I am reminded of a USian friend of mine who spent a year on the hippie trail in India. I asked her what her thoughts were as she was about to leave. "I am surprised it works," she said.
Something I have found invaluable as an expat is to remember that whenever one is trying to accomplish something, and whatever used to do the trick "back home" either simply doesn't exist or is horribly slow/inconvenient/expensive, that there must always exist different ways of accomplishing the same goals in one's new home, and it's usually far easier — not to mention far more productive — to find out how things are done than to curse the differences.
Just as we geeks say that "the determined Real Programmer can write FORTRAN programs in any language", one may live "internationally" anywhere. The trick is to become comfortable enough with the local culture that one begins to live somewhat fluently, instead of being content to limp along in poor translation...
-Dave
