Lenguajero Blog

You land at the airport, pass through immigration, collect your bags, and make your way out to a taxi.  You catch that first breath of fresh air, glance at the billboards (your first insight into the culture), and then head to a hostel or hotel.  You’ve made it.  You are in a new city, in a new country, and you are planning on calling it home, at least for a few months.  But what do you do now?  How do you establish yourself, find an apartment, make friends, learn the language?

I’ve gone through this process three times now in the last year.  By the third time I felt like I had it down pat.  These are the steps I take in my first week of living in new city outside of my home country (United States).

1. Find a nice guest house or hotel to stay in for the first week. Since you are looking for long term accommodation you want to be able to be picky.  If you are staying in a dumpy hostel odds are you are going to jump at the first apartment you see.  I did once and it was a total mistake.

2. Start looking for an apartment right away. I’ve found that nearly every city I have been in has had at least a few websites catering to ‘long-term’ tourists.  These sites are usually filled with fully furnished luxury apartments, though the price is usually pretty equivalent to what you would pay in the U.S.

If you are looking for real long-term accommodation (like a year or more) consider renting an unfurnished apt. and buying the furniture you will need.  This often cuts the price in half.  If you are like me and are only going to be somewhere for three or four months go old school with your apartment hunting, and bust out the local phonebook and newspaper classifieds.  There are usually a handful of furnished apartments for rent in either.

Also, don’t forget to barter a bit.  It isn’t really a part of our culture, but it is a normal part of many others.  If the price really is set you will figure that out pretty quick.  Otherwise expect the price to come down between 20-25%.

3. Spend time figuring out the community. Get to know the layout of your neighborhood, find a favorite restaurant and/or bar, and above all GET A CELL PHONE!  Depending on where you are this can cost next to nothing (in Colombia it cost about $4 dollars for the chip, and another $4 dollars per month in minutes) or it can be expensive (Mexico, errrr…).  Nonetheless you should still get a cellphone.  SMS has made it easy to get in touch with people from all over, and it is the best way to contact friends that you will make during your stay.

4. Start meeting people. I’m always looking for a small group of close friends to hang out with.  Since I am changing cities every few months this means that I inevitably end up hanging out with tons of people so that I can find just such a group.  Couchsurfing.com is by far the best place to get in touch with people in basically any city, anywhere in the world.

I also recommend checking out local English schools to see if anyone is interested in having conversation exchanges (Assuming you are learning the language, which you should be.)  Right now we are living in Oaxaca, Mexico which is a pretty touristy town. Nonetheless, there is a real shortage of people who want to have conversation exchanges with local students.  We currently do this at two schools, three or four days a week. We haven’t made any real friends this way, but it is good Spanish practice and makes us feel more integrated in the community.

5. Do your normal activities. I like going to the gym and running, so I joined a gym in Medellin, and found a nice running route through the hills around Oaxaca.  Natalie likes yoga and found a class that she can go to three or four days a week.  Having these routines really adds to the sense that you have a home and aren’t just traveling around.

6. Figure out what will make you super homesick if you don’t have it. For us it’s a kitchen with our own coffee machine. And internet.  Although we happily barely survived without internet for 2 months on a Caribbean island.