Expat stories

A year and a half ago, I and my husband we arrived in Australia. Thanks to his job, we had the opportunity to come and install in Sydney and we jumped at the chance!

Initially, we moved to Paddington, a pretty suburb of Sydney, with the famous Victorian houses. Village atmosphere in the middle of the city, this area has quickly delighted us!
Then with a French friend who also lived in Sydney, we decided to launch a website for the  French and the French-speaker by giving full access to practical information on the country  and by sharing what we experienced before. As a result, our website www.guide-australie.com was born. A year later, his success lasts!

Six months after our arrival, I looked for a job, and I quickly found. I am a product manager at a software company. The atmosphere at work is much better than what I've had in France. Pressure and bad stress hardly exist, the quality of life reflects it a lot.

Our nicest surprise when we came to Sydney was the food! We were very pleasantly surprised by the variety and quality of everything that we can eat here! We find all the European fruits and vegetables, but also the exotic ones from Southern Hemisphere! Sydney, very cosmopolitan city, mixes all cultures and so we can find an extraordinary choice on our plates with Italian food, Greek, Thai, Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Lebanese, etc..

Sydney brings a amazing quality of life. City with capital dimensions, it combines its dynamic urban rhythm with the strong presence of nature! Beaches, and numerous and large parks are subject to many festivals and outdoor activities. We live outside before everything!

We have not encountered real difficulties to move here, because everything was easier, in an always positive atmosphere, the Australians are nice people! There are some cultural differences, but they are often appreciated! One of the few things that can be annoying is compliance to the letter, which results in a few penalties for us because we parked after paying, but the car was positioned facing the gutter instead of the reverse: because it did not respect the rule, we had to pay a fine of 80 euros ... Finally, in the end, it goes into the anecdotes! And we take care not to renew the experience!


For those wishing to come here, the most complicated is the first immigration process. You should be really well informed, and it should be conducted as a project. Unless you come for one year with a Working Holiday visa for under 30 years, or are sponsored by a company for a job here, other types of migration require a lot of personal investment. Gather your courage, do it seriously, the game is worth it!

Séverine Chu

The story is worthy of a song by Richard Cocciante ... I came to settle in Sweden for love! I met my sambo (a more romantic Swedish word for partner). A year after we met, I decided to give up everything to follow him to Sweden.

My case is somewhat special because I moved at a Swedish’s place. I have not had the usual worries associated with finding an apartment or a job. However, obtaining the residence permit has been somewhat complicated. In Sweden, even if you are a member state citizen of the European Union, you must hold a residence permit. I waited six months for it which was really disapling since I was pregnant.... Once the residence permit was granted, obtaining a personnummer was very fast (after one week if I remember well)! The personnummer is a decisive registration number which confers you an existence in Sweden and you can therefore open a bank account, access the health care system, pay your taxes ... etc. to benefit fully from Swedish system!

But the biggest difficulty is related to expatriation: the adaptation to a new culture. It is very rewarding and confusing to find another way to approach life. To move to Sweden or elsewhere is to give up all your conviction. Since I live in Gothenburg, I constantly put myself in question and my French principles of education are constantly tested. Sweden is geographically close to France, but cultural differences are huge.
For a successful expatriation, you must be open-minded and / or locked in a French reassuring microcosm. It depends on the type of expatriation you are looking for.

I like:
- the nature everywhere
- the very quiet Swedish nature
- the society less hierarchical than in France
- stores opened on Sundays and supermarkets opened late at night
- the fact that everyone is called by his first name and not by Sir/Madam
- cultural simplicity: here we do not confuse intellectual and intelligent
- we do not kiss people on the cheeks
- no one stares you in the street


I find it strange / I found it strange
- Swedish individualism (for example, we do not hold the door for the next person when he/she enters or leaves or we do not leave the seat for a senior etc. ..)
- Education: it's cool to be a child in Sweden, it is forbidden to forbid.
- A naked body is not embarrassing:  at swimming-pool, everyone is naked in the showers and sauna ... it's weird the first time
- dress uniformity ... in Gothenburg, everyone is dressed exactly the same
- the educational system: you take the inverse of the French system and you get the Swedish system


I hate:
- Weather ... I can’t adapt myself to false summers
- The very poor health system... in Sweden, we suffer before being cared. If you do not have fever for at least 5 days in a row, it's not worth going to the doctor
- The mother is largely sacrificed to the interests of the child. Yet I consider that a good harmony from the mother and the couple is required to have a happy child.

Victoire

San Francisco is unique for me because it offers at the same place a worldwide economic activity (see Internet), a rebellious and green spirit in the US(see Gays) and a strong presence of a grandiose nature . Let me describe here the daily life in contact with this so active city and not its economic or social aspects.
San Francisco, as I said, is the only city in the French sense of the Bay of San Francisco and perhaps for the entire western U.S. as well: because it is not a city of skyscrapers and highways, people still live IN TOWN (not suburbs!), it has a downtown asset at night too, but it is mostly made up of many small adjacent neighborhoods, and it is a city where you can walk ...

But to say that it IS like a French city, far from it! It is so much green that French city, with parks: the Presidio, Golden Gate Park, which between them cover probably 20% of the city and its streets with trees and flowers so much more spacious; and architecture so much less structured as well.

Living in San Francisco every day for me, it is to breathe, to admire and  … to enjoy! In short, it refreshes!

http://www.frenchparents.com/editorials/?p=28

Caroline

I arrived in 2000 in the Izmir area, because I had a 5-month seasonal work in tourism. In 2002, I had a proposal (thanks to my network) to a permanent contract in another industry. I wanted to settle in Turkey so I seized the opportunity!

The main difficulty is language. When you do not speak Turkish, it is difficult to find an apartment, understanding advertisements in newspapers, to know where to buy bills, to install the cable, to shop at the corner grocery, etc. ... Luckily the Turks are rather warm and hospitable. When they help, they often do with the heart and expect nothing in return. I also had trouble to get my work permit, it takes a lot of time, money, documents, papers, and long waiting hours are part of it too! To be renewed every year …

I love the warmth and this notion of hospitality that emerge from most of the Turks. The daily change of scenery, cuisine, beauty and diversity of landscapes, cheap things, Istanbul.

I hate ... Not much to tell the truth, if not the sound of horns, which echoes incessantly, dangerous taxi drivers, smokers who are numerous and can smoke everywhere! I do not like the changes of mind / plans for Turkey. They are not as "straightforward” as we Europeans. They plan things, the weekend after they cancel, and then go back to their decisions.

Marie-France Gilles