Welcome to the seventh interview in my Adjusting to Expat Life series.  I’ll be running two interviews a week over the course of six weeks, writing about my own experiences adjusting to expat life in Peru, and rounding up the best expat resources on the web.

This week’s final interviewee is Todd Wassel of Todd’s Wanderings (be sure to check out his Lifestyle Strategies series).  Originally from the US, he has lived extensively overseas and is currently in Pristina, Kosovo, and is also kind of my hero because he’s doing exactly the sort of job I want to be doing in 10 years.  In this interview, he has some very interesting things to say about shifting perspectives of “home”…

How long have you lived in Pristina?

9 months

What made you choose to move there?

We had to leave Sri Lanka after 3 years of aid work due to visa restrictions. My wife was offered a job with the United Nations in Kosovo so we moved here. We never expected to be here.

How do you make a living?

I am a development worker specializing in Conflict Management and Human Rights.

Have you lived abroad in other countries before? Where? Was it easier or harder to feel at home?

Yes, I’ve lived abroad for over 8 years. I lived in Japan for 5 years, Thailand for 3 months, Timor Leste (East Timor) for 6 months and Sri Lanka for almost 3 years. My earlier years living abroad were much more difficult, especially in Japan where I had a very hard time with the language. I had frequent bouts of homesickness and culture shock. But eventually I got over this and now I can leave easily in just about any country.

Are you part of a close-knit expat community, or are you closer to locals?

I am mostly a part of the expat community as my job interacts with international constantly. That being said I think its important to assimilate to the place you are living and make local friends which is what I have done in all the other countries I have lived. I am making progress here in Kosovo but I still have a lot more people to meet

How much longer do you plan to stay?

Maybe another year or so and then we will move on to another country.

Do you think about your adopted country as home, or as somewhere you happen to live, at the moment?

Both. Being on the road for so long requires a shift in perception about what home is. For me it is anywhere my wife is which happens to be Kosovo. But it is also a place we happen to live at the moment and when we move on we will consider the next place home.

What were the greatest differences you noticed when you first arrived?

I came from Sri Lanka so I was amazed that there were traffic rules and that they were followed! However, it is all a matter of perspective. People coming from Western Europe are horrified at the driving and lack of rules.

What are the greatest differences you notice now?

Talking loudly is not a sign of being angry it is just a manner of conversation here.

To what level did you speak the language when you arrived?

None, but I speak fluent Japanese.

How did the language difference affect you?

It didn’t affect me at all. People speak English very well here so I can function in my daily life without many problems. My time in Japan was completely different as no one spoke English and my life was spent morning to night speaking and listening to Japanese. It can make you very tired to constantly not understand what is going on. My coping mechanism was to learn to block out conversations and live in my own head. Basically to be comfortable with not know what is going on.

Do you have a local partner? How does or doesn’t that help you integrate?

No, my wife is Japanese so we are equally lost here at times. This actually helps as we can related to each others stress easier.

Have you taken out or would you consider taking out citizenship?

I consider Japan to be my second home, but I would not become a citizen, nor will my wife become a citizen of the US. First, we would both lose our home citizenship if we did as Japan is very strict about this. Second, in an age of globalization I don’t see any need for it.

If you don’t have citizenship, what are your feelings on living in a country where you have no political voice? Is having a political voice important to you? Could you stay on indefinitely without it?

My job allows me to have a political voice in the places were I work. however, I have no problem living in Japan without a political voice as I would continue to have one back in the US, which I consider to be home base even if I don’t plan on living there in the near to intermediate future.

Was there a moment when you suddenly realised the extent to which you had integrated? To which you hadn’t?

I have only really felt integrated in Japan. I have loved the other countries where I have lived but to learn the language and integrate fully takes a huge mental commitment. I have done it for Japan, but I don’t have the energy to do it again. I realized how much I integrated in Japan when I returned home and experienced reverse culture shock, which was far worse than any culture shock I experienced in Japan. Once I was unable to distinguished major differences in culture between the US and Japan I knew I was in trouble…in a good way, and that I would never be the same.

What advice would you have for ‘newbie’ expats? What do you wish you had known before moving to your new home?

Don’t try to become a native, you will never be one. But try to integrate and learn to live like the locals. However, don’t give up who you were or your original identity. It is a part of who you are and what you bring to your new host community. Diversity is a wonderful thing.

I thought Todd offered a very interesting perspective here.  Cultural integration is a huge mental investment, taking an awful lot of time and energy, and when you’re fairly continuously on the move, as he and his wife are, is it really worth the effort everywhere you go?  Is it even possible?

So this demands a different sort of expatdom; a strategy of being comfortable un-integrated, of redefining home.  Of becoming a true “global citizen” – or is that too hokey?