Moving somewhere new can be very lonely, and having a good support network of people you can rely on and spend free time with is essential to being happy in your new environment once the initial excitement of the new place has worn off. Thankfully, everyone that I’ve met here so far has been incredibly welcoming. I’m especially thankful that there is a group of other foreign researchers that work in my lab from Italy, Norway and Russia who are in a similar situation to my own, with few friends or family around. They have helped to organize different events with the native Slovenian researchers, such as hikes in the mountains and attending food festivals in the city center. These activities have allowed me to bond with them and get to know them and their backgrounds better while also giving me an opportunity to share my own experiences growing up in the U.S. This has been incredibly rewarding and allowed me to get to know others on a more personal basis.
Finding a friend group might be the hardest part about integrating into a new community, but there are also many other things you must discover when you move somewhere new. For example, you need to figure out how to blend in and understand the social norms. These include what side of the road to walk on, dining etiquette, common greetings, whether it’s rude to make eye contact with someone, whether you should or should not smile or acknowledge someone when you pass them in the street, and what you should or should not talk about in simple conversation. All of these things vary slightly from culture to culture, and it’s important to understand what the norms are in the culture you're visiting so that you do not unintentionally offend someone.
