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luckykaaI saw this comic today. It resonated. Even as a guy, I often get the impression that everyone - especially the older generation - thinks you're going to be robbed and murdered as soon as you set foot in another country. Moving to another country is a scary prospect at first. Once you get there, it's not that different.
Essentially the biggest problems are pretty mundane. You need to get there - planes limit your luggage capacity. Cars take a long time and need to be kept somewhere. Trains are somewhere in between. You need to find somewhere to live - and this isn't an overnight process unless you're extremely easy going about where you live. So you need to find somewhere to live while looking for somewhere to live. Then there's bureaucracy. Health insurance, registering with the tax system, registering an address, emission sticker for my car. It all takes time, and it's really hard to know exactly what you need to do.
The language barrier is less of a problem than you might expect, at least in a city. English speakers are always easy to find. Seriously - we get everywhere. The French "a l'epicerie" roleplay we all did turns out to be useless since we just go to the supermarket. What's more useful to know is that I can't use my Mastercard in a German supermarket, everywhere is closed on Sundays, most cafes in Europe have table service rather than a bar and how much should you tip (I still haven't quite grasped tipping etiquette in Germany).
I haven't the faintest idea how ex-pats managed a social life before the internet. These days there's meetup.com, Couchsurfing (Not just about a free bed; there's a very good events section), Internations, and usually an expat forum or two. You will meet people at these things from a lot of countries. Ex-pats flock together. Nice thing is that this means we usually have something in common.
A few years ago I'd barely even travelled outside England on a holiday and certainly never alone. Turns out it's not as scary as you might think.
Essentially the biggest problems are pretty mundane. You need to get there - planes limit your luggage capacity. Cars take a long time and need to be kept somewhere. Trains are somewhere in between. You need to find somewhere to live - and this isn't an overnight process unless you're extremely easy going about where you live. So you need to find somewhere to live while looking for somewhere to live. Then there's bureaucracy. Health insurance, registering with the tax system, registering an address, emission sticker for my car. It all takes time, and it's really hard to know exactly what you need to do.
The language barrier is less of a problem than you might expect, at least in a city. English speakers are always easy to find. Seriously - we get everywhere. The French "a l'epicerie" roleplay we all did turns out to be useless since we just go to the supermarket. What's more useful to know is that I can't use my Mastercard in a German supermarket, everywhere is closed on Sundays, most cafes in Europe have table service rather than a bar and how much should you tip (I still haven't quite grasped tipping etiquette in Germany).
I haven't the faintest idea how ex-pats managed a social life before the internet. These days there's meetup.com, Couchsurfing (Not just about a free bed; there's a very good events section), Internations, and usually an expat forum or two. You will meet people at these things from a lot of countries. Ex-pats flock together. Nice thing is that this means we usually have something in common.
A few years ago I'd barely even travelled outside England on a holiday and certainly never alone. Turns out it's not as scary as you might think.
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Date: 2014-06-02 01:36 pm (UTC)I always go with 10 percent of the total, but no less than 1€. For places I frequent (like Morgenland), I never tip less than 2.50€ because I know that these people will recognise me next time.