Hello everyone,
I left a western European country (think sunset at 16:30 in December) for a southern European country. I’m visiting my family for the holidays, and it just feels very strange to be back here.
I now live in a city, and the contrast with the urban sprawl in my previous country is almost jarring. Car dependency is also quite high, while I mostly walk around where I live now.
For people who experienced similar situations, did you find any way to deal with it? I’m only here for a few weeks, so it’s fine, but I guess I just wanted to see if someone has any tip.
It also probably means I made a good decision to move where I live now.
If you get married or start dating in the new country, it’s worth being aware of how much more culture shock your partner is likely to experience when visiting your country of origin.
I kind of made this mistake after leaving my home country for many years, getting married, and moving home(-ish) with my spouse. I needed time to readjust to the surroundings, but it was mostly digging up old memories. (Also, it wasn’t exactly where I came from, so some things were different.) I mistakenly fooled myself into assuming that things that I remembered would be natural for my spouse, which was obviously stupid.
I was dumb. Don’t be dumb.