Adios Cuba

Ask an expatriate: the downsides of living abroad are many. I thought I knew them all, but there's one that is slapping me in the face as I'm, once again, touring home during a holiday: the end of vacations.

An expatriate wants and is expected to go back home as often as possible. It's a way to keep in touch with family and friends. There aren't too many of those, thousands of kilometres away from home. Sure, you find new friends, but old friends will always be home. So a typical holiday becomes a trip back home, a touring of cousins, friends, cities, places and people. And the next holiday, 6 months later, is the same. And the next, and the next.

When is it that you're supposed to take a real holiday and discover a new part of the world? Or relax on a beach? Or hike in the Alps? Apparently, if you don't have at least 5 weeks of holidays per year, you might as well forget it. If you don't go back home when you have a chance, your family and friends will ask how come you don't. You might get nervous that you'll lose touch with them. You might plainly lose touch with them, making reunions awkward.

There's got to be a way around it. It must lie ahead on the road of experience abroad.