De nial is not just a river in Egypt!

Thanks everyone, just feeling a bit down yesterday I suppose.
Always hate moving about even though I have probably moved at least 40 times in my life.
Getty comfy and then have to pack it up and move on.
I always wonder about people who were born in one spot and died in the same place without ever seeing much of the world.
I met some people on Hawaii that never even drove to the other side of the Island!
Life is an adventure, I never put all much stock in any one place or situation, people come and go, people pop their clogs( that's funny) etc.
As long as I have my hubby it really doesn't matter about the rest.
Had a nice swim yesterday and got my head on straight again, too much energy makes ones mind wonder about silly things.
I am sure as soon as we get back to HU and unpack I'll fall right back into the groove of being a ex pat.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

I always wonder about people who were born in one spot and died in the same place without ever seeing much of the world.

If it helps, when I worked in Northern Nevada, I met someone who claimed to never have left Humboldt County in their entire life. Their big excursion was going to McDermitt. And that person was then older (nearly 20 years ago) then I am now..... And, I hate to say it, I am no spring chicken today.

Some people are just not interested in travel. So if you ever feel "enough" of packing and planes, do not feel bad about it. 

Usually when one is on the road they long for a stable place, when being stable people want to pick up and have an adventure.
Guess I have a bit of wonder lust in my blood.

Wherever you choose to live there is something that does piss you off. However there are often more things that make you happy . I tend to just dwell on the positive. It doesn't mean that I am in denial, it means that I choose to just make a joke about things because human behaviour anywhere can be weird. Once you accept  that it is not too strange having a laugh about people's antics.

My husband and I seem to move about allot, lived in so many places in our lifetime, our son joked that someone must of put a curse on us, "They will always be on the move". Hard to settle down anywhere the world is a big place and we want to see all that we can see while we still can.
As long as we are in good health we plan on traveling .
It is rather fun and interesting to meet people , ex pats who also have the traveling bug in them.
Yes one must have a sense of humor and learn to not take things all that seriously if they wish to live in another culture.
My DIL is from Japan, is living in the US but drives me a bit nutty.
She has little to no interest in anything in the US, I wonder why she bothered to even move over.
It is hard though, not everyone is suited to be an ex pat.

As I get older I still like to travel and move around but I can only  do so if I have got a firm base. This is one of the reasons i got my apartment in Budapest so that I have got a firm base in a vibrant city with good access to travel to other European cities and beyond. Furthermore it is one of the least expensive capital cities and my home can be very much lock up and go.
I'm not really all that bothered about making friends and influencing people as time goes on . If I make a few friends in my home city it is a bonus. In my younger years when I had young children it was more important for me to enjoy being with a community of other young parents but currently I am more likely to make friendships around common  interests, such as arts and crafts.
I can understand the mentality of the Japanese lady not mixing with people in the US. She is obviously just content with her own company and her husband's company. It takes all sorts to make a world.
One of my ex students who lived in Spain for a number of years often told me about other Brits who just watched UK tv, went to UK pubs and didn't mix with Spanish people at all. They were obviously just there for the better weather and cheaper drink and smokes. That's all part of an ex pat lifestyle.

anns wrote:

....One of my ex students who lived in Spain for a number of years often told me about other Brits who just watched UK tv, went to UK pubs and didn't mix with Spanish people at all. They were obviously just there for the better weather and cheaper drink and smokes. That's all part of an ex pat lifestyle.

It's not excusable in the EU but it is a natural thing in other countries like Africa, Middle East and some other places.   

Cultural, income, religious, educational, language and lifestyle differences are so large it's very difficult to integrate across the range of people found in-country to any meaningful level other than superficially. 

Not to say one cannot be polite, kind, interested etc., but most expats are on contracts for only a few years and will always leave.  On that basis, there's hardly any point in getting too involved.