Overcoming pushback from family and how to survive the first week abroad – Chrysa in Romania and Turkey Part 1

Today, my guest Chrysa is sharing her journey abroad with us, leaving Greece to study in Romania. She also shares her experience being paid to doing a European Voluntary Service in Turkey for a few months and how you can do it, too. 

This is part 1 of the interview with Chrysa. Make sure to check out part 2 to learn how to land a job in Denmark.
 
Listen to this episode if you want to learn: 

• How to survive the first days when moving abroad and wanting to go back home
• How to finance your stay abroad 
• How to deal with pushback of your family of your dream of moving abroad 
• Why it's so important to move abroad and travel to break down stereotypes
• How to move abroad for free in Europe for a few months program

These are my favorite quotes of the episode:

• 02:37: “I always had a feeling that...You know, Greece was really nice. I grew up in Greece. But there was something missing. I had always the curiosity of how the people outside of my country look like. Because, you know, when you travel for a week or five days, you don’t really see and experience the same thing.”  
• 04:48: “And someone translated that to me, but it was the first time that I realized ‘OMG what am I doing? Where am I going?’” 
• 04:53: “The first days were a struggle. Exactly because I was like maybe I did a mistake or I miss home. Then I was like ‘no - let’s go and make the most out of it’. Because the worst-case scenario is that it's just 5 months and you can just go back. It turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life. But I did struggle a lot in the beginning.” 
• 05:35: “You get to know yourself better. You get to know what your boundaries are and who you really are because you’re kind of forced to be with yourself a lot.” 
• 07:12: ”I started meeting people. I started going around walking in the city and I started to see how beautiful the city was and then I started classes in uni. I was like ‘Try to find good things’ because not everything is bad. Our mind is programmed to see the negative stuff first. But if you start to think about it and start listing and writing down the good things... I think in the end of the day I saw that the good things and what I am learning is more than the bad.”  
• 09:54: ”We have a lot of stereotypes in our minds about everybody all over the world. So, we have a lot of negative stereotypes about what other people are and this was also my main motive behind going abroad. I wanted to see whether these stereotypes were actually true and I found that they are not.” 

Do you have any questions, tips for improvement, or you're seeking more inspiration for moving abroad? Then follow me on: IG & TikTok: @chrigerdes and YouTube: Beyond-an-ordinary-life
If you like this podcast, then please hit the subscribe button and give me a rating or review. This helps more than you know to get this podcast out to like-minded people who want to learn how to move abroad, too! I appreciate your help a lot!

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Chrysa’s Journey abroad – juggling life in Romania, Turkey, and Denmark
• 4:07 The truth about the first days of moving abroad and why Chrysa considered moving back home
• 6:32 How Chrysa managed to overcome her initial challenges in Romania
• 9:02 How Chrysa was able to overcome her parents’ perceptions to take ownership of her own path
• 9:50 Breaking down stereotypes about other cultures
• 13:20 How to go abroad for a few months for free in Europe
• 21:31 How Chrysa financed her stays abroad