The first time my husband and I moved abroad, we had two kids, and they were the main reason why we moved: we wanted a better life for them.
We arrived at London with a few British friends, and only one Mexican friend, who was the godmother of one of our kids. It was exciting to be in a different city, speaking English all the time and trying to figure things out.
We found a place to live within 2 weeks, school for one of our kids within a month, and my husband decided to be a stay at home parent to take care of the youngest to avoid nursery.
Our friends were nice and invited us to do some activities during the week and on weekends, however, the stay at home parent ended up alone for a month in a foreign country with busy friends.
We were unable to visit our home country often, so we rely on long distance communication to keep in touch with our loved ones. Long distance calls were not as affordable as we expected, so we did not have the freedom to call home as many often as we wished.
Keeping in touch with our family and friends and our roots was important for us, so, we were welcoming every friend who wanted to visit us at home.
Finally, we built a network support in London: we made some Mexican friends who helped us to get our favorite Mexican groceries, to celebrate Mexican festivities in the right places, to be able to communicate with our family and friends through affordable and easy to use long-distance products and even to enjoy a football game where the Mexican team ended up beating Brazil at Wimbledon.
We managed to see London as our second home: we loved the weather (even with the rain, the wind, the darkness and a few days in a year where the sun lasted more than 12 hours a day), the food, the diversity and the cultural aspects the city offers. I believe a reason why we managed to do that is because we maintain contact with our family and friends, and when we went back home, we were still part of the Mexican community and no foreigners in our own country.
Nohemi Godinez