Hi all,
Just wanted to pose the question and share the experiences of other members here....
We're looking to move from the UK to France by buying, renovating/rebuilding, selling property over there.
We have initial capital in the bank from the sale of property here to start with.
Our ultimate target is to live in an unmortgaged property on the interest paid from capital we've created by our own efforts.
I'm sure there must be others in similar situations....aren't there?
So what was the best, most useful, most insightful piece of advice you were given when you became an 'expat'?
Happy New Year to one and all....
And wherever you are in the world may you be happy
Pete & Lisa

Obviously the first and most important thing is to learn the language. Even if you speak it poorly, you'll get a far better reception by approaching people in their own language. Should they later offer to speak English with you, fine, but let them make the offer.

But number two on this list should be: Everything takes at least twice as long as it would back home. Get used to it!

There are lots of things that normally you'd handle over the phone (in the UK or in the US), but on the Continent, you have to turn up at the appropriate office in person, stand in line, wait your turn (and in France, you usually get sent back home to find two or three additional pieces of paper no one told you you had to have). There is no other way. It's a pain in the butt, and it's time consuming, but it's how things are done here. And, after a while, you'll find that there are some advantages to doing things face to face like this.

In any event, an excellent question! I look forward to having some good discussion on this topic.

I am surprised that France is similar to here. I only thought that South America made you stand in line and need millions of pieces of paper that you can't get. It is very frustrating if you are used to doing everything on the phone or online like in the UK. You soon get used to it - you just need to be patient

__________________
www.mar-del-plata-argentina.net

A wonderful place to live

Oh, I've heard several people compare France to South America - certainly on the mindless bureaucracy front, at least! But I think, too, that no matter where you go, everything takes longer simply because you're not used to the system for getting what you want.

Plus, it seems to be only the "Anglo-Saxons" (as we anglophones are called here in France) who have quite the rush-rush relationship with time. Most other countries seem absolutely laid-back by comparison.

Sometimes I think they take the manaña attitude a bit too far. Just try making arrangements to go out. Nobody turns up on time. Now my kids text their friends to see if they have arrived at the meeting point. Then and only then do they go to meet them. My kids got fed up hanging around. I have even noticed that we have now started to arrive late..................... As the saying goes, "if you can't beat them, join them"

__________________
www.mar-del-plata-argentina.net

A wonderful place to live

This is a good question!

I think mine was don't get stressed, or in my case too stressed

It's a BIG move where ever your coming from and going to, and sometimes even when a culture seems similar, you find out that it's not when you're living in it!

Even though there are guides to help, and possibly welcome groups, there are still things people will forget to tell you (when the public holidays are - get a calendar or diary when you move!). I just got into the habit of telling people up front that let's pretend I know nothing about the process since in most cases I didn't! I found that people are usually very helpful once you tell them that.

And enjoy mixing with the locals. Yes it's nice to talk to people who have been though the same thing (one of our neighbours is an expat from the UK and she moved 30 years ago and has only been back once since!), but don't forget to mix with the locals. This is very important in rural areas since it can be who you know and not what you know that helps you.

Regards,
Karen

__________________
Money-Magnets: The Blog - How to get your money to work for YOU

New ventures have a honeymoon period of about three weeks. Then the euphoria and excitement wears off, and for the next nine weeks, more and more seemingly unresolvable and unacceptable problems arrive. The end of the first three months is the pits. No decisions should be made at this point. Over the next six months things will get better in imperceptible steps. Then one day you will notice that you are handling issues that would have thrown you for a loop with all the aplomb, if not skill, of a local.

One of mine came in a Japanese supermarket, as I searched the refrigerated section for chi-zu (cheese), and found that I could tell margarine from raw tofu from cheese, even in similar containers.

If you haven't develooped some coping skills after six months, you should give some serious consideration to whether you have madea mistake.

So my advice is to remember that there is a horrible hump to get over, and it will eventually get better. It's sort of like the steps of mourning, they'll happen, and with moves they actually happen on a sort of schedule.

Actually, before I went overseas for the first time I did lots and lots of research - reading every book on expatriation I could get my hands on. One book said something about there being a "natural cycle" of about 3 months' duration. During this time, you'll have a really bad spell (homesick or just frustrated with all the stuff you don't know), followed by a really good spell (like realizing you can tell the margarine from the tofu).

The cycles seem to lengthen out the longer you're gone. But there's something comforting about knowing that being bummed out is all a part of adjusting. This, too, shall pass.

You are right, it is comforting. Very, very comforting.

When I was in Japan, the ESL teachers that I met who were in the JET program, mostly recent college graduates, showed me some of the material they had been given. It pretty much gave them a week by week schedule, and told them how they would be feeling each week. Everyone I talked to was convinced that they had done so much research that it didn't apply to them. But, they told me, week by week, there they were, falling into the pattern.

So another piece of advice is this: Research is not the same as the real experience. This is good, because otherwise, why bother? No amount of research can prepare you, really. Not that you should arrive totally uninformed, but I've seen people who had minimal knowledge about their new home cope better than the well-researched transplant. They had no expectations, and expected it to be difficult, and that is part of the battle.

Heh heh .... thats a really good point.
Its quite true that every little problem seems like a mountain to move when you are in a new country & dont speak the language. Panic sets in, and thats when the stress starts as you think you cant deal with everyday matters any more in the same way you did. But as time goes on you look back and think "why did I get so stressed about that". In truth, its taken me about 14 months to get to a calmer stage. I was used to being very independent but I had to learn to rely on help.

My advice on that would be that when it happens, take a deep breath, count to ten and then try and approach the problem logically and calmly ..... unlike I did

__________________
For photos of European Cities visit my homepage