Recently I moved across the globe from New York to Taiwan. Though change is hard, we must all find a way to adjust. Change is never easy, but neither is life and we just need to find a way to make things work for us.
Tips for Moving to a new Country-
- Do your research on the country's customs, culture, and people. This will help you immensely with culture shock when you get off the plane.
- Search up the country's points of interests that you would like to visit. By doing so, this will help you feel better towards the country and let you see the fun sides to the country.
- Adjust to your new home. This was especially hard for me, going from a large house to a small town house. Because the land in America is more immense, there is more land to build homes. Whereas in Taiwan, the land is small with a large population, so living spaces are very small. There are many tall buildings in Taiwan, whereas the suburban area I lived in in New York was full of houses and trees.
- Have the right currency with you at all times. Make sure you exchange your currency in America. This leaves less for you to do in your new country.
- Pack clothes that you will actually wear a lot. This was a mistake I wish I would've known. Because the majority of my wardrobe in New York consisted of winter clothes, I had little summer clothes to bring to Taiwan. Pack the clothes you will absolutely wear and leave the rest for next time.
- Buy and stock up on cheap American stuff. These include clothes such as basic tee shirts, leggings, skin products, mascara, etc. Anything that is to be imported from the US will automatically be more expensive in Taiwan.
- Buy clothes from America. Clothing in many countries are much more expensive that the US for the quality you get. American name brands also happen to be really expensive outside the US. Plus, many Asian styles of clothing didn't suit me well. They were all either too cute or too small. Yes, you will find Asian clothing sizes to be small if you're not from Asia.
- Get familiar with the metric system and specific measure systems of the country. For example, in America measuring areas are calculated using square feet, but in Taiwan its by the number of pings per room.
How you will Feel Moving to a new Country-
Everybody's situation is different, but this is for you if you were uneasy about moving in the first place.
- You will hate everything and everybody for a couple weeks or a month even. You will hate even the things you have no knowledge of. For me, I realized myself becoming very quick to judge everything that was unfamiliar with me.
- You will feel foreign and lost, even if you happen to look like the people in that country. You won't be able to read or understand many things, but there's often English translation underneath.
- You will want to go home. You will hate everything so much and think about moving home seriously. You will cry because you're homesick and you will cry because you're completely lost and confused. This is all okay. Get your tears out because it's normal. You are essentially starting a new life in a new country you know little of.
- You will feel grossed out if you're moving somewhere less clean than what you're used to. Americans tend to be very hygienic, compared to standards in many different countries.
- Depending on where you are, you will hate the weather and that will make you lose motivation.
- You'll crave the foods back at home deeply. Trying exotic new foods may not be the first things on your mind.
- Frustrated with time difference. There is a 12 hour time difference between Taiwan and New York. Time difference makes it tough to catch and talk to your friends and family back home.
- You will start to miss everything that you never would have thought twice about missing before. For me, I started missing simple routines such as going grocery and clothing shopping in malls, and waking up to the sound of birds chirping. I even missed how the mailman would drop off the mail everyday.
Things to be Excited about-
- You will become more cultured. Not many teens have the experience to live abroad!
- You will meet people from all sorts of different backgrounds. These people will be different from those that you were surrounded by in your home country.
- Your language will improve. I'm learning how to type Chinese on my computer and I can so far type a few easy sentences now. I've also already gotten better at reading and am recognizing more vocabulary words now. It's only been a little more than a week and you'll only get better at languages!
- You will have opportunities to teach English. Since English is becoming a global language, many people will be eager to learn English, especially from a Native like yourself. Teaching English makes an incredible amount of money and beats American minimum wage any day!
- You will have more opportunities to travel outside the country if you're in Europe or Asia. Plane rides to Japan and China are a couple only hours away from me, whereas you could still be in the US after hours of flying. In Europe, you're only a car ride away from another country!
- Trying delicious new foods you never knew existed!
