How to Get Comfortable in a New Country

Moving, whilst being incredible exciting and fun, can also be a scary and overwhelming experience; especially when moving to a new country. I am on my fourth country (just left Mexico, freshly arrived in Spain) so I now have a process that helps me feel more settled when I arrive. None of these tips are particularly groundbreaking but, if done in the first 2 weeks, give you a solid base and just set you up in your new place. You are going to be tired in the first 2 weeks, but it is so worth putting in the effort now. Otherwise, it will get to 3 months and you will have wished you’d already done all this stuff because it gives you such a good foundation. It makes you feel settled and gives you some stability at a time that you can feel very unsettled and homesick (so even if you're not feeling like that, I'd still advocate doing this stuff). 

Tip One
Find a place that feels like home, whether it be a park, a museum, a café, a street or a library. Find somewhere that feels cosy, safe and sends you to your happy place. This is especially good if you're feeling homesick. Take your laptop, a book, music and just go and sit for a couple of hours (especially lovely on lazy Sundays). For example, when I was in Mexico I had a couple of cafés that I'd go to and do work if I was feeling a bit meh. I'd just take some magazines (in Spanish), work through the articles and distract myself a bit. Even if you're not someone who is feeling homesick and down, it's just nice to have a place that you can go that feels welcoming and a little bit like home.

Tip Two
Locate your supermarket, not somewhere random or obscure. You need to find the supermarket where you're going to be doing your food shopping on the regular. And then go and do a food shop. Make sure you buy all the basics like olive oil, rice, pasta, spices, fruit and vegetables, pesto... I find that if I don't do this I end up spending way to much money on take-out apps and restaurants which all adds up.

Tip Three
Unpack your suitcase and find a place for everything, even the miscellaneous items. Living out of a suitcase is the worst, you can't find anything and it feels so impermanent. I don't mean to state the obvious but being surrounded by all of your things will just make you feel calmer and more grounded in the place. It also has the added bonus of seeing what you're missing, which leads me on to the next...

Tip Four
What are you missing ? Hangers, towels, tea towels, pillows, general bedding, fairy lights, plants (I'm talking all the essentials). Get yourself to an Ikea, Walmart or equivalent and buy what you need. If you don't have enough storage space in your wardrobe, Ikea has really cool hanging drawers that give you some extra space. Does your room feel a bit impersonal? Get some photo frames and print off photos to put in them. I was lucky enough to get a polaroid for my birthday, so, before I went to Mexico I took photos of people that I loved to put around my room. Plants and fairy lights are another great way to get your room feeling cosy, even if its just a little cactus for the windowsill. You don't have to break the bank, just get your place feeling somewhere where you can come home and feel zen in. Also, (check with your landlord) think about candles and incense. If you're someone who is prone to homesickness buy a candle before you leave and start burning it, then when you move and burn it in your house, it will remind you of home.

Tip Five
Do you have a hobby or passion like swimming, gym, photography, art? Find a place where you can do it in the first week. Ideally, research before you get there so you can go and join as soon as you arrive. It's a great way to meet like-minded people and if you moved alone a way to feel less isolated. 

Tip Six
If you're somewhere learning a new language, get immersed. Join a library so you don't have to spend a fortune on books. Get on Netflix and find a series or films. Read magazines, newspapers, signs, everything. I found it really helpful to carry around a little notebook to write down any vocabulary that I didn't know. It was a very cathartic exercise to go through it at the end of the day and translate all the words. 

Tip Seven

      My last tip is probably the most important and the one I enjoy the most. Explore your area, but really explore, in every direction. I find it so frustrating arriving in a new place and not knowing where anything is. So, I just spend hours walking around trying to get used to the streets, knowing how to get home and trying to find landmarks to locate myself, even when I have absolutely no idea (this is a great time to listen to a new album). I remember when I moved to Paris at 18 and getting out of the metro and a 2 minute walk took about 20. At the end of the year I looked back at this moment and it seemed so ludicrous because everything had become so familiar. I couldn't imagine not knowing the place and I think that's the main aim, for everything to become a bit familiar.