I didn’t think it would happen to me, but I may have succumbed to the expat depression.
Sometime around the one year mark of my time living here in Denmark (in June 2018), I started to feel awful. All the excitement of the first year here slowly began to evaporate, leaving me faced with the everyday drudgery.
Would I ever develop friendships here that resembled my friendships in Seattle? Could we buy a house here and settle for good? Would I ever learn the language? Find a job? Find a place that sells street tacos?
Oddly, I was feeling the worst during the nicest time of the year. This year the summer was beyond lovely, yet I was feeling less than average.
Now it’s the middle of winter. It’s dark even when it’s light out, everything is dead and I’m always trying to think of excuses to just stay in the house. But, for some reason, my depression seems to have lifted.
I’ve heard about expat blues before. It usually happens once you settle in, get to know the new place pretty well and then you’re faced with ‘oh shit, what have I done’ moment. You realize you left everything familiar, your support system, your family and friends, behind, and now you’re trying hard to remember why you’d do something like that.
This slump was haunting me for several months, but eventually, things got better. Slowly, my acquaintances here began to feel like real friends. After countless applications (actually, I counted them: 27) I finally got a job! Although not in my field (I have an administrative background, but here in Denmark those jobs are given first priority to the Danes or those who speak Danish fluently), it’s a very interesting job. I love my co-workers, and even my irregular schedule, and I feel like I have a purpose again.
So, despite the drab winter (so far we haven’t had much snow and it’s been raining more than usual), I’m feeling upbeat and ready to move on from that great expat depression.
Also, I have a list of New Years Resolutions and one of them is to get this blog going again. 🙂
Post-Amerikan 