Today students often favour going on Erasmus to Europe, or on a J1 to the U.S in the summer to experience new areas before entering into the working world. These types of trips can be tricky as it often is difficult to fully adapt to your new surroundings. You aren't the long enough to fully establish roots, yet two or three months (In my case 5 months) can be a long time to spend away from home.

Anyone who has spent some time living in a different area knows how difficult it can be to get used to your new surroundings and get over the struggle that is homesickness. It is a scary thing to move to a new country, with new people, languages, foods etc. Leaving your comfort zone and things you are used to, be it for employment reasons or otherwise, can lead to hard times but it can also be a huge opportunity for personal growth if the challenges are overcome.

In order to reap the benefits of travelling to a new country it is important to first overcome the obstacles which could prevent you from getting the most out of the experience. You can find several articles online with lists of essentials when moving abroad and telling you how to adapt to a new city. In this blog I am going to use personal experiences of both working in France for a summer and studying in Australia for a semester to create my own list of guidelines. I think that different things are more important for different people so this list is not exhaustive, but never the less it’s a good starting point and may spark other ideas.

1. Organise your bedroom


Although this sounds silly, from my experience the best thing to do when you arrive in a new place is to fully unpack and make your bedroom as comfortable and neat as possible. This is coming from somebody who’s bedroom could be excused for a demolition site on any given day, however I believe that the worst thing you can do is live out of a suitcase upon arrival. In order to limit the feeling of being in an alien place, it is important to make your bedroom as familiar to home and a place you’re happy to return to at night-time.

2. Get familiar with the neighbourhood

Once you feel that you are set up at home, I usually like to wander aimlessly around the area and try find my way around without using google maps too much. This is a good way to slow down and take the new area in without having google maps tell you where to go. The more places you find that you like the easier it will be long term to settle in. Stumbling across quiet little restaurants or shops that can become your ‘local’ can particularly help people from smaller areas adapt to big cities.

3. Join a sports team