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Living overseas

Whether you're considering emigrating or an expat abroad, you'll find likeminds on this forum.

A really nosy question.

90 replies

VerySmallSqueak · 16/10/2013 20:15

I've wanted to ask this question for ages.
I'm always curious as to how people end up living overseas.
I'd love to hear people's stories - whether it's work or family or some other reason.
I'm being very nosy,but if anyone would care to share,I'm all ears!

OP posts:
SleepPleaseSleep · 18/11/2013 13:29

Ps we're in belgium. Not first choice, would have preferred Netherlands, but that was too expensive for us. We are not typical expats as not well-off middle class.
I was amused when what i thought was the fortune it was costing us to move turned out to be the amount middle class then-colleague was spending on doing up her bathroom. Her bathroom!

EspressoMonkey · 27/11/2013 08:26

Lived in Milan for my job (ex fashion model, originally started out in London but i had a look that was popular in Italy so my agency based me in Milan but i did end up working all over). Lived in Paris, New York and now Switzerland for DH's job. Think we are staying in Switzerland.

arfishy · 03/12/2013 00:54

I was offered a job in Australia, flew over and didn't want to leave. Previously I'ved worked in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Thailand with stints in Sweden and the USA.

I've stayed in one place for DD's schooling but I would love to carry on travelling. I'd be back in Bangkok like a shot.

PinkFondantFancy · 03/12/2013 03:02

This is so interesting. I have hugely itchy feet but DH doesn't so much, and he is more realistic I think in terms of knowing the grass isn't actually greener. I just have this gnawing feeling that a better quality of life is achievable elsewhere and am getting a bit panicky that as DC approach school age we'll be trapped in the southeast long term as we're unlikely to upheave their education on a whim.

Weegiemum · 03/12/2013 03:31

We planned to - it didn't work out.

We were on the verge of resigning (dh) and announcing a move to Latin America in order to work in a development role (I'm a teacher, with SN, basic skills and TESOL experience - dh is a GP with lots of lone working, remote/rural experience). We'd visited a project, been interviewed and accepted, started looking for funding for initial 2 years.

Then one day I was wobbly on my feet. After a few days was stumbling - then fell on the way to the loo. Multiple number of tests later I was diagnosed with a very rare neurological illness for which there is only one treatment, a monthly immunoglobulin drip that cost the nhs £8000 a go. After that, moving abroad was impossible, as it's a lifelong disability. We can't ask any charity/voluntary org to pay that, we certainly can't afford it, and any insurance company would laugh in our face!!

Instead, we've sought (and got) work in deprived areas at home. Voluntarily moved to one of the most impoverished urban areas in Scotland (we were already in Glasgow) - I teach basic literacy/numeracy/storytelling skills mainly to young mums who left school with no quals, dh commutes to the most deprived rural area in Scotland where he's a GP.

Depending on how you look at it, sometimes a virtual "overseas" is just around the corner (sorry, that sounds really "worthy", I don't mean it that way!!)

Hazeydays · 03/12/2013 22:17

I totally share your views on" överseas"and volunteering/different experiences in your own country weegiemum, sometimes what is on your own doorstep is truly heartbreaking

I had to leave Malawi for similar illhealth reasons and came back to Scotland, but I would say that there is just as much poverty, at least in the big cities, its just poverty in different ways. Good on you for the literacy work, education is such a basic need... keep on it and try to stay away from the hyndland n.i.m.b.y's!

hellokittymania · 11/12/2013 20:49

I have a disability and was told I'd never be able to travel for work.

So I moved to Southeast Asia! Grin

Isthiscorrect · 13/12/2013 04:26

We are just looking for our next move, away from the ME. We've been here 7 years almost, DH is bored in his current role and company and DS will be off to uni in Sept, leaving here in June.
Dh is considering Australia, Indonesia and Burma, amongst other places. I'm open to anywhere I think, as long as it has good flights to DS in the uk ;-) it's certainly going to be interesting and I wonder what I will end up doing? I've always worked but I'm not really qualified, always been a bit of a blagger but with no DS I guess my options will be wide open hopefully.

fussychica · 25/12/2013 18:39

Bought a holiday home (well a wreck!), hated coming home. Saw the chance to give up work so chucked in a VERY steady, well paid job and moved over. Stayed 8 years, DS did all secondary education abroad. Moved back 2 years ago - felt we'd had the best of the place. Enjoying living in the UK again - new area and no need to work. Wouldn't rule out moving somewhere else abroad in the future or splitting time between UK and overseas.

AngryBeaver · 06/01/2014 01:48

Hi, my dh was unhappy living in the UK.
(He is Irish but moved to England to be with me after uni) hated his job. The weather. The crime rate etc
Pestered me for years to move ANYWHERE else in the world.
Quebec(!) Australia...I always said no, that I couldn't leave my very close knit family (plus we had 3 kids under 5)

But one day, he asked me to move to nz.
I asked him to prove we could have a better life with more money and I'd consider it.

So he did.

And we moved 2 years ago.

He has a good job, on a better wage than UK, with good prospects.

We live on an island called Waiheke in the hauraki gulf!
We love it here.

I miss my mum and brother terribly.

But the kids have a much better quality of life.

Things are very laid back. (No one wears shoes for example!)

But it's very expensive here in nz. Crazy prices! Shopping is crap.

All in all, it was the right move for us and we won't move move back :)

alexpolistigers · 16/01/2014 14:03

I came to Greece to work on a 4 month contract, having previously been in Italy for about a year. I met my DH within two days of being here, and started learning the language. I am still here 14 years later, working in a completely different field. I love it here.

www · 16/01/2014 14:11

Had some desire to move to spain when with dh, though loved italy but he'd never been. Dh died then I had dd and I still wanted to try it. Made redundant so took the leap 3 years ago when dd was 5. Still here but plan to return when she's 11. I do love it though some aspects are far easier in the uk. I want to be here now but quite ok about moving back too, though ask me again in 2 years!

DelGirl · 16/01/2014 14:15

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

kiwidreamer · 17/01/2014 16:59

DH was then boyfriend and I were in our mid 20's and had just built a house together in suburban NZ, had only been living in it 6mths and decided we weren't too keen on seeing the next 40yrs stretching ahead of us doing the same thing day after day. Coincided with his parents downsizing their property so we sold our house to them and hopped on a plane to Heathrow within the next 6mths.

Selling up was the worst decision we ever made but you live and learn, a few years later the property prices in Auckland exploded but at same time the financial crisis hit so we were priced out of the property market.

We got progressively better jobs and had a quick trip back to NZ to get hitched, life got easier and more settled, then we had kids and my parents moved over here from the UK to be closer to us and see Europe. Five years later, they are going back in the Summer and our plan is to go back in 2/3yrs.

Our 12yr anniversary of being UK residents is days away and we are celebrating by getting our British citizenship and possibly buying a house?!

camrywagon · 25/01/2014 18:42

2010 got a wisdom tooth took out - much pain and feeling incredibly sorry for myself. Got chatting to an Australian man on a forum about wisdom tooth removal pain (was a general chat thing not the focus of the entire forum!)...ended up forming a relationship and going out to see him - literally the most random and carefree thing I've ever done. An amazing 2 weeks together which resulted in a year of long distance relationship. Decided to leave my great job, the house I'd bought 3 years earlier and life in general and move out to Oz. Very out of character and i think most people I know and family thought I'd lost my mind...

3 years on we're engaged to get marry this year, I've got an assistant principal Job in a school I love and I am happier than I could ever have imagined I'd be.

I don't live in a 'popular' place in terms of what people think when they think australia but it's right for me - it's always hot, palm trees aplenty and it's incredibly laid back.

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