Living abroad..anyone else?

[Doglovesbooks]

Anyone else live abroad? How do you find it? Do you also find the ex pat community quite bizarre, do you feel lonely ever?
Has anyone lived abroad and returned home to the uk?
Lots of questions, just interested in experiences I guess.

I think you have to be realistic and accept that unless you truly are an "immigrant" who has made a permanent life change and never intends to return, your friends are going to be derived from the "expat community". You already have one similarity with them, and if you then have another common interest it's enough to sustain a workable friendship. On that basis, you may as well try to live in an area popular with expats and increase your chances of meeting compatible friends.

In terms of 'weird expats' my experience is probably not typical here because I'm male, but one of my jobs was in SE Asia and a lot of the other single men there were seedy and frequented bars and clubs where you could make a new girlfriend very quickly. I discovered that certain responses to selected conversational leads would tell me if a new acquaintance was that way inclined. In the same way, you'll find a strategy for sussing out people who aren't your type within the first couple of minutes.

I live in the Netherlands and have been here for twenty years. The expat community is no longer my scene and I live amongst the natives. The Dutch generally and those living in the major cities specifically, are Anglophiles so I’ve been afforded a lot of hospitality.

Pre Covid I went back home to London regularly, I have no immediate desire to return to the big smoke and I’ve just renewed my residence permit so I can stay without naturalisation.

DD was born here and identifies as Dutch.