What a week.. tomorrow is (hopefully) Friday and I can spend the weekend recovering and charging batteries. This week has been mainly about work, work, and again work.
When reading other expats' blogs describing the first months of relocating to a new country, it makes me feel sometimes a teeny-tiny jealous. There are stories of settling in, getting to know your surroundings by making long walks during the day, going to museums and slowly adapting to the new country around you. While I have this dream picture, the reality can be somewhat different. There are also moments of loneliness, dependency of the other person who might be the only social contact in the beginning and a sense of general lack of purpose.
Therefore in moments of exhaustion, I try also to look on the bright side and think, that I'm actually quite lucky being able to relocate to a country where I have almost everything ready. House was provided by the Dutch guy, work I arranged myself by relocating from our Finland office to the one in Den Bosch and language course is in progress. Slowly, but steadily.. :-)
I believe work is also one of the things that has made it easy for me to start building the normal, every day life so quickly here. But I can't help it to sometimes dream of this careless museum-wandering period..
The next step in the adaption process is to start getting to know people here, also those outside work. Currently my family and friends are back in Finland (except for the Dutch guy of course), and while I wish I could just export them here to the Netherlands, that is unlikely to happen. Therefore making connections in my new home country is essential for future. I wish I'd be one of those "I can network even with a cactus" type of persons. As an introvert Finnish person this takes some time though.. ;)
P.S. A nice curiosity for this week is a http://www.nationalecomplimentendag.nl/ - a national compliment day, never heard of such a thing before!
Hi. Keep in mind that many people just post the good parts of moving to a new country on their blog, and don't talk so much about the difficult parts of making friends, and settling in. Everyone goes through that stage, even if they don't mention it. Good luck! Michelle :)
ReplyDeleteThat is indeed true! Thank you for reminding me that indeed I'm not the only one. It always somehow makes it feel better :)
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ReplyDeleteNice article, thank you for sharing this. If you are moving to a new place and renting a new home there means, then don't forget to ask these questions to landlords before relocating to your new home
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