#moving abroad

[kyo1n]

My moving diary.

Since I was 18.

#moving abroad #italy

[hekate-writes]

Growing up and moving away from the people you knew and loved feels so weird. It's like,

i know everything that breaks your heart and exactly the way it breaks, so much so that I can trace every crack and put it back piece by piece

But we're on different paths now as the wheel of time takes us to different ends, i can't be around to watch your heart shatter nor to put it back

But know one thing, that even from miles away, i remember the way your heart breaks, and i remember how to put it back together just as easily as i remember to breathe

#mine #moving away #moving abroad #moving out #books #books & libraries #dark acadamia aesthetic #english literature #literature #romanticism #classic academia #poetry #love poem #romantic literature #goodbye #bye

[aditheursula]

Current Special Interests

For the past few months I have been obsessed with the following and will share more about these things as I continue to post

DayZ - I have been watching streams by ChocoTaco and BenFruit and others and have really gotten into maps like Oshima Island, Sunnyvale Chernoplus, Deer Isle, and Namalsk. I love it. I wish I had people to play with. It would be great to base build with others on Deer Isle.

Astrocartography - learning about travel lines is really cool.

Brazil - since I started learning Portuguese last year I have been really into everything Brazil, mainly because of how it is changing with Lula in office. Also, I found out I have ancestors that settled in Recife.

Brazilian futebol - I support Botafogo. Why? They're not Flamengo. They're better. Also, why not?

Leaving the United States - I'm adamant about this one. Things are not going well here. I'm applying to jobs abroad with no luck yet I'm not giving up.

Electric mopeds - I would really like one if I lived in a city setting.

Public transportation - Again, I would really like this if I lived in a city setting

Walkable, liveable cities - I would like one, por favor.

#current special interests #special interests #autistic #actually autistic #neurospicy #dayz #astrocartography #brazil #brazilian football #futebol #moving abroad #electric mopeds #public transportation #walkable cities

[misshollyslair]

New comic on my blog ! You can read the rest here :) https://tapas.io/series/Hollys-journal/info

#comic #denmark #moving abroad #slice of life #life journal

[wearecapable]

Sometimes studying abroad can be so isolating.

I want people who will love me. I want people who will text me to ask if I'm free to grab some coffee, or go on a walk. I want people who will ask about how I'm doing and expect a genuine answer. I want people who will hold my hand to make sure they won't lose me in a crowded street, and laugh at me when my glasses leave marks on the bridge of my nose after being worn all day.

I don't know if it's me, or them, or both, but God, I'm so alone.

#college #college life #moving abroad #student life #studyblr #education #college student #lonelly #craving love #touchstarved #love starved

[thereadersideofvee]

It's my last night in my home. Bags are packed. Everyone else is asleep. Naturally, I can't sleep. And because I cannot carry all my things with me, I am sat here going through it for the last time. Turns out, I have a Lot of diary entries from the last 4 years, most of which I do not remember writing. Reading the thoughts and experiences of the 19 year old me feels so weird!! Reading about the "conversations" I used to have with a certain "someone" who is no longer a part of my life (for the absolute good) is making me question all of my life choices. Reading about my failed attempts at becoming an extrovert is giving me a good laugh. Reading about my first day of college and the "speech" I had written about it after now being graduated feels so surreal! Thinking about how that 19 year old girl had so many hopes for these past four years. And how none of what she had hoped for and wished for turned out to be true. But also about the dreams he hadn't dreamed yet, but is now on her way to fulfill them! I do not know how to process so many emotions. I have cried about leaving my home a lot in the last few weeks. But on my last day here, I'm numb. When I want to cry, no tears fall. When I don't want to, they fall like it's their sole purpose of existence (which it is but you get what I mean). I cried in front of my mother. I'm about to cry now. I'm gonna be a mess at the airport tomorrow. I know I can't 'have it all' but sometimes I pray really, really hard that I could. I don't know how I'm gonna live without my family. I don't know how I'm gonna survive without my brother. I don't know if I'll be living my dream or if everything will come crashing down. I don't know if I'll be able to survive the cut throat competition and succeed or I'll end up regretting all my choices. All I know is I have to trick my mind into being strong, I have to give my absolute freaking best, I need to keep trying, I need to hold it together and just hope that I don't lose all that I have now in the process. (cue tears)

#farewell #leaving home #new beginnings #change is hard #study abroad #moving abroad #moving out #chasing dreams #out of my comfort zone #separation anxiety

[upat4amwiththemoon]

Putting away so many of your books is the biggest downside of moving abroad

#i love my books #i don’t want to put them away #but they’re so heavy #:( #books #book #reading #moving abroad

[barbara-herself]

It's been six months

It's been six months since we've moved to Sweden. The move itself felt like I was being birthed again - it was painful, and we struggled a lot, and money's always been a problem. You kept reassuring me that we'll be fine and that we'll make it. I was full of hope, crying tears of joy and grieving my past life. Elated and miserable, but mostly confused. Alright, I thought to myself, I'll adjust. I'll give myself time, and I'll start with my studies, and I'll get used to the new cities and new public transport and new brands of cheese.

I had sincerely hoped that it will become my home. That I'd meet new people and make them my friends, that we'll laugh and create memories of bad karaoke and hungover pizza leftovers in the morning. That I would be able to look you in the eyes and tell you "I'm happy here. I'm happier than I ever were" .

I had hoped that studying a subject I love would make me enjoy life more and more each day. That it would all make sense and I'd have and idea of where and what should I do while I'm alive. And you were - and you still are - so happy with grad school, and I'm so proud of you. However mean it is though, I'm jealous.

My heart is starving, craving for something I'm yet to understand. It's probably not something I'm studying for right now, which is really not helpful because I have a six hour exam in nine days that I'm barely prepared for. The rational thing to do is just try my best and focus on the studies, then graduate, then see what happens. But that's another year spent chasing the heights of mountains of a foreign planet. I cannot - for the life of me - focus on it enough.

I have been such an excellent, promising student, but now it feels distant, something I did to try to fit in, while simultaneously trying to be different and better than everyone else. I had to prove myself to my mother and most of all, to myself. Now I feel like my heart wants to move on and I am paralyzed with confusion.

It's been six months since we've moved to Sweden. You are happy here, you are fitting right in, your job is perfect for you and you love the new people you've met here. I have never felt so alone in my life. Even you became an alien to me, although your love used to make me feel like my home is where you are. I cannot stop crying, and I barely understand why.

I feel like a whiny brat, and I hate myself for it. I'm just a dramatic, egocentric little baby, living in a very nice country, receiving free education while living off of my partner's salary. Life couldn't be better?

#writing #writers on tumblr #writers and poets #words #sweden #moving abroad #isolation #spilled words #spilled thoughts

[liones-s]

02/11/22: today’s mood: somewhere between the old home and the new

#does any place ever feel like the only one? #it feels like the more I move around the more I spread out my heart #and now I’m not sure how to gather up the pieces #and put them into one single space #anyways #moving abroad #academia aesthetic #study abroad #fall #autumn #fall vibes #study motivation #studyblr

[rachelllbucks]

Passing through.

Light is barely coming through the louvers when I decide to cycle through the neighborhood.

As soon as I start my cruise, I notice the crowd of sparrows that are out, flying right alongside me. The cold air feels so refreshing on my face, I can’t help but tilt my head up and enjoy the sensation. The cold slightly stings my smiling face as I loop around the lake a few times. 

I don’t dare go through the house when I return, I feel like being alone. I want this tranquil morning all to myself. I tiptoe down the dock, take a seat and gently dangle my feet over the edge into the lake. For a while I stay still, watching little fish swim aimlessly around my feet and in and out of the neighboring seaweed. 

I find myself wishing to freeze this moment, I don’t want to pass through it. I’m surrounded by my sleepy family, the sound of waves hitting the break wall, and a lazy breeze. All things I’m so familiar with and attached to. I hear the front door open, the voices of the people I love most carrying over, summoning me to breakfast. 

I lift myself up from the dock while I silently acknowledge the feelings of love and grace that swell in my chest as I let the moment pass. 

[milalna]

Moving abroad

Moving abroad is such a big step and then again, it’s just the same as moving to another city.

Everyone is telling you how brave and wonderful it is and everyone romanticise moving to another country. And yes, sometimes, especially in the beginning it’s exactly that. Everything is new, no one knows you, your life is a blank canvas.

But than normalcy settles in, you get to know people, you find a routine. And you realise, that you won’t become a whole new person. You are still you, you won’t suddenly think or act differently from before. It’s the people who change, they are new and get to meet the current you, without being influenced by the you from two or five years ago.

And while you are there with all the new people, only with the new people, you will see your old friends from home, together, taking these new steps with people they already know, while also making new friends. It’s hard to watch sometimes, to be left out, to not be able to be there, when everyone else is meeting up, just because you are a little bit farther away from everything. Not far enough that every trip home is an event, but not close enough to spend money for that just because. Because everyone else is home. At home and in your new home and you are by yourself. And you will ask yourself over and over again, why you didn’t just move to the city, everyone moved to. Cause it would have been so much easier, so much better you think.

It’s hard to stay in contact with friends you don’t see regularly. And sometimes it’s hard with new friends. You don’t share the same experiences from school and childhood with your new friends and your new day to day life is different from the one your friends at home have.

And when everything gets to much and you just want to return home, you start romanticising your life again. Because it is necessary that you see the good things again, because even with a routine there is so much to see, because it isn’t romanticising, if you focus on the facts. Not every fact is bad, there are a lot of good facts.

Moving to another country was the best thing I could have done. It gave me a lot of perspective on my past and the distance from everyone I know to process it and start getting better. There are still times, many times, where it is hard, when bad memories from the past mix with difficulties from the present, when I am sad and alone and don’t have the energy to get out of bed to do something. Still, I don’t think I would have realised how bad it was, if I hadn’t gotten this space, this complete new experience, without the people who have expectations out of my every day life.

I am still afraid of failure, still afraid that I made the wrong decision, still afraid of the people I left behind and of what they are thinking about me, still afraid that I don’t fit in, still afraid of a hundred more things, but finally and slowly learning to leave the old fears behind and focus on the new ones. And I finally start liking myself again, even if it still feels wrong just to say that.

Rambling again and using to much “but” and “and” on the beginning of sentences.

x Mila

#moving abroad #studyabroad #new country #university #frienship #romanticisation #late night thoughts #late night ramblings

[aetherspoon]

A not-so-simple relocation, day 2/3

Last time, we arrived safely in "Bergen?" as the sign at the airport says, much to my eternal delight. It was a long trip, made longer by airport and airplane screwups. I had three friends in tow and my partner waiting for me at the apartment. The rest of the day was basically for rest.

Day 2 - Why does everything have to be uphill?

Day 2 started by me realizing... I had very little clean clothing. In fact, I had no clean underwear, no clean pants, and only dress shirts clean and actually present. While the baggage handler at the Bergen airport said it would arrive the same day I did... Oslo never got their shit together on a Sunday and I had to make do for an unknown amount of time.

This day was marked by reconnaissance. I needed to learn more about my new apartment to figure out what is needed, figure out the Bergen bus system, figure out the grocery stores, and so on.

The apartment itself is... weird, to me. One of my friends described it as the set to a cocaine druglord's apartment and... yeah, that matches. The view is breathtakingly gorgeous, the decor is super bright and white, and it seems to be missing a few things that don't really make a lot of sense.

Like a freezer.

Or a washing machine.

Or pillows (plural - it had one).

So, that means heading out of the house being super uncomfortable in my clothing, exhausted from the trip, and dealing with a recurring gout attack (along with other physical ailments that are a bit too gross to state). Four of us went - my partner, two of our friends, and myself, with the last friend staying behind with the cats.

A brief aside, at this point Zoan was still hiding in the master bedroom. Issun had started exploring.

Now, keep in mind - I had been exploring Google Maps around my apartment for a while. The apartment itself is very new, so most of the maps just show a hole in the ground where it is, with a couple of angles showing the buildings under construction. I had never been to the apartment and hadn't even been in this region of Bergen before. So all I really had to go on were photos of the area, which looked quite nice.

The apartment is about fifteen minutes by foot away from the closest bus stop, which happens to be right next to the two local grocery stores. A fifteen minute walk for me is pretty easy, even in my gout-addled state. I absent-minded pace for longer distances than that.

A fifteen minute walk where the entire walk is uphill for 52 meters / 170 feet? That's just a bit rougher. My legs were screaming at me at the 1/4th point, let alone for the rest of the walk. The object of this trip was to go to the mall a couple of bus stops away, buy some pillows and plug adapters*, get some lunch, come back, stop by the grocery store, then head home.

Did you see that asterisk? I had prepped for this well in advance - the price difference between buying a plug adapter in the US and buying one in Norway was huge, so I bought a large 12-pack of them to supplement the three I already had. Problem being, I think the movers packed it up for the slow boat shipment, so I had nothing.

Anyway, after a grueling 20 minute walk (because I kept needing to stop; how the hell people think walking uphill is anywhere near as easy as walking long distances, I haven't a clue), made it to the bus, head out for our shopping. We needed to make it back by the delivery window for @kriatyrr's delivery of some much needed supplies (such as more power cords).

Made it back to the apartment. We had to go out and back a second time for some food, which involved me whining the entire way of course, made it back... to find a courier dropping off all of my luggage. Everything arrived! HOORAY!

Kriatyrr's packages, however, didn't arrive during the delivery window. Turns out, they were stuck in Oslo due to delays on a Sunday. Remember that quote from earlier from the baggage handler, "Oslo needs to get their shit together on Sundays"?

Day 3 - Bus adventures

Day 3 is the first day that I specifically had something I had to do - I had a meeting with the Norwegian police. As an incoming immigrant to Norway, one of the requirements was a police interview. They want to meet you in person to take photos, fingerprints, and presumably ensure you're actually real. I had scheduled this a few weeks in advance, with the idea that I should be (mostly) on a normal sleep schedule by Day 3.

The interview location was in Fyllingsdalen, a separate borough from both downtown Bergen and the borough I live in. Technically it is one of the two in between, but due to geography I actually travel through Årstad to downtown Bergen (Bergen-hus) first before basically turning around, going back through Årstad and finally to Fyllingsdalen. This sounds way more complicated than it is; I'm already used to Madison buses where I had to circle my own neighborhood before I arrive at the closest stop to my house; this at least makes sense due to mountains being in the way.

I used the bus a bit the prior day, but this was my first real bus trip.

Transit side-note

Transit in Bergen is controlled primarily through a smartphone app. You buy the ticket on the app before you board and it is good for 90 minutes after. Buses are on the testing system; 99% of the time it is on the honor system with no one checking, 1% of the time they inspect for bus passes and give you large fines for skipping the pass. While I haven't seen anyone checking in Bergen so far, I have seen the same thing in Oslo during a visit.

Bus passes cost 40kr for a trip, 105kr for a day, 235kr for a week, 755kr for a month, and 3775kr for a half-year. In USD at the time of this posting, that's $3.60 / $9.44 / $21.13 / $67.90 / $339.48 for each of those passes. I budgeted assuming those half-year passes, but I haven't bothered with one yet. Once I'm more in the swing of things, I'll figure out how I want to handle bus passes. It also technically includes a parking pass (for those that park-and-ride), but since I don't drive that part is irrelevant to me. Bergen also has light rail (same bus pass system), but the area I live in isn't convenient to use the light rail for.

Buses come frequently by the bus stop next to the grocery store. That stop has seven bus routes stopping there, three routes going from the mall (mentioned the previous day) to the Bergen bus station. The result is that I have service roughly every 5-10 minutes during weekdays, 15 minutes on Saturdays, 30 minutes on Sundays (not that the latter matters... insert ominous foreshadowing here).

In my mind, anything going every fifteen minutes or sooner is, "just get to the bus". Anything 30 minutes or later is, "schedule your trip to make sure you don't miss the bus". It is a huge difference in mentalities, and I repeatedly lambasted Madison for depriving my old neighborhood of enough bus service to fulfill the former. If I missed a bus there, I'm an hour or two late, and taking a bus early means arriving an hour or two early. Whereas arriving at the previous bus here puts me around ten minutes earlier than expected.

Side-note over, back to the day

Anyway, our group decide on a trip that morning. Myself and my partner heading to Fyllingsdalen, two of our friends heading to Bergen-hus for some exploration, the last friend staying at home again. We'd all get off the bus at the same spot and split up from there - us to the bus transfer, them to wandering. Our stop in Fyllingsdalen was just a few stops down another bus route and would take a total of 45 minutes to get there (including the 15 minute walk uphill, which took me 23 minutes this time).

Kriatyrr and I arrived at the police station around ten minutes early... and left before the scheduled appointment time. Turns out, they really did just need to take a photo, get my fingerprints, and ask me for my address and signature. There was nothing else. After that, we spent time shopping for some housewares. I get a text from my friends mentioning that they were going to head back at this point. We decide to try to grab food (and failing - seriously, why do restaurants open so late around here, don't people eat lunch?) before heading back.

We arrived at the bus, took it down one stop, and saw our friends there, who had accidentally taken the wrong bus and just so happened to turn around and take our bus back. We made it back, rested, then head out to the mall again to buy more things. This time it was myself, the friend that kept staying at home, and the friend that kept heading out with me; Kriatyrr stayed home waiting on that package from the previous day.

This part was fairly uneventful except for one small thing. To explain that, I need to explain international banking. I'm absolutely going to put this in a video when I started recording these.

Credit Card side-note

You know how credit/debit card usage in the US requires you to occasionally sign a piece of paper, but otherwise seems super duper insecure? Yeah, the entire rest of the world thinks so as well. The chip located on a credit card is a part of a system used by EMV cards to increase security. The US migrated to it back in October of 2015, doing away with swipe-based transactions (more that the CC companies shifted fraud liability to any merchant using a swipe, and they're not going to want to deal with that).

In Europe? The same shift happened in 1993.

EMV cards are a part of a chip-and-PIN system; basically, you stick your chip into the terminal, put in a PIN, and that authorizes the transaction. It follows two-factor security, basically, as it contains something you have (the card with the chip) and something you know (your PIN) for authorization. In the US, debit cards use the same mechanism now at an ATM or a terminal supporting debit.

The US uses chip-and-signature for credit cards (as well as debit cards being used as a credit card). This is... definitely not two-factor. It combines something you have (the card with the chip) and... something no one bothers to even look at (the signature). That's one-factor, just like the strip. Europeans have been endlessly baffled when I mention this to them, and for good reason - this system is awful and useless.

Tapping to pay for things with your credit card effectively works the same way as the chip-and-signature system, only it works for values under a certain amount. Even Europe does that one, they just keep the limits super low so liability isn't really a big deal.

Unfortunately for us, this system follows us wherever we go. If you use a US credit card in Norway, for instance, sometimes the receipt will print out a slip that you have to sign. If the person at the register doesn't realize this, it'll look like a receipt and send you on your way... which is a problem, as that means you haven't technically paid for your goods.

Trouble in Clas Ohlson

Which leads me to my situation. I was at a shop called Clas Ohlson - a Swedish-based chain of general stores. For a comparison point to us Americans, I'd call it like a hybrid of Home Depot and Best Buy, but far smaller. You want to go to one store to buy food containers, socks, power cords, hand tools, a tablet PC, and a printer? Clas Ohlson to the rescue.

I had a bunch of things I was picking up, went through the store, tapped to pay my bill for a couple thousand kroner / couple hundred dollars, was handed the receipt, and walked out.

The person at the cash register looked down, realized that the register said the transaction was still waiting, and booked it to chase after me.

This one mistake took an hour to fix.

This is what life will be like for me for the foreseeable future, as not only can I not get a Norwegian credit card until two years after I have a Norwegian bank account, but I can't even get a Norwegian bank account at the moment until I receive my national ID (which was what the police started the process for).

Welcome to Norway!

Previous post:

#blog #personal #travel blog #moving abroad #oslo get your shit together on sundays

[trozito-de-pastel]

El cambio está lleno de miedo, incertidumbre… algunas veces es dulce, otras amargo pero siempre es necesario para crecer.

#escritura #cambiopositivo #moving abroad #writting #morning pages

[arcanesdiary]

Why does nobody talk about how the more number of times you return to your house, the more detached you get from it. It's only been a year since I've come back but I don't belong here anymore and I don't think I will ever belong anywhere else either. Because this was supposed to be my forever home. It was always supposed to feel like home. I feel like I have arrived to my own house in a different universe. Like it is my house because of the physicality of it but I don't think I grew up in this home.

#writers and poets #3 am feelings #3 am writing #deep feelings #international students #moving abroad #writerscommunity #poetry #writing #female writers #writers on tumblr #room #growing up #3 am mood #sad lonely hours #sad but true #original writing #i feel empty #feels weird #missing home #dark academism #dark academia #dark aesthetic #book quotes

[parisiscanada]

nobody : me and my homies using tumblr instead of other socials

#travel #whisper girl #autumn #chaotic academia #dark academia #downtown girl #manifesation #manifesting #studyabroad #new york #pinterest #moving abroad #rory gilmore #tumblr girls #gaming #trav

[confusedpetal]

ok so im finally financially stable, and i wanna move abroad but the biggest issue right now is WHERE TO? like would love europe but the language is a struggle (i speak spanish, english and im learning italian but im hating it).

so any suggestions?

#help a girl out pls #been thinking maybe australia or ireland? #idk #HELP #t #moving abroad #living abroad #abroad