If you’re here, that means that you’ve already spent weeks and months, if not years, planning your move. So this isn’t the typical list telling you to first make a pilot trip, plan finances, find jobs and/or schools etc. BUT the following ten tips are so important, and you’ll only know how important, once you’ve been there, done that and of course got the T-shirt.

 

The first weeks and months in a new country can be disorienting at best, completely depressing at worse. How do we know? Because it’s like that for everyone, even the neighbors down the block who look like they fit in as soon as they boarded the plane. So that’s something you must remember even before we go on to tip 1.

 

• Pick one or two items (preferably light ones) and take them with you — no matter where you live. Be it your favorite book or your most comfy sofa throw. Or your grandmother’s gift tea set and your favorite framed painting. No matter where you’re living these two objects will live with you and remind you that you are home.

 

• Sign up for a language class. If you already speak the language join a book club or sign up at the local library.  Speaking the language but need to ramp up vocabulary and reading skills? Reading kids books is a great way to cement in the new language.

 

• Swim. Play ball. Volunteer. Choose your ‘thing’ and join a local group. Making friends with the locals will help you adjust faster and locals are your best resource for anything and everything.

 

• Figure out where the locals buy their groceries and go there. This will save you tons of money and make you feel so much more at home. Plus, you will get to expand your culinary horizons in ways you’ve never imagined!

 

• Download Skype. Buy Skype credit. Love Skype.

 

• Go for a wander, get lost, and find your way home. This is the best way to learn any new place, foreign or not. And don’t forget to enjoy the view on the way. (And yeah, leave Waze closed for this ‘wander’.)

 

• Make an appointment you cannot miss on the third day you are there. This will force you to get with the program, get in the right time zone, and get a life. Sooner than three days is too soon. Later than three days is too late.

 

• Give yourself permission to be homesick. Even if you left happily the fact is you’ve moved to a new place, and you just want to go home — home, home! Embrace this feeling. When you feel homesick, recognize that the feeling connects you to the place in which you were born or grew up and to the people you love still living there. You know what? Go ahead and book your vacation ticket home during this period. It’ll soothe the soul and you might save some money buying in advance.

 

• Be grateful. The first few months in any new placeis going to be stressful. Remember you are experiencing something wonderful and unique — no matter how much the new local culture  or bureaucracy makes you want to cry, scream, or rip your hair out. Every day, no matter how miserable you are, find something you love about the culture or country — even if it's something small like a type of candy or the view from your window.

 

• Send your new address to friends and family. Won’t it be awesome to open a package to find a box full of your favorite Twizzlers or Oreos?