Honest truths about living abroad nobody talks about.

Living abroad is often romanticized.

And yes — it can be beautiful, exciting, transformative, and deeply rewarding.

But there are also emotional contradictions many of us only understand after leaving home.

At Almost Local, we call them:
🌍 AL Truths.

Small realizations about identity, belonging, culture shock, friendship, loneliness, reinvention, and the emotional complexity of building a life between cultures.

This is a living collection that will continue growing over time.

International woman contemplating after moving abroad to New Zealand

“Living abroad is often romanticized.”

Why I Started Writing “AL Truths”

After living in Argentina, Brazil, the Netherlands, and New Zealand over the years, I started noticing something interesting:

Many of the hardest parts of living abroad were not practical.

They were emotional.

And often difficult to explain to people who had never experienced life between cultures themselves.

Over time — through conversations, podcast interviews, friendships, gatherings, and my own reflections — I began collecting these small realizations about identity, belonging, culture shock, loneliness, friendship, reinvention, and emotional adaptation abroad.

At Almost Local, I started calling them:
🌍 AL Truths.

Not because they are universal for everyone…
but because they are the kinds of truths many internationally mobile people quietly recognize once they live abroad long enough.

Some feel comforting.
Some confronting.
Some contradictory.

Most are things nobody really warns you about before moving abroad.

🌍 AL Truth #1

“You don’t realize how much your home culture shaped you… until you leave it.”

After living in New Zealand for some years, I started realizing I had slowly begun behaving a little like the Kiwis.

Not intentionally.
It just… happened.

For example, growing up in Argentina, arriving at a birthday party meant going around the room giving everyone a kiss hello.

Now?
I walk in and do one general:
“Hi everyone 👋”

At some point, I switched without even noticing.

The same happened with being barefoot.

In New Zealand, children are barefoot.
Adults are barefoot.
People casually walk into shops barefoot.

And somehow, over the years, I became one of them.

I remember going back to Buenos Aires once for work and sitting at the office feeling desperate to take my shoes off.

I actually did.

And then there’s directness.

When we first moved from New Zealand to the Netherlands, I remember thinking:

Dutch people are so direct… are they angry?

I interpreted directness as unkindness.

But now that we are back in New Zealand again?
I sometimes miss Dutch directness deeply.

Worse?
I became direct myself.
And impatient too.

Really? Me?

That’s the strange thing about living between cultures:
you slowly absorb parts of places without realizing.

And some parts of you never fully go back to what they were before.

Barefoot Lifestyle? Kiwi Style?

🌍 AL Truth #2

“You can deeply love a country… and still feel lonely there.”

Everyone talks about how beautiful New Zealand is.

The nature.
The mountains.
The beaches.
The green landscapes.

And they are right.
It is beautiful.

But sometimes you can be surrounded by extraordinary beauty…
and still deeply miss your people.

Even when this is exactly the life you wanted.

And honestly?
I felt something similar living in the Netherlands, too.

I would walk through the most beautiful Dutch canals.
Jump on trains to Amsterdam.
Stroll through perfect little streets.

And still…
something inside me felt slightly off.

Not wrong exactly.
Just incomplete.

Maybe that’s simply part of life abroad.

The strange coexistence of beauty and longing.

👉 Related Reflection:
Living Somewhere Beautiful and Still Feeling Lonely

Have you ever experienced loneliness abroad?

🌍 AL Truth #3

“Friendly people and easy friendships are not always the same thing.”

You know when you meet someone abroad and they are SO nice and friendly and you think:

Yes! I made a friend!

And then…

nothing really happens.

Not because people are fake.
Not because anyone did something wrong.

But because friendliness and closeness are not always the same thing culturally.

Some friendships abroad take:

time
consistency
planning
emotional effort

And that can feel disappointing at first.

Especially if you come from cultures where closeness forms more spontaneously.

The good news?

Your people ARE out there.

But building meaningful friendships abroad often requires more patience than we expect.

👉 Related Reflection:
What Kiwi Friendship Culture Taught Me About Belonging Abroad

🌍 AL Truth #4

“Living abroad changes your personality more than your address.”

Sometimes I wonder:
who would I be today if I had never moved abroad at all?

Would I still think the same?
React the same?
Move through life the same way?

Living between cultures changes:

your habits
your communication
your pace
your expectations
your nervous system even

And often, we don’t fully notice those changes while they are happening.

Until one day someone from home says:

“You’ve changed.”

And they are right.

🌍 AL Truth #5

Living abroad can become a solitary journey.

“Belonging is emotional, not geographical.”

If only belonging could be explained simply through geography.

But life abroad rarely works like that.

Sometimes you miss places you no longer want to live in.
Sometimes you love places that still don’t fully feel like home.
Sometimes you feel connected to multiple countries…
and fully understood by none.

And maybe belonging is not about finally arriving somewhere permanently.

Maybe it’s about slowly building emotional safety, familiarity, and connection across different places, people, and versions of ourselves.

🌍 Join the Almost Local Community

Almost Local is a thoughtful community for women navigating life between cultures, countries, identities, and reinvention abroad.

Inside the community:
☕ local coffee circles & global connections
🎙 podcast conversations & reflections
🌿 cultural observations & Life in NZ Notes
✨ member-hosted meetups and experiences around the world

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