I am from Georgia USA. 6 months of winter is pretty brutal to a southerner. My brain is just not used so much dark and grey. The cold I can deal with. Cost of living is pretty insane. Housing is a big issue. Healthcare being free is great but I wasn’t able to access anything in my five years time there besides an eight hour wait at the hospital. Less job opportunities for lower pay. The people are very polite but with Canadians there is this weird wall that’s really hard to break through to make friends. It’s a big contrast to the south where people are very warm and welcoming. If you’re from Europe, I’d say the difference is similar to Spain vs Finland.

I was abroad for almost 15 years many different countries. The only time I was unhappy was when I lived in my last country, Canada. That was very rough and I couldn’t wait to leave and go home after that. Which was ironic considering the fact that that there was no language barrier and it being most similar to my home country’s culture than all the other places I’ve lived.

Everyone focuses on how cold Canada is. Sure it’s cold, but you can adapt to that with clothing and misery but there is no adapting to six months of winter. 5-6 months of grey can really wreck you mentally.

Quebec is great but still suffers from your standard Canadian problems, albeit not all of them (cost of living is reasonable for one) but inacccesible healthcare and six-month winters can be pretty brutal.

Well put, in my opinion. Originally from the U.S., I lived in both Canada and Spain.

Good god no. Not by a mile. I am a Southerner who’s lived in both. Spanish people are as friendly as Southerners, in my opinion. Very open, welcoming, and friendly. Canadians are…I don’t even know what the term is. It’s like you guys have this wall and get really weirded out when somebody crosses this wall of what is just standard friendliness in the South and Spain. I get that it’s cultural but it was very hard to get used to. I don’t think I ever did to be honest.

I lived abroad for a decade in five different countries. Whenever my brain is like, remember how fun living abroad was? Let’s do that again. I remind it of the paperwork it takes, and suddenly, I don’t want to go abroad anymore. Moving countries every 2 years was truly a practice in masochism.

One mistake that I frequently notice expats making is living in one region/city and then saying they don’t like the country. I lived coast to coast in Canada before realizing the things that were deal breakers for me were issues common in Canada as a whole. Every place has its ups and downs and there are plenty of places where I would never set foot in the States (NYC and New Jersey, for example), but I love Georgia (obviously not without its faults as well).

France is a lot more than just Paris. I would try living in other cities/regions before giving up on the country.

Quebec is lovely. Easily the best place in Canada in my opinion. Still, a rough country to live. 6 months of winter and inaccessible healthcare were things that forced me to move back home (Southerner).