Have you ever considered moving abroad for an extended amount of time. Maybe a working holiday to see more of the world? Or perhaps a new start in a foreign country altogether?
I imagine most would at some point and seeing the world should be compulsory. There is so much to see and experience and in reality, very little preventing you from doing so.
You don’t choose the day you enter the world and you don’t chose the day you leave. It’s what you do in between that makes all the difference.
Firstly, you must realise that the stars will never align so that a seamless relocation takes place. Waiting for the perfect time is merely a form of procrastination and your dream will never come to fruition.
You will have to sell cars, clothes & kitchenwares, maybe even property. And it isn’t fun or pretty selling your personal items to bargain hunters. At times we wanted to strangle people.
We sold our treasured alcohol collection for about half of its value. We listed our investment in a block of land below market value and sold cars well below their realisable value. Given that we made this decision ten weeks in advance is partially responsible.
We packed our lives into our suitcases and three boxes of shipping. For anyone interested, we chose to use Sevenseas Worldwide shipping. They offered the best value by a long way and were able to provide assistance at each step along the way. [We will update this article when we receive our stuff, approximately three months to ship from Australia to Germany, via the UK.]
And possibly even more importantly, not everyone will be happy with your decision. Some of my family were disappointed they may not see me for extended periods of time.
Nadine’s employer was none too thrilled about her leaving her engineering job, telling us to ‘have a nice life’.
But a few weeks of stress is rewarding when all the goodbyes have been said and you arrive at the airport. We have been in Germany for six weeks now and couldn’t be happier with our decision. Our first European holiday to the UK has already been and gone and the cheap airfares and small flying times are perfect.
Learning German isn’t too difficult, especially when you are surrounded by it every day.
Settling in is easier and everyone has been very accommodating. I even signed up with a new football club and have met a great bunch of people.