Do you enjoy living overseas?

[Hohumhum]

Or are you counting down the days until you move back?

I’m just curious as I’ve been wistfully looking at expat blogs and day dreaming of moving abroad but I don’t see it happening so would love to hear about your experiences...

Yes I do. I have lived 'abroad' around 75% of my life in so far so I feel very much at home being an outsider though. I think it allows you to see yourself more clearly and of course another places and people too. its an adventure for sure.

As with everything there are pros and cons. For me it's also different because I need to move every few years and that kind of hard on the kids. Also because they dont really know where they're from. I'm from x country, dh from y country, DC were born in z country (different ones) and we currently live in a country and soon to move to b country.
On the pro side, they've had opportunities and experiences I couldn't have given them otherwise. And life is always interesting!

Yes, love it! I’ve lived overseas before - pre-internet and it was very lonely. But I have the best of both worlds now as I have things I enjoy here but can still listen to radio programmes and watch TV programmes from the UK, order from Marks and Spencer’s, keep in regular touch with my mum, etc.

I enjoyed it, but having moved back after 13 years abroad, in the last three weeks, I am glad to be home. It's a new chapter. Dh is retiring, and it's the next stage for us.

I would hate to have to live in the UK again even though I had my children there and DH is British. We have been in Australia for 12 years now, we are all citizens and this is home. My kids go "back" and are just so grateful for their lives here, apart from spending time with individual people they love, overall they think the place is grim. I have lots of lovely English friends and I will never have such good friends here but my life here is just so much better.

I love it . Been living overseas since 2003. I only miss home in the summer when the weather goes about 40 degrees.

It's no such much that I love living overseas, more like that I absolutely love where we live now. We did a lot of expat assignments until we ended up in the US and this just felt like home instantly. No more wanderlust or itchy feet for me, I'm happy to see out my days here!

I like it sometime and sometimes not. The weather is better and so are the summers. It’s beautiful, but so are many areas of the UK.
The normal everyday problems are the same and I struggle with us having been here for 8 years and most friends staying for 2/3 years and then moving on.
What I like the most is it’s more outdoorsy and very beautiful.
We won’t retire here and can’t afford to buy a house and may well return to the UK.

I love living where I live. I would be somewhat devastated to move back to the UK, but I'd make the most of it because that's the best way to live life.

I've lived in a few other countries and liked them all better than the UK.

Someone above said it's easier in these days of the internet and I agree. I can watch British TV, listen to British radio, chat to British friends.

You still have to throw yourself into life in your new country though.

When you moved overseas you gain somethings and loose other ones. Also I feel you never completely belong anywhere. I don’t regret my decision of moving abroad, I have gained lots of things but when the excitement wears out you miss the things that are important to you like family and best friends. I also miss the weather and in general the people of my home town who are warm and friendly; however I have had many opportunities that I wouldn’t had if I stayed living there.

Absolutely love it, and wild horses wouldn't drag me back to the UK now! It takes a while to find your groove, I think, but I couldn't ever imagine returning to my old life.

I worked in the USA and hated. Other British colleagues who had moved loved it and planned to stay.

Came to Cape Town on a one year contract and loved it and am still there over a decade later.

Now moving back to the UK and looking forward to it, not for any major reason, a combination of things including parents in the UK getting elderly and wanting to spend time with them and for DD to spend time with them.

Some places at a particular point in your life just 'click'. Some don't.

It's still very new for me but I'm not loving it really at the moment.

We lived in a flat in a council estate with severe social issues and I love that we can give DS a safe place with amazing amenities compared to what we had before. We can afford a cleaner here (I am really not one of those people who loves cleaning so this is a big thing for us). We have numerous cafes and shops downstairs and life is very pleasant.

However, it is lonely and I really miss friends and family. I can go a full week without having a proper conversation with anyone except my husband/DS2. I can't work here in my trained profession and I miss working so much. Everyone speaks English but the understanding can be pretty poor so you end up having to ask for the same thing 10 times to get a job done. Jobs dont generally seem as safe here, if they don't like you it's a very quick goodbye, visa cancelled.

I'm enjoying a change and a break I guess but we are also planning to go home in 2021 and I'm looking forward to it!

I knew the first time I came to where I am now that it was a special place and I'd found my 'people'. I still love the UK and my friend and family there but I'm saddened at how it's changing. I wouldn't move back there for anything.

I've lived in the Caribbean for 12 years and have no plans to move back.

Will have to consider what will happen when the kids have to decide on uni in US or UK but will cross that bridge when we come to it.

I miss loads about the UK, unsurprisingly it's my family, but I also love the feeling of hope and excitement when you wake up on a hot summer day. I love farm shops and green fields. Basically I miss my rose tinted vision of UK which is really what I always see when I go back. That and I miss the proximity to Europe.

There isn't anything that would pull me back.

It depends where you live. Generally I’ve enjoyed it, and have been an expat for most of it which helps when you have spare money to save and travel and have a good life. We are however now locals and life is hard. We can’t achieve any of our goals or dreams and I can’t see any way out of our current predicament. I’ve been applying for jobs for 4 years and have had 2 interviews in that time. I don’t know what to do and feel trapped. We have to make a move soon as I don’t want my DC entrenched here as there is no way I want to live here forever but sadly I can see that happening

I'm Australian but have lived in England for 15 years. I love it so much. Home is where the heart is and England really agrees with me. I'll never move back. Its all about what makes you happy.

You have to stay focused on the positives as an expat. Really focus on what you have gained, not what you may miss. It can be hard at times but there's nothing like living in a country you love

I wouldn't have wanted to do the expat move every 3 years thing with school aged kids, we emigrated really. So we are home overseas, not going anywhere.

My parents moved a lot when I was a child and there are pros and cons, but the con is I'm pretty much rootless with no genuine sense of anywhere being "home" except for wherever I happen to live. Pros are being independent and mentally and practically adaptable.

My children are bilingual but the eldest has a little bit of the feeling of belonging somewhere else, not knowing which nationality to be. I wanted them to have roots.

I've lived in Spain for three years with DH and DD. We constantly question whether we should love back. I don't love what's going on in the UK right now, but being far away from family and work insecurity are two big concerns, as well as continually struggling with the language (I put off dr's appointments, etc, because I get nervous of having to try to explain everything in Spanish).

*move back

We have loved in Perth Australia for a year now, to be honest I can’t imagine life back home now but I suppose it’s still early days. As a couple we do SO much more, always put and about rather than stuck infront of the tv. Family is the only downside, we have a few people here that helps.

Yes I loved it, but it helped massively that I had friends I made it there. One stayed and now is very, very lonely but doesn't help she refuses to try and engage with people.

I’ve done it before (US) but moved back. It was an interesting experience but I got sick of needing to spend all my limited annual leave visiting the UK rather than taking holidays and, ultimately, I prefer UK culture.