News

Before I moved I was very excited and it actually never hit me how hard it can be to live in another country.

The following points are things that I struggle with:

The language – I never thought this would be a problem since I was moving to a country where they speak English. But I can tell you know that it hasn’t been easy. Here in Australia they use a lot of slang and if you don’t know the slang you will be very confused.

The culture – I didn’t think that the culture would be very different from Sweden, but I was wrong. Using Australia as my example I can tell you that they are behind in their time in many ways, and sometimes I wonder if I have traveled back in time. They live very different to what I’m used to and and they are very old fashion. (Ok people, Not everyone, but a lot of them). 

Discussions – This can be a tough one, at least I think so. When there is a discussion going on I can get very frustrated because I find it hard to express myself. (I wish I could speak in Swedish). I think it’s just hard to get the grammar right sometimes, especially when you’re having a wild discussion.

Food – When you move you know that the food will be different, but I can tell you now that you will miss the food from home. Even when you try to cook food that you used to cook at home it won’t taste the same. (I guess this is just a little problem, at least we have food to eat).

Family and Friends – Ohhh boy, this is definitely the hardest bit. I find it very hard to find friends that I can trust (I do have a couple). When it comes to family, wow there is a lot you have to think about. When you decide to move you will miss out on so much in your families life. Your siblings will have kids, get married and have parties, but you won’t be there. Holidays such as christmas is probably the worst one, you look around and everywhere you will see people with their family and all you have is your partners family. (If you’re lucky to even have that, my first holidays I always spent on my own since I didn’t know anyone). I am very happy that I have my partners family, it’s much better than being alone.

Getting a job – Just basic things like getting a job can be very hard (even if you have a uni degree). It make sense that they will hire their own people first and then they will hire international people Saying that I have been very lucky, but I do feel that it has a lot to do with all my work experience. Just be persistent and keep trying, eventually you will find a job that you will love.
TIP: Make sure to have work references from home. 

All the other basics – Things like healthcare, bank account, phone plan and driving licence will take time. Make sure to do your research before you leave so you know what document you need and what you can and can’t do. Luckily I’m from Sweden and they have a great agreement with most countries in the world (Makes it much easier for me).

VISUM – Depending on what country you decide to move to, everyone has different visas. For me this has been very expensive and I still haven’t figured out how to stay in this beautiful country. It’s very important that you know everything about this process, if you overstay your visa or do something that you shouldn’t this can effect your future application.
TIP: Make sure to do your research, know your dates and don’t do anything stupid.

You will be missed and you will miss – This is just human nature, when times are hard all you want to do is run back home. You will be missed and you will definitely miss everything from back home. It’s okay to miss home, but don’t take any drastically decisions that you might regret. 

Please leave me a comment if you have moved to another country and let me know what you struggle with. I’d love to hear from you.

XOXO