Expat Life: I'm Changed from the Inside Out

"Nothing is comparable to the new life…in a new country. Though I am still always myself, I am changed to the marrow of my bones" ~ Goethe

I don't think there is a quote that can more accurately sum up the effect expat life has had on me. Of course I am still me, but the person that left England in 2000 seems like a stranger now. I have the feeling that I wouldn't recognise that girl from pre-expat life if I bumped into her in the street. 

Of course I am still me, but my life has changed in more ways than I can count. Consequently who I am has changed too. In more ways than I can count. 

I speak a foreign language every day. I have been through culture shock and come out the other side unscathed but changed. Expat life offered me a new career on a silver platter. There are many things I see today as 'normal' that were completely alien to me a decade ago. I sometimes find it hard to remember I had a pre-expat life. It seems so long ago, so hazy. 

My new environment has changed me, changed how I see things, changed how I think and feel about things. It has changed my daily life. It has changed me from the inside out. To the marrow of my bones.

How has expat life changed you? Have you been changed to the "marrow of your bones" by moving abroad?