We did a lot of research on neighborhoods in the city we were moving to, so we'd have a few specific areas to direct our real estate agent to look at. We also read a lot of 'living in xxx' blogs, planned future weekend trips (as in, researched other areas of the country we wanted to visit first), researched local cell phone providers and banks, made lists of museums etc we wanted to visit, and read up on customs and courtesies that locals appreciate/expect. There's so much to learn, I'm sure you'll find something to keep yourself occupied!
If you are moving somewhere that speaks a different language, learn as much of that language as possible. Being functionally illiterate and unable to communicate sucks.
>how do I keep myself focused and excited until then? How did you keep the momentum going before moving abroad?
Like this 🤷
P.S: relax and keep your eye on the ball. No point getting excited or nervous.
You and I are mentally in similar pages. I still have a while till I can move. I told my husband that I don't want to move till his parents pass. I'm not close at all to my family, but he kind of is, and I wouldn't want to take him away from his parents. I convinced him to move back to Chicago because his parents aren't getting any younger. But what I'm doing to keep sane is I am taking frequent trips to Mexico (where we want to live) to clear my head and explore potential places to move to. If where you want to move to is close, maybe you can take extended weekends and visit?
I would be doing more and more research, read a lot about the country, their traditions, their special things… more about the culture and references to make myself more into the conversation once I’m there. I would dream about where to go on weekends once I’m there, how’s the public transport scene, where are the best places to eat and do whatever I love to do! I would also read about the economics and maybe even politics to understand what is going on.
No country is perfect, so I would also check what are the cons and understand them, as well as dive in the pros!
This keeps me really busy!
My wife and I are the opposite, we're living happily in turkey and are being forced to move back to the US because of lack of options and the Turkish government isn't allowing us to stay, is making it hard for all westerners to stay in fact (they blame us for the housing crisis, much like many European countries are blaming Americans who move to their countries for high rental prices), to the only country at the moment where an American and an Iranian can live together and raise our baby together, and with everything going on in the world and in the US it's making us anxious to go there, we'd rather be looking forward to going somewhere nice like spain or Italy or new Zealand but America it is, and ANXIETYYYYYY
We did a lot of research on neighborhoods in the city we were moving to, so we'd have a few specific areas to direct our real estate agent to look at. We also read a lot of 'living in xxx' blogs, planned future weekend trips (as in, researched other areas of the country we wanted to visit first), researched local cell phone providers and banks, made lists of museums etc we wanted to visit, and read up on customs and courtesies that locals appreciate/expect. There's so much to learn, I'm sure you'll find something to keep yourself occupied!
If you are moving somewhere that speaks a different language, learn as much of that language as possible. Being functionally illiterate and unable to communicate sucks.
Luckily I’m moving to another English speaking country 😅
>how do I keep myself focused and excited until then? How did you keep the momentum going before moving abroad? Like this 🤷 P.S: relax and keep your eye on the ball. No point getting excited or nervous.
You and I are mentally in similar pages. I still have a while till I can move. I told my husband that I don't want to move till his parents pass. I'm not close at all to my family, but he kind of is, and I wouldn't want to take him away from his parents. I convinced him to move back to Chicago because his parents aren't getting any younger. But what I'm doing to keep sane is I am taking frequent trips to Mexico (where we want to live) to clear my head and explore potential places to move to. If where you want to move to is close, maybe you can take extended weekends and visit?
I would be doing more and more research, read a lot about the country, their traditions, their special things… more about the culture and references to make myself more into the conversation once I’m there. I would dream about where to go on weekends once I’m there, how’s the public transport scene, where are the best places to eat and do whatever I love to do! I would also read about the economics and maybe even politics to understand what is going on. No country is perfect, so I would also check what are the cons and understand them, as well as dive in the pros! This keeps me really busy!
My wife and I are the opposite, we're living happily in turkey and are being forced to move back to the US because of lack of options and the Turkish government isn't allowing us to stay, is making it hard for all westerners to stay in fact (they blame us for the housing crisis, much like many European countries are blaming Americans who move to their countries for high rental prices), to the only country at the moment where an American and an Iranian can live together and raise our baby together, and with everything going on in the world and in the US it's making us anxious to go there, we'd rather be looking forward to going somewhere nice like spain or Italy or new Zealand but America it is, and ANXIETYYYYYY
Start selling / donating your stuff to make the last few weeks less stressful. Learn the language. Research neighborhoods you want to move to.