Plucking up the courage to do something with my life

[Error Gorilla]

I've had enough. I'm stuck in the Civil Service and I'm sick of existing on a pittance. It wouldn't be so bad if I had a place of my own, instead of being fleeced of over half my monthly salary on one hired box with a broken bed and a sofa coated in a thin film of grime. And the cheeky fucking letting agency had the gall to advertise it as luxury. I simply cannot see a time when I'll be able to buy even at the low end of the market and most of my friends and contemporaries have mortgages and kids. I feel like I'm living out Dockery and Son (http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/dockery-and-son/):

To have no son, no wife,
No house or land still seemed quite natural.
Only a numbness registered the shock
Of finding out how much had gone of life,
How widely from the others.

Something's got to give. It's about time I turned my lack of security into an advantage. What's keeping me here? Well, an abject lack of confidence for one and an absolute lack of practical knowledge about upping sticks and moving abroad. At this early stage I'm a tabula rasa: I haven't a clue where to begin or which country I'd move to.

If you've made the move, can you offer some practical advice? Paris appeals, but my French needs polishing, the same for Germany too. And how would I learn more about living costs and the possibility of employment? Moving to another English-speaking country would ameliorate certain initial hurdles, so the US may be a consideration.

If this all seems rather hazy then you'd be right: I'm merely dipping a toe into the water. How did you come to move abroad? What resources did you draw on before making the leap? Are you considering the same thing?

[Dandred]

If you have a degree go teaching English for a year.

Then see what happens........

[Kripcat]

Go somewhere that contrastsstarkly with your current life, teach in Vietnam or visit Japan. If Your ganna take a leap might as well make it a big one.

[snorbury]

Ho Chi Min City is the place for you

[zoltan]

pack up , walk away from the job and fuck off! ( in the nicest possible way of course )

As mentioned - TEFL/TOEFL/EOL etc will let you pay your way for a while.

You wil meet people along the way.

You can always get another job in the civil service when you get back.

[gabi]

How did you come to move abroad? What resources did you draw on before making the leap? Are you considering the same thing?

I bought a one-way ticket to London when I was 19 - took advantage of the UK's ancestry laws to sort the visa out, and I got some compensation money from an injury I got when I was a kid saved. This kept me going, living out of hostels mind u until I was emplyed and kinda stable..

Never looked back! Didn't know a soul here when I frst arrived, but yeh, the hostel life is a great way to meet people in a similar position to yourself. I'm still mates with loads of those who also settled here.

Bear in mind, moving to the US is fuckin difficult without a green card. You need to sponsored by a company, with them writing a letter essentially saying that nobody else in the US is capable of doing your job.

Maybe Canada?

[zoltan]

You can get a legitimate work permit for the states if you get a job with an internatiopnl organisation - eg Red X or UN in NYC - and the beauty of it is that you just pootle along to their HR offices in NY or wherever and apply - its not a full green card, but its legal an easy( should you get a job)

remember that even cleaning or messengers in these places get the visa after they have got the job. The consulates in NYC also count and you maye be able to wangle a monkey job in one of those and get the visa.

NYC can be grim and lonely tho

[fela fan]

EG, since i left england on a one way ticket to thailand (simply to save money) 16 years ago and never came back, i'm going to recommend you to choose thailand!!

A first advantage is that things are cheap, and living costs are minimal while you negotiate your way round everything that will be so new to you.

Secondly, it's great to be in a country where english is not the first language. You escape the clutches of one society and enter a twilight world where basically there is no society. This has the hedonistic outcome of a very sweet freedom.

Thirdly, i really hope you do just up and leave for somewhere. This is just the one life we get, it's no dress rehearsal, and just too many people get to their death bed with too many regrets.

Lastly, i'd bet any money that wherever you go you're going to wonder why you even thought you'd not make the move.

Epiloguely, good luck!

[Stanley Edwards]

Absolutely no regrets about moving to Spain despite some severe financial hardship initially.

I had previously worked on contract abroad and so, had experienced of living in a foreign country. In NY I accepted one of five job offers. The one I accepted because it came with a ready made social life. Small(ish) company - fun people I got on with immediately. It was the lowest paid of all offers but, I didn't fancy getting stuck in a high pressure box without the time to actually enjoy NY.

Here in Spain the language hurdle isn't really a problem. I'm still learning, but finally beginning to socialise more with Spanish speakers rather than relying on English speaking contacts.

Many ex-pats give up here because of the lack of work. You can make your own work very easily (even without Spanish). However, you need to be the right sort of person. Self-starter. Selling skills etc. I know plenty of people who are really quite pissed off here. Not enjoying it at all. Mainly due to lack of income but, also because they aren't really integrating into the society and culture here - the one follows the other.

Granada is really working for me. Total change of lifestyle. Loads of new and unexpected opportunities. New friends and untold numbers of new contacts.

The year I spent in the mountains was mostly enjoyable, but the local economy provided little opportunity for a decent living with or, without language skills.

Plenty of TEFL work in Granada. Not brilliant pay. Enough to survive on and enough free time to explore other opportunities.

You can live very comfortably here on €600/month. Rooms can be rented from €150/month all in. Flats in the suburbs can be rented from under €300/month. Socialising can be as cheap as you like. It's a very vibrant city with plenty of street culture. An afternoon of tapas can cost as little as €5 and can be as good as a meal once you know where and when.

I've been here a little over a year. A typical Sunday yesterday was a morning coffee and tostada de tomate enjoying the sun on a cafe terrace (€1.80). An afternoon tapasing and watching the Grand Prix with an English speaking mate. Four drinks with very generous taps (€5.40). Evening party with English and non-English speakers. Good crowd. Music. Wine. Spliff. Huge BBQ. It's was good fun, but my Spanish is still a bit frustrating at times. I took a couple of bottles of GOOD wine (€3.20 buys an excellent 2001 reserve once you know what and where).

It's a very nice way to live. Free music and sunshine on all but, 30 days of the year. Coast a 40 minute drive away. Snow capped mountains a 90 cents bus ride away. Personally, I think Granada really does have the best of everything without compromise.

[AnnO'Neemus]

If you're a bit reticent, you could dip your toes in the water by taking advantage of the EU funded Leonardo da Vinci programme.

http://www.ets-lichfield.com/

It's for people who are unemployed and under the age of 35. It's okay to apply when you're employed, but they will tell you that you will need to resign and then sign on at least two weeks before you go. This is so that they get their funding for your place from those lovely bureaucrats in Brussels.

You can go to one of a number of European countries, you do a short language course (2-4 weeks), followed by a work placement (8-10 weeks), so the programme is 12 weeks altogether.

They pay for your flight, your accommodation, the language course, and then you get an allowance, just pocket money really. You'd probably be better off taking some money with you, but if you're really skint, then you'd get away with it, you'd just have to cut back on the sightseeing and souvenir buying.

I really recommend it. I've done this kind of thing twice. The first time was with the predecessor to the LdV programme, when it was called Petra, and that time round I went to Bourges in central France. And I've also done the LdV programme, and I went to Montpellier a couple of years ago.

Your language skills don't have to be fantastic, the whole idea is that it will improve your language skills. It does, however, have an impact on what kind of work placement you get. With your work experience, you might get placed into an administration role, if your language skills are up to it. But if your language skills aren't so good, you might end up working as a waiter or bar staff or in a shop or something.

You'll be in a group of maybe a dozen or people all in the same boat, so you're not isolated, sometimes you live with them as well, in a youth hostel or self-catering flats, and other times you are put up individually with host families, and they provide your evening meal.

[Error Gorilla]

Thanks for the responses everyone.