…And How I Coped

Move abroad, you won’t regret it! For the most part of the past decade I’ve lived abroad all over Europe. To move abroad was always my dream and in 2010 I moved to Aberdeen, Scotland. From there I found my way to London → Finland → Slovakia → and currently Estonia.

Let’s not kid a kiddo, I’m not sure I might ever have ended up abroad if I hadn’t had the Erasmus exchange to introduce me to the fact that the grass can actually be greener on the other side. How else would you know if you didn’t go and experience it?

A move abroad is a big change in ones life. You basically start everything from scratch. When moving abroad to study, everything’s quite straight forward. The University will take care of the paper work and help you with apartments and such. But there’s still plenty of things you need to figure out yourself.

I can help you with that! Check out everything that I can help you with in terms of your move abroad by clicking this button:

But when going away on your own for work, you find yourself having to be extremely independent. And to make it all as comfortable as possible there are some things that should be taken into account. I didn’t, and thus I found myself struggling. Don’t be me:

Move Abroad – The Mistakes I Made And How I Coped

Didn’t Book Accommodation

It’s all easy peasy when you move abroad to study. The University usually offers you accommodation, but when moving abroad to work, it’s often a different case. Some companies do offer expats accommodation, but none of the companies I worked for did.

I did start looking for accommodation before moving to London, but not as eagerly as I should have. And it so happened that I flew to London with my full suitcase with no accommodation whatsoever. Thankfully I had met my colleague-to-be at the intern interview, and she offered me a roof for one week while I looked for an apartment.

I ended up spending whole 2 weeks homeless in London. The second week I spent changing from one hostel to another. I didn’t want to book any hostels for more than one night in case I found my London home.

Eventually I did, but I haven’t vacated hostels ever again after that week. The lesson learned: make sure you’ve got accommodation at the destination ready before you board the plane and move abroad.

For example, when moving to Estonia, my friend contacted her Estonian friend, who kindly went and checked the apartment that I had found online. She took photos of each room and every appliance to prove that everything was as promised. Seriously people, do this! There are too many apartment scams these days.

Not Checking the Living Costs

I was so excited when I got the news that I’d be moving to London. It had been my dream for 10 years to move there to work, and finally my dream was coming true! So excited I was that I couldn’t fathom that anything could dim my delight.

Unfortunately I had spent a lion’s share of my savings living the good life in Scotland previously. And it didn’t occur to me that London is many times more expensive than Scotland. I was going to work there on an unpaid internship, for which I received 1000€/month as benefits from the University.

But when it then aspired that my rent was to be 800€/month and the Oyster card another 50€/month, the reality dawned on me. I struggled. Oh, didn’t I just! I am not exaggerating when I say that I ate pesto pasta and chicken for 6 months straight.

Lesson learned: google the living costs at your destination country and compare them with your future earnings! Can you cope, should you negotiate your salary again, can you get an apartment close to the office to save in transportation costs, etc? A little bit of research takes you a long way in making the move abroad fluent.

Not Reaching Out Beforehand

Social Media was a brand new thing in 2011 and I wasn’t the most tech-savvy youngster in the hood. It took me a while to join Facebook, let alone realize that there were loads of expat groups I could join and ask for help in. Help in regards to accommodation, living costs, and day-to-day things.

When I was moving to London I got lucky meeting my future intern pal already at the job interview. So, at least I had her to ask for help when moving there. But if I had joined the related Facebook group I may have had everything sorted before going there.

Or I could’ve found some small weekend jobs to do to get a bit of extra cash on top of the monthly benefits that couldn’t sustain me. Or friends, I could’ve made friends! The only people I knew from London when I left were my flat mates. What a lovely bunch they were, thank goodness! ♥

But mistakes are for learning! So, the next time I was moving abroad to work in Slovakia, I contacted my future team leader beforehand.

I asked him to provide me with contact details for at least one of my future team mates. I was going to ask them for help with starting out, and making sure I don’t get swindled.

I got a lot more than that: my apartment was checked for me, I was picked up from the airport, I was taken to Ikea on my second day to get all essentials, and I was provided with all the information and help anyone could need when moving abroad. Just because I reached out beforehand.

Didn’t Prepare For Cultural Differences

You’d think that Western countries are relatively similar. We’ve all got our stereotypes, but mainly we’re the same. Except we’re not. The main difference between us all, that I’ve noticed in my years of living all over the place, is that the bigger the country, the higher the level of ignorance. Also known as stupidity.

I was not prepared for the fact that some people in the UK didn’t know most European countries. Let alone which countries are in the EU. This led to me spending an extra week touring hostels in London when I moved there:

When I finally found a decent flat I spent 3 days fighting with the landlord because he kept demanding me for a Visa. For me Visa means a credit card. Obviously I refused to give my Visa details! Later it dawned on me that by ‘Visa’ he actually meant a permit to be in the country…

I’m still, to this day, astounded about that. My country is one of the largest in Europe, and it’s been in the EU since 1995. It’s in Scandinavia, for fuck’s sake!..

In my defense, nobody in the EU expects another (formerly) EU citizen to ask them for a Visa! It wasn’t an honest mistake, it was plain, pure dumb.

The lesson learned here: I am beyond privileged with my outstanding education and awareness of the world around me. Many aren’t quite so lucky.

Being Naive

When I was younger my mother used to warn me about being too ‘blue-eyed’. And as often, she was right to worry about me, because it turns out I’ve been very naive indeed.

I just want to believe the best of people and give them the benefit of a doubt. We’re all going through different things in life, who am I to judge? But I did learn in my time in London that there are behaviors and situations that do not deserve any sort of understanding.

Long story short, I genuinely thought that random people would never be rude to me just for the sake of being rude. “Luckily” on my first week already I was introduced to an incredibly rude taxi driver who denied me a ride because I wasn’t local. I mean… Brexit makes so much sense when I think of these encounters.

And then there was my landlord. Who turned out quite as dishonest as the Russian mafia bouncer here in Estonia who decided to strangle me one night just for the sake of strangling someone. The London landlord didn’t attack me but he did attempt to steal my deposit money. It was a lot of money.

I was already back in Finland then, and tried to negotiate the deposit return with him via e-mail. In the end my employer in London got involved as well, because the situation was so bizarre. The landlord was incredibly rude to her. I don’t think I’ve ever been so embarrassed or apologized to someone as much as I did to her.

In the end I got most of the money back. Guess how?

I e-mailed the landlord that I knew where he lived. And that I’d be coming to collect the deposit in person with my brother. I think I may have mentioned something along the lines that we have Russian blood (we do not!) just to make sure. The money was on my account the next day.

Lesson learned: look after your rights and stand your ground when someone tries to undermine or abuse you.

Despite all the struggles and drama, London is dear to me. It’s been my biggest dream so far, and I reached that dream. That’s huge! I love visiting London, it still feels like home. And now I know how to get about life there!

It’s been quite a ride so far. And I’m ready for another adventure! In fact, I’ve been ready for quite a while. Moving abroad can be a hassle, but it can also be a fluent and straight-forward process. It all comes down to doing a bit of planning and making sure to tick the boxes mentioned in this post.

If you want help in making sure your move abroad is as fluent and successful and fluent as possible, let me help! Assemble a list of questions and book a call with me here:

Have you ever moved abroad to study or to work? I’d love to hear about your experiences! Please comment below! ♥

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