Singapore or KL

I’m also an ESL teacher and going back to the UK hit hard, especially just the lack of employment prospects there, our experience is worth nothing, it’s basically like starting again from the beginning.

That, and the reverse culture shock hits like a freight train. The boredom, normality of everything and while friends/family will be polite, nobody could give a damn about your overseas experience. I spent many a day looking out the window at the rain and reminiscing riding a motorcycle along a beach in Thailand or eating pizza in Italy and wondering where my life went wrong.

I was on a plane out again within 4 months and have no desire to ever go back to Blighty.

Milan is the absolute worst, even for people who can speak Italian.

Yep. I avoid other Brits like the plague (although I’m a massive grumpy introvert and I avoid most people like the plague)

Malaysia is more developed, has higher levels of English and has cleaner and more liveable cities, not to mention being more multicultural, it can be easier to settle in.

Honestly, I hated Milan, more so than other parts of Italy.

All of Italy has:

• Awful bureaucracy
• Arbitrary business hours
• Disorganisation
• Poor service
• Dirty streets, poor driving standards
• Intense language barrier if you can’t speak Italian.

But at least it has good food, beautiful architecture, nice weather and good scenery. Milan has none of those. In addition, Milan has:

• No beautiful scenery. It’s in a flat basin at least a couple of hours drive from the mountains/lakes and another couple of hours to the coast
• Crap food compared to other parts of Italy. Polenta? Yuck. Cotoletta? Just Schnitzel with a posh name.
• Bad weather. Sweltering humidity in summer, cold gloomy and grey in winter and lots of rain year round.
• Crap architecture compared to other Italian cities. Sure the Duomo is ok and the central train station is cool but Milan has far more modern buildings than Rome, Florence etc. It’s basically a German city but without the German efficiency.
• Snobby locals. Milanese are the Parisians of the south.

Frankly it can’t compare to the rest of Italy. Even Naples, for all its faults has something Milan lacks. Character.