Americans Abroad

Even from those who have only traveled abroad briefly. I have seen some very close mindedness here in DU toward expats portraying us as something we are not. All of us have different reasons for living abroad. Frankly if you'd asked me a year or two before I came over that I would live abroad for the rest of my life I would have looked at you like you were nuts. Things have a way of changing and while this adventure has never been perfect, it sure has been interesting.

We were just able to afford to buy a small apartment (very small) three years ago as I had saved up a lot in the few years before and worked my butt off.

I've been to a few poorer nations (in terms of GDP per capita) including China, the Philippines, and Thailand. I'm not sure anything can prepare you for what you see. In China the students at the university I taught at were 4 to a room and there were communal bathrooms and showers. I never went in the dorms, but the students did describe them to me. Where I lived in during college was a castle compared to that (even with the roaches).

I agree with you on the protectionist attitude and am going to leave it at that. People have a funny way of doing drive bye insults on DU and I am not going to give them the ammunition.

The expats on here don't really frequent this forum so it's difficult to get discussions going. I know there are quite a few of us (Suji being the one I usually see on a regular basis). Usually I use either Dave's ESL Cafe (which is a cesspool) or AFEK for communication. ESL cafe has forums specifically for Korea and AFEK is for long-term residents of Korea (most, but not all married). It would be nice to talk to expats in other countries as well.