As I mentioned before, I started writing a blog for Russian speakers on EasyExpat.com and BlogExpat.com. There will be a series of posts, discussing benefits of moving to various countries. As an additional feature, I decided to add little stories of Russian speaking expats, already living in those countries.

In my first post I wrote about Czech Republic and a man, who moved here 9 years ago with his wife and a daughter. By now they already have two kids and have completely settled down. This man participates in searching Czech archives for information that could be used to find graves of soldiers lost during the WWII. They work together with Germans and Russians, helping both sides, who fought on the Czech land. This group of people already helped to discover burial grounds and real names of some of the heroes of those days. I think, it’s a wonderful initiative, helping descendants to learn more about their families and adding pages to the history books. (In case some of you can read in Russian, here’s his blog, where he posts a lot of war time and archive information with occasional travel stories).

What I wanted to point out to the reader was that a hobby or some involvement in a local community can often help you to feel more at home after your move. Always staying at home, sticking to your old ways would only slow down your adjustment to the new country, making you feel alienated. Get out there – meet new people, find new places, get involved in interesting projects!

What did you do when you moved? What helped you to integrate? Would love to learn more about your experience!