If I took a good look at my life, I wouldn’t say that I am a gypsy girl in the traditional sense. I’ve lived in the city for most of my life and have always been a part of the hustle and bustle. I like my comforts, my 300 thread count sheets and an array of bathroom products close by.
However, less than a year ago my partner and I left our very safe, comfortable life in Sydney and moved to the other side of the world. People thought I was mad to leave my job and go somewhere where I knew no one. I packed up my things in boxes and left with suitcases filled with winter clothes and photographs. To leave all my “belongings” behind was tough but also very liberating. It forced me to live a life that is far more gypsy girl like. I’ve learned to deal without the things I had before and am finding that the “things” that we carry around quite often only weigh us down.
Living abroad is such an amazing experience as it’s so different to traveling. You get to experience a whole other life that you didn’t know you could live and opportunities for new life experiences are around every corner.
I look at amazing women like Pia and Maryam and see how they have made their lives elsewhere. They inspire me to have the courage to believe that I can do this. I can live abroad. I can live a different life. I can be happy without the comforts of home.
The place you’re living in needs to feel like home and not somewhere you’re visiting. One way I’ve discovered to make a place feel like home is through exploring. I do these things all the time but you could do them in your own neighbourhoods too.
· Go on neighbourhood walks with your camera. Look for all the little jigsaw pieces that make up that one place.
· Try out the different cafes until you find your favourite coffee.
· Pick an area that is going to be your “back yard”. We like to find a “back yard” in a local park or at the beach that will be our ‘go to’ spot when we need to just chill out and relax.
· Do what the locals do by taking part in local cultural festivities. Let them become some of your traditions too.
· Enrol in a class of some sort whether it be sewing, cooking or photography. You never know who you may meet!
Living abroad is something I’ve always dreamt of doing and to now be out there living my new life feels exciting and brave. A courage that I never knew I had.
How many of you out there have had or would like to have the experience of living abroad?
Amanda Gilligan is an educator and film photographer living in Vancouver, Canada, but is originally from Sydney, Australia. She is currently writing a book on Polaroid photography for Chronicle Books with Jenifer Altman and Susannah Conway.
Blog: Mocking Bird Etsy: Triinity Flickr: lyptonvillage
Nice to read this, living abroad myself.
Sometimes is big step in faith can be the best to take to live closer to who you are meant to be:-)
“…To leave all my “belongings” behind was tough but also very liberating” … this is so true. and symbolic don’t you think? :) to begin a new life you have to keep some space open & free. hurray to the courage not only in moving to a strange new place, but the courage to embrace everything this new place brings. wherever love resides, that’s where home is. :)
I have always dreamed of living abroad, at least for a while. I’m sure I will, someday.
Totally Nicole. :)
Thanks for having me, Alex!
This is a beautiful post, I am living abroad as well and the advices are helpful reminders for seeking adventures :)
I love all the ideas! I have moved abroad a few times but even now that I am settled in San Francisco, I still take days off to explore different neighborhoods with a gypsy attitude. Thank you for being here, Amanda!! ps: Your photos are delicious as usual!! xo
Thanks for all of these great suggestions. I’ve moved to new places so many times and always struggled to make it feel like home. It’s a lovely idea to find yourself at home through experiences and not “stuff.”
I lived overseas for nearly a decade, in various places- my own personal cultural anthropology study. I plan to do so again..it’s so addictive, adventurous and you feel so alive…bonne chance with your new adventures.
At the moment I am also living out one of my dreams – living abroad. 2 years ago (in September) I left Copenhagen to go to University in Scotland – Edinburgh. The originally plan was 1 year but we are still here! I LOVE it, every day is like being on holiday…there is always a new street to explore or cafe to try out and then there is the amazing Highland.
Being in the city and also so close to the wild Scottish nature is fantastic. If/when we go I know I will struggle to live without it.
Also the feeling of not buying more than can fit in your suitcase fits me really well (but I would have to do a spring cleaning at the moment if I was moving!).
It is truly an amazing experience to live in another culture and start fresh, but it can also be lonely at times with missing friends and family. But I would recommend it to everyone.
Maria Louisa, yes I should have added that part. Leaving family and friends behind is the toughest thing to deal with. It can make it extremely difficult. Some days you just want to see your Mum!
I ran away from home one time, got a divorce house in Isla Mujeres, Mexico…a tiny Caribbean Island. It was the best decision of my life. I highly recommend it to ANYONE.
My husband and I have been going camping almost every week this summer ~ I have been doing a lot of thinking about my possessions and how they define me. We’ve been decluttering a lot, reforming our opinions about what we need, living with the bones of what’s already there instead of buying more to flesh it out.
When I lived in Rome for a year I also enjoyed living with less ~ living what’s there, experiencing instead of collecting, and I’ve been exploring this mentality ever since. I like to live light, and have the feeling that at any moment, I could get up and go. We travel a lot for the adventure of it, so in a way, I do feel like I’m often getting to experience that feeling of being somewhere new and curious and unfamiliar (therefore interesting.)
When we travel we come back to the basics ~ for me it’s:
1. a quiet place (cafe, hostel bunk, park) to reflect, meditate, digest, write, read.
2. journaling each day, sketches, tea stains, etc.
3. a cafe for tea
4. some exercise ~ a stroll through the streets or a hike in the forest
I’m good if I touch base with those things each day when I’m in a foreign place.
:)
hi amanda, this is an interesting post! i haven’t lived abroad – except for the last two summers when i’ve visited the bf who works in france, which has given me just that little taste… i would like to do it if there was an opportunity. it would be nice to learn another language properly, to experience new food and new weather.
Your website is wonderful and quite timely in these days of financial challenges, when we all must be creative and adaptive, and willing to travel, relocate, etc., in order to “survive” and succeed. I agree strongly with your concepts. These are also very brilliant, fresh, new, innovative, creative, positive ways to approach the growing ensuing recession. Adapting a Gypsy attitude, and increasing my reliance upon our God, the Creator, has brought out survival skills I never knew I possessed. In time of war, people find and create new ways to survive, and they try to preserve their dignity with a few precious, meaningful possessions of quality and sentiment. So too, we are in a financial war, albeit a down-played depression of sorts. But it can make us into something even better than we ever thought possible. Despite the difficulties, your dreams can come true, if you hold onto your personal values. Thank you!