What’s it really like to be an expat?
The life of an expat is inherently interesting. Leaving home to live in a far-flung land is a dream that nearly everyone has had in their lifetime. Far beyond a simple vacation, being an expat is an immersion into a new world, a new you.
I mean, I started out as a kid from a small town in Central Florida who graduated in a class of like four hundred from an overcrowded, poor high school. And now, I’m writing this article from my living room in Hungary, distracted by thoughts of my approaching move to Morocco.
It all seems so glamorous, and there are definitely parts that are, but there’s a lot more to being an expat than what you see on social media. Yes, there’s beaches and drinking, but there’s also visas and forms. For every new city and country I visit, there’s new rules and customs I have to learn.
So, what is being an expat really like?
The Good
Traveling to new and exciting places you’ve always wanted to go is a lot easier when you live closer. For example, I never imagined I would have been able to visit a place like Nepal. Getting there from the United States would be a series of connecting flights and long layovers. From the UAE, it was a four-hour direct flight that was cheaper than most Delta flights.
Plus, most places are considerably cheaper than in the US. I rented a large house in the heart of Phnom Penh, Cambodia for about half what my apartment cost in Charlottesville. Beer was fifty cents a can and grabbing a tuk tuk across town was maybe $2. Obviously living in the EU now things are more expensive, but the quality of life is much higher.
And now I have life’s worth of memories and stories. A simple scroll through my phone reminds me of drunken karaoke with friends, cookouts in the desert, and so many other experiences. Your everyday life is made up of vacation goals of others.
The Bad
For all the great memories I have from my travels, I don’t get to reminisce about them with the people I formed them with. The life of an expat is one of impermanence, always on the brink of change. I have many people I consider friends who I haven’t seen in person in many years.
It’s even worse when I think about the fact that I haven’t seen my family going on two years now. Living nearly ten thousand miles away at one point made visiting the US all but impossible without spending a fortune. Not to mention it would take days, not hours, of travel to get there and the same amount of time to get back.
These problems are renewed every time I uproot my life again and move to a new country. Goodbyes have to be said, possessions too big to fit in a suitcase sold, flights booked. A new country means new time zones and jet lag and trying to remember time differences and new exchange rates.
The Ugly
Most of the bad can be mitigated through some careful planning and time, but there are some things that you just can’t account for. There will be times where seemingly everything is out of your control and you’re just along for the ride.
Covid-19 is the perfect example of this. Thanks to the worldwide pandemic, moving from Cambodia to Hungary went from a 12-hour trip with a layover to 60 hours of flights and layovers going the long way around the world. A series of one-way flights back-to-back-to-back-to-back takes all the joy out of traveling.
Then there’s always the fun possibility of some regional turmoil creating havoc. Like when my step-daughter was going to visit us in the UAE, but a failed overthrow of the government in Turkey cancelled those plans. Can’t have a layover in the Istanbul airport when there’s a tank on the runway.
Now, obviously there is a lot more to being an expat than what I’ve written here. What I wanted to share with you is just a quick primer of what expat life can be like as I gear up to start a series about life abroad. I am far from an expert, but I’ve got plenty of experience in the field with more on the horizon.
So, I hope that I will be able to give you some insight into the expat experience and maybe entice a few of you into making the plunge and giving it a go. There’s a lot of world to see and there’s always more room in your passport for more stamps.
