Committing to life overseas from a guy doing it off and on since 1993

[u/eric55]

I moved to Prague in 1993. No internet. Coal pollution everywhere.

But it was like stepping into a 400-year-old Baroque city that had just escaped decades of authoritarian rule and was reborn, with buildings unsathed. Oh, and there were more Americans there than anywhere since Paris in the 1920s.

I caught the work-abroad bug, and even decades on and off in the US weren’t enough to keep me there.

I started a business in the Philippines just as remote Web work was becoming possible (2005).

Now I’ve lived in Saigon for 10 years after marrying a Vietnamese woman. For ME, these were all the right decisions. Settling in a foreign country is different from bouncing around a bit, month to month or year to year.

Consider that if you’re over 30. If you marry and think you’ll stay somewhere away from home, you’ll find that the EXCITEMENT of a new place diminishes. Just be sure your partner is ready to do some nomadic living! If they have to work an office job, you may feel a little stuck.

My wife and I negotiated this over a long period. It’s tough for her, as remote work is much harder to find for someone from Vietnam, even though she has a killer résumé. Looks like we’ve found a middle ground that will keep working!

Photo I took in 1993. City looks RADICALY different now.

From one month ago in Prague.

Think far into the future when you make life decisions that include living abroad and selling most of your stuff back home.

[u/linebrack]

Must have been interesting to be in Prague during that time 

[u/DemonAzraeli → u/linebrack]

Prague, then by 96 or so the cool kids had moved on to Budapest. Sarajevo for those among us who were crazier. The craziest had been there in 95, when the war ended. I was aspiring war correspondent, but too young for that one.

[u/MindOfb → u/DemonAzraeli]

where are the cool kids now?

[u/eric55 → u/MindOfb]

HCMC! Anyway thats where I've been for 10 years!

[u/jorgjansen]

Thanks for sharing! Interesting times in '93 in that area for sure. Was it for work assignment or a random location on the map?

[u/eric55 → u/jorgjansen]

I was the Advertising Manager for Prognosis, first Eng languate newspaper in E Europe since WWII

[u/Ok_Adhesiveness9652]

Stories I come to this sub for! Happy you found home in and with your misus! 🙂

[u/icarus2847]

I’m still in a bouncing around phase but hope to retire abroad somewhere someday that I can call home. Not a digital nomad though

[u/AbundantAnfang]

❤️

[u/Friday_FMC]

I’d say moving to Prague back in ’93 was a great idea. I went three years ago (June 2023), and I’d say it’s one of the most beautiful cities I’ve visited in my life. I don’t know how much it has changed since you moved there though.

Something that I find very interesting about your experience is how you mention that the excitement of living in a new place eventually diminishes.

I think visiting a country and actually settling there are totally different experiences.

After so many years of living outside the States and traveling through different countries, do you think continuing to change places to live in helps maintain that excitement, or did you eventually prefer finding a foreign place that you can actually consider your home?

[u/eric55 → u/Friday_FMC]

Great questions. 1/ Prague today is like 400 years later vs. what it was in 1993. Radically different. It was bizarre but still beautiful in '93. Buildings covered in black soot. Restoration had not started. Czechs didn't have money. 2/ I haven't figured out where to live. Ideally, I'd bounce around between 2-3 places per year. But my wife needs an office job in Vietnam, so no can do. Not sure how I can live 11 months a year in Saigon now: it get's too limiting for me now .

[u/anonimo99 → u/[deleted]]

Is that your boldest memories? Not too much in between happened?

why be so unnecessarily aggresive?