Ok, but apart from the Aquaduct, what did the Romans ever do for us?
Expats, do you ever get homesick?
- Thread starter kwerk
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I lived out there about ten years ago. It sounds like there's better options these days.
The weirdest pizza topping I experienced was mustard and mayonnaise. Tomato sauce, cheese, mustard and mayonnaise. That was it.
Koreans must think the same way with how we butcher their food though.
How many do so, in your experience?
All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
The Sanitation
I know at least a couple (one of which is a family member, sadly). The one that springs to mind though was in a video piece on the Guardian website about Brits currently living in Spain and how Brexit would affect them. There was one guy who said he'd voted Brexit because of 'all the immigrants' when he himself was living quite happily on the Costa del Sol.
For sure, but some countries don't compare, e.g. in Asia. In the USA it is harder to buy good bread but still relatively easy if you go to a decent supermarket and don't shop at wlalmart!. Whats more bread is dead easy to make at home so not really a problem at all
Really? I assume you live somewhere hot and extra dry/wet?
One of the things I love about here is the 300+ day of sun, few grey, dreary days and proper seasons. A cold winter followed by warm, dry summers.
Ironically it's those that appear to want to create little England in another country that rail against immigration and how "they" don't integrate when talking about the UK.
Are you really in Canada?! My brother lives in Vancouver and complains that it is grey and rains more than half the year!
Moved from the UK in 2004, to go live in the sunny tropics of Naples FL which basically has a much higher standard of living than we could have ever dreamed of in the UK, and i go back to Blighty every couple / few yrs. Don't really miss much. Guess i miss some of the character / history, country lanes, pubs and all that. The missus are both British, and we tend to enjoy watching British TV more so these days, which is plentiful here. I listen to UK radio at work, and do sniggle at all the traffic reports in and around London and M25... Thinking the hell with that !!! Not to say that there's things in America that don't annoy me. Like their sports... There's not one US sport i can relate too. Stopping and starting every 5 secs is not my idea of something watchable. OK call it a sport if you must !!! BUT NEVER EVER prefix it with 'WORLD' when America is the only country that participates cos its that crap. ok got that off my chest ! can't ever say that here, otherwise i'd be skinned alive and told to go home... 
Canada is a big place.
I live on the prairies, west of the rockies so we get a lot less precipitation, but colder winters. Vancouver is basically UK weather, damp, grey winters with little/no snow or freezing weather and rainy summers, here it rarely rains in summer, and when it does it's usually thundery, and in winter it's cold (-30c cold) but rarely snows as well, so lots of blue sky.
I'd love it to be mandatory DNA tests from that 23andme company. I wonder how people would claim to be "truely British" after that
Hasnt changed much according to this https://www.newscientist.com/articl...invaders-transformed-britain-but-not-its-dna/
"THEY came, they saw, they conquered. But while the Romans, Vikings and Normans ruled Britain for many years, none left their genetic calling cards behind in the DNA of today’s mainland Caucasian population. That’s the message from the most comprehensive analysis yet of the genetic make-up of the white British population.
The only invaders that left a lasting legacy are the Anglo-Saxons. As well as giving us the English language, the Anglo-Saxons, whose influx began around AD 450, account for 10 to 40 per cent of the DNA in half of modern-day Britons.
The analysis also springs some surprises. There was no single Celtic population outside the Anglo-Saxon dominated areas, but instead a large number of genetically distinct populations (see map below). The DNA signatures of people in the neighbouring counties of Devon and Cornwall are more different than between northern England and Scotland. And there are also unexpectedly stark differences between inhabitants in the north and south of the Welsh county of Pembrokeshire."
I take it to mean someone who lives abroad mainly because they feel like it or got sent there, not to seek a whole new life. Someone who isn't completely committed I suppose because they wealthy enough to keep options open. Never thought about it much actually. I don't consider myself an expat or an immigrant because I was born with dual citizenship and spent roughly the same number of years in both places.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expatriate
The word expatriate comes from the Latin terms ex ("out of") and patria ("native country, fatherland"). Dictionary definitions for the current meaning of the word include:
Expatriate:
'A person who lives outside their native country' (Oxford),[2] or
'living in a foreign land' (Webster's).[3]
These contrast with definitions of other words with a similar meaning, such as:
Migrant:
'A person who moves from one place to another in order to find work or better living conditions' (Oxford),[4] or
'one that migrates: such as a: a person who moves regularly in order to find work especially in harvesting crops' (Webster's);[5]
or
Immigrant
'A person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country' (Oxford),[6] or
'one that immigrates: such as a: a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence (Webster's).[7]
The varying use of these terms for different groups of foreigners can thus be seen as implying nuances about wealth, intended length of stay, perceived motives for moving, nationality, and even race. This has caused controversy.
Bread is probably the main thing for me. I reckon it comes down to climate and distance. The Mediterranean is too hot for soft bread, it would go moldy quick. And American bread is dry and loaded up with sugar and preservatives because it often comes from bakeries 1500 miles away. The cheap stuff is about 99% air, you can barely form a sandwich with it. I've only found ONE half decent supermarket bread (Dave's Killer Bread) and it costs $6 a loaf!! And good luck finding a proper baguette. Oh yeah and unpasteurized dairy is illegal so no proper cheese.
British supermarkets are miles better, except maybe Costco (they actually have the best baguettes) and Trader Joes (owned by one of the Aldi brothers so they get a lot of European stuff for cheap).
I always took expat to mean temporary economic migrant. Working overseas but not intending to settle down there. I never referred to myself as either expat or immigrant though, usually just 'foreigner'