First Visit to New Overseas Home
I’m looking forward with eagerness, and, I must admit, some trepidation, to visiting my possible new overseas home location for the first time. It’s one thing to read about a place in books, magazines, and online. It’s another to experience it firsthand. I know there’s the possibility that I could hate the place I want to love, or fall in love with a place I don’t know much about or even feel negatively about before I visit.
There are some things you can know. If you don’t like cool weather, you won’t be happy in the mountains, no matter how beautiful. If your idea of heaven is a small village, a city of millions won’t hit your hot buttons. If you’ll need to travel frequently after your move, choosing a place that’s eight hours away from the nearest airport over bad roads probably doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Reading other people’s accounts is a necessary first step. Once you’ve narrowed down your choices by relying on other people’s information, you have to go see, smell, hear and touch for yourself.
If you’ve already picked an overseas destination — or if you’ve narrowed your search to just a couple — I would love to hear about it. Send a short account of your first visit to the city or town abroad where you are now living or planning to move to info at futureexpats.com, or click the comment link below. What did you like about the location right off? What did you not like? What made you decide, yes, this is the place? What would you tell your best friend to convince him or her to move there, too? We’ll feature the most interesting accounts on the site, then let our readers vote and choose their favorite. We might even be able to come up with a prize for the winner!
So, limber up those typing fingers, and give it your best shot. And thanks for sharing!
Photo by Brian Gratwicke on Flickr