How Adaptable Are You?

Are you an adaptable sort of person, one that takes changes in their stride or perhaps a daily, settled routine is preferable.  Let me expand just a little ...

What sort of holidays do you like?  Travel abroad to perhaps somewhere that is new with a whole different culture?  Foreign all-inclusive holiday and sit around the pool and bar and never venture beyond the confines of the complex?  Holidays in the UK more to taste because the culture is what you are used to?  No matter what the choice there inevitably must be an element of change which requires a certain degree of personal adaptation.

Go to a foreign country and in all probability the food will be different, as will local customs and standards.  To enjoy yourself takes a degree of flexibility and perhaps a desire to experience new things otherwise why go in the first place, especially if there is a likelihood that they may not be to your likings.  In this age of easy access to information using the Internet it is a simple matter to access information as to a chosen destination and decide whether it is the place for you.

Let's move on a little - the decision has been made to emigrate and live permanently abroad.  Obviously such a major change needs very careful consideration and research to determine suitability and whether it is the right place for you.  Most, but not all potential emigrants seem too only well aware that this is an important process in making the final decision whether to move or not.  It should be only to clear that choosing to live in another country outside of the UK involves different social, cultural and economic ways and being adaptable means that any of these should not be too great a difficulty given the necessary will.  Shopping and products may be different to what you are used to, almost certainly local customs and even apparently simple things such as eating out will not be the same either.  For many this is part of the expat experience and enjoyment of living in and learning about your chosen country.  Unfortunately for others there is a desire to keep things as much as possible as they were back in the UK, so why leave in the first place?

A few days ago I was chatting with an acquaintance who has lived here with his wife for just over a year, knowing that he liked to watch rugby I asked if he was going to the local match that weekend.  The reply was" no" becuase he had been to a couple of games there and thought that they were "too punchy"!  Too punchy?  It's rugby for heavens sake, once described as a game for young hooligans played by young gentlemen and it is virtually a given that an exchange of  'pleasantries ' will inevitably happen during the course of the game.  To quite what sort of rugby this person is accustomed I have little idea but it certainly is not the style here in the heart of French rugbyland!

The next topic of conversation was a certain local restaurant which is a favourite place of ours to dine out, nothing pretentious, just good food at a sensible price, superbly cooked, run by a charming French couple.  Our views were somewhat opposite to my friend of this place asaccording to him the chips were horrible and he had thought had occurred of sending them back.  Almost all restaurants serve the standard pommes frites (skinny French fries) which after all is a national dish!  This particular restaurant serves chunky home made, fresh chips which when served are a dark; deep golden colour looking nothing like the ubiquitous fries, furthermore they are not as crisp either but the flavour is superb.  Why the difference?   The difference is that to make chips to the UK palate requires certain types of potato that are almost impossible to source here, instead locally grown potatoes are used.

Next came an opinion about a certain Indian restaurant which are few and far between in southwest France, this particular place is a favourite of mine serving excellent food at again reasonable prices.  My friend had visited this restaurant one lunchtime and did not like the menu on display in the window because it did not look right - said menu is extensive and would not disgrace a typically English place.  Of course it was different - this is France and the menu, unsurprisingly, is in French!  It was his loss because he mised out on an excellent lunch.

The climate does not seem to suit either, he finds it too cold in winter and too hot in summer, surely that would be one of the first factors to establish when considering another country in which to live!

Several other instances arose in this particular conversation which inevitably led me to wonder why on earth he was living abroad as obviously nothing is the same as in England, even simple things like shop opening hours.  Regrettably in my experience he is not all that uncommon amongst 'the Brits here, quite what they expected to find defies the imagination.

Obviously my friend is not very adaptable and change resistant and in the long term could find life occasionally somewhat hard going. As for me I just love being here despite the differences and changes that must be made in everyday life.  Would I go back?  You must be joking!