I lived abroad for 4 years. When you lose that community of friends and family, it has a significant impact on your support network both from an emotional and p

I lived abroad for 4 years. When you lose that community of friends and family, it has a significant impact on your support network both from an emotional and practical sense. Doing simple things like moving house become a lot harder when you have fewer friends to call on to help you. You'll probably end up paying someone to do it. In terms of being away from family and friends, I found the first two years easy. It was exciting to be in a new country and travel for work. The third and fourth years were harder. Ex-pats say they are often torn between the better quality of life and all the friends and family they have back home. I moved back after 4 years and I'm loving it :)