Like 'Alice in the Wonderland' Friday, 09 July 2010 12:31 Written by Florencia Giner

Moving to a new country either for work, study or just following your spouse can be the most thrilling, awful, fascinating, fun, challenging and terrifying experience of your life, probably all at the same time.

I want to dedicate this article to all of you Alice-es that at some point decided to have a ‘leap of faith’ and come to ‘Wonderland’ because whatever you are going through, you are not the only one or the first one to go through this. This is my ‘personal’ experience and I hope you may find it useful.

First, I will like to begin with a positive note: the second time you move countries (China is my second, USA was my first) it gets WAAAY easier, seriously. It took my around 8 months the first time to figure out where I was standing but when I came China it only took me 3. I bet you, next country I move in I will be like a local in about a week.

I’m going to start first with the most difficult tip of all, but I think that as soon as we are able to master this one, we will have half of the job done, so here it goes...

Stop Wining

Yes, it is normal and even ‘healthy’ to complain about our new home country, I have done it, you have done it, everybody does it. However don’t take ‘whining’ as your favorite sport, because it is easy to get into the ‘negative’ mode where we dislike everything and even everybody which ends up making our lives and the lives of the people around us quite unpleasant. Complaining is necessary, but keep it to the minimum so you can get on with your life, the fun part of it !!!!.

Arriving to a new and strange place can make us feel pretty lonely as we all know, thus the importance to fill the ‘void’ that we are feeling.

Keep You Old Friends but Make New Ones

At the beginning of our stay in a new place is completely normal that we grab into what we know: our family and friends back home. Our love ones will always be an instant source of gratification, love and moral support no matter where they are, after all they will always be an email, facebook, skype or phone away from us. At the beginning you will probably spend a quite large amount of your spare time communicating with them which is not only absolutely normal but also will help you to keep your sanity intact. In addition to this, it is important that you put an extra effort in making new friends as soon as you can. Having a good circle of ‘friendly faces’ around us, makes the process of ‘fitting’ and ‘belonging’ to our new home country much faster & easier.

While in a strange place, it is easy to feel lost and without a purpose, even if you are working here still you need to find something that fills your heart with joy, so

Find a Reason (to get out of bed)

Finding a ‘hobby’ or something you are passionate about can make a huge difference in your daily life. If you don’t have a hobby: acquire one, I’m sure there is something that you always wanted to do or learn but you never found the time to do it. Perhaps this is your chance in embarking in learning a new language or taking cooking classes or whatever it may be. Remember, sometimes happiness is made of little things so find your ‘little things’ in your daily life. It will make your experience far more enjoyable.

Changes in your daily routine plus changes on your diet due to the fact that you are living in a different country can take a toll in your body affecting you not only physically as well as mentally so remember:

"Mens Sana in Corpore Sano' (A Healthy Mind in a Healthy Body)

It is crucial that you keep yourself healthy trying to have a balanced diet, it doesn’t matter if you choose to eat manly western food or if you decide to go completely local, every cuisine has healthy and bad choices, so try to lean towards the healthy choices at least 75% of the time. In addition try to exercise frequently: either you decide to join a gym or the Fitness Challenge, there will always be some physical activity that you enjoy and will help you to feel better physically and mentally.

If you don’t believe me, you should believe Elle Woods (Reese Whitherspoon in ‘Legally Blonde’): ‘Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don't shoot their husbands, they just don't’.

Last, every place in the world has wonderful things (and not so wonderful), the point is: find & embrace the things that you LOVE or at least enjoy of the place while staying there:

See the Brighter Side

Every place has wonderful things to offer us and it is key that you find them. Those things can range from people, historical buildings, sightseeing, art, culture, food, etc, etc. The point is, get to know the place you are living, not just only where to buy your groceries. There are many ways to get to know your new home that goes from buying a travel guide and reading about it before getting to know it in person to take a guided tour around the City or why not just hit the road with your camera in one shoulder and see what you discover. The point is that is hard to fall in love with the place you are living IF you don’t really know it.

Last by not least, been a ‘citizen of the world’ is not for everybody, some people find it thrilling (like me) and others overwhelming. The key thing is no matter where you stand on this matter you can always have an enjoyable experience independently how brief is your stay in your host country.

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#1 RE: Like 'Alice in the Wonderland' — julia 2010-07-12 18:53

Aw what a nice article... so true in many ways... everyone finds different things to keep them happy. I know for me it was finding my routine, once I got that covered and bought my electric bike I was smiling again!

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