Travelling/Living Abroad

[peebee]

Even though I love my country, city, family and friends I often think about 'starting over'. It feels like I'm at a point where i've been living with a roller-coaster of both positive and negative emotions for so long and I just want a fresh start.

I've always liked traveling and experiencing different cultures and lifestyles. I've been lucky enough to have been on trips to Japan, Sweden, Finland, Norway and other countries, and have been just completely fascinated by how different everything is and how much different my life would be. I've seriously contemplated throwing a dart at a map of Western Europe and buying a one way ticket after graduating, but at the same time I think it would be scary to travel alone. It would be realllllllllllly awkward if I moved to a country where English is a secondary language and my stutter started to act up!

Anyone travel a lot mind sharing their experiences?

[TenaciousD]

I hear you peebee....... I've always had really similar thoughts. Maybe we should travel together :)

[Keyo]

Lemme tell u this... Travelling alone is frustrating as it seems it would be but trust me.. u do gain alot of good experiences in life u would have never gained if u have lived in the same city with your family, friends.. etc.
Although you'll have to pass through very very VERY tough times (as a stutterer) but the result of that will be very positive for u in your life... u'll learn so much things and mainly how to depend on yourself in everything.. and not let someone do anything for u coz u stutter.. u'll just get forced to live with it...
As for me i Lived from the age of 1-12 in Dubai, at that time i didnt pay much attention to my stutter as i do now coz i was young to let it bother my life.. then we had some family crisis so i had to go back to my home Country which is Egypt.. I stayed there completing my school from the age of 12-18.. when i moved there, i admit it was hard for me to get used to new people, new friends, new atmosphere and leaving back there my friends that i have been with for almost 10 years... and at that time i did realise that there is an obstacle in my life called stuttering... when i finished school i had to look for a good university i wanted to join... i finally found a Medical univeristy i wanted to join in Ukraine, and am now there and currently 22 years old, it was very difficult for me at the beginning to cope with the new things here especially that this age is crucial moving from teenager to and adult, getting to know new friends, girls.. etc. and starting to get a clear vision of what u really want in life and think about yoiur future... but i tell u something, as much as i saw bad things that really in some days i felt really down and humiliated and lonely but i did learn alot of things am proud of :)
now i have 2 more years to graduate from this university... and i dont even know where will be my next stop.. and where am actually gonna work..

i just wanna tell u something... that moving through Different countries as a stutterer its totally not an easy thing... but for me, i think its worth it, and it really did teach me alot..

[peebee]

My advise: Watch "Hostel" & "Hostel 2" before you travel ;)

I have seen those movies, and fortunate for me I'm Canadian and everyone loves Canadians ... or so I hope :) ... When I was in France actually, I met some Americans on a bus and I noticed they had a Canadian flag on their backpack... so we started to chat it up and they had REALLLLLLLLLY thick southern accents and later admitted to being Americans who sewed a flag on their backpack because they said they're treated better and not peskered about Bush. They told us all kinds of stories about how shopkeepers had contests to see who could rip off Americans the most... pretty crazy stuff, but with Obama in the office now I think the US gets a lot more respect overseas

[grantM]

Look for a tribe somewhere who revere stutterers as Gods! Live with them for an extended period and prosper

[Adrian]

I have seen those movies, and fortunate for me I'm Canadian and everyone loves Canadians ... or so I hope :) ... When I was in France actually, I met some Americans on a bus and I noticed they had a Canadian flag on their backpack... so we started to chat it up and they had REALLLLLLLLLY thick southern accents and later admitted to being Americans who sewed a flag on their backpack because they said they're treated better and not peskered about Bush. They told us all kinds of stories about how shopkeepers had contests to see who could rip off Americans the most... pretty crazy stuff, but with Obama in the office now I think the US gets a lot more respect overseas

An American friend of mine recently went to Africa with Doctors without Borders and was told to tell people she was Canadian. It is really sad how Americans are treated around the world, even when doing charity work.

[Adrian]

An American friend of mine recently went to Africa with Doctors without Borders and was told to tell people she was Canadian. It is really sad how Americans are treated around the world, even when doing charity work.

BTW, if France would forget about Bush for second and think about all the americans who lost their lives in the invasion of Normandy. Then perhaps we would get some respect.

[sst]

BTW, if France would forget about Bush for second and think about all the americans who lost their lives in the invasion of Normandy. Then perhaps we would get some respect.

Luckily we're no longer a world joke, thanks to Obama's ability to actually string a sentence together coherently. ;) They've always respected us, they just hated Bush and rightly so. They had to have known Americans wanted the same things as they did. If Bush was in charge of any other country, he would be in prison now, instead of living with his beard Laura in Texass.

Why does everything have to have politics. It ruins every topic. Oh well.

It's been a dream of mine to live in Europe for quite some time. I might try Oslo, Norway (I probably have relatives there) or maybe London. They have really high standards of living in those places. The U.S. is always dead last. Oh yeah, most people here believe Evolution is a myth. We're in serious trouble. :(

[Keyo]

Yep.. True, people hated Bush, and so they hated americans aswell coz apparently not all but most of the americans was taking Bush's side.. only a few was against his policy.. but well am glad Obama is making things better now, at least am happy he's African/American, i feel like he's a brother to me or something ^^ anyway lets not get offtopic here..

I'll tell u this about my life path i hope u find it informative... from the age of 0-12 i've lived in Dubai.. back then i didnt pay much attention to my stuttering coz i was still young and that time and didnt give it the chance to bother me as a kid.. then i had some family crisis so i had to go back to my home country which is Egypt i lived there from the age of 12-18... makin new friends wasnt really that easy because at that time i realised there was a problem affecting my life called suttering.. in those 6 years i came out with a few friends and 1 best friend.. but actually moving through different cities and countries is not about friends only... its about everything, after i finished school i had to look for a good univeristy to complete my studies.. and here i am.. 22 years old in a medical university in Ukraine at the moment, offcourse the first couple of years for me was hell as a stutterer plus that i didnt even know how to speak Russian/Ukrainen so i admit it was kinda tough, but now its ALOT better and i made lots of friends Boys/Girls.. now i have 2 more years to graduate.. and i dont even know where will be my next stop and where will i be working..
what i wanna tell you that living alone as a stutterer aint easy at all but its totally worth it and u'll learn LOTS of things u wouldnt have ever learned if u still lived with ur family and old friends.. its true u'll pass through very bad times where u feel down, depressed, humiliated and totally lonely in that country.. but trust me... Always out of bad experiences u gain good new experiences and mainly u'll learn how to depend on yourself and not let someone do the work for u coz u stutter and u'll gain more self-confidence by time..

Hope u take the right choice :)

[DKoz]

Even though I love my country, city, family and friends I often think about 'starting over'. It feels like I'm at a point where i've been living with a roller-coaster of both positive and negative emotions for so long and I just want a fresh start.

I've always liked traveling and experiencing different cultures and lifestyles. I've been lucky enough to have been on trips to Japan, Sweden, Finland, Norway and other countries, and have been just completely fascinated by how different everything is and how much different my life would be. I've seriously contemplated throwing a dart at a map of Western Europe and buying a one way ticket after graduating, but at the same time I think it would be scary to travel alone. It would be realllllllllllly awkward if I moved to a country where English is a secondary language and my stutter started to act up!

Anyone travel a lot mind sharing their experiences?

If you move to western Europe than the odds of talking to people who can speak English are a lot greater if you tried out Eastern Europe lol. I know this from experience. You'll have to get work Visa's and it may be tough to get a job in this recession but it may be over with by the time your graduate.

Look for a tribe somewhere who revere stutterers as Gods! Live with them for an extended period and prosper

Lol!:)

[nik037]

Anyone travel a lot mind sharing their experiences?

I have traveled a lot, about 16 countries and 4 continents, and found that in countries that do not speak english my stutter is actually better. People assume if I have a hard time speaking it is just a language barrier, not a stutter so it takes a lot of pressure off me. If you do go, have a great time, but travel safe and smart!

[DanMad44]

People assume if I have a hard time speaking it is just a language barrier, not a stutter so it takes a lot of pressure off me.

This is definitely true, but it wasn't very good practice as far as improving my stutter, at least not for me. I just got back from traveling around Southeast Asia for 6 months. I cannot recommend this area more. Some of the most beautiful scenery, people, and cultures that I may ever get the privilege of experiencing. What was the most beneficial for me was burying myself in the middle of nowhere and then having to get myself out. You're forced to put your inhibitions aside as your survival instincts take over. When you meet people, you hardly think about stuttering and more about picking their brains for tidbits of what might make your journey a little smoother - they're doing the same with you of course. I stutter like a champion normally. Rarely did I even think about it over there. That being said, the language barrier for sure did get me off the hook a bit when I was speaking with people who knew little English, for I knew little Indonesian. I became a pro at pantomiming though!:)

Traveling gives you a much better perspective of life and what parts of it are really important. And which ones aren't. Among other things, I have far less anxiety than before.