I’m sure we’ve done this many times before, but with the hordes of lurkers shy and guilty half-raise of the hand coming out of the woodwork right now, I’m curious as to how many more people will step forward. Hey, I’ll start!
I’m an American who has lived in Germany for 12 years now. I moved after I married my wonderful, adorable German husband and we have two little Germericans, as my aunt refers to them. I had taken one evening German course before I moved over, and you know what? German turns out to be a tough language to learn as an adult. Frickin’ three genders and changable adjective endings. Completely unncessary, if you want my unvarnished opinion!
I’m an Australian who’s been living in the US for about 9 years, so I’m an expat; and one of my sons lives in England, so I’m the father of an expat too. Between the ages of 2 and 9 I lived in England, so my father and I were expats then. (My mother wasn’t, since she was born in England, so she was then an ex-expat).
I’m a US expat for a bit over 6 years. I’ve lived in Tbilisi, Wellington, Dubai and Prague for the most part. Not sure where I’ll go next - possibly spending more time in the US to be closer to friends and family. Since I own my own business, I can live where ever they’ll let me spend my money.
Singapore would be nice, but immigration is difficult (though Malaysia is not so hard).
Technically I’m not, but I spent six months in London and seem to have left my heart there, and I’m hellbent on finding a way to make it my permanent home. So I guess you could say I’m a pre-ex-pat.
Been teaching in Japan for just over a year, here for at least one more. I like it here, so it’ll probably end up being at least three, but I know I’m coming back home eventually.
I’m a Peace Corps volunteer teaching English in beautiful Sichuan Province, China. I just got here a few months ago and I will be here for two years.
I spent the previous two years teaching high school computer science with Peace Corps in sunny North Provice, Cameroon. Just a big of culture shock going from Africa to China, heh.
I’m American but have lived 18 of the last 22 years outside the US, in the Federated States of Micronesia, Indonesia (moved here 3 times), Mozambique, and Egypt.
I’m an ex-expat: I’m British, but lived in Pennsylvania and New Jersey for about three years. Well, also West Virginia, but I’d rather not talk about that.
I was born in the US (Lexington, KY) and lived my first twenty-five years in Lexington, graduating from Transylvania University. I migrated to Brisbane (Australia) in 1971 and, except for two years in Papua New Guinea in the mid-eighties, I have lived here ever since. I’ve been an Aussie citizen for about twenty-five years now. My wife is also originally from the US (Indiana) and also an Aussie citizen.
Teaching jobs are not too hard to get, from my understanding. This is doubly true if you have a TEFL cert (some places will give you one for doing 30 hours of coursework over a weekend). I applied to the JET program (and got in the second time around). I love it here. Living somewhere for awhile is really the way to see cultures you’re interested in. Since being here, it has kindled an interest in checking out some other countries I’ve always wanted to see-- Vietnam, Korea, etc. I’ll teach my way 'round the world if I can.
If you’re serious about living somewhere else, and you don’t have things tying you down (family, huge amounts of debt that are only being offset by your extremely lucrative job), there’s really nothing stopping you from moving than the simple fact that you haven’t done it yet. Once you put things in motion, it’s easier than you might think.
