What and Why: Part-Time Expat Living (Part 7: Travel … with Roots)

There are many people who spend a lot of time traveling, seeing places, experiencing new cultures.  And many of them spend several months or as much as ½ year traveling; but it is a constant moving in, moving out, and moving on.  While it’s fun to see many different places, the constant change can become tiring and exhausting.

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Chelyabinsk, Russia

So, many people choose to have that “other” experience in one place where they can set down some roots, learn a culture in depth, make friends they can reunite with each year, and feel that they truly have a second home.  They like the stability of going to the same place each year; of getting to know the  locals; of learning the language.

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The Big Guys, Tarcoles, Costa Rica – these guys are not recommended as local friends.

When you spend considerable time in a place, it changes you.  You begin to take on some of the local perspectives and attitudes and practices.  You find yourself thinking differently; you hear yourself inserting words from the second language into your everyday conversations.  And all this growth can be fun and rewarding.

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Quebec City, Canada

You won’t get that changing countries every two weeks.

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Dart frog, Garabito, Costa Rica

But, if you rent for a period of time each year or buy a place (and perhaps use it as a vacation rental when you’re not there) in your adopted country, you can enjoy becoming a part of the local landscape – and get to know a place “up close and personal.”

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Scarlet macaws, Costa Rica

It is travel … with roots … and it can be very satisfying.

 

 

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