It certainly is possible, but in my experience not very common. The long-term expats tended to stick to the expat community, which was mostly about creating a t

It certainly is possible, but in my experience not very common. The long-term expats tended to stick to the expat community, which was mostly about creating a tiny bubble of "home" in the host country. Or at least a television-inspired approximation thereof. The ones who really did want to explore and immerse themselves in another culture usually did that for a few years before moving on to explore another culture.