Thoughts on moving abroad
Lessons from our second international move
Programmer’s log. Epoch time 1746393618. London had unseasonably warm weather this past week. But to a native Floridian and decade-long Bay Area transplant, it was a gorgeous first week living in the U.K. At 5:00pm, every park was full of people sunbathing and lazily sprawled on blankets. Outdoor seating around pubs and restaurants filled to bursting with laughing diners. Now we’ll see what kind of emotions the next few days of rain will bring…
Happy Star Wars Day! We unintentionally celebrated today by having a picnic in Hampstead Heath just like Padme and Anakin on Naboo.
We’re officially Londoners now 🇬🇧 The last few months have been intensely busy with moving logistics and getting all our the details sorted out. Now we’ve gotten through our first week, slowly adjusting from jet lag and ramping up to the daily rhythms of life and work.
I’ve finally been able to sit down and write out my thoughts on the move abroad. Here’s the latest from the blog, I hope you find it as interesting of a read as it was living through it!
Thoughts on moving abroad
Lessons from our second international move
We just moved to London at the end of April 2025. It was our second time moving abroad from the Bay Area and (spoiler-alert) we made it to the UK. Now that we have a semblance of calm, I can take a moment to breathe and reflect.
The funny thing about doing something a second time is that it can feel both completely unsurprising and also more shocking when expectations differ from reality. We moved to Japan in August 2018 and spent six months preparing for the move, both logistically and emotionally. I think it took four months prior to that to even to commit to moving abroad. This time, we decided to move to London in December 2024 to move and started planning at the end of January. We are here three months later!
Timeline-wise, it was obviously much faster. But what else was the same or different? Is it possible to become skilled at the act of moving your entire life abroad? Are there fundamental learnings that can apply to any major life decision like uprooting your home and work?
Well, two points do not necessarily create a trend line, so I may need to wait until the third time (!) to create a truly unified theory of international moves. But for now, here are my working observations on making the decision to live abroad, preparation and execution of moving, and post-move details.
I collected my stream-of-consciousness thoughts into three chronological sections: before, during, and after the move.
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(Click here to read more)
📖 Links and books
Recent links I really enjoyed:
A lack of frequency increases the pressure to deliver quality (Rachel Smith’s Digital Garden)
This blog is hosted on a Nintendo Wii (Alex Haydock)
Why do AI company logos look like buttholes? (VelvetShark)
Atsuko Okatsuka on finding belonging in the most unfamiliar territory (Youtube)
Growing beyond the computer (Dark Properties)
I’m still working my way through How to Winter by Kari Leibowitz. I’ve also distracted myself by starting A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness and Biting the Hand by Julia Lee.
That’s all for now! See you later alligator 🐊
Though I have no plans to move abroad, it was both interesting and great fun to read about the ins and outs of your London adventure. Thanks for sharing some of the highlights. It seems like you and Dru are off to an exciting start. Can't wait to visit later this year!