Living overseas

Sweden - my dear old home

I’m reading a book at the moment called Beijing Tai Tai. It’s by one of our truly lovely authors Tania McCartney. In it she tells the tale of how her family were uprooted from their quiet life in suburban Canberra to the fast paced, smog choked, millions of people filled city that is Beijing, China. They had to go and they had to go for four years. The book is full of tales about their life in China; the food they ate, how they lived, how different Chinese people are to us, the nightmare trips to hair salons, the markets, temples and strange (not to mention some very disgusting) Chinese traditions.

Reading Beijing Tai Tai made me reminisce about my own experience of living in another culture. There’s nothing quite like packing up and moving overseas to a foreign country to make you realise just how different your quaint little life in Australia is compared to the rest of the world.

I was 20 and eager to see a piece of the world so I moved to Sweden. By myself. I’d never been on a plane, ever. It took me 30 hours and three flights to get there but I got there. And when I finally arrived I suddenly found myself alone and terrified. I thought to myself "What was I thinking!".

But the next 6 months were the time of my life. I met and made friends with people from all over the world. I was immersed in a culture extremely different to my own and a language I couldn't understand (bar a few words). I grew to love the food, the shopping, the nights out, riding my bicycle everywhere, catching the tram, the snow, the cold, living in an apartment by myself, the lack of any sort of bugs/insects.

Sweden was the best time of my life. I didn’t want to come home and when I finally did it was like nothing had changed – and really it hadn’t. I came home to my same room and my same friends. It was like I just took off from where I left. Of course I was changed - you don’t fly half way around the world by yourself and not grow in someway. I came back and could truly appreciate my home and our laid back Aussie lifestyle.

Now, I’m 23 1/2 (to be precise) and I look back on that time in Sweden as a fond distant memory still not quite believing that I actually did it. But I'm glad and proud that I had the guts at such a young age. I think if your faced with an opportunity TAKE IT, don’t let fear hold you back. As Tania says: home will always be there.

When I returned home I had had enough of travelling for awhile. I was sick of packing, I was sick of lugging a heavy suitcase around, I was sick of the stress of planning and organising where to go and what to do, I was sick of hanging around airports for hours. But now after reading Beijing Tai Tai and how Tania became emersed in the culture of China I'm craving that feeling of living in a foreign country again. But where would I go? I’d love to live in Oslo, Norway but how would I go for work? The UK? Everyone goes there. Switzerland? Hmm…