5 Expat Tips to Make You Feel More at Home

Expats are in one of the most challenging situations, especially on the back of the pandemic.

Before the COVID wave at all, they were already having a hard enough time with the cultural shock and alienation that sometimes come with relocating to a new location.

If they happen to be working in countries deemed enemies of the internet, they might even lose access to contacting those they left back home.

Even if not in any such countries, geo-blocking and restrictions could still take a toll on them.

We feel your plight – so we have developed this guide to help you feel better at home.

Create New Routines

Everyone has a routine that they have settled into where they were coming from. You might not know this till you are made to break out of such routines.

One of the best ways to blend in faster is to create new routines according to the environment that you find yourself in.

Retain what elements of your old routine are possible and find viable alternatives for the others.

Keep in touch with family and friends

Familiar faces and voices will make you feel less lonely. Even though you haven’t started making new friends where you are, staying in touch with your loved ones doesn’t make you feel alone either.

Enjoy your usual content

We have discovered that most expats lose access to the content that they love when they travel.

It could be a sports tournament that airs in their country, Netflix content that used to be available where they were from, or some social media app that they can’t seem to get into anymore.

Fortunately, you can use a VPN to access the content you want, no matter where you are in the world.

Find a reliable VPN provider with server locations in the region where you used to access your preferred content, and connect to that server. You’re back to viewing your preferred content in no time.

Find Familiar Faces

While the aim is to make new friends and connections, you might witness cultural shocks that whip you off your balance.

Thus, always find familiar faces and make connections with them too.

At least, if a social experience doesn’t go as well as you would have wanted, you have these familiar people as a blanket to fall back on.

Enjoy the Culture

It would be downright poor to go to a new place and come back without knowing anything about the culture.

Explore with tourism parties, celebrate certain festivals, and respect local holidays – while also inquiring the reason behind such.

That could set you up on a series of adventures that make your time there really worth it.

The coronavirus lockdown still active in some places might prevent you from fully exploring for now, but things will ease up soon.

Go with the suggestions that work best for you right now and you’ll have a better social experience for it.