Your First Week in a New Country: SIM, Transport, First Cash, and That Odd Shyness

What do you feel when you arrive in a new country?

Happy? Excited? Worried? Curious?

I feel shy. Every time.

I wouldn’t call myself a shy person. I talk easily, I say what I think. But in those first hours out of the airport, everything is a little foreign: the language, the money, the streets, the way people treat each other.

Years ago I wrote about this in I Feel Shy Every Time I Arrive in a New Country. Every new country is a step out of your comfort zone. New rules, new people, a different order of things. The comfort zone grows, and you relax. But that growing happens in the first week, and the first week is always a bit hard.

There’s also a part nobody sees.

The first week costs more than a normal one.

The first-week list

From the airport to the flat

One of the few things I always research before I go: how do I get from the airport or the station to where I’m staying?

Tired, with luggage, before you’ve got used to the currency — that’s when you make your most expensive decisions. Knowing the way in advance saves money, and it takes the edge off those first hours.

A phone line

The first hour without internet is the most helpless hour in a new city. No map. No messages. No way to reach the host.

In the European Union there’s “roam like at home”: with an EU SIM, you can use your phone in another EU country without extra charges. But it’s meant for people who travel occasionally. Your operator can check your use over four-month periods. If you’ve spent more time abroad than at home and used more abroad than at home, it can contact you, and if you don’t clarify within 14 days, it can start charging extra.

So for someone living abroad for months, it isn’t a permanent answer. For stays of one, three or six months, a local SIM is usually the sensible choice.

When I land, I always use an eSIM, so those first hours go without trouble.

For longer stays, though, a local SIM always has better plans. That’s what I prefer.

First cash

Where and how you take out your first cash can be the most expensive mistake of the week. Cancel if the ATM shows a fee and try another bank; say no to “Would you like to pay in your home currency?” I wrote about all of it in my post on card fees and DCC.

What the flat is missing

You’ve rented a furnished flat. There’s no salt. No oil. No washing-up liquid.

The first grocery run is always a big one: you buy things on day one that will last longer than your stay.

And until the kitchen works, you eat out. I eat out and cook anyway, but in the first week, eating out wins.

Learning the neighbourhood

Which supermarket is better? Which bakery opens early? Where can you work in peace?

Working from home all the time kills my motivation, so part of every first week goes into finding cafés. I keep trying new ones, looking for quiet places with comfortable seats. Trying a few wrong ones before the right one is a first-week cost too.

The first week in numbers

Let’s not use my own numbers. Let’s use a round example. Real figures depend on the country and how you live; the point is to see the size of it.

Say a normal week in that country costs 150 units. The first week adds:

• The ride from the airport: +15 units
• A new SIM: +10 units
• The first big shop for the flat: +30 units
• More eating out until the kitchen works: +40 units

150 + 15 + 10 + 30 + 40 = 245 units. More than one and a half normal weeks.

Here’s the trap: it’s easy to look at week one and decide the country is expensive. Week two is back to 150. You only see what a country really costs after the first month, not the first week.

What I do now

I learn the way to the flat before I land. I don’t have to decide at the airport.

Day one starts at the supermarket. The first thing I always do is a grocery run, so the basics are at hand.

Then I walk. I get to know the area around the flat on foot, a lot of walking, every direction. Sometimes I check the map to see what’s nearby.

I follow the crowd. To find the central spots, I go where the people go.

Everything goes in that country’s wallet. Everything is part of the cost of living, and the first week is part of what the country cost. Keeping it together, I can see after the first month which part was setup and which part was life.

The shyness still comes with every new country. But it usually leaves before the first week does: once there’s a supermarket, the right café, and a way home I don’t have to think about.

I wish you first weeks that pass quickly.

Sources

• European Union, Your Europe, Roaming: what you pay to use your smartphone in another EU country
• EUR-Lex, Roaming charges within the European Union