Five things that will change your life forever when you live abroad

To move abroad permanently and leave our country is a challenge that will change your life. As time passes we will discover a new country: unfamiliar open spaces, horizons, infrastructures, a different community, a new culture, and other customs and ways of thinking which will gradually transform us.
As time passes we will discover things about ourselves that we were unaware of much to our surprise. We will learn to broaden our horizons that was once limited to our country. We will thus have to undo what we know (without forgetting our heritage) and endeavour to understand the new environment. To do so we need to clothe ourselves with humility. If we do move abroad there will be many factors that will change our life.
Today I want to list 5 things that will radically change us once we have emigrated.

1. A Continuous Emotion
When we decide to live abroad we will experience a constant rush of adrenaline because there will always be something new that we will have to try and comprehend, not to speak of unforeseen occurrences. Our senses will be sharpened and the old home routine will be something of the past. Our new challenges will be getting to know unfamiliar places, different habits and other people that will entertain our curiosity.

2. What Language Will We Speak?
To learn a new language fluently in order to communicate with those around us is not an easy task. It happens that while learning a new language we may find the appropriate word to use but inadvertently it comes out in our mother tongue! The more we have an interchange with the local population and practice the new language day after day we will eventually begin to speak it fluently and when grasping for words in our mother tongue means that we have mastered it.

3. Ready to Ask Help
When living abroad even simple tasks can be challenging such as from filling in a document to catching the right bus. So asking help will not only be inevitable but also good for our spirit and sense of community with the locals.

4. What Does Normal Mean?
Normality has a different connotation in a foreign country. What is normal for us could be abnormal for them! If we really want to be part of the local community we will have to understand their point of view, assimilate and accept their customs, possibly embracing them and making them our own.

5. Bite Your Tongue
There is nothing more annoying for an immigrant to talk continuously of ones country expounding it’s greatness. We must be careful and bite our tongue so as not to keep on talking about the beauty and benefits of our country because involuntarily we could demean the country that hosts us. Although some anecdotes may be funny but to show off can be boring and disrespectful towards the local population.

These 5 points, but not only, will change our lives abroad. To leave ones home country and settle elsewhere is not an easy decision to make, but doing so has many positive aspects. To act sensibly, by calculating the cost, will place us in a positive frame of mind to start living a new life in the best possible way.