Experiences as an Ex-pat

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

A year ago today I got on an airplane at Washington Dulles airport. The next morning, I landed in Stockholm, Sweden. I’ve lived here since then.

The past year has been interesting, to say the least. I haven’t found a job here yet. I’m almost done learning Swedish. We have a dog. My wife (Anniz, for the old-timers) is pregnant. There’s no baseball here. Nearly everyone speaks English, and it never ceases to amuse me when I hear random English words inserted into Swedish conversations. I seem to forget all knowledge of Swedish when I’m at the post office, and no one at the pharmacist seems to speak English.

There’s a lot I miss from the US, but nothing that a week or two’s vacation there can’t lick. I miss real Coca-Cola, Taco Bell, good newspapers, hot weather, and being in the same time zone as my family.

Will we ever move back to the States? Maybe. Anytime soon? Nope, we’re not done here yet.

22

Larry Mudd - ll-awma is apparently the south American animal. Who knew I’d be mispronouncing it all of these years. I hope you’ll be able to sleep now.

Polycarp - come on now - you miss the snow, don’t you? And CKWS?

I don’t believe I’m being petty or spoiled to miss things at home. I moved here because the man I love is here, not to ‘better’ myself or have some grand adventure. Whenever you move from one place to another there are going to be things you miss from home and things you like better in the new home. I’m adjusting but I will always consider Alberta to be my home.

23

I moved away from Montreal nearly six years ago, and now I’m gearing up to move away from Vancouver-- to New York.

There are lots of things I miss about Montreal: namely pretty women dressed fantastically, bagels, nightlife, looking at people in the eye without them thinking you’re a freak, and innocent flirting. Apparently if you flirt with someone in Vancouver, you’re looking for a fuck buddy.

I also miss french culture! and the language! and the poutine, steamé all-dress et frites!

But there are things about Vancouver that are really nice. The weather is absolutely fantastic. The view of the mountains and the water is breathtaking. And the beer is better out here, thanks to the proliferation of microbreweries. It also has the best restaurants EVAR! And cheap! I recently went out with 10 friends for a gourmet meal with several bottles of wine and the bill was $440 with a 20% tip. Try doing that anywhere else in the world…

There are downsides tho’-- Vancouver isn’t really a city. It’s an extended suburb that lacks a real metropolitan nexus.
Check back with me in a year to find out what I miss about Vancouver :wink:

24

I’ve lived in Chicago for several years now, and I think this to some extent is because Chicagoans/Midwesterners in general feel that the Midwest is overlooked by the “national” media, that especially the networks and cable stations seem to feel that the “real” happenings of the US are on the coasts. Chicagoans especially seem to feel that the size of the city (3rd largest metro area in the country) entitles us to some kind of notice, but that we’re mostly seen as hicks/“flyovers”.

As a side note, I think the Sun-Times is more guilty of the “city news on a major news event day” than the Tribune is, at least in the last few years or so. Can’t say that I necessarily blame the papers for running with that kind of news though - with all the political shenanigans going on around here, there’s plenty to talk about. (And the scandal over the last presidential election served nicely to cover the sudden push-through of legislation allowing the remodeling of Soldier Field with that horrendous new design, so it doesn’t always work out.)

Even though I’m only an hour or so south of the Wisconsin border - I was born and raised there - I find I can’t get cheese curds in Chicago. Heathens. Other than that (and refusing to say “pop” instead of “soda”; I even converted my husband on that), I love this place. :slight_smile:

25

I’m living over 2000 miles from where I grew up and there are things that bother me. The Mexican food here sucks. The “mountains” are a joke and a half. (JonathanChance apparently lives in the “mountains” but I’ve been to his house and if you hadn’t told me, I wouldn’t have known). I’m used to biiiig mountains. In Tucson, it can be 105 degrees in May and you drive 45 minutes up the mountain and there is still snow. Those are real mountains. You can’t find decent brands of Mexican food ingredients. I don’t have the time or patients to make my own refried beans, for example, but out here I’m stuck with (gag) Old El Paso (gag). The biggest tortillas you can get are 12" across, and they’re all thick and puffy.

Oh, Ginger? Every grocery store I’ve ever been to around here sells lard.

26

Opal, as someone else who’s been in Tucson and DC, I’ll point out that:
-Mexican food around here ain’t Mexican, it’s Salvadoran. But on the other hand some of the grocery stores in Tucson (cough *Southwest * cough) would be shut down here for health code violations. (“why are there raisins in the barbacoa? And why are they moving?”)
-Not only is there snow in the mountains in Tucson, there’s also old wrinkly nudists.
-God, I miss Bookmans.

27

I went from suburbia in Colorado to rural Ontario…what a culture shock! One thing I do like is not having to adjust my recipies for the high altitude. And the milk is sold in bags, which just baffles me. I commiserate with several members about that lack of good Mexican food or ingredients east of the Mississippi. And don’t get me wrong, I love snow, it’s just that there’s so much of it! Of course, I miss my mountains. My big, purple, snowy, hard-to-drive-through mountains. But other than that, there’s not much I miss…except my friends (hi Ams) and my dad. That doesn’t mean I’m not moving back for university next year. Go UNC!

28

I was bron in Oregon, and we moved to Taiwan when I was five. I grew up there, and only left at 18, when I graduated from highschool and moved back to the States for college.
WARNING - Self indulgent tripe to follow

[spoiler]I’d really like to meet a me who grew up here. When I came to college, I had serious problems fitting in. I’m as white as the Pillsbury Doughboy, and some people didn’t believe me when I said I grew up in Taiwan. Any conversations about TV shows I was asea in, and the real kicker was that for about a year, I had trouble telling Caucasians apart. Seriously. Not recognizing people made it very hard to make friends.

I know that I’m “socially awkward” and I can’t help wondering how much is who I am, and how much is how I was raised. I’ll never know though.[/spoiler]

From talking with people in college, my high school was first rate. I got a much better education overseas than I ever would have in rural Oregon. My parents were also much better paid than they would have been, and that’s helped a lot. When I was looking at colleges, I had the entire country to choose from, since I wasn’t exactly going to be close to home anyways.

I developed some good habits there. Since I grew up without a television, I don’t bother with one now. We also didn’t have a car for the thirteen years I was there, so I’m much more likely to walk places than my peers are.

The National Palace Museum spoiled me though. It’s all the artifacts of China that the Nationalists could bring when they fled to the island. Imagine if all the treasures of Europe were in one museum, and you have some idea of what this is like. I’ve heard that they have enough to change every exhibit every day for a year, without repeating.

Hal

29

Southwest Supermarkets are scary places to be, no doubt. The mainstream grocery stores are ok though. Well, I did see a mouse at Fry’s once… but it was very cute.
I miss Bookman’s too. The one on Grant/Campbell, that is. I haven’t been to the others. That was the best store ever… haven’t found anything like it out here.

As for Mexican… oh I would kill to have a Nico’s out here. 24 hour short order perfection. And La Indita on 4th Ave is my favorite restaurant in the universe.

And no one out here knows what fry bread is or why I crave it so…

30

Thanks, Ginger, I did actually manage to get to sleep before finding that out, but maybe tonight I’ll be able to sleep without dreaming of ungulates in saffron robes.

Laaaw-ma.

Laaaaaaaw-ma.

I think I like it better than the domestic brand.

31

Opal, next time you guys come up for a visit, we’ll make fry-bread. Do you have a recipe?

32

Milk in bags! I had forgotten about their existence, because when you live with one other person, and neither of you drinks milk, you don’t need to buy 4L of milk at a time…

Vampyr, do you have a little Snippet hanging off your fridge?

33

We had milk in bags in Alberta when I was younger. When we moved out to Ontario and that’s all I could find, I was a bit surprised. They had 1l and 2l cartons but we went through too much to bother with them. It’s sure a surprise to people who have never seen it!

34

D’you know, I completely neglected to mention the built-in friends network that I found when I moved here. I am an MAD an proud of it!

35

And we love to have you.

Now to plot my vengeance on Opal for dissing the Blue Ridge…

36

I think I’ll chime in here - better late than never (besides, the alternative is WORKING… ugh :slight_smile: )

As some background, I’ve never lived outside the U.S., but I have lived in:

Ann Arbor Michigan (but I moved before I was a year old, so it doesn’t really count - it was probably cold)
Houston, Texas
Several places in Northern Virginia
Hilo, Hawai`i
Santa Clara, San Francisco, and Folsom, California

California (the bay area parts) was by far my favorite and I would love more than anything to be able to go back there - unfortunately it just ain’t in the cards right now. The weather was nicer, the people were nicer, and the food was a HELL of a lot better.

Hawai`i pretty much sucked - it has some lovely scenery, but Hilo, especially, is not a very nice place to live. Especially if you’re a starving college student - and one who is used to having a big city nearby.

I thought Texas was nice - the summers were rather oppresive, but the ones in Washington might be worse, it’s been a while since I’ve been back there, so I could be wrong. But the Mexican food down there was awesome - I hate going to a mexican restaraunt where their ‘super spicy’ salsa (that you have to ask for in a hushed voice and pass the waiter a $20 bill under the table to get) is little more than ketchup with a little cilantro.

I think the DC area more or less blows. It has it’s moments, but I hate having to LOOK for a decent restaraunt. Sure, there are going to be gems pretty much wherever you live, but in California, I could pretty much bet on the fact that anywhere I went would be ‘good’ (as in I’d go there again), and lots of times they were ‘great’. The weather here stinks, and although the Fairfax Country, VA cops don’t give me as much hassle anymore (but still some), since I look like I’m over 20 - I remember them being pretty rotten when I was growing up. It’s one thing to be hassled by the cops if you’re doing something bad (or look like you are), but when you’re scared to walk around on the street because there is almost a 100% gauruntee that at least one cop will give you grief, it’s another matter entirely. And one of the first things I noticed when I moved here from Texas was that the people were ASSHOLES. Ok, not all of them - I’ve met some nice people here, but in general, there’s just this overall tone of asshole-ishness floating around here and it really irks me.

**Ginger - ** I’ve found the racism levels in this country to be very hit and miss. Sometimes if you go 10 miles in any direction from the most confederate-flag-wavin’ ignorant sumbitch you can find, you’ll find yourself in an area where you could possibly be lynched for saying the ‘N’ word - and not necessarily by uniracial groups. To get back to Hawai`i, there is actually a very high level of anti-white (and japanese, and portugese, and… well, anybody who isn’t hawaiian) sentiment there. First night I was there I almost got ran over and had eggs thrown at me from a moving car. Lovely place.

I can also understand the resentment caused by Americans calling Canada ‘The 51st State’. But it should be noted that a lot of the people in this country would be incapable of finding their state on a map of the country, think Iraq occupies the space taken by Canada, and are, in general, complete morons. Unforunately, the American members of the SDMB are not an accurate cross-section of the country’s populace. So I wouldn’t be too hurt when certain members of the American citizenry say stupid things - it’s unfortunately just the way they are (look at who’s in the White House, for pete’s sake)

Oh, and I wouldn’t associate with those Senate types, they’re prone to self-evacuation in locations of extreme geothermal activity and are not to be trusted :slight_smile:

37

It’s not hard to make, it’s just not the same if you don’t get it from a dusty stand on a hot day with some Tohono O’odam guy behind the stand frying up huge batches of it in what appears to be a very unsanitary vat of boiling oil…

here is a recipe that I found online http://breadnet.net/indian-fry.html (though I’ve never heard of putting raisins in it…???)

38

I didn’t dis it! I just thought that the area was “vaguely hilly”

39

Right from the horse’s mouth, folks. He pees on hot lava.

40

Unforutnately, no, but we’ve been looking for one! My aunt’s family has one and i find it the most amusung thing.