#expat life #thailand travel #living abroad #digital nomad #cultural adjustment

What do I miss about the USA? (after 6 months in Thailand) 🇺🇸

Name: What do I miss about the USA? (after 6 months in Thailand) 🇺🇸
Uploaded: 2024-01-30T00:00:00Z
Duration: 10 min 36 s

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Key Insight AI-Generated

Living in Thailand as an American involves balancing the rewards of a new culture with the nostalgia for Western conveniences. While you may miss friends, familiar comfort foods, and the ease of one-stop shopping, these challenges are outweighed by the adventurous lifestyle. Adapting requires patience with language barriers, learning local routines, and accepting a slower, more deliberate pace of daily tasks.

Key Takeaways AI-Generated

Prioritize maintaining digital connections with friends to combat the isolation caused by time zone differences.
Accept that Western food in other countries will often be a fusion of local and original flavors rather than an exact replica.
Adjust your daily productivity schedule to account for local climate patterns, such as avoiding the midday heat.
Embrace a more decentralized shopping style, as the 'one-stop-shop' big-box retail culture is not universal.

AI-Generated Summary AI-Generated

Living abroad in Chiang Mai offers a vibrant, adventurous lifestyle, but it also comes with unique emotional and practical adjustments.

While the cultural immersion and local experiences are enriching, expats often find themselves navigating the challenges of time zone differences and the longing for close connections back home.

Embracing the local pace of life, such as adjusting to the intense heat with a midday siesta, is essential for a smooth transition into your new environment.

From a logistical perspective, adjusting to life in Thailand means trading the efficiency of Western big-box convenience for a more decentralized approach to shopping and services.

While you may miss the ease of one-stop shops and familiar home-cooked comforts, these hurdles are minor compared to the reward of global exploration.

Success as an expat relies on maintaining flexibility and finding joy in the small differences that define your new home.

YouTube Video Questions Derived by AI AI-Generated

How do I adjust to life in Thailand as an American expat?

What are the biggest challenges of living in Chiang Mai compared to the US?

Is it difficult to find Western food and products in Thailand?

Key Moments AI-Generated

Mentioned in this video

Chiang Mai Thailand United States DJI Macro

Frequently Asked Questions

AI-Generated Is it easy to find English-speaking friends in Thailand?

AI-Generated While there is a community of expats, the language barrier and significant time zone differences can make maintaining deep connections with friends back home or finding local English speakers for complex conversations challenging.

AI-Generated Why is it difficult to find Western-style shopping in Thailand?

AI-Generated Thailand lacks the 'Big Box' retail culture common in the US. Shopping often requires visiting multiple specialty stores rather than one-stop centers, which can be further complicated if you do not own a car.

AI-Generated How do you manage the heat while living in Thailand?

AI-Generated Many locals and expats adapt to the intense afternoon heat by following a 'siesta' style approach, staying in the shade or resting during the peak of the day, and shifting activity to the cooler evening hours.

[Music] hey YouTube it's a beautiful day here in changmai Thailand and I thought I'd answer the question what do I miss about the United States also what do I miss about living in the United States some of you may know that I am a farang or a foreigner living in land currently in changai but I'm originally from the United States of America some of what I talk about in this channel is certainly influenced or informed by that experience as an American all people are welcome what do I miss about the United States I would say the first easiest most obvious factor is that I miss my friends from the United States I have quite a few wonderful friends in my hometown as well as some of the other cities that I've lived in Du the distance I can't spend time with them like I could if I were back back in the United States I think it's about a 12-hour time zone difference from where I'm originally from so it's like I'm directly on the opposite side of the planet here in Thailand can that be challenging well certainly in some ways it can be challenging it's not always easy to find somebody here that speaks English it's not always easy to have a deep or complex conversation due to the language barrier there also a lot of factors that are harder to quantify but definitely I miss being close to all of my good friends being able to go on adventures in the US being able to go on hiking trips or kaying trips or perhaps just exploring the city and going to concerts there's a lot of different activities that I really enjoy doing with my friends in the United States those just aren't as accessible here in Thailand that's something that you'll have to get used to you are living overseas is the elapsing of time without being around a lot of these people that you care about and it's definitely challenging at different times certainly if you're in a stressful situation you're going through a rough day and you can't call or text a friend because they're asleep it's the middle of the night for them the good news is I'll probably be back to visit at some point this summer it'll be great to catch up with everyone and see everyone be able to spend time with people the number two thing that I miss is Western food now I'm going to add a qualifier to this one one it's not going to always taste exactly like what I'm used to whether it be pizza or steak it's just going to be often at least a Midway point between Western taste and a local taste right because there's a lot of people here in Thailand that they want to try Western food they want to see what is it like to have this food that is popular in Europe or popular in America or popular in Australia the business owners know that a misnomer is at the Western Restaurants cater primarily to xats but that's not always the case you may notice that they include certain sauces or certain flavors or certain ingredients that you're not accustomed to having on that dish and that's something that I've noticed where I'm from in the southern us barbecue is very popular it's harder to find here I'm not going to say it doesn't exist in Thailand certainly the southern style barbecue is not so easy to find the other factor is of course cost Western food is typically pricey here in Thailand not a big deal for some people but certainly other people will prefer to focus on eating local food to save money me personally I like to eat Western food I eat Western food just about every day I find that the cost is worth it it's something that is more of a conscious decision than back home in the US where that's the style of food that I'm eating all the time the number three thing that I miss about living in the US is the California weather coming from California the weather in Thailand can be really hot especially compared to where I lived near San Francisco in Northern California that's something that I have had to take some time to adjust to there's definitely a difference as far as temperature goes as far as what you can expect when you're out walking you're riding a bicycle or you're working out all of these things require a little bit different strategy or approach when you are dealing with especially hot weather it's a situation where I think a lot of Thai people take something almost like a siesta during the hottest part of the day and if they can people kind of chill out they take a nap they stay in the shade this is different than California where at least in San Francisco I felt like my day was much more oriented toward being busy during the day and not doing as much at night seems like a lot of the businesses closed early whereas here in Thailand there's a fair amount of businesses that I think due to the weather or focused on doing business at night I've seen some restaurants open from like 4:00 p.m.

until 10: p.m.

or something like that maybe 5:00 p.m.

until 11:00 p.m.

or midnight I think I've even seen some that are open from 6:00 p.m.

to 2:00 a.m.

this is different than the bay area where very few businesses are open really after like I think midnight 11:00 p.m.

maybe midnight most of the businesses are closed and many Clos at like 900 p.m.

so that's something to think about number four and this is kind of a silly one I think for some people but I do miss Walmart Big Box shopping that's something that's just not as common here in Thailand we do have department stores we do have shopping malls but we don't have something that's like a One-Stop shop and that coupled with my lack of a car means that shopping is a little bit more complex here it takes a bit more time typically I have to go to a few different places you don't really get that experience of okay I'm going to drive my car to this one store and I'm going to buy everything so that's something I miss about the US is I do miss at times these Walmart or Big Box store experiences where I can go to that one store I can get a meal a haircut deodorant or toiletries I can get food and snacks I can get furniture you get everything at that one place and if you've taken your personal vehicle depending on the size of your personal vehicle and the size of your purchases you could just go get all that stuff and then go home and relax but sometimes here I have to take some time to search for a specific item there's a lot of small businesses that may not have an inventory system like Walmart where I can search for an item and find out if it's at the store before I even head over that's not the case here in Thailand often I have to do a little bit of thinking and get a few options right so for a pharmacy that I go to I have a few options ofes that I like to check if one doesn't have a certain thing I want if you are used to being in the us or perhaps another developed country that has Walmarts or big box retail stores that's something that you may miss that you don't necessarily have that ability to take your car over get everything you need in one store check out and then be done for the day you may have to do some searching here now they do have macro here in Thailand but it's not exactly the same thing I checked it one out earlier today this was a food oriented one and so they had a decent selection of bulk foods but if you're going in expecting it to be exactly like a western style store they're not going to have exactly the same items although they had a great variety I do want to give macro a lot of credit I feel like they do a great job of stocking a lot of different bulk items I'm sure if I were a restaurant tour that I would be down there all the time number five number five thing I miss about the US is the convenience culture Thailand is a very convenient place to live but there's certain aspects of living in the US like I mentioned in my point number four the big box stores that is the most convenient iteration of that thing in the US we do have certain kinds of conveniences especially for an English speaker that are hard to beat like with Uber we do have an Uber equivalent here in Thailand but one thing that can be challenging although they do have great translation tools is the language bear whereas if I call an Uber driver I know in the US I can call them up they speak English I'll be able to communicate with them help direct them to my location hop in and be able to head to the destination here sometimes it takes a little bit of like translate and trying to communicate back and forth oh can you pick me up here that's once again not the end of the world it's not a major thing I really had to stretch aside from point number one about my friends to find anything that I miss about the US to be frank but that's one of those things additionally certain products because they are priced and sometimes higher in the US they do get prior priority there I don't know if it's just a business decision but I've noticed with DJI products I really want to get the osmo pocket 3 but it's pre-order only in Thailand whereas it is available on Amazon in the United States there are some other examples that come to mind as well I mean namely that in the US I have a car I'm familiar with the traffic flow and all that so here in Thailand I'm afraid to drive makes a little bit more challenging back in the US I could just hop in my car get around town handle all the convenience es that I want to handle and then head home after I'm done one other convenience that I'm not going to make a big deal out of but it's relevant is definitely back home everybody is speaking a Common Language with myself that is convenient right to be able to quickly speak to somebody to get service or to help with making the right purchase or dealing with customer service all these kinds of things there is an element of convenience that I do miss about the US oh just to recap the first point is really the main one missing friends missing be able to meet up with people be able to spend time with people that's a hard one to overcome the rest are pretty superficial they're not really a big deal I find Thailand to be convenient I love the Thai food I could go on and on about how much I enjoy Thailand but if you asked me what do you miss about the US these are my reasons if this was helpful let me know down in the comments below if you take an extended trip to a different part of the world from where you're from let us know what you miss about your home country

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