I recently moved from a small town in Italy to Vienna, Austria (not Vienna, USA).
It was a compound of big life changes for me and my girlfriend.
As a life enjoyer, I always wanted to live in a capital. They smell different than other cities (together with a bunch of non-capital cities). Vienna seems a good compromise for moving abroad.
The first months of our experience were full of fun activities:
- search for an apartment dealing with people’s summer holidays
- setup bank account
- decide if asking the bank for money for buying furniture, as here the apartments come unfurnished
- setup new electricity provider
- setup water and heating provider
- setup household insurance (mostly delegated)
- understand how to commute
- know and explore the city
Luckily my new company supported the process.
Some lessons learned: you will not be able to follow closely every single thing, especially when there is a language gap. Things will go well. It is possible to delay an email for 2 days with nobody complaining about it. My mother did many things for me silently and I didn't even realize it. Shelves and wardrobes are fundamental. Stuff needs to be hidden to have a feeling of tidiness and order. I need financial planning to feel relaxed. Corollary: it's probably smart to do financial planning.
With all this, comes the good part. Moving out from the nest comes with a big chunk of freedom and I'm still processing this. I can do anything I want and nobody is going to complain. With this, I am giving even more value to time. I feel on my shoulders all the wasted time I spend. Note: It doesn't mean that I don't waste time, I'm just more aware of it. I am in a complete new place and I can see it, smell it, avoid it, make it a routine. It's all in my hands and it's amazing.