I love my birth country, South Africa.

I love it so much that I have it’s national flower, the protea, tattooed on my right rib cage.


My tattoo

Even so, moving abroad has been one of my goals for as long as I can remember.

I have always had a sense of adventure and an urge to see the world. This is slightly difficult when you’re living a ±16 hour flight away from most travel destinations. After university, I decided to set my goal of moving abroad before I’m 30 with the idea of pursuing my career while traveling.

Being South Afrian, I need a VISA most places abroad to live and work. A company would therefore not only have to like me, they would have to like me enough to sponsor the whole immigration process. This sounds easier than it was. Luckily my career choice, Software Engineer, offered a fair amount of possibilities.

I applied for the whole of 2016 doing numerous online interviews. It felt like I didn’t have enough experience for companies to justify hiring me. Just before I gave up a company in Budapest, Hungary gave me a chance. At the time, I didn’t even know where Budapest was, but my mother reassured me that it was worth considering.

±6 months later, I moved to Hungary by myself. I was nervous, intimidated and excited. I was overwhelmed with the travel opportunities a train or short flight away.

I felt a sense of achievement. I made it! Easy, right? No, it was hard, but I set a goal and I achieved it 3 years before my deadline. It felt like I could do anything I set out to do. So what was next?

It’s good to sometimes take a step back from your life and think “What do I want? What do I want now? What do I want in 5 years time?” It’s easy going through the motions mindlessly day by day, but to shape your life and to be actively apart of what it turns out like takes determination. Set goals, set deadlines for those goals and work hard at achieving them.

What helped me a lot once I got to Budapest was flat sharing with a local and trying to embrace the culture as much as possible. The more you understand and appreciate the culture, the more you’ll feel accepted.

My Hungarian flat mate lived in Egypt for ±8 years. We often spoke about our experiences and what I am going through. She mentioned the lifecycle of expats which according to Culture Wizard includes

  • preperation
  • honeymoon
  • culture shock
  • adaptation
  • repatriation

This list is not a check list. It’s suppose to make you realize that living abroad is a process that takes time. It’s OK if you’re not happy all of the time. It’s OK if you feel isolated.

But hold on, because after a while

the dramatic "ups and downs" start to diminish —Culture Wizard