Ichigo-chan

It was so for me. I went back to the UK after many years in a foreign country and found myself- missing my adopted country - which had seemed idyllic on yearly vacations.I guess YMMV

NiHao

I know I would definitely get "homesick" for the US if we moved back to the UK. I've lived here so long (close to 20 years) that although I miss so many things about the UK I would also miss things about here if we left.

cheers

How do you think I would feel after living in the US for 58 years? I'm willing to give it a try.

I just read on another forum about a US citizen who went with her Brit husband to the UK to visit his daughter. She was pregnant and because of a high blood issue unexpectedly gave birth while she was there. She now wants to live in the UK. I think she is impressed she could deliver and not have to pay a penny.

Cheers

aries

I think you will struggle with the change as I am after 52 years away. I now don't feel that anywhere is home.

islandwoman120

I can relate - 25 years in the US, now back here almost 3 years. I really miss the US at times, especially my friends - I find myself thinking of all the places I visited, places I lived, experiences I had. Then I have to weigh the pros of being here in England, and calm down again. Maybe it will always be this way for us all - historically, people have had to leave their homelands for various reasons, and often cannot ever return. Most of us on here are lucky - we have a choice. I just visited London yesterday, and was glad that I live in a small town - though it was a great day out, it was an even greater feeling to return home at night.

trottytrue

I think sad to say those of us who have been away from the UK for many many years are destined to be the in-betweeners. Neither one nore the other. England will always be my home but things have moved on since I have been away and I saw that last time I was home. People in the UK are not aware of the changes they came slowly to them but for us returning the difference is vast.

If you are lucky enough to be able to live in one of those idyllic little villages then I think you stand a better chance but which of us can afford those areas. I have a friend that moved back and she lives in a beautiful village in Dorset but she paid out a great deal of money for her home and she did not have a family to leave behind in the US.

windsong

Cheers, I have been away from the UK for 37 years and about to move back. I am delighted about moving back but I am also experiencing a little sadness about leaving a few things (not many at all) behind. Actually, it's not so much leaving things behind as it is feelings of sadness when I remember the few good times I had here.

I had a very strange experience the other day. As you know, my entire life has changed in the last 10 days and I am still adjusting to it. Well, the other night I was dreaming of life in the UK. Mixed in with that dream were scenes of memories from the USA. In the dream, I couldn't differentiate well which scenes took place in the UK and which took place in the USA. It was really a strange feeling. In fact, when I dreamed some of the scenes from the USA, for a few seconds I thought those scenes occurred in the UK - and then I woke up. It is experiences like this that tell me I am in for an adjustment period when I return and it's nothing to do with how much I want to go home either.

I will miss the sunshine and warm temperatures in the summer. That's not enough reason to stay here, though. The UK has SO many more things going for it anyway.

I will miss Target department store. That's not sufficient reason to stay here either.

I will miss camping. That's no reason to stay because my SO has a gorgeous new caravan over there and I prefer caravans.

I will not miss gun discussions, American ball games, lack of health care insurance, lack of jobs, shallowness, hypocrisy and fake attempts at conversation, etc.

I am really looking forward to the beautiful British countryside. I miss it so much!

I am looking forward to having bunnies in my garden - and perhaps a tortoise or two.

I am looking forward to British Christmases - nothing like them

I am looking forward to decent working conditions, i.e. employee protection. There's none here . . . well there is but it isn't enforced often. Not sure I will work for long outside the home anyway. As soon as I can get my business to a full-time enterprise, I will work for myself.

I am looking forward to decent quality food.


So much to look forward to

Cardienscarf

So much here that I agree with.

I'll be heading back in a little over 2 weeks. Now that the stress of selling the house, dealing with the shipping company, sending my dog is over I'm finding myself really appreciating all that I have had here.

I live in a beautiful area and drive extensively for work throughout Colorado, the Black Hills of South Dakota, western KS, western NE and eastern WY. I have seen things and been to places that I never would have known about if it hadn't been for my job and I feel very lucky to have stepped into worlds that are far removed from my own.

I took my last trip down to southern Colorado this week. I have been there many times over the last few years and the beauty of it always stuns me. I stopped and took pictures of some of my favourite views and said my goodbyes. I know I will miss the big skies and Colorado blue.

I stayed at a hotel I've driven by many times - the Movie Manor in Monte Vista. They have two outdoor movie screens, one is a drive in and the other faces the hotel. All the rooms have large windows so you can open the curtains to watch the movie on the big screen outside, flip a switch and the sound is piped into the room. That was a fun experience that I doubt I shall find in the UK.

I have a few very good friends I know I will miss and I am very sad to be leaving my eldest son and daughter in law and her family.

I am very fortunate in that the company I work for are going to hire me as their UK agent so I have a job to go to, working for a company I know and respect. The owner of the company has been absolutely fantastic in making this happen and he is being extremely kind and generous in helping me make the move. I will be coming back twice a year for trade shows and he is only too willing to route me via Denver so I can see my son.

I am not going back to England because I hate it here but because I have lived here for 22 years and I don't even remember what it is like to live in England and I want to know. I want to be English for a while - or maybe forever. I don't know if I'll feel like I belong there, but I want to find out.

I want to know what it's like to visit my mum for a cup of tea rather than stay with her for 2 weeks at a time, to spend the evening with my sister and know I can do it again next week, to have blackcurrant jam or marmite or crisps or fruit pastilles whenever I like, to be there for family occasions, to hear the post come through the letter box every morning. It's not really big things that make me want to go, but all the little things that add up to make a life.

sile

" ...all the little things that make up a life."

What a lovely way of expressing what is truly important...

islandwoman120

Understood - I wanted to walk in an English park, look at flowers, eat Bourbon biscuits, have proper tea, good Cadburys chocolate - not the converted recipe with high fructose corn syrup - take the Tube at least once, and use the trains....

cheers

Yay...you got it!

It is interesting what some will say about beauty. In the eye of the beholder right? Some people will say 'isn't it beautiful' when looking at some scenery in the US and I have remarked then you will love our rubbish dumps in the UK.

I'm looking forward not backward as to what to expect.

Britain may have changed but I'm looking forward also to the Britain of today where their values have remained the same. What do I mean? They appreciate the beauty of the British landscape and they appreciate the rich culture.

One thing here. I was looking at pictures of Looe, Cornwall yesterday. It seems to have become so tacky with all those 'tee shirt' vendors all over the place. It was a nice quaint village so now we will have to find a new quaint village.

Cheers

cheers

I have had a little exposure to Colorado going back to 1956. I think I went to Aspen or Aspen, can't remember, and years later I would go to Denver with my work. I think it is one of the nicer states. That is an understatement.
DW wants to go to Durango soon.

That little thing of having a letterbox. I totally agree.
I don't like marmite. Too salty or something. I want English apple juice because it isn't alcoholic like cider. Oh man is it good.

Cheers

cheers

Cardienscarf, You say you will be back next week. Is that correct? I will arrive next Friday. I will wave to you.

Cheers

cheers

I just got off the phone with someone from Citibank after dailing a number I was given by them for their operation in the UK. I dialed the UK number and talked to this Brit and I detected an accent and asked if he was from Liverpool. I wasn't far off, he said he was from North Wales. I also asked if he was speaking to me from London and he said no, he was talking from a call centre in Barcelona. How weird is that.

Cardienscarf

I am leaving here on 24 June. Mixed emotions at the moment. The weather's been perfect here in the 70's which doesn't happen very often. We had a wet spring and it's actually quite green. Usually it's into the upper 80's and 90's and turning brown by now. Hopefully it will get hot before I go and I can be happy to leave it behind!

I already have a day out planned with my sister on 27 June to go to the Fashion and Textile Museum in London to see the Kaffe Fassett exhibition.