tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11886430.post8013093025739164060..comments2023-06-14T06:05:11.373-07:00Comments on The Expatriate Mind: Reflections on the expatriate life so farJ Hammackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14243640814665529983noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11886430.post-14011706412090856652012-04-25T10:35:41.921-07:002012-04-25T10:35:41.921-07:00I already did my taxes, and they weren't so ba...I already did my taxes, and they weren't so bad...It's the price paid and something to be accepted. There may come a day when the tax burden the US asks doesn't make economic sense for us, at which point we'll have to rethink my relationship to my home country - but for now? Everything's fine. Funny thing is, I paid tax on my US return (based on worldwide earnings), but I'm getting a refund on my Canadian taxes! Go figure.J Hammackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14243640814665529983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11886430.post-22752043779535361842012-04-25T10:27:11.515-07:002012-04-25T10:27:11.515-07:00Wait until tax season is over and you see how much...Wait until tax season is over and you see how much crap you have to fill out for the IRS this year.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11886430.post-81211517642288510782012-04-11T06:47:03.472-07:002012-04-11T06:47:03.472-07:00"For instance, on this visit I noticed two re..."For instance, on this visit I noticed two restaurants I used to dine in had closed down, due to the economy. News to me. Also news that they had actually closed down a few months ago. How was I to know? I was in Toronto."<br /><br />It's things like that that are the biggest pokes in the eye, so to speak. My best friend emigrated six or seven years back now and when she came back for a visit, she was absolutely shocked to find that one of the restaurants we used to go to was under new management and the menu was completely different. Two pubs were missing, and houses had been built on them. And I hadn't told her about them because, to use your description, these changes were happening in small doses, in the background. Small details, not anything worth talking about. When my friend came back, it was like a meteorite had hit the town and I'd neglected to tell her about it. <br /><br />It was strange when she came back. It was like looking at a memory through cloudy glass, like she didn't really belong here any more. And for me at least, that was the defining moment where I realised that somewhere else was her home, that she really was just a visitor, not someone coming home. When she first moved over there, I have to admit, I had my doubts about whether she was going to stay there. While her parents were worrying about visas, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.cignaglobal.com/health-insurance-plans/">overseas medical insurance</a>, passports, permits and all the top level stuff, my friend was worried about making friends, whether her accent was going to make her stand out, whether she'd be able to be herself, whether she'd lose her friends back here. It go so back that her parents said that if she wasn't feeling better at the end of the year, she could go back to England.<br /><br />But somewhere along the line, things did get better and England's no longer her home. I've no idea when it happened, only that it has happened. She's now pretty critical of England in general, and that does wind me up, but letting England go was the price she paid for her new life. And to be honest, I'm not sure she sees it as a price. More of a grubby old banknote that you're glad to see the back of.Beckynoreply@blogger.com