Expats: what do you miss?

Originally Posted by Piobaire

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poutine

New Yorker did a large article about poutine in their November food issue. Apparently it is becoming quite a gourmand playground in Quebec.

When I lived in a Southeast Asian country to remain nameless for a couple of years in my early twenties I missed pizza, snow, and banging white chicks.

Originally Posted by JustinW

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Self-deprecating humor
**** man, wait til you meet me. It's the only kind I've got.

Originally Posted by LabelKing

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Couldn't you have your cars shipped over? Given how corrupt Vietnam and other Communist countries are, I'm sure they won't mind.
import duties in the vicinity of 200 percent. even if I could pay someone off at customs, I'm not getting out of it for less than 150% of the original book value of the car. Vietnam, home of the 50 grand Camry.

Originally Posted by Trompe le Monde

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where would the cars be driven?
Also a good point, driving in this traffic is not pleasant. That said, if I left, I'd miss my motorbikes...Cake. Eat. Too.

Originally Posted by TGPlastic

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When I lived in a Southeast Asian country...banging white chicks.
oh I don't miss that at all. I mean, if I want some chubby ass white cheeks in my room, that's easy...Fish. Barrel. Shoot...but why the hell would I want that?

In China, if you have a business enterprise, you can import a car you've bought overseas for personal use, and thus not pay duties.

how nice for the Chinese. In Vietnam we can use Google

First, having spent at least half my life living abroad, what do I miss compared to where? I scarcely have a native culture any more and hardly resonated with the one I grew up in anyway.

That said, what I miss has more to do with quality of life than specific things. Namely, space and consideration. In Japan, Tokyo particularly, spaces are cramped and people crowd these tiny spaces without any concept of personal space (space, space, space!!!) much less respect for human dignity. Witness the white-gloved station attendants shoving the last stragglers through the doors of the inhumanly crowded trains. I could go on about this, but I'll desist. Or is that resist?

People complain that Tokyo is cold. WTF?? Tokyo never gets below chilly. Lately, it's been unseasonably warm, and last weekend I observed a pair of under-dressed, coddled women complain -- or were they just making conversation because they have nothing much else to say? (and don't get me going about the vapidity of Japanese women) -- "Ooh, it's cold!" Are you ******* kidding me?! I only once have witnessed a day here (in Yokohama, actually) where it dipped below freezing and the snow (snow??!!!) crunched under my feet.

The problem here is that whatever temperature it is outside, it is also inside. Welcome to the poverty mentality of Japan, where the ruling elite have been ****** and despoiling the commoners since ages immemorial and they passively comply because even though everybody is utterly miserable they have not the vaguest concept that any other mode of lifestyle is possible. And living among these human cattle wears down any ostensibly sane person fairly quickly.

And I've barely even ******* started . . .

Tokyo is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there . . .

The concept of forming a line to wait for something. It seems in the US, this is SOP to the point that people get upset if it doesn't occur. I've lived in a few countries where the concept of a line just doesn't seem to exist.

It gets really frustrating when I am in a store about to ask the merchant for something when an older woman pushes me aside and asks first.

Personal space is another one. In the US, we have distance between people when standing or sitting. I can recall more than a few times where I've been sitting on a large flat bench in a mall or the like, and someone sits down behind me, and then proceeds to use my back as a backrest.

Quiet. Is it really necessary to talk constantly??? I'd like to sit and relax with my beer, not blather on and on about meaningless crap.

Originally Posted by Nantucket Red

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First, having spent at least half my life living abroad, what do I miss compared to where? I scarcely have a native culture any more and hardly resonated with the one I grew up in anyway.

That said, what I miss has more to do with quality of life than specific things. Namely, space and consideration. In Japan, Tokyo particularly, spaces are cramped and people crowd these tiny spaces without any concept of personal space (space, space, space!!!) much less respect for human dignity. Witness the white-gloved station attendants shoving the last stragglers through the doors of the inhumanly crowded trains. I could go on about this, but I'll desist. Or is that resist?

People complain that Tokyo is cold. WTF?? Tokyo never gets below chilly. Lately, it's been unseasonably warm, and last weekend I observed a pair of under-dressed, coddled women complain -- or were they just making conversation because they have nothing much else to say? (and don't get me going about the vapidity of Japanese women) -- "Ooh, it's cold!" Are you ******* kidding me?! I only once have witnessed a day here (in Yokohama, actually) where it dipped below freezing and the snow (snow??!!!) crunched under my feet.

The problem here is that whatever temperature it is outside, it is also inside. Welcome to the poverty mentality of Japan, where the ruling elite have been ****** and despoiling the commoners since ages immemorial and they passively comply because even though everybody is utterly miserable they have not the vaguest concept that any other mode of lifestyle is possible. And living among these human cattle wears down any ostensibly sane person fairly quickly.

And I've barely even ******* started . . .

Tokyo is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there . . .

NR, this is quite amusing.
In part because, after almost 20 years of regularly visiting Tokyo/Japan, I might be moving there shortly to live - perhaps for the rest of my life.

Your comment about space particularly resonates with me. I grew up on acreage and whilst I currently live in an apartment, it is quite large and sits on a hill with views over a treed valley to the city. Therefore, I still enjoy a feeling of considerable space. Tokyo, however, is generally very flat and very crowded. I occasionally feel something akin to claustrophobia when I'm there as I suddenly think of the thousands of square kilometres of concrete and asphalt that surround me.

Despite that, however, there aren't too many other things that I miss about Australia when I am in Japan. Of course, I do miss the wide availability of English-language books and magazines, but Amazon has largely solved that issue. I used to miss a lot of different foods but I think that Tokyo has really lifted its game over the past 15 years or so and now it is possible to find a wide variety of well-prepared, non-Japanese food - although sometimes you do need to go looking for it!

Originally Posted by Nantucket Red

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The problem here is that whatever temperature it is outside, it is also inside. Welcome to the poverty mentality of Japan, where the ruling elite have been ****** and despoiling the commoners since ages immemorial and they passively comply because even though everybody is utterly miserable they have not the vaguest concept that any other mode of lifestyle is possible. And living among these human cattle wears down any ostensibly sane person fairly quickly.

I would like to add good insulation to the temp thing. Insulation here sucks a bag of baguettes and other phallic objects. Apartments for the most part are cold and noisy since you can hear your stupid college kid neighbors yelling and wrestling all day. Most houses here are the same, they are constructed with a heavy outer wall and a thin inner wall, no insulation what so ever. The people I tutor about **** their pants when I tell them that it dips down to -20C most days in my home town, and we get more than two meters of snow at least once or twice a decade. There at least I had an escape from the cold, just go into my centrally heated house or crank up the gas fireplace, always nice and toasty. If I needed to go somewhere just hop in the car and turn the heater up. Cant really do that here as I have to use my AC for my heater and as soon as its warm in my place all the heat escapes.

Originally Posted by m@T

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oh I don't miss that at all. I mean, if I want some chubby ass white cheeks in my room, that's easy...Fish. Barrel. Shoot...but why the hell would I want that?

No really. If you wanna shag a buncha Thai bitches that is sooo easy. Even a chubby Irish girl is harder to land. There is something to be said for nailing a native English speaker. Third world girls are too easy.

oh hell no. Here the white girls are among the easiest targets. No one wants em.

Originally Posted by m@T

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oh hell no. Here the white girls are among the easiest targets. No one wants em.

LOL where I live now, there pretty hard to get, you have to be one of those holister wearing dudes to even be considered if your black that is.