Did you think you'd be living abroad when you were younger?

[Grimmy]

I never thought I'd live in another country! Even when I met H, we thought mostly about living in America. Sometimes I still feel like this isn't really happening, lol.

[origami]

When I was a kid I thought about living in all kinds of exotic places. After graduating college and getting married I thought I was stuck in my hometown forever. Then surprise! DH got a great opportunity. I'm pretty sure though, even in my dreamy days of youth, that I never once thought I'd be living in South Korea.

[Grimmy]

That must have been quite a transition! I feel like it took me a while to get used to things, and the UK and the US are practically the same, haha. I can't imagine moving somewhere that's so different from my own culture.

[origami]

I will admit I get more and more jealous of UK expats as time goes on! Amazon, how I weep for thee.

[Grimmy]

What's something South Korean that you'd never heard of before moving that you couldn't live without now?

[rupertpenny]

Jun 7, 2015 7:37:27 GMT -5 origami said:

I will admit I get more and more jealous of UK expats as time goes on! Amazon, how I weep for thee.

For real. At least you have Costco!

I've always wanted to live abroad, but I don't know if I ever thought it would actually happen. I also never imagined living in Asia, my daydreams were always Eurocentric.

[origami]

Jun 7, 2015 8:11:08 GMT -5 rupertpenny said:

Jun 7, 2015 7:37:27 GMT -5 origami said:

I will admit I get more and more jealous of UK expats as time goes on! Amazon, how I weep for thee.

For real. At least you have Costco!

I've always wanted to live abroad, but I don't know if I ever thought it would actually happen. I also never imagined living in Asia, my daydreams were always Eurocentric.

You're not missing anything with Costco. It's not American goods. 95% of it is stuff they sell at my local grocery, but larger quantities. The best part about it is the signs are in English (and korean). I go there for 4 things: Nutrigrain bars, cheddar cheese, frozen waffles, kirkland frozen vegetable medley (which they are out of stock of a lot). And because I have not given up hope that one day they will make my life and sell Tazo's chai tea concentrate, like they do at US Costcos.

[Grimmy]

Going to Costco always seems like a better idea than it actually is. They've got good "American" hot dogs, though. Most of the time in the UK, a hot dog is just a sausage in a bun. Not the same thing.

[origami]

Jun 7, 2015 7:39:54 GMT -5 Grimmy said:

What's something South Korean that you'd never heard of before moving that you couldn't live without now?

Good question! There are some Korean dishes I think are just fantastic. I took a cooking class so hopefully I'll be able to make them after we move. I hope to learn more about their skin care and makeup products but I haven't figured that out much yet. And then random things like yelling out "yo-gi-yo!" In a restaurant whenever you need a waiter...Their movie theatres have assigned seating...Their wifi and high tech gadgety things (keyless doors, touch screen lights, etc) Love all that.

[Deleted]

Yes. Kind of? I am Canadian and did my undergrad in the US. My parents are British but I never really thought about coming over here. DH and I talked about moving overseas for a couple of years before we ended up moving. The thing that brought us over - a job for DH - wasn't how we thought we would move abroad. We picture me getting a job somewhere and DH essentially working remote.

[Grimmy]

Jun 7, 2015 9:13:40 GMT -5 origami said:

Jun 7, 2015 7:39:54 GMT -5 Grimmy said:

What's something South Korean that you'd never heard of before moving that you couldn't live without now?

Good question! There are some Korean dishes I think are just fantastic. I took a cooking class so hopefully I'll be able to make them after we move. I hope to learn more about their skin care and makeup products but I haven't figured that out much yet. And then random things like yelling out "yo-gi-yo!" In a restaurant whenever you need a waiter...Their movie theatres have assigned seating...Their wifi and high tech gadgety things (keyless doors, touch screen lights, etc) Love all that.

That all sounds fantastic. I don't think I've actually had Korean food. I'd love to visit there one day.

[Brit]

I kind of assumed that I would, but I never could have guessed where. I was envisioning Europe or maybe Australia.

[GilliC]

When I was a kid, we hosted a Japanese exchange student every year, and my older sister joined an exchange program when she was in high school. I always knew that it was something I wanted to do when I was old enough, and I did spend a summer in Japan when I was 14.

However, I didn't really make the decision that I wanted to live abroad long-term until I was in university. I had planned to do another student exchange program when I landed my first internship with the very international company where I now work. Being among all of these expats and then doing an international internship myself solidified my desire to live overseas, and I joined the company after graduation for that very reason.

[GilliC]

Jun 7, 2015 9:13:40 GMT -5 origami said:

Jun 7, 2015 7:39:54 GMT -5 Grimmy said:

What's something South Korean that you'd never heard of before moving that you couldn't live without now?

Good question! There are some Korean dishes I think are just fantastic. I took a cooking class so hopefully I'll be able to make them after we move. I hope to learn more about their skin care and makeup products but I haven't figured that out much yet. And then random things like yelling out "yo-gi-yo!" In a restaurant whenever you need a waiter...Their movie theatres have assigned seating...Their wifi and high tech gadgety things (keyless doors, touch screen lights, etc) Love all that.

This is one of the things I miss about China! "服务员! (Fu-wu-yuanr!)" I've never been good at catching servers' attention.

(I am also perpetually grateful to live in a place with assigned cinema seating. I love being able to make plans in advance, book seats for everyone going, and be done with it. Why is this not a thing in the US?)

[mrsukyankee]

A lot of people in my family have worked overseas so I always hoped that I could do it for a while. GilliC - they have assigned seating for cinemas in England (at least in London). I love it!

[mrsukyankee]

Jun 7, 2015 8:56:59 GMT -5 Grimmy said:

Going to Costco always seems like a better idea than it actually is. They've got good "American" hot dogs, though. Most of the time in the UK, a hot dog is just a sausage in a bun. Not the same thing.

YES.  My H always calls sausages in a bun hotdogs and I tell him he is wrong. Every single time.  I do love my Costco though (best ribeye steaks in England so far).

[dorothyinAus]

I never I'd live anywhere but New Orleans. I never considered anywhere else. Being on "Hurrication" following Katrina made it a lot easier to contemplate moving to Australia to be with DH, but I'd move back to the US in a heartbeat.

[GilliC]

Jun 8, 2015 5:50:43 GMT -5 RockNVoll said:

I've always wanted to spend time living overseas but had actually more or less given up hope it would ever happen until this opportunity popped up. I would have done any number of countries in Europe and a few in Asia--really I would have considered any locale just to have new experiences in a new culture.

Movie theaters around Boston and I'm sure other places in the U.S. have started to do assigned seating. This is typically in the newer theaters or ones that have converted to the fancy leather reclining seats. It's actually kind of a PITA because you have to either pay a fee to buy the tickets online or get to a ticket window in person well in advance. Otherwise you risk getting really crappy seats or a sold out show because there's much less capacity in each theater since the big new chairs take up a lot more room. I kind of liked the system where I could just show up a half hour before the show and be guaranteed a decent seat/view.

The problem there is that they charge you extra to book online. That's silly, since it actually reduces operating costs by reducing the traffic at the ticket counter. In fact, the theaters here don't even have ticket counters anymore. You either buy your ticket online or at the automated kiosk, or you go have to to the concession stand.

My opinion might also be strongly colored by the cinema market in Austin when I lived there. For opening night or Friday evenings, we often had to get in line 45-60 minutes before the doors opened if we wanted good seats or if we were more than 4 people. And it was even worse for special events, where you actually bought the tickets in advance (because they'd sell out a month in advance) but you still had to show up and get in line an hour+ ahead of time.

[azure]

I always wanted to live overseas.
Apparently I used to tell people I was really Chinese when I was little. In my last year of school I was searching for jobs in Asia. Luckily my H (then BF) was offered a position in Vietnam and off we went!

[Grimmy]

Jun 8, 2015 2:39:23 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

Jun 7, 2015 8:56:59 GMT -5 Grimmy said:

Going to Costco always seems like a better idea than it actually is. They've got good "American" hot dogs, though. Most of the time in the UK, a hot dog is just a sausage in a bun. Not the same thing.

YES.  My H always calls sausages in a bun hotdogs and I tell him he is wrong. Every single time.  I do love my Costco though (best ribeye steaks in England so far).

The first time I encountered this, we were at a bootsale. I saw on the side of a food truck "American Style Hot Dogs!" I was SO excited! But when I got it, I was all




I like assigned seating in a cinema.

[loira]

Jun 7, 2015 8:19:06 GMT -5 origami said:

Jun 7, 2015 8:11:08 GMT -5 rupertpenny said:

For real. At least you have Costco!

I've always wanted to live abroad, but I don't know if I ever thought it would actually happen. I also never imagined living in Asia, my daydreams were always Eurocentric.

You're not missing anything with Costco. It's not American goods. 95% of it is stuff they sell at my local grocery, but larger quantities. The best part about it is the signs are in English (and korean). I go there for 4 things: Nutrigrain bars, cheddar cheese, frozen waffles, kirkland frozen vegetable medley (which they are out of stock of a lot). And because I have not given up hope that one day they will make my life and sell Tazo's chai tea concentrate, like they do at US Costcos.

I used to love the Costco in Seoul. H and I would buy the frozen tortillas, chicken breasts, marble cheese and granola there. We went once a month and it was always a giant excursion because it was pretty far from where we lived in Bucheon, but we refused to battle the weekend insanity so we went in the evening after work.

[Grimmy]

I used to think that the Costco in suburban Georgia was busy at the weekend. Oh my lord, I've never seen so many people trying to cram themselves through the checkout lines. And we've only ever been during the week!

[origami]

Jun 8, 2015 14:15:26 GMT -5 loira said:

Jun 7, 2015 8:19:06 GMT -5 origami said:

You're not missing anything with Costco. It's not American goods. 95% of it is stuff they sell at my local grocery, but larger quantities. The best part about it is the signs are in English (and korean). I go there for 4 things: Nutrigrain bars, cheddar cheese, frozen waffles, kirkland frozen vegetable medley (which they are out of stock of a lot). And because I have not given up hope that one day they will make my life and sell Tazo's chai tea concentrate, like they do at US Costcos.

I used to love the Costco in Seoul. H and I would buy the frozen tortillas, chicken breasts, marble cheese and granola there. We went once a month and it was always a giant excursion because it was pretty far from where we lived in Bucheon, but we refused to battle the weekend insanity so we went in the evening after work.

It is completely insane. A friend of mine went the day before chuseok and ended up having to leave her shopping cart in a corner and bring food back to it because she couldn't push it through the crowds :S

[origami]

Jun 8, 2015 13:45:59 GMT -5 Grimmy said:

Jun 8, 2015 2:39:23 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

YES.  My H always calls sausages in a bun hotdogs and I tell him he is wrong. Every single time.  I do love my Costco though (best ribeye steaks in England so far).

The first time I encountered this, we were at a bootsale. I saw on the side of a food truck "American Style Hot Dogs!" I was SO excited! But when I got it, I was all




I like assigned seating in a cinema.

lol. When I was studying in France I had a similar experience. A restaurant advertised hamburgers and I was like YES! Aaaaand it was a panini of thin, shredded beef. (Cry)

I ordered one anyway and asked for ketchup (which was on a shelf right behind the cashier so I knew they had it). The person taking my order told me ketchup doesn't go with it so I couldn't have it. I was like YOU CALLED IT A HAMBURGER. Still no. So I sat down and started eating it. Then out from behind the counter comes the person with the ketchup. She took the partially-eaten fake hamburger out of my hands, opened it, squirted some ketchup in it, closed it back up and handed it back to me. I was so shocked I just sat there in silence.

[Grimmy]

Jun 8, 2015 17:03:45 GMT -5 origami said:

Jun 8, 2015 13:45:59 GMT -5 Grimmy said:

The first time I encountered this, we were at a bootsale. I saw on the side of a food truck "American Style Hot Dogs!" I was SO excited! But when I got it, I was all




I like assigned seating in a cinema.

lol. When I was studying in France I had a similar experience. A restaurant advertised hamburgers and I was like YES! Aaaaand it was a panini of thin, shredded beef. (Cry)

I ordered one anyway and asked for ketchup (which was on a shelf right behind the cashier so I knew they had it). The person taking my order told me ketchup doesn't go with it so I couldn't have it. I was like YOU CALLED IT A HAMBURGER. Still no. So I sat down and started eating it. Then out from behind the counter comes the person with the ketchup. She took the partially-eaten fake hamburger out of my hands, opened it, squirted some ketchup in it, closed it back up and handed it back to me. I was so shocked I just sat there in silence.

Lol, what the hell? That's so strange.

[fbf2006]

I guess I thought it was possible. I grew up in Nigeria and my parents went to grad school in the US. I've also always had family in the UK and US and I'm used to people moving to/from these countries, specifically. My older sister was born in the US (when my parents were in school) so it was always more likely for her than for the rest of us. The only way the rest of us were going to start our adult lives abroad was if we got those coveted college scholarships or financial aid, which we did.

[orriskitten]

I always imagined it, but never thought it would happen.

The neighborhood I grew up in was very stationary. It was a big deal to move from NYC to NJ. My mom always told me to get away from Brooklyn if I ever could.

Studied abroad in college for a semester and fell in love with and married an Icelander. After that I think it was only a matter of time before we moved to Europe.

My family used to think I was strange.

[Shreddingbetty]

I guess I didn't really know but definitely wanted to. I've been saying since I was 11 or 12 that as soon as I graduated high school I would be going somewhere abroad, I ended up coming to the U.S. as a college exchange student at 17 and ended up never leaving because of my now XH (I didn't actually ever intend to stay here after my first year) I had actually imagined I would probably end up in France or Switzerland as I love French but here I am. Now I'm wishing we could buy a place in France to go hang out in but that would require a big lottery win I guess for now we will just keep traveling to Europe to see my family but sometime it would be nice to go somewhere without having to also see family,

[marriedfilingjoint]

Jun 12, 2015 5:16:12 GMT -5 orriskitten said:

I always imagined it, but never thought it would happen.

The neighborhood I grew up in was very stationary. It was a big deal to move from NYC to NJ. My mom always told me to get away from Brooklyn if I ever could.

Studied abroad in college for a semester and fell in love with and married an Icelander. After that I think it was only a matter of time before we moved to Europe.

My family used to think I was strange.

Where did you study abroad?

I always hoped to.  My dad was in the air force and my whole childhood was on the go, including two years in the UK.  I studied abroad in college.  I never guessed that my husband, who had never left the southeast US until he started work, would be the one to initiate the move.  He works for a British company and I am along for the ride.