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6 Ways To Crush Loneliness Abroad And Finally Feel At Home In A Foreign Land!

Living abroad isn’t always the Expat Instagram Dream. It can be lonely and overwhelming. Here’s how I turned isolation into real connections and friendships.

David Peluchette
Expats Planet
6 min readJan 3, 2025

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It was my first New Year’s after breaking up with the person I’d moved to Ukraine for, and loneliness hit me like a bad translation: awkward, confusing, and completely out of place.

With no social media to distract me (it didn’t exist yet) and the nearest internet a cyber café miles away in central Kyiv, I was left alone with the deafening silence of my tiny apartment.

And let me tell you, silence can be louder than fireworks when you’re feeling completely alone.

So there I sat in my closet sized flat, armed with a bag of McDonald’s, the only thing that reminded me of home, and a few bottles of lukewarm local beer completed the scene.

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Expats Planet
Expats Planet

Published in Expats Planet

The lines between Tourists, Expats, and Global Travelers are more blurred now than ever. Expats Planet examines this changing Travel/Life Abroad landscape, offering insights on life beyond borders and its impacts. Is the grass always greener? Join us in exploring the unfamiliar!

David Peluchette
David Peluchette

Written by David Peluchette

I'm an American Expat who's been living, working and traveling abroad for over 26 years, writing in a variety of topics from an Expat's perspective.

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