Expanding your geography

As you can imagine, changing countries means you'll have to not only learn the geography of the place you moved to, but also make your own personal geography. Confused? I'll explain.

First of all it means you need to learn your geographical surroundings in the literal sense; you need to discover how far point A is from point B and how to get there. And it takes time, a sense of adventure and you need to be very, very humble about the whole thing - I mean, you just moved somewhere new, give yourself time to adjust and learn to move about. I've been living in the outskirts of Birmingham for over two years and I still surprise myself when I discover new ways to reach my destination from a different start point. For the longest time I walked absurd distances because I had no idea where to make a shortcut, so I went about it in a very roundabout way (and I suspect I sometimes still do), almost going around the city for ages when I could've just gone across it, only I didn't know how. And then once you feel like exploring and don't mind getting lost the almost inevitable - and quite wondrous - thought pops into your head "Oh, so this is where this road leads! That's much more convenient than what I've been doing!". I live for those moments.

Then there's your personal geography. That comes with time and there's no cheating it. Basically it means making the city your own. And before you know it you have places that start to feel yours. The place where you cut your hair. The supermarket where you do your shopping every Sunday. The sushi place that has the best vegetable yakisoba. The coffee shop where you waited for an important interview. Your bank branch. The place where you buy your board games every other week (maybe that's just me...). The sandwich shop where they already know your order (if you're like me and always sticks to the same item on the menu then I'm sure you can relate). You get the point. The city stops being a somewhat abstract place where things happen and slowly becomes your home. The place where your life happens. And that's an amazing feeling. Especially if you're the kind of person that cherishes roots. Feeling home when you're abroad takes a heck of a long time, but it's the best feeling ever. Not only because of the obvious fact that it's home, but more importantly because you made it so. You persevered. Congratulations - you are nothing short of a rock star.