Would you miss America after being abroad a year?

[Temprano26]

My boss is from Syria and he knows I am adamant about going to Costa Rica. He says I would miss the American system if I was away for a year or two. The USA is a good place for finding a career like in massage therapy and working a lot which I have done throughout the past year to save money for Costa Rica in March. But I am certainly not going to miss being lonely as hell or the alienation I feel being back at home. I just refuse to be somebody that is angry at home when I could be happier abroad.

If you really had enough money to live in numerous countries, what would you miss about America?

[onethousandknives]

I'd like answers regarding this as well, I'm very close to my first real trip abroad now, and potentially moving there long time in the very near future, and now that I'm close and it's all becoming real, I'm having second thoughts a tad. More along the lines of missing my family and missing certain things I like here, say, even parks or nature I like.

[Wolfeye]

I think it would depend on how you felt about things in America to begin with. If you didn't like how things were going & were REALLY craving something else, I'd think it wouldn't be too bad. A bit of "culture shock," perhaps- especially if you didn't speak the language or know where you were going. Maybe maps help? Know where the train stations & the stores you'd be going to all the time are?

[MrMan]

Having spent 10 years or so of my life abroad, I can say that it's very possible to miss family and friends. It seems like soon after I set foot in Asia, I started missing western food. As a single man I ate out a lot, usually local food during the week, but I'd look for opportunities to eat western food.

Having a wife abroad makes it easier not to miss home, IMO.

[Johnny1975]

America isn't the only western country.

I plan to become very smug once I leave.

[droid]

My boss is from Syria and he knows I am adamant about going to Costa Rica. He says I would miss the American system if I was away for a year or two. The USA is a good place for finding a career like in massage therapy and working a lot which I have done throughout the past year to save money for Costa Rica in March. But I am certainly not going to miss being lonely as hell or the alienation I feel being back at home. I just refuse to be somebody that is angry at home when I could be happier abroad.
If you really had enough money to live in numerous countries, what would you miss about America?

One of the things i like most about anglo saxon culture is how clean the streets are kept and that painting buildings once in a while is always part of the budget.
Also people are pretty honest business wise, at least in my experience. When i started working at my job some years back, i finished my trial week and the owner walks into the office and hands me the first thousand-buck check and says 'hope you stay with us'.

I miss that, people in other countries are still too comfortable with garbage piles, litter, and run-down facades, even though tiding up is really not a money issue. Of course I'm generalizing heavily here, and every place has it's pros and cons.
If America was more socially inclusive and there were better *ratios* and women were slimmer and behaved better it would be real nice. But no place is perfect; when i think the alternative is going back to a desolate Florida suburb and having to whack off to porn, i breathe a sigh of relief.

[jamesbond]

If America was more socially inclusive and there were better *ratios* and women were slimmer and behaved better it would be real nice.

My sentiments exactly. If the women in America were more friendly, easier to meet, more in shape and if the men to women ratios were more like 50/50 (or better yet 60/40 women to men), then yeah America would be a great country to live in.

[Yohan]

I think, it depends on your past if you miss USA or any other Western country after your departure to Asia, Africa or elsewhere.

Some men were lucky, had a good living standard in Western countries, nice parents and siblings, no financial problems etc.

Others, like I myself were never treated friendly - we cannot choose our parents and environment when we are born.
I left Europe for a while in 1972 and finally in 1976 for Asia and never came back. I don't miss Europe at all and will never go back to Europe in my future.

It's not only about women, but Europe is overregulated, you always feel restricted whenever you want to do something productive, weather is also a problem especially winter-time... I did not regret my decision to become an expat.

[davewe]

Based on the number of expats I know who moved "back home" I am sure this is an issue. But whenever one of them moves back, I always wonder whether it was an issue that they missed their home country or that they never adjusted to their new environment. When you hear a guy complain too much about "the locals," the government, food, etc. you know he's working himself into moving "back home."

[gsjackson]

I always miss the food, the sports and the climate in the western U.S. That's pretty much it.

[GoingAwol]

I would miss a lot of things. I would miss my family,friends,the food, the sports culture, and the natural beauty and climate here in the south. I guess the only thing that really sucks here is the dating scene.

[Yohan]

...whenever one of them moves back, I always wonder whether it was an issue that they missed their home country or that they never adjusted to their new environment. When you hear a guy complain too much about "the locals," the government, food, etc....

This is really true with a significant number of expats - some of them expect a life similar to their Western countries, some are totally running out of money etc.

Here in Japan it's not only about foreign guys, but also about foreign women from Western countries, they come for studies or find a job and are starting soon complaining why is it like that here and in my country it's different and much better and so on. Most of such foreigners are gone within 3 years, just my experience so far.

A few weeks ago an European woman was asking me why I do not feel discriminated living in Japan - I was asking her in return why I should feel discriminated, out of which reason - and she told me as a foreigner in Japan you are for sure discriminated and I could only laugh I told her I enjoy to be a foreigner in Japan.

Who says, I must integrate into the Japanese society? I am not a Japanese native speaker, I look clearly differently from the Japanese, I do not like some kind of Japanese food... so I am a foreigner - a gaijin with Japanese resident permit for life - since almost 40 years. I like that status, I have no problem with that.

As next she was asking me about my 2 daughters who are 50/50 Europe/Japan - I could only answer to her, that both are married, tried to live outside of Japan, but moved back again to Japan from Hongkong/France/USA/Canada with their Japanese / AsianAmerican (US/Japan) husbands - discriminated? They never complained to me about being 'discriminated'. It cannot be so bad here in Japan, if all of them prefer to live here in Tokyo.

Don't ask me what else she told me about 'gaijin' and so on, and I could only answer to her, this is Japan and not EU - life is not the same here and in Europe and if you don't like it, move back from where you come from. What else can I say?