Things no one tells you about living in other country

Changing is a challenging, it doesn’t matter if it is a huge change or not.

When it comes to living far from everything you know, things can be way too different from what you expect them to be.

So I would like to share with you a few things you might want to think about before taking a huge step like this.

• Where you are going to live is NOT your country

If you are leaving your home country you have to embrace your new home, and by this I mean: “Different culture + different habits = get used to”. Some things will be better than in your country, some will be worse, and some will be exactly the same. Enjoy the leaning process instead of complaining or create an illusion to convince yourself that your home country is perfect… there is no perfect country in this world.

• People to attached to their friends and family usually have adaptation problems

So you are going to the unknown and all of the sudden you realize that you will miss a lot seeing your family every day, you don’t know what you are going to do without your best friends, and poor dog, how is it going to live without you? Stop and think, but think well about what you are doing. Some people just can’t leave the nest and that it’s ok. If you don’t feel truly confortable and confident about this, just assume that and don’t take this kind of risk, cause you’ll certantly not enjoy the experience.

• Not being comfortable with the country language is difficult

Now this is a real nightmare. Imagine waking up every single day and having to push yourself to speak a language that you can perfectly understand but barely speak because it’s been several years since the last time you actually have to use it. Bad situation isn’t it? But it’s worth it. You have no idea of how you can open your mind only by speaking different languages every single day. Anyway, if you still think this is not for you, just don’t do it :)

• Understand the different cultures that surrounds you is vital

You can tell much about a person behaviour and point of view by knowing from where they come from. Every human being is unique, but our roots are depper than we can possibly imagine and we only understand this in foreign lands. A lot of acquaintanceship problems can be avoided if you understand and respect the different cultural influences that surronds you.

• Don’t isolate yourself by only hanging out with people from your country

This is by far the biggest mistake that you can make. It’s great to have people from your own country around, it gives you the feeling of home even if your are really far away from your country, but only hanging out with them will make you lose all rich growing that comes with the abroad experience(which is pretty much knowing and living with people from different countries and from your new country of course.) So don’t isolate yourself in your country bubble. If you want to live with only your fellow countryman around you, don’t leave your country right? :)

• Enjoy the new experiences this new place can bring to your life

Food, people, streets, monuments, night life… Everything is different in a really particular way. Take your time to discover more about the country and what influences it suffered, or what makes it so special. If there is one thing you’ll never stop doing in your life, it’s learning, so make it fun and go at your own pace, the country is not going to run from you.

• Don’t be frustrated if you can’t get adapted easily

Moving it’s difficult even if it’s from one city to another, imagine moving to the other side of the ocean. You have to take a deep breath and don’t push yourself to much when things get hard to handle, specially because in most of the cases you don’t have someone to run to in case everything turns out really wrong. You have to be focused, but at the same time, you have to be kind with yourself regarding your own limitations, it takes time to overcome some things, don’t hurry when there is no need.

• Always be gentle

This is a fact, if you are kind, have a positive atitude and a open smile, there is pretty much nothing you cannot solve or get. People always treat you in a nice way as long as you are nice to them as well. Be positive and kind always and things will be better for you in good and bad situations.

• Living is completely different that being a tourist

You spent your vacations in that country and everything was perfect and now you decided you are going to live there. Please be really carefull with this kind of decision. Living in a country is completely different than being a tourist there, remember that all the things that makes you mad (like traffic, public transport, crowds,violence) might be just the same in the country you choosed, you just didn’t realized because your biggest concern was to have a good time.

• Every place has it’s dangers, be aware of that.

In some countries you have to be worried about being robbed, kidnapped, murdered… all kinds of bad things can happen to you. In other countries, maybe pickpockets will be the only thing you’ll have to worry about. Be sure you really understand the dangers you are putting yourself into before making your decision.

But the most important thing to consider is how much you really want this change for your life and how far are you willing to go to make it true. If you truly want to live in other country, you’ll easily overcome all the possible obstacles ;)