, and it was all over.

I don't ever think of myself as an expat. I'm an immigrant. I am here to be with my husband. We want to stay here because, despite the crisis, we both have work here. We recently bought a house. US immigration is a pain in the neck and I haven't had any problems with immigration here.

Awww!

I'm not an expat, H is. I can answer for him that after travelling around Australia for year he hated where he came from (a specific area of Edinburgh) and jumped at the first opportunity to leave, which was a job in Brussels. His plan was to stay for the summer then travel around southern Europe but he met me and here we are almost 17 years later.

So I am the reason he lives here but he wouldn't want to move back home permanently unless it was to live in the city centre, which we couldn't afford. I also have one major issue with Edinburgh: MIL.

So we hope to move somewhere else in a few years and be able to afford a place in Scotland for holidays.

ETA: while he does want to move eventually, we have a better standard of living here than we would in his home country or our desired destination so it all comes down to making enough money to afford the life we dream of...

[stever]

I'm not an expat anymore, but I was one both before and after I met DH. Before I met him I traveled a bit and alternated studying and working abroad. After I met DH I followed him to his home country(UK) then we went to Canada for his work.

[NomadicMama]

I don't really consider myself an expat--I'm a military dependent. While we live off post, I shop at the local commissary for my usual American products, my doctors are American military doctors, and if chose to, I could live nearly entirely in the "American bubble" that the military provides.

I opt out of the comfort of the bubble on a regular basis. I shop in our town as often as I can, our son attends a local kindergarten (and is nearly fluent in German) and I have several German friends. It is more challenging living overseas, but I am loving the experience and now can not imagine my life otherwise.

I spent a summer in Mexico on an exchange program. I was homesick nearly the entire eight weeks. I never felt the yearning to live abroad. Because of my DH's career field and rank, options overseas are far and few between. We never ever expected to be sent to Germany. But, here we are! Best assignment ever!!!

[dutchgirl678]

I grew up in the Netherlands as well. We would go camping in different European countries and had family in England. After I finished high school I went to Australia to visit family and travel around. My parents always thought I would end up living in Australia. I went to college in the Netherlands and got my PhD. During my PhD research I went to a lot of conferences and spent three months in NJ as an intern. After I was done I contacted my supervisor in NJ who was now living in Oregon and leading a research center there. I got a job as a postdoc and after 2 years bought a house and met my now DH.

Now that we have 2 small kids we are debating living in the Netherlands for a few years so my DH will be the expat.

[Deleted]

I don't consider myself an "expat" per se. I'm military stationed overseas. I had the opportunity to serve in a foreign military as part of a foreign military as part of an exchange assignment, and it was too good to pass up! We didn't travel a lot when I was little (at least not internationally), but I did grow up hearing my grandfather's stories of being stationed overseas when he was active-duty (my mom lived in both the UK and Germany growing up). Plus, I think most people join the military hoping that they will get the opportunity to travel, and many of us know we'll eventually serve overseas whether we want to or not.

Even though I'm part of a British unit and serve on a British base, we live about 35 minutes away from one of the biggest American bases in the country. Like NomadicMama, we could live in the "American Bubble" if we wanted to, but we live in an awesome village, have made tons of British friends, and have awesome neighbors. However, for economic reasons we tend to buy most of our groceries on the American base (it's so much less expensive), buy petrol (half the cost of buying on the economy), and get our medical care at the base hospital (it's easier to keep our records intact instead of having to get everything added in later).

[oneslybookworm]

For us, it was work. While we were engaged, we moved to Japan on a short term assignment, and from there, I was hooked! The following summer, we were in the Netherlands for the summer (another short term work assignment) and then expiated over there a little over a year later. We absolutely love living abroad and exploring new places, so it seemed natural to us. I still want to do another assignment, but the US will always be our "home base."

[Deleted]

Did you travel a lot when you were a kid? Nope. We didn't have the money.

Did you hate the place where you grew up and wanted to get far away? No. Love, love, love my hometown (Vancouver, Canada)

Do you live abroad only because of your SO but would prefer to be back in your home country? Yes and no. We moved here for DH's job but I'm definitely more of the traveler/live abroad person in our marriage. DH would like to move back to our home country in the next few years and I would too if the situation (work) was right.

We both like a lot about where we live (small UK island territory) but the weather is so bad we just can't see ourselves living here long term. This winter has really sucked. All these storms and gale force winds. Yuck. I am done with it.

My parents emigrated to Canada from Scotland in their 20s and being a first generation Canadian was very normal where I grew up. I went to the states for university and most of my siblings have lived abroad (Australia, Japan, US, Brazil) so moving away and living in a new country was somewhat normal.

DH and I had been talking about living abroad for a few years when this job came up. If DH left it and became self-employed again we would consider moving to another country. A country with decent weather year round.