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Moving Abroad Survival Tip #1: Give it a year.
We arrived in Vienna a year ago today. It has been a wonderful year, full of amazing friends and exciting adventures. But it has also been a year of challenges. New schools, new jobs, a new house, a new language. And more lessons learned than I can even count.
I started to write about what I have learned in the last 12 months, and quickly realized I could go on and on and on, and still not even come close to covering everything. So I will break it down into little tidbits, lessons learned, survival tips for moving abroad.
My hope is that this series will offer tips for anyone who is moving abroad, for the first time or the fifteenth. And if you aren’t moving abroad, it will give you a peek into the expat experience. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
My very first tip is to give it a year.
Some people will tell you to give it a few months. I think it takes an entire year.
Moving to a new place is hard. And when that new place happens to be on the other side of the world, it is even harder. Confusion, self doubt, denial, anger, frustration, loneliness and self pity are just a few of the emotions you experience in those early days. You feel like you will never master even the most routine of tasks, like navigating the grocery store, or setting up your cell phone. Everything is a chore, and you ask yourself over and over again why you are doing this.
But, as the weeks and months go on, it gets easier. Little by little you make friends, you build a community, you learn the ropes.
Until one day you look around and you realize that this is home. And you are happy here.
