Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Being an Expat

Living abroad is a great experience, no doubt about it. I've learned so much about the world, about people and about myself in the past three years, and I truly believe I would have never gained this knowledge if I'd stayed back home. But beside the great things that have been happening to me (being accepted for my masters programme, mastering in general the german uni systems, finally getting good marks, finding a nice and rewarding job, making good friends on whom I can count, etc, etc, etc) there are also the down sides. Sometimes I have the impression that people back home think it's so glamourous that I live in Europe, but what they (and I) sometimes forget is that:

- I never get to celebrate my birthday with my family
- I hadn't seen my dad in roughly 22 months
- I can't work as much as I would like to - in Montreal as a student I was rich compared to my lifestyle now
- I'm never there for birthdays, weddings, etc.
- I actually miss snow (never thought that would happen!)
- I can't stroll through the streets and remmeber where I used to hang out as a teenager, where I had my first kiss, where I worked for my first job...
- On Facebook's "compare people" I get continously rated as "most absentee" :)

I'm just kind of down now, and really between 2 worlds. I'm thankful for all that I have here, but right now I still dearly miss home.

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