Notes from starting overin a new country

I moved countries with two suitcases, more books than clothes, and a cat who still has not forgiven me for the flight.

The first months were mostly paperwork and the phrase "sorry, again?" I said it to cashiers, to neighbours, and once, memorably, to my own manager.

Homesickness comes in waves

Some weeks you feel completely at home. Then a smell from a bakery knocks you flat. Both are normal, and both pass.

What helped most was small routines: the same café on Saturdays, a weekly call home, and cooking my mother's recipes from memory, badly at first.