For a happy landing

The best thing to do from the beginning is to LEARN to learn, to be flexible and to be positive!

Look at the positive and pleasant aspects of your new "home" and environment.

The grass is not necessarily greener elsewhere, but we all choose how we look at it and how we set our minds.

My best advice is to always be positive, focus on the positives wherever you are in your life and embrace the differences.

From my point of view, a good way to start getting to know a new place is to play tourist.

This will help you to: discover the city (customs, history, attractions,...) and give you a better overview of the city/towns, stores, places to live, restaurants, museums,....

I also took the time at the beginning to walk around the city with a tourist map in hand (to find my way back ;-) Hihihi).

You can ask questions at the tourist office of the city and find many interesting addresses, tips, places to see in the area, etc...

All these discoveries will help you to love your new home and to find things to do. Of course, at the beginning you will be very busy with papers, work, schools or any other reason that brought you there. But once the weeks have passed and the ideas have settled in, you may feel homesick or bored if you stay home all the time.

Never forget to take advantage of this new opportunity to discover a new place on this beautiful earth. You are there now, so take advantage of it and LIVE IT TO THE FULL!

Housing is important and it will help you adjust more quickly, feel "at home" quickly and feel comfortable.

Often it is best not to rush and spend a little money for a month in an AirBNB or similar option to look around and find what you need.

For example, we would drive around to see different parts of the city, see where we could really imagine ourselves living, what was close by, if it was safe, what kind of houses were around the rental options,...

How to choose the new home?

If you are moving as a couple/family, it is important that you ask yourself

• who will be home most of the time and what is a "must" for them (a well organized kitchen, a large living room, how many bedrooms, a place for a home office, a garden...) ?

• what is necessary and what is a plus to have ?

• what would be the best location (close to work, close to shopping, close to schools, close to nature, ...) ?

• what would be best for convenience/security: a house, a house in a complex, an apartment, a studio,...) ?

• do you have pets ? Is it possible to take them there ?

Make a list of what you want and prioritize it. This will help you in your search.

Visit the housing options

When visiting places to live, check your list but also ask yourself this question:

• Could you imagine yourself living there? What about your family?

• Would you feel comfortable?

• Is it bright enough to not have to turn on the lights all day (energy saving)?

• Is it safe?

• Are the walls/structures in good condition or is there mold, rust, cracks in the walls?

• Is the exterior noisy (high traffic road, industry, restaurants...)

• Does it smell bad outside? (once we went to visit a house and in the air it smelled like sewage because the sewage plant was close and the wind was blowing in that direction and once it smelled like garbage because the municipal garbage plant was a hill away)

• if one day there is a big rain, will the house be flooded or is there a good slope to drain the water further away?

• what is the neighborhood like, will you feel comfortable getting around?

Move in as if it were the place of your dreams

When you move in, do it as if you were going to stay there forever.

What do I mean?

• unpack all your boxes

• hang your pictures/frames

• make the place as comfortable and welcoming as possible

• feel "at home" when you arrive

• decorate with your stuff

• buy plants

Why do this if you are only staying for a few months? This is the key to making you feel "at home". It will also help you feel fully integrated into this new life, not just in boxes. Finally, it will make it easier for you to integrate into the place, because it will help you want to be there.

In your new country, people may speak a different language than yours...

As mentioned, this may or may not be the case for you.

For example, if you move from France to Montreal .... or from Germany to Switzerland .... or from England to South Africa...

But even if the "base" language is the same, there will be big differences in dialect and expressions and this can create misunderstandings. So be patient with yourself and with others and always be ready to learn a new way ;-)

Moving to a place where a totally different language is spoken can be intimidating and challenging. But being able to communicate with others, ask for directions, understand what is written... is a great help.

It will help you feel more comfortable, feel understood because you can express yourself even if it's not perfect, make friends, and also, ultimately, make it a great strength.

Of course, there are other ways to learn a language and many schools, online schools or teachers, books, etc.....

My method was :

• to try to understand people

• to speak with them even if it was not correct and if it took me a long time to make a sentence

• not to feel ashamed

• to try to pronounce words in my native language and to pronounce them a little differently

• watching movies/cartoons I didn't know in the language I was learning and with subtitles in the language I was learning.

How it was for me:

For me, when I came aboard the Mercy Ship in 1996, I knew almost no English... My friend Kendy (USA) could tell you that since she was my cabin mate ;-) We communicated with our hands and feet, me stuck to my diccionaire and trying to say French words with an "American" accent (from my point of view of course). Hahaha! Well, after a few weeks, trying and trying, not giving up and learning, copying and being patient with myself, I succeeded and now I'm using it daily and I was even able to create this site myself.

The same thing happened to me with Spanish (except I didn't have the basics from school, just some songs I learned on my missionary trip to Guatemala many years before....). When I arrived in Mexico, I had to learn on the spot as best as I could and within a few months, I managed to speak and write fluently.

Keep in mind that this is one of your future strengths!

To integrate quickly, be open to new things.

For example, when I landed in Tlaxcala, Mexico, I agreed to meet the wives of my husband's colleagues to embroider.....

Well... it had never been my greatest pleasure nor a hobby for me... but I thought, ok let's go and see....

I didn't become a great embroiderer (or what do you call it...) but I enjoyed meeting them, getting to know them, learning Spanish by listening to them and trying to communicate with them.

And until today, I have kept a nice friendship with most of them. And this has helped me a lot to understand the language, to discover the culture, to meet very nice women, to make real friends, to feel part of a group, to learn some recipes, to try new dishes,... and much more.

So I encourage you to be open, try new things, if you have a hobby or things you like to do, try to find other people who like that in your new place, ...

Take advantage of your free time to walk around, visit the center, discover the culture and beauty of it, try to find things in the new place that speak to you (to your tastes, to your heart), join a club or sports activities/outings, participate in city festivities, carnivals, etc...

For example, I participated in an international gastronomic sample party organized by the Migration Institution in Tlaxcala and then in the school of our Dauther neighbors. I prepared Swiss food, wore my Swiss t-shirt and it was a great success and a lot of fun.

I also went to the Alliance Française of Tlaxcala and met another Swiss, I helped at the "Banco de Alimentos" to prepare bags of food to give to low income families, etc..... These activities allowed me to feel involved in something, to be active and to meet people.

Then, by sharing the good things about the place where you are with your family and friends, showing them pictures, etc.... you already feel part of your new place.

Discover the world and enjoy the journey!