01 ARRIVALS

Explore!

What Is The First Thing You Do When You Arrive?

Put up a piece of art or item of furnishing that is ‘mine’ represents me/family/where I'm from etc.

Set up a bank account.

Set about finding like minded people - usually through sport/leisure activities.

Find a house and make friends!

Find nearest bar/cafe , have a very large drink and get familiar with surroundings.

Get to know the local area and people.

Put the cases in your room then find a bar.

Look for employment.

Sort out financials (bank account), environoment (living) and social aspects in that order.

Find all kind of information in Internet.

Put up photos.

Check out the area and culture and try to make friends - not to mention making sure internet is set up for phonecalls & emails home!

Get a phone.

Get to know neighbourhood, City.

Read local websites, papers and watch local tv.

Start to learn the language (after finding a home).

Go to or find the local supermarket or shop.

Learn the language, find doctors, get involved in the community.

Try to make new friends. They will help you settle on and will know the lay of the land.

Learn where I need to go to get all the practical stuff done (buy food etc.), but so much of the work is done before I get there - finding schools, a home, learning about the country and the culture etc.

Learn the public transportation system.

Find doctor/hospital/grocery/stores that i need to live.

Take a look around to see what is there.

Walk around my neighborhood to get familiar with the area.

Find schools for the children.

Joined local Meetup.com groups to meet other expats. Learn my way around the city.

Find where I can get daily items.

Walk the neighborhood, getting to feel familiar with the surroundings.

Check out the local forums to see what going on around town.

Look for the best area to live & rent a house.

Find a gym or place to work out.

Skype with grandma : ) homesick.

I went to M&S and grabbed a meal deal.

Register with the local authorities.

Go site seeing.

Find schools for the kids and a place to live near by that is comfortable, close to the schools and near the trains, shopping, etc.

Start language school, network, apply for jobs, get to know the city and the daily life.

Taste the wine and local cuisine and visit ALL the places of historic and cultural interest.

Find social outlets and a job or some work (I am an accompanying spouse).

Try to meet local people and understand their customs.

Walk around.

Look at a map, try to get my bearings. Now that we are in an internet age it has made life a lot easier to settle in and do research on the country.

Organize our belongings.

‘Arriving at Heathrow with all of our stuff - including a brand-new Bianci bicycle, boxed - and the limovan was too small. My husband rode underneath the box on our 5-hour (!!!) cab ride to Bristol. Terrible traffic on the M4.’

‘The day I landed in a new country, getting to see my girlfriend after 4 months.’

‘Getting lost the first time I went to buy some new clothes then not knowing the sizes and just feeling what is the point of this, I’m lost and I’m scared and I’m unhappy.’

‘The day I first stepped onto German soil. I knew that this was my home and I never wanted to leave it. I was able to spend several years there before I had to leave… I will be moving permanently back to Germany in 2012.’

‘The day we arrived, so many thoughts and emotions running through our minds. We just didn’t know where to start...but somehow we found our way. What a great experience!’

‘The first day, arriving late at night in a strange city afte a long flight, picked up by a driver who placed me in a new room of a villa, going to bed past midnight, knowing I had to get up early for the first day at work for 7.30am. Setting the alarm or 6.00am...and being worken up at 4.00am by the next door Mosque’s speakers....never recovered!’

‘Going to the newcomers’ meeting at the British Women’s Group in Bangkok and realising that I had nothing in common with any of them. I felt like a tree that had been uprooted and placed in the middle of the Sukhumvit Road.’

‘When I first moved here I came on a whim and had no home, job or friends, just enthusiasm.

I spent many tiring days trawling websites and job agencies in town looking for work but to no avail. I remember one very very wet, cold miserable February day where I was thrown off a tram into the rain because my tram strip was torn and I didn’t have the other part. I was going round agencies at the time. In every agency they turned me away, most not even looking at my cv.

I finally went back to my rented studio flat feeling thoroughly miserable. I realised I was just trying too hard and should slow down and let the work come to me or admit defeat and go home. That evening I had a Dutch lesson, I mentioned my struggle to a classmate. It turned out she worked for a job agency, she arranged a job interview the next day. It was a proper job. I later met my partner through that work and it meant I could settle and enjoy life here.

That was a day that went from rock bottom to top.’