Re-locating.

It helps to know someone in the city you are re-locating to. You need to find a temporary place to live while you look for more permanent lodging that is cheap and liveable for the duration you plan on. People usually are friendly and will help a stranger no matter where you go in the world provided you know the language. Avoid certain areas which by sight you could easily identify such as rundown areas. In America don't dress up like you're going to the movies. Dress down like a student so muggers know you ain't got no money, see ?

Have easily reversible cash such as Travellers cheques if your pound notes are not accepted. You would need to go to a bank to change the currency. Read as much as you can about the area or country you are moving to. Find out where English expatriates, Canadians, Anzacs hang out to give you some comfort. They could be of great help. You need a have a bundle of cash for unforseeable events as you are moving to a strange city and you might not be so efficient in going to where you want to nor getting what you want. Get a good rest so you can think clearly. A tired body doesn't really help in making good decisions.

The main challenges for me were the small things. I knew living in another country was goingto be different than in my own, but it was small differences rather than the big ones that suprised me.
The way I should not move my hands, the way people hold knife and fork, the way they eat. How to serve wine and when to drink it. When to say thank you and not say thank you.
I have gone both alone and with my husband.
I have enjoyed many aspects by living in a new country, learning language, teaaching language, meeting new people, making friends, getting to know another country and learn about how other people think and live.
You get to know yourself in another way than if you live in your own country.
You sometimes don´t agree at all with how people in your new country see certain things and then when you discuss it with your cuntrymen you realize they see things just like you do and it is so different from what the people in your host country see things.
You want to be polite and sometimes it is rather difficult when people who never have been to your country or just for a short vacation tells you all kind of things about your country which are wrong or just mistunderstood, because they don´t know enough. I sometimes just feel like screaming but all I do is more or less listen and give up.
Of course it was worth while.
One problem is when you return to your own country you are kind of a foreigner in your own country and own language.

I've never lived out of the USA. I've moved around though and far from home at that.

I'd agree that knowing someone where you're moving is a huge help.

A
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Best is to ask any friend who has been to that place and where to find a temporary place to live. If all else fails try the YMCA or YWCA. Then look for backpack hostels if you are back packing. Travel agencies could help you there with backpack hostel listings. Next is go to the library and get a DVD or travel book and check for information. Write down the important information and keep it with you when you are moving. You need maps, telephone numbers, addresses and location of banks, hotels, restaurants, shopping malls or department stores, grocery stores and such. If you are a stranger it is best to go to a popular place for eats and meeting people. Having a cellphone really helps. Know a popular hotel so if ever you get lost get a taxi and tell him/her to take you there and from there you could navigate back to your temporary residence.

Keep quit for a while. assimilate. Let things develope naturally. Nuture your private surroundings.

I was born and raised in California. Never lived anyplace else. I have many friends there but no longer any family so I wanted to move on and start new. Took me a while to figure out where I wanted to live, had to be a warm place and near the water. I had been to Florida several times, mostly Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Key West. Never the Tampa Bay area.

Well I was selling my condo in CA and I had been looking online for homes in the Tampa Bay area. I flew out for two weeks and loved the afternoon thundershowers, and the area.

Within those two weeks I found a cute little house and bought it. Asked for a 30-day escrow. Flew back to CA quit my job and started packing. I didn’t have the dogs at that time just the two cats and two tortoises. At first I was going to have my car shipped back and have the animals flown but I was worried about the cats since they were not in the best of health. So I decided to drive back. Bought the Murano, the back seat goes down so I had a cat cage put in the back and the tortoises were in a large plastic tub. I had to take the cats to the vet to get kitty Valium for the drive.

Bekins picked up my furniture and I left the next day. It was an adventure driving across the country by myself. I took my time because the furniture wouldn't arrive for 12 to 14 days. I stopped in quite a few hotels, hauling in the animals every night. When I arrived I had to stay at the same bed and breakfast place I first stayed at because I was still waiting for my furniture.

The only person I knew here was my real estate agent that I became friends with. It didn’t take me much time before meeting people; through others I met at social functions, fundraiser, pool and garden parties.

It was a big move for me, I came herebasically not knowing anyone and now I have many friends, met the love of my life and we have a wonderful five year old son we are raising together.

Is this a rhetorical question, PQ, or will you be moving soon?

(she asked in May 2010 - I think she's lived in Hong Kong since then and gone back to England)

Duh!

Once again, I forgot to look at the date stamp.

hehehe I did too, she's probably settled in by now

Ha. Yes I moved to Hong Kong, but I got bored (largely because of my job) so I saved a bit and went to china india and the middle east and then moved back to London. I live in Cambridge now though. Definitely a good thing to do, I feel like I know 100% what I'm doing with my life now. I'd like to live in Berlin or New York for a little while, but maybe not for a couple of years.