Being alone is about where you are.
Being lonely is about how you feel.

So true. I totally get it. My partner and I may have not moved to another country but we did left our lives in the city and moved in a small village, in an island which felt like another country altogether! There we lived alone (the village has 40 old residents) but we weren't lonely at all. And some years later that we did felt lonely, we moved again :)

Of course the companion of a dog always helps!