National Blog Posting Month

It'd be so romantic to live in another country...

Yeah. It's really romantic. The paperwork and fees are romantic and whimsical too.

I left Scotland, planning on staying 6 months and then returning. I was snared by a man and stayed "to see what would happen between us." In his words, he "won" and we were married 9 months later. Eight years on, 3 states and 2 babies later, I'm still here.

What's your story?

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by TK on November 8, 2007 at 8:53pm: Goodness, it seems like there are an awful lot of people who leave their country for "just a few months" only to meet the love of their life and end up embracing a future far, far away from the life they knew growing up.

I, for example, left America for a year exploring the strangest and most mysterious place I could think of: China. I wasn't expecting to return to America directly after that, but I also wasn't expecting staying in China for longer than just that one year. Now, it's almost two years since I left. I'm married, expecting my first child (which I hadn't intended to expect for another five years), and looking at two to three more years here before moving to... well, somewhere that isn't the U.S.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Sandra Hanks Bentoiton on November 10, 2007 at 12:01am: I've heard the expression "Travel is broadening", but never thought of that in terms of a belly ...

Congratulations!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by TK on November 10, 2007 at 1:53am: Thanks for the congratulations. You're an absolute riot! That's pretty much a perfect summary.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Sandra Hanks Bentoiton on November 9, 2007 at 11:58pm: Count me in. I took off for a one-year, around-the-world trip in 1993, fell in love on an island, finished the trip, went back to California, got divorced, moved to England, got married in 1994, moved to Seychelles ... the island where we met ... in 1996. All these years later, we're still here. We have two kids, one is five TODAY, and the other 2.5.

Wow. I think that's the shortest version of the story I've ever told.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by TK on November 10, 2007 at 1:55am: Hee! The challenge now will be if it can be done in even fewer words. I don't see how though. ;) And happy birthday to your five year old!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Sandra Hanks Bentoiton on November 10, 2007 at 4:21am: Thanks. He's about to explode with anticipation of the evening's upcoming festivities. Me thinks tomorrow's post may consist of photos ...; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by SluttyMcWhore on November 14, 2007 at 10:16am: I didn't fall in love with anybody, unfortunately, but if anyone out there wants to marry me so I can get a Green Card I would be more than happy to pretend I was in love!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Anaiis on November 20, 2007 at 6:52pm: LOL.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by nachtwache on November 18, 2007 at 11:17am: There must be thousands that could sign up for with this group! My prince charming crossed the ocean to find me and bring me back to his realm. :)
I'm an ex-pat swiss.
One of my friends in the psych. nursing program had worked at another hospital with this guy from Canada. One day he came to visit, we all went out to the nightclub, it got late, the Canadian was hungry and the restaurants had closed. I offered to make him something, we hopped on his BMW and went to my dorm ( nursing school ), I cooked a quick meal and after he ate we went back to join our friends. I loved to dance!
Fast forward a few months, my friend was going to visit her Canadian friend for a long weekend, having no other plans, I decided to tag along.
That was the fateful weekend and a year later we got married in Canada. On the 23. that will have been 29 years ago. In that time we raised a son and a daughter, have lived in and around Vancouver, B.C. the whole time and I love it here.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Anaiis on November 20, 2007 at 6:51pm: I was born in Peru but my family relocated to Oceania when I was a child. I left the Pacific for Russia at 17 after I dreamed of Tolstoy, who told me the shoulders of Russian women were the most beautiful things he'd ever seen. I never stopped after that. I was desperate to find a place that felt like home.

After several stints from Stockholm to Tokyo, I went back to the country that birthed me. Could it be home? I fell in love with Lima slowly, but a year later, there was no way to extract me. All along the most obvious answer was the right one--Lima is home.

As with you, it was a man who finally managed the gargantuan task of extracting me. And that's how I got to SoCal. I don't love it, but I no longer hate it. Living is different than visiting. Before, the longest I'd been here was a few months--everything is fabulous on vacations. It's funny, even though I've lived in Hawaii and visited other US islands, I'm still suffering culture shock. Mainland USA is nothing like its island territories. How long did it take you to get used to the US?

PS: paperwork is romantic! LOL. I spent two days making this ridiculous scrapbook of my husband and I and the immigration officer couldn't even be bothered with it. He was like, "I hate scrapbooks." I wanted to scream, "so do I! Now suffer through it like I did!"; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by jwordsmith on April 6, 2008 at 9:47am: Er, I left Scotland, planned on staying three months and then returning. I was visiting a man I was semi-ensnared by, but didn't expect to go home engaged.

14 years, two states and two babies later, I'm still here, too.

How's that Sheena Easton accent coming along?; ▶ Reply to This