I think education, travel and living overseas can be very freeing and life-changing experiences.  Not everyone can adapt, though and find the positive side of living in another culture.  The "limited" shopping hours used to drive me crazy until I learned to adapt to the positive side of this situation.

I am very grateful that I had teachers and parents who encouraged me not to accept the belief that I was limited by my social environment.  And I'm equally appreciative of the fact that many other individuals who have fought for social justice didn't believe it either otherwise I'd be working on some plantation in the deep south of America.

The key is to stay off Facebook..

"Don't you pretend, she's just another Facebook friend..."

I am very moved by your post; you raise a lot of interesting points here.  We move abroad and for sure we develop a new personality since we have to adapt to a new envirornment, culture, language and we are in a way left to ourselves away from a more known cozy world where we knew the rules.  While this new experience is in risk taking and liberating, it changes us profoundly and it makes it difficult to go back to our earlier life.  However, our inner world is a different matter.  It has no notion of time or space and it only evolves through consciousness.  So, I think I do agree with you:-)

Having lived "abroad" my whole life I cant comment on my own personality, however its clear (to me as a observer) that many people try to adapt to the new culture they integrate into, where as also there are many who try and make a "home away from home", (which never really quite works, and hence those are the people who often get very home sick).

I dont quite know where home is for me, so I cant get home sick, so I make my own life, to fit my personailty.

Culture of origin (i Imagine) plays a part, acting out a life that is not otherwise accepted back home is very often the case with expats... especially of those who originate from Muslim cultures... just look at Geneva in the summer time, and see how certain nationalities openly "party on" whilst here, (with the vain excuse of escaping the heat back home), sure they may party back home, but not quite in the same open way....  those Europeans, or Nth/Sth Americans, who spend time here, seem to fit into one of two boxes... home sick and cant wait to go home, or making the most of the time here, which may involve some shift in personal behavior patterns.

"What goes on tour stays on tour" being the optimal words.

Happy weekend all.