The Expat Life: How Did You Come Up With The Idea?

Posted on 28. Oct, 2008 by Emmanuelle Archer in Blog, Expat Life, Relocation
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When did you come up with the idea of living in your current location?

This is one of my favourite questions over at Expat Interviews, a blog that features expats from all over the world and has them answer a fixed set of questions.

The wide range of answers fascinates me, from “I fell in love with the place during a holiday and decided I wanted to live here” to “I did not come up with the idea, I followed my spouse on an international assignment”.

Many of these expats made a conscious decision to change their lives and planned their relocation accordingly. Others happily seized an unexpected opportunity and packed their bags on short notice. For still others, who were not necessarily looking for an international experience, the deciding factor may have been falling in love, or being offered a particularly exciting career opportunity.

As for me, the story of my relocation to Vancouver, BC falls squarely under the “I have found my dream place and I am going to live there no matter what it takes” category.

The year was 1999. I was living in France back then. Vancouver was featured prominently in magazines, having been voted one of the most liveable cities in the world. I realised that I did not know the first thing about Vancouver, or British Columbia for that matter. Since it sounded like I was missing out on a really beautiful part of the world, I decided to go see it for myself during my summer vacation that year.
Long story short, Vancouver was everything the magazines had described and much, much more. Most importantly, it felt like home. So the next logical step was to, well, make it my actual home! Two years later, armed with my visa, a credit card and two suitcases, I officially became a permanent resident of Canada.

Do you have a similar “love at first sight” experience to share? Or did you end up in your current location for completely different reasons?

Was it your own decision to become an expat, or were other factors at play? Anything you wish you had done differently?

Emmanuelle

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