The original Expat
Long before glitz and glamour came to accompany corporate packages, Ernest Hemingway likened expats to addicts: “You’ve lost touch with the soil. You get precious. Fake European standards have ruined you. You drink yourself to death. You become obsessed with sex. You spend all your time talking, not working. You are an expatriate, see? You hang around cafes.”
The last 2 paragraphs hit me 100%No matter how sour or discontent your previous experience was, the expat life always offers another chance to make it all different,” says Ms. Blotskaya. “You can make amends with the mistakes you’ve done or miscalculations and start anew.”
The more challenges many expats overcome, the more they enjoy the adrenaline of feeling themselves grow. After awhile, this becomes the new normal and makes life “back home” seem boring in comparison.
Which is why so many expats – regardless of financial or social standing – resist giving up the lifestyle. Abroad, they feel free, independent, adventurous, curious, valued for their skills and self-aware. “As an expat, I have the ability to live in a foreign country and just be left alone to do,” says Mr. Middagh.
http://blogs.wsj.com/expat/2015/06/21/w ... addictive/