Living Abroad
Make Yourself at Home
iStockphotoA personal touch to your new place makes you feel right at home.
While they are moving, running errands and looking for a job, many expats do not take the time during the first few weeks to really settle into their new home. The fact that they have come to this foreign country for an extended stay, maybe even for good, does not sink in for quite a while. As a result, their new home feels like nothing more than temporary accommodation.
Don’t let this happen to you! With our help, you will quickly get accustomed to your new environment and really turn it into a home away from home.
Give Your New Home a Personal Touch
You can give every hotel room or furnished apartment your own personal touch, if you put up some pictures of your family and friends back home. Maybe you have even brought postcards or drawings you had put up on a wall in your apartment or house back home?
If you add something that is near and dear to you to your new environment, it will be easier for you to avoid nostalgia and acute home-sickness.
Take a Shopping Field Trip
It can take quite some time until the container with your belongings finally arrives at your door step. Maybe you have even decided to leave some of your household goods in storage or to sell them before leaving your country of origin. Until you can fill your new home with your favorite leather couch or that mahogany desk you inherited from your grandfather, you need furniture and household goods that will do the trick instead.
Make a list of all the things you will need to turn your new place into a home. Take field trips to local stores and choose things that fit your personal taste. Don’t just focus on the practical things like silverware or a toilet brush. With your budget in mind, buy plants, curtains, sheets and pictures to decorate your new home the way you like it. That way, you can give your new place your personal twist. You will realize how you slowly begin to feel like you belong.
Become an Explorer
It may seem trivial in comparison to everything that has to be taken care of. But exploring your new home abroad is essential for really settling in. Buy a map of your new hometown and take little walks or simply drive around with your car. You will soon find shops and cafés in your neighborhood that sell the best pastries. You will learn where to buy the freshest produce or where the nicest park is.
Do not hesitate to ask for help or directions. That way you will quickly get in touch with the locals. Another way to do this is by doing volunteer work or attending local festivities. As soon as you start getting involved in your community, you will be surprised about all the things that your new hometown has to offer!
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