Wow, almost a decade! The longest I’ve been away was 3 years during Covid - in fact, I just arrived back here in the US yesterday, but this time it’s only for a week on a business trip - first one since Covid!jalanjalan wrote: ↑Sat, 06 Aug 2022 4:55 pmYes I took my time deciding. But Singapore has changed a lot since the mid 90s, and so has Canada. It's been almost a decade since I visited my hometown, and it no longer really feels like home. So for my case, it felt like a natural transition. Singapore is where I have spent almost all my adult life, and I'd be pretty lost in Canada now. Also, the only kind of ice I want to see anymore is the one with kachang and gula melaka on top.malcontent wrote: ↑Sat, 06 Aug 2022 11:48 amI saw your other post about coming here soon after graduation and being here 25 years… very similar to my case… moved from the US in 1996 about a year after graduation to be with my S.O. as well, been living in SG ever since. Giving up Canadian citizenship had to be a tough decision, especially since unlike the US they don’t even tax you here.
I try to stay connected with the US, to my friends & family back here (visiting them now), and working for a US company in Singapore helps too (although a lot of late night meetings with the US and ROW). Perhaps because of this I’ve never experienced too much reverse culture shock.
I knew an American guy who moved to Singapore after spending a decade deeply ensconced in China, he had a hard time even adjusting to Singapore!
TBH, things really haven’t changed much here over the years, at least not here in the Midwest, but even people I know who have been to the coasts say it’s not crazy like you see on the news, things haven’t changed there much either.
Last I was in Canada (2019), the main changes I noticed was the traffic in and around Toronto has gotten horrendous, and pot is now legal, which seemed to encourage more freaks on the streets… but Toronto still seemed clean, safe and well run for the most part.