I have just moved home from London to New Zealand, and it’s pretty awesome being reminded how lucky I am to have a place where a) I know so many people and b) life is so easy. I don’t have to think about anything and everything works just as I expect it to. Plus, my mum is super excited to have me over for dinner every Sunday night.

This is the polar opposite of when I moved to London, when all I wanted was to figure out how to get out of the house and meet new people. Someone in London even said to me… “When you’re over 30, it’s ten times harder to make new friends”. Talk about a disappointment! That one comment made it seem so much harder to break through invisible “friend” barriers… especially until I got up the courage to join new groups and make new friends (about six months in).

So that got me thinking – as expats, what got you stuck in a rut moving to a new country? Was it making new friends, culture shock, language barriers? And what was the one thing you wanted more than anything when you moved? My number one thing – someone to tell me to change my mind set, and just do it.

Is this a shared issue we have all faced? What got you stuck?

 

So here is a question, and one which I have struggled with myself.... meet-up groups are great, but.... what if a) you don't want to meet with expats, you want to get involved with the locals or b) you are so shy / nervous about meeting people for the first time, you can't even get the courage to go to a meet-up.

It's a true story - I'm interested to know if others have had these issues, and how they addressed them. What drove you to make a change?