I guess many of you have already dreamed of living in a foreign country and since I am not different from anybody else, I’ve also had this idea in my mind. I always wanted to have the experience to live abroad. As a matter of fact, I had the chance as a teenager to live in the States, in San Francisco, as an exchange student. It was a wonderful and exciting experience apart from the kilos I’ve gained (lost them afterward!). But what I really wanted was to actually live and work abroad not as a student but as a citizen.
I don’t know about you but I’ve always thought that my ordinary problems, worries, and my stressful life would simply fade away if I went to another country. Big mistake! You just change problems. At this point of my story, you might have figured out that I don’t intend to extol the glories of quitting your country but to make you aware of the pros and cons so that you can make up your mind consciously.
In December 2002, I reached the glorious moment of coming to live in France. At first, I was supposed to come in order to have my Ph.D. in marketing with all my family support including my ex-husband. I said “ex,” that’s right. I don’t want you to get involved in my personal life but the fact is that after a year in France I got divorced. And to end up this part pretty fast, I found myself completely alone in the middle of a bunch of French people without being able to make myself understood .The reason for that is that during that first year here, I spent 50 percent of my time in front of a computer at the university making research and the second half at home cleaning up the mess the others had made during the day. As a result, no contact with French apart from “bonjour “and “ça va.”
There comes my first lesson: If you intend to live in another country, learn the language as much as you can before coming!
