An expat is someone who has chosen to live abroad for an extended period. A tourist can run around a country and see all the highlights on their list and try a new place, but with the intention of returning to the “real world”. An expat can go to that same country and savor the region for as long as they want, immersing themselves in the culture and lifestyle without any intention of returning to their country of origin in the near future. Being an expat is a lifestyle choice and goes far beyond what a tourist would experience.
It's a big difference, which is why tourists and expats often have totally different mentalities. Deciding to set up a home in a different country offers new opportunities with a new culture and possibly even a new language. Opening yourself up to all of these different possibilities gives you the option to greatly expand your horizons and your potential. New experiences during your stay as an expatriate can positively change your way of thinking, your values and your beliefs, offering you alternative ways of seeing the world.
Immersing yourself in the culture of another country offers you the opportunity to meet people from all kinds of backgrounds and establish contacts with a wide range of people. An expat is a curious and open-minded person. Expats are eager to learn about other cultures. We are the slow travelers who fell so much in love with other countries that we decided to make them our home.
At least for a short time. My life as an expat is exciting, stimulating, unpredictable and fun, and it has also been a real opportunity for personal growth. An expatriate, or expatriate if you prefer the more commonly used abbreviated format, is a person who has chosen to live outside their country of origin. Many expats can obtain a visa based on their status as a student or retiree, if they have made a local investment (such as buying a property or having agreed to keep a certain amount in the bank), if they have a sponsorship through their work, or if they have a separate professional visa.
For many expats, living abroad is a big adventure that sometimes comes after years of researching, planning, and dreaming of living somewhere else. There are other truths about expat life, and just because that one is beautiful doesn't mean that they all are. Being an expatriate has made me appreciate things more, get to know myself better, find different ways of seeing things and opening my own path to move forward. When I was young, I read about American expatriates living in Paris in the 1920s, including Ernest Hemingway, F.
The invaluable lessons and experiences you'll have living as an expat will be a topic of conversation for years to come. Leaving the borders of the country of origin in favor of living abroad is the technical definition if you want to define yourself as an expatriate. Whether they are other expats, with shared experiences and, possibly, nationality, or locals who will help you move around your new city, show you the best places in your new home and maybe even help you practice your language skills, these people will be your family away from home and help you adapt to expat life. Although it's a great adventure, the experience of creating a new life abroad as an expat is often described as a “two-faced friend”.
The unglamorous aspect of expat life comes from leaving family and friends at home and watching their lives move forward through social media highlights, emails and phone calls. Even the most popular expat countries, such as Ecuador, Mexico, and Thailand, are very different in culture and language compared to the United States. But as the years went by and it began to become clear that France could, in fact, become my permanent home, I began to really identify with the term expatriate or expatriate. It's highly unlikely that there's an expat who hasn't experienced a certain degree of culture shock.
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