Why moving to another ‘similar’ country can feel so unexpectedly hard When everything looks familiar on the surface — but nothing quite feels the same underneath. When people think about moving overseas, they often imagine the biggest challenges will come from dramatic cultural differences — language barriers, unfamiliar customs, or entirely different ways of life. What’s less often talked about is how disorienting it can feel to move to a country that is, on the surface, qui

I touched down in Paris on a freezing cold, rainy Wednesday morning. It felt exactly as dramatic as it sounds. I had left Australia the day before in a state that can only be described as uncharacteristically emotional . I was crying in the airport. I was crying on the plane. I was still crying as the plane taxied for take-off, which is not ideal when you’re meant to be embarking on an exciting new chapter of your life. It had been a tumultuous few weeks. Living on a water-ac

What begins as a simple plan to buy a car in Marseille quickly turns into an exercise in French fine print, bureaucratic panic, and a surprising level of uncertainty about my Australian licence . Yesterday I spent the entire day trying to buy a car. I had done my homework. Hours of research. A clear budget. A preferred dealer. I had even been monitoring the Toyota dealer website in Marseille like it was the stock market. There was one car in particular I had my eye on. The pl