What people don’t tell you about moving overseas
Everything I wish I'd been told about expat life + listen to my latest podcast ep
You can listen to the latest episode of my podcast The Expat Diaries now. The Expat Diaries is the podcast for people in their 20s who are wanting to move overseas and live the expat life but need some help to make it happen. In my latest episode I chat about everything I wish I’d been told about moving overseas.
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Moving overseas can be such an incredible experience. You have the opportunity to make new friends, explore new places and have amazing adventures. But there are a lot of things that people won’t tell you about moving overseas. That is not to say that these things should stop you from making the move, but they’re just things I wish I’d known before heading overseas.
It can take a while to get settled
When I moved overseas I didn’t realise how long it would take to actually feel settled. I don’t know what I did expect, but turns out it takes more than a couple of weeks to start to feel at home in a new country. There’s no time limit on when you’ll feel settled, and it’ll be a slow process so just make sure to give yourself time and grace.
You have to put in effort to meet people and explore new places
Making new friends and discovering new places is not going to happen if you’re not putting yourself out there. When you first arrive overseas you’ll be tired and overwhelmed, so give yourself a week or two to unpack, do your life admin, and start your new job. Once you have found your footing a little make sure you get out there and explore your new city and attend events where you might be able to make some new friends. It might take time, and you’ll meet lots of people who are just not your cup of tea, but finding new friends is not going to happen if you just sit at home.
There will be random things you’ll miss from home
Something that I did not think about before moving overseas, was all the little things that would be different. Supermarkets were definitely the main thing. Not being able to buy the staples I normally would is a small but noticeable adjustment. Sometimes you just want to make your comfort food, or have your favourite snack but there’s a good chance the food available in your new country could be quite different. Embrace the changes and when you visit or move home you’ll appreciate those things so much more.
You’ll sometimes be lonely and get homesick
Moving far away from all your family and friends can be hard. And being in a brand new city where you don’t know anyone can be lonely sometimes. You will inevitably get homesick and miss your loved ones back home. Their lives will go on without you and you’ll feel sad sometimes that you’re missing out on special moments.
Balancing your new life with your old life can be hard
This might sound like a silly one, but keeping up with your loved ones back home, plus settling into and living your new life overseas can be tricky to balance. When your family and friends live on the other side of the world and you have to work with time differences, it adds an extra layer of complexity. You’ll want to make time to call everyone back home every so often, but you have to work that around your life in your new country. I don’t even have a 9-5 job overseas and I find it hard to balance it all sometimes.
It isn’t how people portray it online
I don’t need to tell you that social media is a highlight reel, but that is especially true for people who live overseas. Before moving overseas, and even now, I would see other people who had moved to a new country and they always seemed to be partying or travelling with loads of friends. Online it seems like living overseas is always sunshine and rainbows, so when I have had days when I don’t even leave the house I feel like I’m doing it wrong. I just need to remind myself that living overseas is still real life and people aren’t posting on social media when they’re having a lazy, boring or hard day.
Things won’t always go to plan
When you move overseas things will inevitably go wrong. Whether they’re small or big obstacles, you just have to remember that it’s normal for things to not go to plan all the time. When you move overseas you just have to be prepared to roll with the punches and you will get through them.
Weekly update
It’s been harvest week on the vineyard we’re living and working at, and all the grapes have now been picked!
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Harvesting grapes it’s not all it’s cracked up to be though. It was 4-8 hours every day of non-stop picking grapes and it was very monotonous. The grapes are about knee height so it was a lot of bending over so my back was quite sore at the end of each day.
It still was a cool experience though, and getting to put some of the grapes through the destalking machine and start to press them into juice was fun. We picked about 13 tonnes of grapes in total!!
Farm life itself is fun, picking fruit, collecting veggies from the garden, fishing for yabbies in the creek and drinking plenty of wine. We’re here for another week before I head to a surf camp hostel to work there for a month.
We also went into Lisbon for one night to see our friends India and Mariah who were visiting for a few days. We had another hostel fiasco though, following my toiletry bag being stolen at a hostel last week. When we returned from our night out a random man was asleep in Nelson’s bed so we ended up having to share my bed and I definitely did not sleep well. Safe to say I don’t think we’ll be staying in a dorm room in a hostel again in Lisbon anytime soon.