Expats, do you ever get homesick?

Beer, cheese, bread, decent sandwiches, having an oven.

I can get approximations of all those things, and the real deal if I want to splash out, but day to day they're mostly rubbish here.

Absolutely nothing that isn't food related.

Edit: Oh, I thought of a non-food one, not having to deal with cockroaches.
 
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When I was living abroad (6.5 years)

Bacon
Sausages
Black pudding
Cheddar cheese
The cheap price of clothes and electronics
Cereals (as in the stuff that comes in boxes, not grains)
The availability of all sorts of international foods in most reasonable size supermarkets
Lack of bureaucracy, well maybe not the lack of it but the simplicity, i.e. you can pay your road tax online, you can pay for duty and VAT due on packages online rather than taking 4 hours at the central post office etc.
Cider
Family & friends, sure I made new friends but I still missed the friends I grew up with
 
Homesick? No. I have no immediate family anymore. Food-wise; very little as the lass is American BUT I do make roast related items like pigs in blankets, Yorkshire's and roast potatoes as they have no idea. Oh and NM in the summer; it's too "friggin" hot; so er a slightly disparate climate!
 
Ooh, I thought of another thing, lack of regular live music.

Really though, I tried approaching this question from a different angle of "what would make me want to leave here?", and pretty much drew a blank. Earthquakes, typhoons etc all fit somewhere between exciting, scary, and fun. Short of a proper Chinese attack, I don't see myself leaving any time soon.

(Though, I live next to an air force base, so in the event of a "proper Chinese attack", I may not have much time to get out.)
 
Feef said:
Beer, cheese, bread, decent sandwiches, having an oven.
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Oh God, I missed bread so much when I lived in the Republic of Korea. I never realised how much I loved bread until couldn't get any. My only opinions were to go to the local Pizza Hut and get some garlic bread or take a two-hour train ride to Seoul and go in one of their fake French boulangeries.

A friend of mine who spent a year in the states said that she missed meat-flavoured crisps the most!
 
I missed Green. There was no green in the middle east (4 years)

Otherwise not much. I think deep down i probably missed a proper sense of security, that if i got into trouble for whatever reason, id probably be OK and could rely on a fair justice system/law enforcers.
 
DampCat said:
I missed Green. There was no green in the middle east (4 years)

Otherwise not much. I think deep down i probably missed a proper sense of security, that if i got into trouble for whatever reason, id probably be OK and could rely on a fair justice system/law enforcers.
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Funnily enough, that's what I missed when I lived in Texas - it's green for a few weeks in the spring and the same in the autumn but during summer and winter all the grass dies back and turns brown.

The only other thing I missed was chocolate digestives, for some reason the Americans thought they were some kind of medicine :D
 
Only thing I miss is sweet popcorn and cadbury chocolate. Otherwise nope. Family I skype all the time.

The only other thing I miss are decent restaurants, but that's more a factor of moving from London where everything you could possibly think of is a short tube ride away to a young city. Lots of places to buy Steak and ribs, but not a huge variety.

The more I look at what is going on in the UK at the moment the more I wonder what I will end up going home to if I ever go back. :(
 
Branston pickle
Raw sausages
Cornish pasty - non smashable.
Good bacon
Good apple sauce
Christmas food - my sister sent me a box of mince pies and i almost wept.

It's not like life is unliveable without but it's nice to taste them when i come back to UK.

Yes the NHS is actually amazing too, you don't appreciate it till it's gone.

Yeah same, i still listen to radio 4 to keep up with British news and i sometimes feel like I'm glad to not be part of that now. Really weird times in the UK now.
 
To be honest I don't miss the UK at all, and never really plan to live there again. I do miss family etc. Initially missed a few things, but I guess the longer you spend away the more your view changes of life in the UK, the benefits, the drawbacks etc. some would say you develop a 'warped perspective' of the UK and living there, others a more balanced perspective on the UK and the world. Been away 5 years so far. Planning to live in Europe in the future / retirement, southern Europe, but probably not the UK again.
 
I lived in Germany (Munich) for 5 years before returning in late 2004. I missed friends, family, food, QPR, beer (yes really, Munich beer is great but generally limited to Helles (lager) in many places). The main thing I missed though was being around people who I had a lot in common with (especially girls at the time). I can chat to people my age at work about music from the 90s, cars, events and other things. When you've grown up in a different country you have far less in common with people.

I actually went back to Munich recently after many years and it was sad to see the state of the place. The 'new' trains they were rolling out we're all looking tatty and it looks like they stopped rolling out new stock around the time I left so there were still old 60s trains on the u-bahn that were being replaced 15 years ago. It was like nothing had changed, but everything was dirtier which was the complete opposite to what I found when I returned to London after living in Germany. As for the area around the Munich hauptbahnhof, well I won't go into that too much but Mrs Merkel has a lot to answer for.

I'm not sure if/where I will move next, my kids are settled at school but I may move to the US at some point.
 
Been away for 7 years now (4 in Hong Kong, 3 in Germany). Don't get homesick if I'm honest. The drop in pay and living standards I'd have to take to move back to the UK makes sure of that. If I do move back it won't be to a town or city. My folks are up on Skye these days and I'm half considering buying a property up there myself for if/when I do return.

I do miss the usual food items though. Branston pickle, bacon, sausages, BUT a proper Cornish Pasty shop opened last week just down the road. Think I've put on half a stone already :S The regular beer is good here and there's plenty of variety now the craft beer thing is happening.

@Em3bbs Germany is federal as you probably know, the state of Munich is down to the Bavarian authorities, nothing to do with Merkel. Düsseldorf is booming, new underground line just opened, loads of work going on everywhere in the parks and public spaces. Tour De France Grand Depart here in July (although I'm gutted I missed out on tickets for the open air Kraftwerk TDF show :'()
 
Actually didn't miss anything though France really isn't very far away. If anything, I'm more homesick for the Alpes now that I have a house there. Currently the best of both worlds I suppose as I'm back and forth. Thanks to the EU vote screwing that up though it'll be back to blighty full time sadly and I'll miss the mountains like mad.
 
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