{"id":821363,"date":"2026-05-25T16:09:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T16:09:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/821363\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T16:09:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T16:09:28","slug":"what-surprised-me-about-moving-to-new-york-city-from-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/821363\/","title":{"rendered":"What Surprised Me About Moving to New York City From Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year, I moved from England to New York. I’d spent most of my life living in London, and then two years exploring Europe on a sailboat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After years in a similarly large city and lots of research on what to expect from my move across the pond, I thought I’d be well prepared \u2014 and, if not, I figured that my time at sea might give me the skills to handle the unexpected.<\/p>\n

Despite all my preparation, though, I was still caught off guard by a few surprises.<\/p>\n

Starting over in a new country was more exhausting than I’d expected<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The process of moving countries was worthwhile, but tiring.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Laura Keys<\/p>\n

After moving around constantly while sailing, I thought I’d settle into one place very quickly. I wasn’t expecting it to take a year to feel comfortable in my new surroundings.<\/p>\n

I didn’t realize how much the admin associated with the move would impact me. I felt exhausted, and after doing things like spending most of a day at the DMV, it was hard to muster the motivation to go outside and explore my new city.<\/p>\n

My first six months were dominated by paperwork and tedious tasks. I was unpleasantly surprised by how long it took to do things that felt like they should be simple: I couldn’t set up a bank account without a permanent address, and I couldn’t find a permanent address without a bank account.<\/p>\n

Everything felt much harder in a new country, especially when dealing with unfamiliar systems.<\/p>\n

The cost of my move \u2014 and life in New York \u2014 came as a culture shock<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s no surprise that New York City is an expensive place to live<\/a>. Even before I moved, I knew that just about everything would cost more here.<\/p>\n

Although salaries are often higher here than they are in London, that didn’t help me initially, when I was still working through the bureaucracy required before I could even start applying for jobs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Between international shipping and furnishing a new apartment, moving itself is expensive, too. I’d budgeted for the high costs and for how much my daily expenses would likely increase, but I didn’t anticipate how much money worries would affect my mentality.<\/p>\n

During my first few months in New York, I felt very conscious of every dollar I spent. I was shocked by the prices every time I went to the grocery store or a coffee shop, unable to justify spending $18 on two chicken breasts, or $7 plus tax and tip for an iced latte<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This made me increasingly hesitant to leave my apartment and actually enjoy the city I’d spent so long trying to get to. I knew that things would be more expensive, but living with that reality felt overwhelming.<\/p>\n

It took me a while to find balance and feel comfortable spending money on things that I truly value.<\/p>\n

It’s been easier to connect with people than I thought<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

I’ve been inspired by many of the people I’ve met in New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Laura Keys<\/p>\n

Before moving, I’d heard stereotypes about New Yorkers being rude and unfriendly. I wish I’d known before that this isn’t the case.<\/p>\n

I joined a local gym<\/a> and started meeting so many kind and interesting people who, best of all, live right by me. Now, I’m routinely bumping into people I know on the street \u2014 something I never thought would happen in such a big city, and certainly not this soon after moving.<\/p>\n

Contrary to the stereotype I may have believed, I feel surrounded by people who approach life with more positivity than I’m used to in London. It’s a refreshing change, and I’m happier as a result.<\/p>\n

I’ve also found New York’s bustle to be extremely motivating. It’s hard to be bored in a city where there’s always a new place to visit, or something interesting happening on the next block. I don’t know if I’ll feel like this forever, but for now, I’m enjoying it.<\/p>\n

The hardest part of moving was the slow drip feed of change over months. Now that I’ve been here for a full year, though, I’m starting to develop a deep love for my new home. <\/p>\n

It might have taken longer and been more expensive than I expected, but moving here has been well worth it for me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last year, I moved from England to New York. I’d spent most of my life living in London,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":821364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,21984,440,337682,72331,337679,337683,2252,2676,9105,5826,405,403,337680,5226,5225,5228,5227,337681,6620,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,1628],"class_list":["post-821363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-bank-account","tag-europe","tag-few-surprise","tag-few-thing","tag-interesting-people","tag-large-city","tag-life","tag-london","tag-month","tag-move","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-last-year","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-refreshing-change","tag-time","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-year"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116636088431466626","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}