Hi there! Thanks for taking the time to check out my new blog. I decided to create this blog because I wanted a way to record my experiences as I return to my homeland and figured that perhaps my experiences might be useful to others considering the same.
Firstly, what is an “expatriate”? Well, the Oxford Dictionary defines an expatriate as:
noun
Pronunciation:/ɪksˈpatrɪət, -ˈpeɪtrɪət, ɛks-/
Nice and simply put, thank you Oxford. So yes, I am a person who lives outside of their native country. In my case I was born and raised in the United Kingdom, South Wales to be more precise. However, I’m currently living in Canada and have been here for 11 years.
I was 17 when I left the UK. A mere child, really, but at the time I thought I was all grown up and ready to face the world, plus I was rebellious teen and my family and I didn’t always see eye to eye on how my life should be run.
I started my travels by flying to Phoenix, Arizona, where I stayed with a friend I had met online, a friend that I barely knew. The plan was to stay with the friend and use his home as a home-base and travel around the states. This didn’t phase me one bit since I was 17 and seemingly invincible. Naturally it wasn’t long before things went awry. Money ran out faster than an ice-cube in the desert and the friend turned out to be a little creepy (a creep on the internet? WHO KNEW?!).
Thankfully another internet friend (one whom I felt I could trust) came to my rescue and bundled me up on the long three day drive to Canada on the Greyhound Bus. Once I got to Canada I immediately fell in love with the country, the people and my friend (whom I ended up dating for 6 years – but we’re still very good friends)!
I decided to make Canada my permanent home. I’ve spent 11 years here in Canada and they have, mostly, been wonderful times. I’ve made some amazing friends, found and lost Love a few times, had some amazing experiences and some cool jobs, but recently the call of home has been getting louder and louder until I decided it was time to end the longest vacation of my life.
I’ve often been asked, in the months since I announced my decision to return, why I want to go home if I’ve had such an amazing time in Canada. Well, there are a number of factors.
First and foremost even though I don’t always see eye to eye with my family I do still love them dearly. In the last few years there have been a few deaths and I now have a niece and nephew that I haven’t met. I felt very detached from my family when I couldn’t attend the funerals and when the children were born and I couldn’t see them. That was the primary catalyst that began the thought process to return home. I can’t wait to be a proper Uncle at long last, those kids are going to be spoiled rotten.
Secondly, the bloody weather out here in Canada can be awful at times. Yes, before you say anything, I know it rains most of the time in the UK. I’m ok with that, I actually quite like the rain. What I can’t abide is snow. Canada isn’t short of snow by any means and in the winter the weather can fall as low as -40 degrees here (colder in some places) and I’m a bit of a wimp when it comes to the cold. Conversely, since I’m never seemingly happy, it gets far too warm here in the summer for me. So, back to damp but more temperate Blighty.
Also when I left the UK, as mentioned, I was only 17. Although I travelled around the UK a lot I didn’t really appreciate it and took it for granted. I barely know my homeland and that pains me. I have an overwhelming urge to travel the length and breadth of the UK and experience all it has to offer.
Finally, I want to go back to school and study Dramatic Studies. I’ve been acting on stage here in Canada and have even had a few roles in some independent movies. I’ve loved it so much that I want to make it my primary career. So, the plan is to get a fulltime job so that I can save up enough money to go to University (even though it’s horrendously expensive now) and afterwards try to work for the BBC.
So, in a nutshell that is why I’m heading home to the UK. I won’t be returning to Wales but will instead be moving to England. I’ll pause here momentarily so that all of my Welsh readers can boo at me. I will go into further details of my current move status in a subsequent posting. For now though, I think that should suffice.
Thank you for reading and I hope to see you here again soon!
Regards,
EpR
An Expatriate Returns 