How Can Living Abroad Compare to Traveling Abroad?
This essay was originally published on August 27, 2021, on my previous travel blog, Travel Creecher.
Want to listen to this essay instead of reading it? Play or download the audio from my website here.
It has been nearly eight months since I moved to Thailand. Before coming here, I had only ever traveled outside of the US for weeks at a time. And the only two places I have ever lived were California and New York. Now, Thailand has become the third place I have ever lived, and the longest time I have spent outside the US. In this relatively short amount of time, I have already noticed differences between merely traveling abroad and actually living abroad.
Traveling Abroad
I have already written about what it is like travel solo versus travel with someone. In both cases, traveling abroad can offer people similar experiences.
Most notably, traveling abroad forces people out of their comfort zone and (usually) into complete unfamiliarity. Being surrounded by a new environment, language, culture, cuisine, and people, all contribute to a childlike experience of “newness”. Not only is this extremely fulfilling on a personal level, but it is also one of the only ways to truly expand one’s worldview.
Paradoxically, it seems that when people travel, both the world and oneself seem bigger and smaller. What I mean is that experiencing “newness” expands one’s worldview to encompass a fuller picture of the actual world. This sparks a realization that the world is bigger than previously understood. At the same time, one realizes that even in another place on Earth, many aspects of life, such as human care or humor, remain constant. In turn, seeing this lack of difference makes for the idea of a “small world”.
A simultaneous result of this is how one views oneself in the face of this perspective change. The enormity and vastness of the world can humble one’s own perceived significance and make one feel smaller. However, when confronted in a new environment and culture, the characteristics that define someone from their original culture stand out more clearly, and as a result, so do the characteristics of the individual that are not defined by their original culture, i.e., their individuality. In this sense, one can feel the emphasis of their individuality makes them feel bigger than ever before.
Living Abroad
When living abroad, these aforementioned experiences still occur, but they fade over time. Once settled into a new environment, the “newness” of everything disappears, and soon it becomes normal. This happened to me most significantly when I first moved into my house in Kalasin to teach English. The unfamiliarity of my living situation on top of the unfamiliarity of a new country overwhelmed me. However, sure enough, I adjusted to it and it became as normal as my life in the US.
This inevitable normalization occurs on many levels when living abroad. I no longer think about the fact that I don’t speak the same language as everyone around me. The thought of not eating out for less than a few dollars seems absurd. And the idea that I used to flush toilet paper is, funny enough, foreign. These are only a few examples, but take anything from your life and notice how you hardly think about how it could be different. Even once aspects of one’s life become different, they only seem that way for a short time, and soon enough, it becomes as common as every other aspect of life.
Is That All There Is to It?
If the difference between living abroad and traveling abroad rests on this idea of “newness” versus normalization, then so what? In short, one may be inclined to think living abroad is simply traveling abroad until it lacks luster. At some moments, I felt the same way. And though this appears to be the main difference, much more unravels from this than first meets the eye.
The reason lies in the fact that the comparison between living and traveling abroad may not be a fair one to make. They are two very different events, tied together only by the fact that they occur abroad. In fact, it is really as different as comparing traveling to living in general.
The reality is, traveling is an active process where there is continual change. And most of the time, people only travel for leisure. Living, however, is habitual, and often, mundane. Living means paying bills, doing chores, and keeping oneself occupied after all the “travel destinations” have been seen. It also means that one’s individuality stops shining through the new culture, but over time adopts parts of the new culture into one’s identity. It’s an inevitable process, and when it occurs in the right place, it can be a beautiful process of self-transformation.
And that alone makes living abroad significant in its own right.
My Perspective on Living Abroad
Of course, there may be much more to living abroad than this. Although it has already been eight months since I moved here, it is still only eight months. I only have a glimpse of what living abroad is like. The real differences are sure to become more and more obvious the longer one stays abroad.
When I first moved to Thailand, I knew immediately I liked it. As I said, I did in fact experience the “newness” of everything and enjoyed the excitement of travel, but from the start, I felt different in Thailand than in other countries I visited. For unknown reasons, I immediately felt a belonging to the culture, the people, and the land. Maybe it came from an unconscious interaction of the prevalence of Buddhism and my interest in the religion. Maybe it was just the taste of nonstop delicious food.
Whatever the case, I felt an ease and familiarity that I did not expect when I arrived here. And maybe this made my transition to living here easier than most. I don’t know. What I can say is that living abroad has affected me on a personal level, and for the better. Living here in Thailand has all at once made me more grateful for life, more at one with myself, and generally more fulfilled than I have ever felt before. Something simply traveling abroad could not have ever given me.
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Published at https://kylecreech.com on September 15, 2021.
