Boldy going where a lot of people have never left

[Boomstick]

Wondering if anyone has ever packed their bags and moved to a different country?
How was the experience for you?

I've recently (as in within a month) moved from England to Italy on a whim and it's a pretty weird experience. Not being able to verbally communicate effectively is really strange, and obviously finding work is hard. With modern technology it's pretty easy to chat to friends back home, but that doesn't seem like a great habit.
I'm not complaining though, it's all very exciting.

Has anyone else ever just got up and gone?

 

[Agony_Boothb]

Wondering if anyone has ever packed their bags and moved to a different country?
How was the experience for you?

I've recently (as in within a month) moved from England to Italy on a whim and it's a pretty weird experience. Not being able to verbally communicate effectively is really strange, and obviously finding work is hard. With modern technology it's pretty easy to chat to friends back home, but that doesn't seem like a great habit.
I'm not complaining though, it's all very exciting.

Has anyone else ever just got up and gone?

Kudos on being brave enough to take a chance! I have way too much anxiety to do what you did. If i did decided to do it though, I'd like to get one of those little off the grid houses and live in a forest or something or in a plot of land out in the country somewhere.

Why did you decided to move to Italy?

 

[Boomstick]

Kudos on being brave enough to take a chance! I have way too much anxiety to do what you did. If i did decided to do it though, I'd like to get one of those little off the grid houses and live in a forest or something or in a plot of land out in the country somewhere.

Why did you decided to move to Italy?

I met someone who knew a flat where I could get relatively cheap rent. Around this same time the job I was doing came to an end and my tenancy ran out, so I just went. There was just over two weeks between realising it was a possibility and actually going.
It's kind of too overwhelming to be scary, it's cool though. Getting some teaching work sorted out and VERY slowly getting used to the new culture/language.

I've thought about trying to go somewhere off the grid too, but I think I'm romanticising a bit. If I actually went through with it I'd probably be back within a month, with living in cities my whole life I have no autonomous survival skills whatsoever.

 

[DimesDan]

Myself and Mrs-Dimesdan moved to Dublin last year from just outside Bath. It wasn't off the cuff, but nor did we have a drawn out plan, although it did help that Mrs-Dimesdan is Irish.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

To the OP, is it still a requirement for immigrants to register with and report regularly to the police in Italy? This used to be a requirement although I suspect it now doesn't apply to EU nationals. Also, have you thought what might happen to you in the case of a hard Brexit?

I did once consider applying to live and work in the US, but I decided that I wouldn't fit in as I like neither organised religion nor sports, especially the American variety.

 

[Boomstick]

You are supposed to check in with the police on arrival to announce your intention to stay longer than three months, I've been told it's an old anti-mafia law. I asked about it when I went to the council to sort out my taxation code so I could get work/bank accounts etc and they said if you are an EU national then it wasn't necessary.

If a hard Brexit goes through I'll just have to move back. It's annoying but it is what it is. If Brexit is delayed any longer I'll be eligible to apply for an Italian citizenship and stay. I've found the job market in the UK to be really bad for somebody in my position, I graduated with a good degree recently but unless you have the capital to work in an unpaid or poorly paid internship for ages then there's not a lot you can do. So after bouncing around temp jobs for a couple of years with little pay, no workers rights and little room for progression, the thought of being poor in Italy for a couple of years wasn't especially daunting. If I'm forced to come back, what have I lost?

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I suspect EU nationals will be allowed to remain in the UK even in the case of a hard Brexit. This is because many anti-immigrant Brexiters aren't willing to do the jobs that they claim have been taken away from them. They're just lazy, closet racists who won't admit it. If that's the case, you might be lucky and be able remain living and working in Italy.

 

[Boomstick]

I agree, but we'll see. There are a lot of disenfranchised people in the UK who seem intent on cutting their nose off to spite their face.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I agree, but we'll see. There are a lot of disenfranchised people in the UK who seem intent on cutting their nose off to spite their face.

They appear to want to see the world burn because it hasn't given them what they think they deserve without expending any effort. This phenomenon is not confined to the UK, of course...

 

[Tora Ziyal]

^ No, it sure isn't.

To answer the original question, a friend of mine once went to Italy for a month and impulsively stayed for eight years. She's actually back there again now, this time legally and probably permanently.

 

[Sibyl]

I did once consider applying to live and work in the US, but I decided that I wouldn't fit in as I like neither organised religion nor sports, especially the American variety.

We're not ALL crazies... Okay, well, I'm crazy, but not like that.

I've considered moving abroad and even tried it for a few months. Although the language was the same for me, it was just too much of a culture shock and I was unable to work, so I was completely dependant on the person I was staying with.