What is stressful about moving to another country

I am promoting my poll. Please see link below.

http://familytrekker.blogspot.com/2008/04/what-is-most-stressful-part-of-moving.html

I knew for sure what has been the most stressful part for me when moving to Australia... I'll tell you more about that later.

Moving our home

Just thought I tell a few things about moving our home. We chose to let a removal specialist take care of moving our home since we did not want to get rid of furniture and things with high sentimental value for us. I simply would never want to get rid of some of our stuff unless we did not have any other choice. Added to that it would be more expensive for us to buy everything new in Melbourne.

The first thing we did was to get quotes from a couple of removal specialists. We both contacted Swedish as well as Australian removal companies. We finally chose ICM Kungsholms (this is a Swedish removal company, based in Stockholm) mainly because they gave us the cheapest storage costs (we knew in advance that we would have to store all our furniture for a couple of months), we received good references and feedback about ICM Kungsholms from other customers and finally the total impression of the company was good. (The other companies that we were in contact with seemed ok to but the total price of moving our home ended up higher)

Our home was estimated to have the volume 37cbm (our home in Sweden was an apartment of 100 m2). We also had a 2 m2 big storage filled with things as well as a garage containing some further furniture and paintings.

Below are some figures we received from ICM Kungsholms:

Prices are in SEK

1x20’ (30 cbm) container
Price 1x40 container: 103744 SEK
Price: 1x20’ (30 cbm) container 64566 SEK
Insurance (if you would like to have your things insured to the correct value you have to pay this extra insurance) costs: 2,5% * value of your furniture
Storage in Melbourne per month: 1367,52 SEK (1x40' container), 1108,8 SEK (1x20’ 30 cbm container)
Handling in Melbourne (one time fee): 1823,36 SEK(1x40' container), 1478,4 SEK (1x20’ 30 cbm container)
AQIS (customs fee – do not remember exactly what this stand for): 3511,2 SEK (1x40' container), 2094,4 SEK (1x20’ 30 cbm container)

We chose the smaller size; the 1x20’ 30 cbm container which meant we could not bring everything. But that was ok since we knew we would managed to squeeze in the important stuff.

Looking at the figures above I am still sighing – it is not cheap to move your home abroad. This was also a private expense since it was our choice to move while we still were on parental leave. Therefore were our removal costs not sponsored by a company… but well…..sometimes you need to do things even though the costs are high. (We are still not regretting this :-) )

The actual preparation and packing of our home was a unique experience. Not long after the removal company people arrived, our home started to look like the storage area at IKEA where you pick up your packages before you buy them. We also soon started to feel that wherever we went we were in the way - IN OUR OWN HOME - that is a strange feeling. The removal company staff literally took over our apartment. Although, the packing went quickly. Everything was completed in one day. After that we felt quite good not only because we were done with one of the important action points but also emotionally we could relax a bit. The last 2 weeks before moving to Australia were enormously emotionally tiring because of saying goodbye to family and friends (probably among the toughest weeks in my life). When seeing the apartment empty I felt that we had finished a chapter in our lives. We were now on our way. It felt like we could start focusing again on the positive parts of moving to Australia.

Our home is currently stored in Melbourne by our removal company. I miss our things but not to long before I see them again since we will move in to our OWN HOME in april :-). Below is a picture of the container containing our home.

Reached destination!

We are here!! We have moved to Melbourne, Down Under ! (I really like the sound of it)

Although…. It is not like we JUST came here. We actually arrived on the 28^th of October, 2008, which means I have either been lazy updating this blog or being so buuuuuuusy fixing things after our arrival. Well, I guess it is a bit of both. We have stayed with my partner’s parent’s house and it has constantly been things to do. Especially since we now do not have much support when it comes to babysitting our kids. Every weekend we have been several inspections in order to find our own place. On top of that it has been some administrative things to take care of like health insurance, translating driving licence, conveying admin for our new house (Yes! We found a home! I am so happy about that) and so on..

Although… all of this does not mean that we had no time for the beach J. I adore the beach and the sea and so does the rest of our family. As soon as we have had the opportunity we have gone to the beach for some fun in the sand and water.

Anyway, I have not updated this blog for a long time and there are some things that I have experienced that might be interesting for other people such as when and how to exchange money, joining playgroups (this is a parenting run system for parents and the kids to join in groups and having a good time), looking for a home, how spider-snake- fears actually decreases after a while (in the beginning I had my doubts about that …), adoring the connectivity the internet-broadband-computers-IT gives you when your local network of friends is kind of smallish etc. I hope I will remember to write about some of those things… If not please feel free to contact me and I will share my experience.

At last – we have been here for about 3 months now and we have still not by far regretted moving to Australia. Even though the lack of family and friends in Sweden has been quite hard to cope with from time to time, it still feels like an exiting adventure. Also this is such a cool and (to me) a bit mysterious country. Adding to this we now have our OWN HOUSE (I really do understand how important it is with your own space - I have had my share of claustrofobimania after living with my partner’s parents for 3 months ;-) ) which makes the total sum end on a far positive side :-).