½ûÂþÌìÌÃ

From my travels & adventures, I've learned one thing: It doesn't matter so much "where" you go, people will treat you pretty much the same as you treat them.  (With occasional surprises good or bad, but we won't get into that) .... My advice? Make as many friends and connections as you can -- and find an activity that brings others of similar interests into your life & you into theirs .... Could be church, could be organizations, could be theater -- who knows? Just as long as it's LIFE. And (one last bit of advice) ... I'm talking about real people with real vitality & interaction -- not something like Facebook, which is just a glorified way of  being a hermit. And practice your smile & laughter -- because nothing is a better "people magnet" than that -- And one more thing: Accept invitations, because once you don't, they stop coming in. And it's important to replenish the friends and connections who just move on -- or, in this day & age .... die off.

Ron Hevener wrote:

From my travels & adventures, I've learned one thing: It doesn't matter so much "where" you go, people will treat you pretty much the same as you treat them.  (With occasional surprises good or bad, but we won't get into that) .... My advice? Make as many friends and connections as you can -- and find an activity that brings others of similar interests into your life & you into theirs .... Could be church, could be organizations, could be theater -- who knows? Just as long as it's LIFE. And (one last bit of advice) ... I'm talking about real people with real vitality & interaction -- not something like Facebook, which is just a glorified way of  being a hermit. And practice your smile & laughter -- because nothing is a better "people magnet" than that -- And one more thing: Accept invitations, because once you don't, they stop coming in. And it's important to replenish the friends and connections who just move on -- or, in this day & age .... die off.

Great answer by Ron, I would add the following:

1. If you have "issues" simply moving country won't solve them, deal with the issues as best you can and then adjust to the new country.
2. Make friends with local people, this will require you to learn the language to a fairly advanced level, at least intermediate.
3. Don't have too high expectations - accept reality for what it is. I see this all the time with expats in Brazil, they expect Brazil to change, it probably won't, accept it and you will be much happier. If what's wrong here does improve, that's a plus. 
4. Work out what it is you want in life (that's really hard and now always possible!) and then try and work out which parts of that are possible or impossible in your adopted home. If you really love trout fishing in upland streams that isn't going to be possible in Manaus, but it is possible in Santa Catarina.
5. If you are living where you are living because of a relationship (marriage?) or job and you're deeply unhappy, you have a big issue. You have to work out whether the grass really is greener on the other side or just looks that way.Don't screw up your life because you aren't 100% satisfied.