We tried moving to the USA, but returned. Germans often leave and return.
Discussion
I think it depends upon what your expectations are.
We've whittled ours down to "hang out with friends and family, have a warm house with clean water, go to church or for nature walks, read, eat potatoes, grill wurst, drink beer, wear wool sweaters", and we can do that here better than anywhere else.
If we have electricity and the Internet works, that's a nice bonus.
Like, my car died last month. I sort of miss it and sharing with my husband is annoying, but I've now rearranged my schedule, so that I don't need one.
So. Okay. No car. Oh well. No more expectation for having my own car, no disappointment.
Sounds a bit sad 🫂
Not really. I'm stacking Bitcoin and we're moving house and whatnot. Now I feel less economic pressure.
Cars are crazy expensive and it was getting old and something was always breaking. We actually had a €400 repair a week before the engine finally died. 🤦🏻♀️
But I had to reframe. I used to drive around a lot, for reasons that aren't apparent to me, now. Why was I driving around so much? Like... WHY?!!!
😂
After the car broke down, we realized that I need to travel to the office on 2 particular days and he shifted his appointments around, to go in on the other days. If either of us needs an additional office-day, we drop the other off at the train station.
And that was it. We could have done that the whole time, but we didn't think of it.
I now just do my shopping and appointments, and whatnot, on those two days or on the weekend.
Could we have 2 cars in the States? Probably. Does it matter to us? Not really.
A lot of things don't really matter.
How long were you away? I have an aunt who emigrated to Canada a few years ago. I have friends who live in Bali and some who work and live in Singapore. They don't seem to be any happier. Oh yes, and a cousin lives in Dubai at the moment. But the problems of each country seem to bounce off them. My kids are looking at a farm in Denmark next week. Simply because it's cheaper than anything they've seen in Germany so far. Let's see.
Happiness is often more of a personal-situation thing, than something about the country.
I know people who moved away and stayed happily gone and others who also returned.
Moving across the border, like Denmark or Switzerland, seems to be more successful than moving to China or Brazil or whatever.
Probably true. I just have the impression that people in a "foreign" country are not so interested in the deep structural and social problems. You create your own world.
Yeah, they're expats. They have an incentive to not be too critical.
Sort of the way tourists travel all around the world and say, "I would love to live here!" while they're being waited on, hand-and-foot. 🙄