Relocating abroad automatically means that you become categorised as an expatriate – also known as an expat. As such, you have decided to reside in another culture than that of your citizenship – you are now an immigrant. As a result, it’s now your responsibility to adapt to this foreign culture – for better and worse. Don’t be afraid, though, it’s quite the adventure, and as long as you have an open mind, you’ll be more than fine – trust me. However, for anyone relocating to a foreign culture and trying to adapt as well as assimilate to norms and behaviour attached to this culture will know: It takes time. Meanwhile, in my experience, you’ll come to experience things – things that you may or may not have expected before immigrating:
- The paper work concerning your relocation abroad is endless
- …And the rules and regulations can be rather confusing and, to you, at times, somewhat illogical
- Not knowing the foreign language can be a real challenge – even with good English skills
- For better and worse, Google Translate becomes one of your treasured friends
- You’ll come to find that the importance of a personal number is key to …EVERYTHING
- Keeping in touch with friends and family from back home becomes truly important to you
- ..As a result, so does all types of social media as they help you stay in touch
- You’ll experience that your otherwise common and boring name is exotic and beautiful in the ears of foreigners, which is somewhat wonderfully weird to you
- You’ll discover what stereotypes there are out there concerning your home country and its people
- You’ll come to understand that there are various and different expectations of personal space
- You don’t always know what you should or should not buy at the grocery store
- It can be almost impossible (at times, definitely impossible) to find certain native foods
- You’ll pay unreasonable amounts of money for food that only somewhat resemble what you can get back home in desperate hours of homesickness
- The wonders of goodie bags sent from friends and family with foods from home can make your day
- Eating out can be either the best or worst experience
- You’ll never really know how much to tip
- When you meet a fellow (insert your nationality here), you immediately get excited
- However, you’ll experience that meeting new friends from foreign cultures is truly enlightening on so many levels – especially, culture-wise
- You’ll find yourself incredible excited when new friends or acquaintances know something about your country – especially, if you, like me, come from a little otherwise insignificant nation that people rarely tend to know much about
- You’ll find that keeping up with politics back home is difficult
- …So is keeping up with its pop culture
- On the other side, you’ll experience that acquiring insight into and understanding for a foreign culture is an exciting and adventurous experience
- You’ll come to understand your own culture and foreign cultures more in-depth and acquire perspective on these, realizing that there’s a lot you don’t know about the world yet
- Ultimately, you’ll realize that you will never truly know the foreign culture no matter for how long you’ll live there
- …That won’t stop you from getting lost in the foreign culture and your new home city/country, which you’ll find nothing but exciting
- As a result, you’ll come to treasure your native culture more in some ways and in other ways, you’ll come to treasure the foreign culture more
…
Despite challenges and difficulties linked to relocating and living abroad, it’s worth it! Every day is the beginning of a new and exciting adventure filled with wonderful people.
xo P!
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