The FRESH Method, Your Bible for the First 30 Days in a New Country

One of the biggest mistakes I see expats make when they move to a new city is failing to establish their routine. Between jet lag and culture shock, your clock is off.

Then you're dealing with crisis after crisis. The wifi isn't working for your meetings. The landlord wants a deposit in cash. Your kid is crying because they miss their friends. You're eating takeout every night because you haven't found a grocery store you like.

Before you know it a month has gone by and you still don't have a doctor, you haven't exercised once, and you feel completely out of whack.

FRESH is an easy-to-remember acronym for what to focus on your first 30 days in a new place.

F is for Food

Find your grocery store, your go-to healthy restaurant, and try to figure out your new food pyramid. The ingredients will be different, but the principles should be the same! I cannot overstate how much easier life gets when you know where to buy good produce and a decent cup of coffee. You're going to be exhausted. Eat well.

R is for Rest

Set up your sleep environment on night 1. Bed, pillows, curtains. If you're in a northern country in winter, look into a UV lamp. If you're not sleeping you can't think clearly, and you're about to make a lot of important decisions. Blackout curtains cost 30 EUR in most places. Best money you'll spend in month one.

E is for Exercise

Find your gym, your pilates studio, your running route. Whatever your thing was back home, pick it up immediately in your new city. You were doing yoga 3x/week? Find a studio. You ran every morning? Map a route. If you join a class or a group, that's also your first shot at meeting people who aren't your landlord or your coworkers.

S is for Systems

Get a local phone plan. Ride the metro to and from work. Visit the nearest pharmacy and understand how and when to get your weekly medications. Build the infrastructure for your 9-5 life immediately. Don't wait until someone gets sick or you're running 10 minutes late to work to try and ask someone for help while fumbling with Google Translate.

H is for Hobbies

Your home address has changed, your passions have not! Book club, pickup basketball, language exchange, whatever you were doing before. The friends you make abroad will almost always come through a shared activity, so the sooner you find one the sooner you start building community. You don't need 10 friends right away, but you should have one activity that makes you feel like you could belong there.

Food. Rest. Exercise. Systems. Hobbies.