Y
ou signed your first lease
contract. The boxes have
been unpacked. The kids
are off to their first day
of school and your partner heads to
work. And you thought that the hard
part was behind you. The minutiae of
settling into a new city starts only once
you have ticked all the major tasks
off your move list. Unlike everything
you meticulously planned for thus far,
the process of making your new city
feel like home requires patience and
investment of your time. The silver
lining is that the city is filled with
opportunities to make meaningful
relationships, because everyone who
chose to move to Hong Kong did so
for the same reasons – the pursuit of
adventure and new possibilities.
A mental shift
Mawgan Batt, founder of The HK
Hub
) and who
first moved here with her family in
2011, says, “There is no point in living
here and not giving it your all. The
first thing to do is drop the ‘this is
only temporary’ mentality, because
it restricts what you make of your
experience. When you think of your
new city as a permanent home, you are
making a commitment and it changes
how you approach and invest in your
relationships.” Mawgan lived in
London for ten years but has stopped
referring to London as “home” and
sees it more as a city to go back to for
vacations.
When Vicki Easton relocated
to Hong Kong from Abu Dhabi, she
and her fiancée expected it to be a
temporary stop before making a more
permanent home in Macau. They
weren’t sure how long they would stay
in Hong Kong, so they made a bucket
list of all they wanted to do. Three
years later, they are still here. Vicki
says, “It’s really important to decide
what experience you want to have in
Hong
At home
in
Kong
You’ve heard that Hong Kong is a vibrant
city, full of new experiences just waiting to be
tried. But, if the whole process of settling in
seems a bit daunting,
Aquin Dennison-Mathew
offers these tips for getting started.
May 2014
55
