Guest Post by Michelle Garrett

Moving overseas was one of the best things I could have done.

The Author in Paris

My short answer is that I live in Britain for love: my husband is British. They always reply ‘awwww,’ because it sounds so romantic.

But the full answer is of course much longer than that, and predates my husband’s entry into my life.

I grew up in a small university town in Northern Minnesota. By the time I was 18 I was fed up with the small town. When my drama club decided to take a trip to England I signed up immediately. England!



Many car washes and garage sales later, our small group were boarding a 747 in July 1988, on our way to London. When we began our descent to Heathrow and the clouds gradually parted, I saw the little squiggly, crazy quilt pattern of fields below—so unlike the giant grids of Mid-West America. This was my first real view of the world outside the States. At 18 I was hungry for all new experiences and I was thrilled (almost overwhelmed with excitement) to see this green and pleasant land waiting for me to explore.

We did a whirlwind tour of sites in and around London. I was agitated because I was the oldest in the group. I had graduated a month previous and I wanted to be independent, free to explore the world. I was standing by myself at Windsor Castle (possibly in a sulk), near a wall overlooking the valley across to Eton School. The wind gusted and I could smell things that I had never smelled in Minnesota—a combination of the fresh, woody willows along the river, the old lichen covered stone of the castle walls, even the short cut green grass held a different scent in the misty air.

My drama teacher walked up beside me and looked at the view. She could sense my restlessness. ‘You’ll be back,’ she said, as if reassuring me. ‘You’ll come back one day.’ She was certain.

When I went to university that autumn, I learned that the university had a Study Abroad programme in England. I signed up. I spent seven months of my junior year in a castle owned by the Duke of Northumberland. He rents out the servants quarters to the students of my university. It was an amazing experience, cold, but amazing.

While there I fell in love with a local who was about to go to medical school. I went home to finish my degree, he moved to London to start his training and when I finished university I moved to London to be with him. We got married perhaps a bit too early, but my work permit ran out and I assumed I would be with him forever.

I’m no longer with him, but I am still in England. When my marriage was breaking down my dad expected me to move home. I didn’t. How could I? I didn’t even know how to pay a bill in the States. The culture shock of repatriation on top of a divorce would have been more than I could have coped with at that time.

I had been in England for 10 years, I had a circle of friends and good support. I still had friends in Minnesota but they had got on with their lives—it would be a lot to expect them to suddenly fit me and my emotional baggage in again. So I stayed in England.

Eventually I remarried—another Englishman. And I’m still here.

Do I miss the States? Of course. Would I move back? Well… We talk about a retirement home in the States one day, but I don’t see a move back to the States before then. If I had known back in ’88 on the walls of Windsor Castle that not only would I return, as my teacher said, but that my future would be dominated by a life in England, would I have done anything differently?

The answer is yes, probably…possibly. I never planned on making a life here. It has been full of emotional hardship and heartache. And yet, I don’t regret moving overseas. Of course I could have made a life anywhere, but moving overseas helped me grow into the person I was meant to be by pushing my boundaries, testing me and helping me develop in ways that I would not have been able to while surrounded by people and influences back home.

That growth and development are the reasons why a move overseas was the best thing for me.

The author is an American freelance writer who has lived in the UK for 20 years. She blogs about life as an expat at Mid-Atlantic English.

On June 10, EFAM published an article titled America — the Grim Truth. And grim it was indeed!

“Americans, I have some bad news for you,” the article starts.

“You have the worst quality of life in the developed world – by a wide margin.

“If you had any idea of how people really lived in Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and many parts of Asia, you’d be rioting in the streets calling for a better life. In fact, the average Australian or Singaporean taxi driver has a much better standard of living than the typical American white-collar worker.”

Author Lance Freeman explains that he is an American who has lived all over the world, and there is one country he will not live in again — the USA. Then he explains why.

1. Health care. We’re the only country in the developed world without a single-payer health care system. This is ironic, he continues, because we have so much more to make us sick! This includes a food supply which is contaminated with hormones, antibiotics, salmonella and other dangerous chemicals, genetically modified crops, and the like. Add the over-reliance on prescription drugs, and we’re sicker than ever and need a good health-care system more than most.
2. No vacations. The average US worker, according to this article, has 12 vacation days per year. This compares with 44 for Finland at the top, and 18 for Japan at the bottom of the list of developed countries. (Check the stats I posted in a previous article called Where in the World Do Employees Get the Most Time Off?.) The real kicker is that US exmployers are not required to give vacations, so some people never have them and some only “earn” them after they’ve completed a year working for the same company.
3. The cost of education. In most developed countries higher education is free or heavily subsidized. Not so in the USA, where a four-year degree can cost $100,000 or more. (I know this is true, because our former French exchange student attended a highly ranked University in Lille for less than our student would have paid for room and board at college.)
4. Debt as a way of life.
5. Lack of freedom. Yes, you read that right. Mr. Freeman states:
   

   “America is actually among the least free countries on earth. Your piss is tested, your emails and phone calls are monitored, your medical records are gathered, and you are never more than one stray comment away from writhing on the ground with two Taser prongs in your ass.

   “And that’s just physical freedom. Mentally, you are truly imprisoned. You don’t even know the degree to which you are tormented by fears of medical bankruptcy, job loss, homelessness and violent crime because you’ve never lived in a country where there is no need to worry about such things.”

   He also maintains that 70% of our tax dollars support the Pentagon, which he characterizes as a “shadow government,” unelected and unaccountable to citizens. “If you call a life of surveillance, anxiety and ceaseless toil in the service of a government you didn’t elect “freedom,” then you and I have a very different idea of what that word means,” he states.

He then predicts life in the US will grow worse, not better, in the future, and advises leaving. He reminds his readers that most of them are the descendants of immigrants who left their homes in search of a better life somewhere else and suggests it’s time to continue that journey.

I have to say, I find a lot to agree with in this article. I have been very concerned about a number of the issues he raises, especially health care. One of my goals in moving is to find a place to live where the food is actually food, not processed, food-like substances that make me sick. And you don’t want to get me started on Big Pharma and our medical establishment, trust me on this!

I’ve watched the decline in education with horror, and I’ve been appalled at the amount of debt my children and other friends and relatives have started their working lives with.

Do I buy Mr. Freeman’s conclusions? The truth is, I don’t know. I don’t want to believe he’s right — that a collapse into chaos is inevitable and the only question is whether it will be gradual or sudden — but I’m afraid he may be.

You can read his entire article here.

According to a survey by Mercer, it’s not who you might think! By looking at a country’s statutory annual leave, statutory holidays and public holidays, they compiled a list of where employees get the most time off. One caveat: it’s based on what an employee working a five-day week for 10 years is entitled to.

At the top? Brazil and Lithuania, with 41 days annually. Finland, France and Russia follow, with 40 days. The rest of Europe gets 33-38 days.

Where does the US fit? At the bottom with 10 days, because the US has no statutory vacation requirement. (They do note that many employers give 15 days of vacation after 10 years of service.) China beats the US, with 21 days off. Interestingly, Hungary calculates mandatory vacation time based on the age of the employee, with more time off as you age.

Do you have an experience or story about time off from work you’d like to share? Click the Comment link below.

According to Forbes.com, Bahrain scored the top spot in HSBC’s recent survey of 3,100 expats. They admit this might be a fluke — only 31 responses came in from Bahrain, compared to 450 from the UK, for example. But it’s an interesting list, nonetheless. Canada moved down from its No. 1 spot last year to No. 2, followed by Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, South Africa, Hong Kong, Singapore, Spain, and in the No. 10 spot, the US.

Read the article here, and see the scored list of countries here.

Last week’s roundup of expat blogs was well received, so I thought we’d try it as a regular end-of-week piece for a while. This way, you can get a little flavor of some other sites you might not have discovered yet. Click the comment button below to let me know whether it’s helpful.

How Living Overseas Has Changed Me

“A fellow blogger asked me recently how living overseas has changed me, and this post is my answer. This is not the same as ‘Why Everyone Should Live Overseas.’ Of course some of the items below may have developed without moving overseas, but living overseas has certainly facilitated the process.” Read More

From Expat Mums Blog

My Personal Reasons To Retire Abroad

Bye-bye Miss American Pie. I am leaving soon. I still love you America … but, I think a long distance relationship suits us better. Why? Well, I’ve sat down and looked through my entire life in pursuit of the American Dream and this is what I’ve discovered: Read More

From Retire Abroad

Do you have a favorite expat blog or story you’d like to share? Click the Comment link below.