I hope that this can be a thread for people to share and ultimately find support for this emotional event; and if need be, vent away in hopes it will make you feel better.
Let me start...
I will be leaving Canada to live in Hong Kong with my wife and two children; the oldest being three. My wife is a Hong Kong native so she's uber happy at moving back in October. As for me, not so much. I've traveled a lot and have seen various parts of the world, but never have moved anywhere. It's one thing to be a visitor somewhere with the mindset that you'll be going home at the end of it all, versus living in a foreign place. I have no relatives and a friend of a friend that I don't know well enough to really call a friend.
There are aspects of Hong Kong I like, but that was when I was dating my now wife. Having kids, I want them to grow up in the same manner as I. Backyard with grass, parks with trees, etc. I'm really afraid of taking that away from them when we go over. It's very urban there, very New York without Central Park if you will. That's something I'm still struggling with. Then there's life without the ability to read or write in Chinese. I can speak very broken and poor Cantonese, but I've seen how far that can take me when I did visit, so with the mindset of living there, it will be a struggle (like finding a good burger that won't cost an arm or a leg).
I'm rambling a bit here. Let me digress to the points: missing a familiar environment in which I can function and assist with matters, having support from family and friends, knowing how things work, having a job, familiar lifestyle, and knowing how things work. Hmm, that's pretty much everything isn't?
Perhaps that's in the nature of being uprooted. You are indeed being transplanted in unfamiliar territory.
Sure, I know what you're thinking. My wife will be a tremendous support though all of this, true to a point. I'm not saying she won't be a key factor of helping (not to mention why we're leaving), but does one point out the "different" things that bother or annoy you to someone who's coming "home"? So I guess this thread will help with that (hopefully).
I was hoping for a year to prepare myself mentally and emotionally for this move, but is down to a few months. Thus I feel like we're running away from Canada (my home) and found displeasure with that feeling. So now I need to figure what I will take with me to remind me of my home (so going to miss Timmies!) and hope that I can start a career there and in the meantime look for work as a ESL teacher.