When I decided to move to London, I did so with the faith that I was walking down a fairly well-trodden path. Many aspects of England's capital make it the perfect place for first-time expats (although this was to be my second stint, as I'd previously lived in Qatar).
Looking back on my two years in the city, there are a few things I wish I'd done a bit differently, as they would have made my transition to the UK all the smoother. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, sometimes. Here are some travel mistakes I made when I moved to the UK.
Table of Contents
- My Mistakes
- 1. I didn't research all the red tape.
- 2. I didn't consider how much the exchange rate would hurt my savings.
- 3. I traveled too much in the first year.
- 4. I didn't consider living anywhere other than London.
- 5. I didn't make enough effort to find friends outside of work.
- 6. I treated it like too much of a home.
My Mistakes
1. I didn't research all the red tape.
It's far easier to settle in my home country of Australia than in the UK. I know this because I'm watching my boyfriend organize himself in Oz.
The other day, he entered the bank with only his passport and walked out with an account. That same process took me around three weeks in England. I got stuck in a vicious cycle of having to prove where I lived without any means of obtaining proof of address!
British bureaucracy is challenging to navigate. I never quite anticipated just how frustrating it could be. Through several cases of trial and error, I finally organized everything.
I just wish I'd done some solid research online in advance so I knew what to expect when I first arrived in London. Hitting the ground running would have been much nicer than struggling through.
2. I didn't consider how much the exchange rate would hurt my savings.
There's no real figure for how much you need to move overseas. Some people I know have moved over with thousands of dollars in the bank, while others have lived on the scent of an oily rag.
I moved over with enough money to support myself for around four months in Sydney if I were particularly frugal with my money. Unfortunately, I hadn't accounted for the pound's strength against the Aussie dollar, nor had I compared the cost of living in London to Sydney (both upsettingly expensive, but in different ways).
It then took me around six weeks to find a job and another six weeks to get paid (hooray for monthly pay!). I had around $50 left in my savings when my British bank account had its first top-up. I was so happy that day that I almost wept.
3. I traveled too much in the first year.
I know, cry me a river, right? Yet, when the going got tough in the UK, the appeal of hopping on a plane/train or into an automobile and running away to Europe was far too hard to resist.
Half of it was due to the appeal of living so close to Europe, after spending most of my life stuck in the middle of nowhere. I could go to France for the weekend! Jet over the pond to New York! Make as many trips as I desire to Iceland! Oh, the novelty wouldn't wear off.
Yet, between traveling and working to fund said travels, I completely burned myself out. Whoops.
4. I didn't consider living anywhere other than London.
I am wild about London, but found it hard to love the place. It's a great city to spend time in, and although I enjoyed living there, there were many moments when I wondered if it genuinely was where I wanted to make home.
On the other hand, there are plenty of other places around the UK that I dug—Brighton, Bristol, and Edinburgh, to name a few.
As a fan of smaller cities, particularly ones with an easily accessible gateway to nearby nature, I sometimes wonder if I would've felt more comfortable living elsewhere than in London. Yet when moving there, it was an option that didn't cross my mind.
5. I didn't make enough effort to find friends outside of work.
Expat life can be pretty lonely, so it's imperative to put effort into making new friends from the start. I was lucky to know a few people living in London when I first moved there.
People came and went, and after a while, my core group of friends mainly consisted of people I worked with. Although they were a fantastic group of people, we were all rostered on shifts, which made socializing outside of work near impossible.
No joke—a group of us tried to organize a book club earlier this year. It took us four months to successfully schedule a date when we could all meet.
I wish I'd worked harder to find friends outside of work earlier. Here are some of the ways I would have gone about doing so.
6. I treated it like too much of a home.
Once again, this sounds like a bit of a non-issue, yes? London eventually started feeling a lot like home, which was not necessarily a bad thing.
Around this time, it became less imperative to explore the city at every opportunity. Some days were just better off spent sitting around in my pajamas, and not visiting the Kew Gardens or the National Portrait Gallery (these were both things I wanted to do, but somehow never managed to never get around to, boo). Oh well. Just gives me more to see when I go back to visit!
