I didn't mean to imply you did! I was offering a possible explanation of the difference in yours and GPs experiences (culture shock vs energising). Not having

I didn't mean to imply you did! I was offering a possible explanation of the difference in yours and GPs experiences (culture shock vs energising). Not having to deal with immigration is probably the least of it, at least by the time you're actually making the move (the author had visa sorted, that only unravelled several years later). But yes, daily routines. I suspect those are a lot more compatible between two present day (western?) European countries than it would have been for the author.