We have been chosen…

“We have been chosen, … by fate or providence or whatever you wish to call it. As far as we can tell, we are the best there is. We may be all there is. It’s an unnerving thought that we may be the living universe’s supreme achievement and its worst nightmare simultaneously.”

Bill Bryson

Preparing to travel…

“When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money.”

Susan Heller

The best of all worlds – about cherry picking…

One of the things I noticed with expatriates is that the more countries they have lived in, the more difficult it is for them to be truly satisfied with the conditions they find in their new destination. Why is that?

I guess it is a natural human behaviour. In general, people tend to forget the bad things and focus on the good things (who does not talk about “the good old times” which, when looking at them objectively, may not have been that great?).

I for example like the weather, the palmes, the food and the service you find in Mexico, the health insurance you find in Germany, the skiing opportunities you find in Austria, the international feeling of a true world city like London, the beautiful sunsets in Florida, Swedish design, the long sommer nights in Norway, just to name a few. Can the next country I/you might be moving to fulfil this substantial “wish list”? No, certainly not…

So…you start missing things…some even start complaining. But is that fair?

I don’t think so. Find the new things you love in the new city or country you are moving to, appreciate them. From time to time, make a list of the things you didn`t like in other countries (such as the missing Christmas tree in Mexico, the NHS in the UK, the long cold winter nights in Norway…put it into perspective and cherish how much all these different experiences (the good, bad and ugly…) have enriched your own personal life.

Reward and luxury of travel

“To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.”

Bill Bryson

Finding a new home…do your due diligence!

Once you have moved a couple of times, you think you know it all and have a kind of magic hand when organising things and can take shortcuts. But be careful…unless you have lived in the country before, you never really know what to expect, so always do your due diligence.

This is what I somewhat forgot the last time I moved. I thought that with all the information available on the internet these days and after having moved so often and even having visited my new destination for two days I could choose my new flat on the basis of some images in the internet rather than checking it out personally. Now, the images in the internet did not lie, the flat is indeed quite nice, so no big regrets. But…a flat does not just consist of what is inside, a lot depends on the surroundings of the flat as well, and it is really difficult to grasp the character of a borough/district via the internet, no matter how much you have read about it before. Would I have moved into this borough/district if I had known it more in detail from personal experience? May be…would I make a choice again via the internet…probably not.

If your financial situation allows it or your employer pays for it, in general I think the money spent for temporary accommodation is well spent and can save you money long term. Get to know the place first, then decide where you want to move permanently!

Credit history…the holy grail

I moved to London in 2004 and at that time wanted to buy a mobile phone. Not with a lenghty 2 year contract, no…a simply prepaid standard phone, and I wanted to pay cash. Can you imagine that they didn`t want to sell me one?

Reason one: They couldn`t find my address. I sweared that the flat I had moved in had already been built two years ago…but without the address being in the phone providers data base…bad luck, i.e. no phone.

Reason two: They checked me out and couldn`t find a credit history. “You can`t buy a phone here if you don`t have a three year credit history… What? How can you have a three year credit history if you just moved to the UK from abroad?

This is the first of many times where I learned that having a credit history (and ideally a good one) is one of the most important things if you want to be successful in the UK.

Now…what does a good credit history look like? Well…ideally a history where you are completely clean, i.e. you have no debt…or is that so?

No, just the contrary! Some of the best advice I can give you if you ever want to get a mortgage (who can do without in London?) is to go into debt early. Don`t pay cash for your car, take a loan. Don`t pay cash for buying some stuff, get a credit card…or better…get three or four credit cards and use them on a regular basis. Then, pay on time (this is very important) and pay back early from time to time. Repeat the process and show some activity on your accounts. This way you will have something to show.

See, my dearest Paul Potts to be phone guy, see, my dearest bank manager on the red phone…I go into debt and always meet my obligations…now you are a good man/woman. People will lend you more because they “know” you. How silly is that?

Well, I won`t change the rules, and you won`t change the rules…so better get used to them and use them to your advantage!

Leaving one`s little corner…

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

Mark Twain

Explore, Dream, Discover

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Mark Twain

Moving three times is like burnt down once…

Don`t get me wrong – in general I am an optimist and it is definitely not my intention to discourage you from moving abroad and living the expat life…but I have to say that I find this German proverb to be true.  Why? Because I have more than 30 years expat experience and have probably seen it all (and made most of the mistakes myself).

Here are just some of the reasons:

-          You have this nice kitchen that was made to measure just two years ago (before you knew you were moving abroad). It doesn`t really make a lot of sense to take it with you, as – already mentioned – it was made to measure… You try to sell it and – if you get it sold at all – feel deeply disappointed because the kitchen has depreciated by 80%.

-          You have that Ikea Pax monster wardrobe system where you keep all your clothes. You are still proud that you managed to build it, but guess what…if you dismantle it, it will never be the same…probably easier to buy a new one.

-          You come into the new house/flat and realise that exactly that cupboard which you gave away to your neighbours because they loved it so much is the one that would exactly fit into that nice little corner…

-          You have all these beautiful white goods such as washing machine, tumble dryer, refrigerator, microwave oven and full steam iron, but unfortunately the voltage is 220V instead of 110V (or vice versa) where you are going to live. Bad luck… There are people who try to make the 220V washing machine work at 110V, until some day it goes up in flames (again, just own experience…).

-          The shipping container where your beautiful household is in doesn`t make it through customs for weeks in a fairly humid port in Brazil and you find half of your stuff is “living” and making a contribution to the rainforests diversity of species. Option 2: the container falls from the crane and your bed has the form of a hockey stick

-          You move to London and the “massive” 800 square foot apartment you really love is furnished (as 95% of the other flats)…so you go and store your own stuff (and as if the rent for the flat was not high enough, you pay over the odds for storing)

-          You move to a Latin American country where your house is really massive (and of course unfurnished) and you start buying stuff in order for it not to look so deserted.

-          You go to these beautiful little artisan markets abroad where you just can`t resist buying another cupboard, another carpet, some more tableware, which all seem a bargain to you anyway.

-          You come back to your home country and have to realise that nothing of all this will ever fit into your end of terrace house…again you give away half of your stuff.

Let`s stop here…I guess you got the point. So whatever you do, think twice before you take all your furniture with you and consider carefully what you need to buy and what not. Less can be more. This tip alone can save you a fortune!

Where is home?

Sometimes I`m being asked where I feel at home. The easy answer is: Where I live. But is this really true? Does it really feel that way? There are good and logical reasons for providing such an answer, and usually people asking the question are quite satisfied with this point of view, especially local people who regularly acknowlege one’s effort to show how much you love living in their country. But is this really the full answer? For those who have never lived abroad, probably yes. For those who have moved a couple of times, probably not. Why?

Feeling at home involves so much more than having a place to live. Feeling at home involves the family, the family roots, old friends, memories of your childhood, the scenery you grew up in and the special sense of humour of the people that surrounded you, the language, religion, culture, just to name a few.

Do you have all this where you live as an Expat? Probably not. Then again, if you tell people that you are a true cosmopolitan who feels home at more than one place or even everywhere, people may tend to think that you are arrogant and lost touch with reality. You do not really fit anymore into “their” world.

But let’s face it. You probably feel at home where you where born and your family roots are, but also wherever you have lived, i.e. where you first learned to ride a bike, where you first went to school, where you had your first kiss, where you married, where your kids where born…and so on. It is all part of your life and your individual journey, and whereever significant things happened to you, you will feel a special connection to that place and feel a little bit at home.

Would you agree?