Travelling is a blast, as you get to enjoy the best aspects of your destination usually without the day-to-day grievances all the locals need to confront. Living abroad, however, means you need to get with the swing of things and figure out how to function as a local. Fun!
There is a lot to do when you land in your new home, but let’s look at some critical things you should tackle first to get settled.
telephone
You likely brought your phone with you to your new country. Hopefully you bought a SIM card already or have a killer cell phone plan allowing you to continue using your phone without incurring mega fees. We did not. Instead, we booked it to a local phone provider (Wind Tre) and bought two new SIMs so we could obtain Italian phone numbers and phone plans. Canada is the one of the most expensive places on the planet to have a cell phone. Ugh. Europe, however, is not. Woot! For less than $15 you can get a plan with an insane amount of data you will never be able to use, unlimited minutes and a large sum of minutes to call your home country. Even if you have a great phone plan, I’d recommend you get a local number. In Italy, an Italian number seems to be critical for some services like home delivery, so while a local number isn’t a must have, it’s certainly a nice to have. Don’t want to lose your home number? You can look into a dual SIM situation or port your number to a VOIP account (I used voip.ms) so you pay a minimal fee and still get SMS texts, calls and voicemails from your old number. You can also still connect with friends using your old number through What’s App, so you won’t miss a beat on the latest hot goss from home.
Immigration
If you are in the new country on a visa, chances are you need to register with the local authorities or immigration office. You may even need to apply for a residency permit of some sort. In Italy, you have 8 days to register your presence with local authorities. Seriously. We definitely have not done this on previous trips to Italy. Oops. On this occasion, we had to apply within the first 8 days for a residency permit as Canadian tourist visas only allow for a 90 day stay, so we required a longer-term visa in advance of our travels and then a residency permit (stay tuned for more on this bureaucratically blissful process later). This is a mission critical step, so figure it out as soon as possible. You may even have a local office who can help you out. For example, in Italy, there are regional CAFs — offices to assist with social services like unemployment, maternity leave, taxes, etc, which may also help you complete the convoluted immigration forms.
Bills Bills bills
Nobody likes to pay bills, but we all love electricity, right? And heating and gas, not too shabby too. Oh and water is nice. If you have a landlord, you may pay these bills through them, or you may have to register for your own account. Figure this out stat. Once you have registered with the various services, you’ll need to know how to pay your bill. If you’re lucky, automatic debit is possible. Otherwise, you may need to determine if you can pay online or if you are obligated to stand in a line-up monthly to register a payment. Italians pay bills online, through the post office and at the tabaccheria.
food acquisition
Groceries are great! We all like to eat and most of us can’t afford to dine out every single night. Once you know where to acquire said groceries and when those places are open to accept your money, you are golden. Don’t forget to look out or ask about local markets, fishmongers, butchers, bakeries or fruit and vegetable stands, that can save you a ton of cash. In our town and nearby towns, not only do they have weekly markets where fresh produce, fish, meat, bread, bulk food, etc is sold (and quite inexpensive) but super helpful dudes drive trucks around town announcing what they have to sell. Like the ice cream truck from your youth except instead of you bounding down the street with a dollar for a Fudgesicle or Rocket popsicle (you know the ones with the three colours), you are running to catch the vendor to buy a head of lettuce, six eggs and some vine-ripe tomatoes. Neat.
movin' around
Do you have a vehicle? Awesome-sauce. I’m jealous. Learn the critical road signs, pay attention to speed limits and hopefully you obtained an international driver’s permit before you left. If you are sans car and on foot, you need to figure out how to navigate your city or town (local buses, a subway or ride-sharing options), where to rent bicycles or scooters (if that’s your jam), and how to get to other cities or towns (inter-city buses, trains, private shuttles or ride sharing). Amazing apps exist now like Rome2Rio (the best way to get anywhere) and Moovit (local transportation) to give you a starting point.
figure out those waste bins
Blurg, this one is less fun, but you are truly crushing it when you master the garbage, recycling, organic waste disposal system. Are there specific days for specific items? Do you need a certain kind of bin or bag? Do you need to purchase tags? Does it all just go out in one big heap (eek, I hope not)? The first time I started my day by announcing “Martedì: la giornata de carta” (“Tuesday: the day for paper”), I felt like I finally figured out this Italian life. I also felt like a nerd.
language
Maybe not mission critical for your first few weeks, but if you are settling somewhere where you do not speak the language, it will be essential for you to communicate on a basic level at restaurants and shops to get what you need. You’ll want to memorize a few key words to express yourself, plus emergency terms like “police”, “fire”, “hospital”, “doctor” for those unexpected issues. After those basics, my advice is to learn the basics of the language structure and local expressions, so when you hear them you can understand what’s going on and, eventually, reply appropriately. Take a course online, watch YouTube videos, borrow language tapes from the library, just try your best. Locals in most places (most, I’m looking at you France) will appreciate you attempting to speak the local language and will try to assist you. A great tactic is to learn to say “How do you say …?” in your local dialect. In Italian, this is “Como si dice…?” and then point to the item you want. You’ll get the word in return you can remember for next time. Complete grasp of a language takes a lot of time and practise, so don’t beat yourself up if after a few months, you can still only order food and ask to buy a loaf of bread ー you’ll get better!