I too often take on the defensive strut posture when arriving in a new city, but I know that feeling of everything falling into place is never far off if you’re committed to making it your own. When the out of the ordinary starts to feel like home.

I look forward to reading more of your posts in the near future.

Your exile reading list is a great idea. Thanks for including my site.

I can’t wait to hear more details about your new life in Argentina!

Loved your post and your whole blog, very nice!

Cheers to you,

Dayne

Found my way onto you site from Diggy’s must read blogs post.

Love the design and glad I found the site. I love reading about people who are living less conventional lives and so will be following your blog. I myself have just quite my job and left the Uk to live in Bangkok and am loving it.

All the best mate, I will be dropping past regularly

Your exile reading list is a great idea. Thanks for including my site.

I can’t wait to hear more details about your new life in Argentina!

@Elizabeth: Very good idea…I may try to get in on some kind of education visa. I believe the University I graduated from has a China campus, so I wonder if I told them what I’m up to they could pull some strings? It’s worth a shot, if the opportunity arises. As for Europe, I would be going for 4 months, and I only have a US passport, so I’m sure there would be some trickery involved (while I’m here in Argentina, for example, I’ll have to leave the country for a few days since the visit limit for non-business visitors is 90 days…Uraguay, here I come!). Would love to get more insight on this kind of thing from you (and anyone else who knows something about it) at some point!

Re. China, the visa situation depends on government whims which are subject to sensitive anniversaries, ethnic uprisings, etc. Once you have a Chinese visa stamp or two in your passport, subsequent ones are easier to get. A good way to get an extended visa – more than a month or two – is to sign up w/a school and get a student visa.

Re. Europe, are you thinking of spending a short time there on a tourist visa, or working for a longer period? Do you have only a US passport or have one in the EU? There are real limitations for Americans in many European countries. They’re worth looking into.

So far, there hasn’t been anyplace I’ve visited that I didn’t like (I did not think I would like Vegas but I did.) Driving through West Virginia … well lets say that’s the one place that’s low on my priority list.

I wanted to spend more than the 5 days I had in Switzerland… the language thing is really hard there because you can drive 30 minutes and be speaking a completely different language and even dialect.

I would go back to Paris, Switzerland, Vegas, Maui and Bermuda in a heartbeat if I had tons of money (and no pets.)