Qs about moving overseas for first time

[caden]

Hello IN! I'm tentatively joining you because we just found out yesterday my DH is getting sent to Korea for 3 years for work. (Still needs HR approval so it's not 100% but very likely). Do you ladies have any advice about moving overseas? What to pack or not pack? We have 2 kids (3.5 yrs) so we have a ton of kids crap. I'm torn on whether or not to bring a stroller because ours is huge (twins) and I don't use it regularly here, but if we went somewhere that required a lot of walking I would. I'm also starting to notice all the random things that plug in. (Ex. Sonicare toothbrushes) Do you buy a bunch of converters? Just buy new overseas? Is it a big deal to move a bunch of non-perishable food items?

[dulcemariamar]

What kind of expat package will your DH get? Do you already have housing set up? Are you moving to a city? Town?

Will his company pay to ship everything? Are you going to buy everything new? Will you rent your place out?

Just trying to get a feel about your moving situation before I make some suggestions.

[GilliC]

We bought a ton of plug adapters. My appliances are from three different countries now, so I have plug adapters all over my flat permanently. The problematic items will be things that need voltage conversion.

ETA - you'll find converters much cheaper online than anywhere local. Check Amazon and places like DealExtreme. And watch out for polarized US plugs, because they don't always fit in some converters.

Pack a supply of your favorite deodorant.

[anna7602]

DD was 3.5 when we moved to France. We did not take the stroller. We didn't have a car there, either. She walked a lot, but she was also pretty used to that from living in NY before. Also, it's probably infinitely easier to get 1 child to "hustle" when you're trying to get to school or wherever quickly than if you have 2 kids. I will say, however, that the one friend who came to visit me in Paris with a double stroller in tow had a heck of a time fitting that thing through store entrances, subway gates, on buses, etc. We ended up doing a lot more walking than she anticipated because Parisian public transportation just isn't designed for double strollers. So, in your case, I would look into how much a stroller will make your life easier v. make it more complicated.

We didn't bring all that many toys, but acquired a fair amount of new ones. I found that there was a shift around 3.5 or 4 regarding the kinds of toys and books DD liked. Most of the things she played with before that (except for maybe her toy kitchen/play cooking stuff) became obsolete. But around age 4, she got really into Playmobil, for example. She got a crap load of Playmobil for her 4th and 5th birthdays. I probably wouldn't move anything but the most precious toys at 3.5. We were able to fit toys, books and dress-up clothes into one suit case for DD on the way over.

I bought a new electric toothbrush overseas. I think it was 30 Euros or so. I bought an adapter for my computer, however, and for electronics like our Kindle, iPod, etc.

The moving companies we got quotes from when we moved back to the US wouldn't let us move any non-perishable food items (which is sad because I built up an amazing spice collection in France). I ended up just putting the hardest-to-find/most necessary things in my suitcase and finding a good home for the rest of my non-perishables when we moved back. I don't know anything about Korea, but maybe you could research/ask around if there are certain products you cook with a lot to find out if they're easily available there. And sometimes, you just need to suck it up and realize you'll pay twice the amount and have to travel halfway across town to find a product you could easily find back at home instead of giving up the precious real estate in your suitcase.

[anna7602]

What's the deal with Korean deodorant, neeps and GilliC?

[caden]

Mar 7, 2014 7:49:22 GMT -5 dulcemariamar said:

What kind of expat package will your DH get? Do you already have housing set up? Are you moving to a city? Town?

Will his company pay to ship everything? Are you going to buy everything new? Will you rent your place out?

Just trying to get a feel about your moving situation before I make some suggestions.

Sorry I should have included more details. I don't know all the details about this but I'll answer as much as I can.
-we'd be moving to Seoul, so big city living, but they have single family homes, townhouse type things and high rises available and I don't know what we'll pick yet.
-no housing yet. Will hopefully go this month to get it and then move in June.
-yes his company will pay to ship. No clue if there are limits. The housing will include furniture, maybe dishes.
-we just sold our house and moved in with family so we have a home to store our stuff and we don't have anything to rent out.
-not sure if I should buy new or bring my own stuff.

[anna7602]

Are you paying for your own housing over there? Is renting a furnished place an option or would it be prohibitively expensive?

I quite liked leaving most of my stuff in the U.S. and renting a furnished place for our 1.5 year gig abroad.

[caden]

Mar 7, 2014 15:16:51 GMT -5 anna7602 said:

Are you paying for your own housing over there? Is renting a furnished place an option or would it be prohibitively expensive?

I quite liked leaving most of my stuff in the U.S. and renting a furnished place for our 1.5 year gig abroad.

yes they're paying for housing and I believe the rentals come furnished. I'm not entirely sure what furnished means. Furniture obviously but I don't know about kitchen stuff, etc.

[UnderProtest]

caden. I'll let you know about the stroller and kids stuff after we have settled a bit. We just moved to London with 2.5 year old twins. What kind of stroller do you have? Page me in a couple weeks to remind me.

And start throwing stuff away now!!! We just spent the day with the movers and even though we did a massive purge before selling our house, we still have way too much stuff. We even had a small house in the US, sent a ton to storage and have a big house here and it's way too much!

My husband's company moved us and we were not allowed bringing any food items here. We had to purge! My poor parents ended up with a bunch of random food, spices, aerosols, gas tanks and alcohol (okay, they liked this last one).

Feel free to ask any questions while it's still fresh in my mind.

[caden]

Mar 7, 2014 17:44:08 GMT -5 UnderProtest said:

caden. I'll let you know about the stroller and kids stuff after we have settled a bit. We just moved to London with 2.5 year old twins. What kind of stroller do you have? Page me in a couple weeks to remind me.

And start throwing stuff away now!!! We just spent the day with the movers and even though we did a massive purge before selling our house, we still have way too much stuff. We even had a small house in the US, sent a ton to storage and have a big house here and it's way too much!

My husband's company moved us and we were not allowed bringing any food items here. We had to purge! My poor parents ended up with a bunch of random food, spices, aerosols, gas tanks and alcohol (okay, they liked this last one).

Feel free to ask any questions while it's still fresh in my mind.

Congrats!! Hope your move went well!

I have a city mini double. Also a city select but I haven't used that in a year at least so I'm going to sell it. I only use the CMD at the zoo or places like that, if I'm by myself.

If you have any twin-specific advice please dispense it all on me. I'm a wee bit terrified to fly with them on a long flight. And I am used to suburban living, where we'd be city living in Seoul so that intimidates me too.

[alleinesein]

audette lives in Korea- for some reason I cant tag her in this post so I sent her a PM and told her to pop into this thread.  You might also be able to sort through some of her older posts because I know she posted some stuff about their move.

ETA- yay...got the stupid tag feature to finally work!!

[UnderProtest]

Mar 7, 2014 18:35:51 GMT -5 caden said:

Mar 7, 2014 17:44:08 GMT -5 UnderProtest said:

caden. I'll let you know about the stroller and kids stuff after we have settled a bit. We just moved to London with 2.5 year old twins. What kind of stroller do you have? Page me in a couple weeks to remind me.

And start throwing stuff away now!!! We just spent the day with the movers and even though we did a massive purge before selling our house, we still have way too much stuff. We even had a small house in the US, sent a ton to storage and have a big house here and it's way too much!

My husband's company moved us and we were not allowed bringing any food items here. We had to purge! My poor parents ended up with a bunch of random food, spices, aerosols, gas tanks and alcohol (okay, they liked this last one).

Feel free to ask any questions while it's still fresh in my mind.

Congrats!! Hope your move went well!

I have a city mini double. Also a city select but I haven't used that in a year at least so I'm going to sell it. I only use the CMD at the zoo or places like that, if I'm by myself.

If you have any twin-specific advice please dispense it all on me. I'm a wee bit terrified to fly with them on a long flight. And I am used to suburban living, where we'd be city living in Seoul so that intimidates me too.

Not as familiar with Seoul, but in London a side by side stroller won't work. Everything is too narrow to use a wide stroller. I have the city select and I will let you know how well it works in an urban environment. It was just delivered yesterday so we haven't had a chance to use it. I'm pretty sure I won't be able to manage it on the underground, but it should be fine on the bus and sidewalks. 

I was terrified of the flight too, although ours was a 7 hour direct (red eye) flight.  The best thing I can say is to fight your husband's work to pay for business/first class.  I had never flown it before so I didn't know the luxury it involved. We took their car seats (britax has a little cart you can use in the airport where it carries the seat and the kid- this was a HUGE help) and then attached them to the plane seat. We brought along their loveys, snacks and a bunch of new toys and books in fun rolling backpacks that they carried. They never even touched them.  We were in pods with our own little TVs and headsets. They aren't allowed tv at home so non stop movies was a huge treat. We were also fed decent food (including Ben and Jerry's ice cream and fresh fruit) that my kids ate.  The best thing was the pods though.  People really couldn't hear if they fussed or cried. It was such a relief on a long flight. 

[frlcb]

Mar 7, 2014 18:35:51 GMT -5 caden said:

Mar 7, 2014 17:44:08 GMT -5 UnderProtest said:

caden. I'll let you know about the stroller and kids stuff after we have settled a bit. We just moved to London with 2.5 year old twins. What kind of stroller do you have? Page me in a couple weeks to remind me.

And start throwing stuff away now!!! We just spent the day with the movers and even though we did a massive purge before selling our house, we still have way too much stuff. We even had a small house in the US, sent a ton to storage and have a big house here and it's way too much!

My husband's company moved us and we were not allowed bringing any food items here. We had to purge! My poor parents ended up with a bunch of random food, spices, aerosols, gas tanks and alcohol (okay, they liked this last one).

Feel free to ask any questions while it's still fresh in my mind.

Congrats!! Hope your move went well!

I have a city mini double. Also a city select but I haven't used that in a year at least so I'm going to sell it. I only use the CMD at the zoo or places like that, if I'm by myself.

If you have any twin-specific advice please dispense it all on me. I'm a wee bit terrified to fly with them on a long flight. And I am used to suburban living, where we'd be city living in Seoul so that intimidates me too.

Don't be terrified of the flight with kids (putting aside our discussion on CE&P about flying in general!). They will be a good age for it, 1-2 is the worst. Bring some sort of ipad/tablet for them, lots of stickers (reusable ones are good), lollipops are good for ears and wasting time, bandaids are always good because they can be stuck on things and removed, triangular crayons are awesome because they won't roll off the tray table, I would pack some new toys/books they haven't seen and bring special snacks they don't normally get. At 3.5 I wouldn't bring their car seats on board.

[GilliC]

Mar 7, 2014 14:40:28 GMT -5 anna7602 said:

What's the deal with Korean deodorant, neeps and GilliC?

It's not Korea specifically. In china I had a tough time finding any deodorant at all, and in Norway I can't find any that works well for me. It seems that if you're not into basic roll-on, much of the world does not stock many options.

I've been out of the US for 9 years, and I still buy all of my antiperspirant in the US.

[Deleted]

Mar 8, 2014 10:18:58 GMT -5 GilliC said:

Mar 7, 2014 14:40:28 GMT -5 anna7602 said:

What's the deal with Korean deodorant, neeps and GilliC?

It's not Korea specifically. In china I had a tough time finding any deodorant at all, and in Norway I can't find any that works well for me. It seems that if you're not into basic roll-on, much of the world does not stock many options.

I've been out of the US for 9 years, and I still buy all of my antiperspirant in the US.

Yep, same in southern Africa. I've had my mom send me deodorant ever since I've been here. I can't get down with the roll-on.

OP, I don't have much specific advice, since my move was much different than yours, but good luck!

[allibally]

Since you commented about the streets and sidewalks of Seoul neeps are kids scooters a thing there?

In Zurich once littles ones were out of strollers they moved to using scooters and rolled along next to mom. Maybe that would be an option for you? It's fun and has them moving a little bit faster. 3.5 would be the right age.

[dorothyinAus]

I'm in Australia, so I can't help with anything specific to Korea, but I second the recommendation to pack a HUGE supply of your favorite deodorant. And if you have sensitive skin or allergies, I would suggest beings a large supply of stuff you know you can use so you have time to test locally available stuff. Also, I suggest packing a good supply of your favorite over-the-counter medications so you have something you can take if you need it before you have time to figure out what's available there.

I moved permanently, so the only electrics I brought were my cell phone, iPod, and my laptop, but I knew I could get local chargers for both in Australia. Everything else I re-bought once I was in Australia.

Good luck!

[potatopie]

I second the medication. I never liked having to figure out what's the equivalent, and sometimes the things we have are just better.

Also, don't know about makeup in Korea, but it's often more expensive outside of the US, and hard to find the specific items/brands you like.

Even if a place is furnished, pack your most important (small) kitchen items in your luggage. don't ship it. It sucks when you're waiting 6 weeks for a shipment to arrive and you really need your favorite spatula or something like that. Furnished places can often be minimum in terms of kitchen supplies.

[allibally]

Mar 9, 2014 4:10:32 GMT -5 potatopie said:

Also, don't know about makeup in Korea, but it's often more expensive outside of the US, and hard to find the specific items/brands you like.

Oh good point. Might not be able to find your shade in Foundation. But Korea does have awesome BB Creams. And some fun cosmetics a friend has shown me. But definitely back extras of any American favorites.

[GilliC]

A bit more general work-move advice...

Find out what kind of medical plan you'll be on and see if you can find out where the appropriate hospital is. We did this on our house hunting trip, and it was kind of a relief to already know where to go if there was an emergency.

See if your employer will cover a few nights in a hotel when you first arrive. That will give you a chance to figure out what essentials you're missing from your furnished apartment. Remember that a "furnished" place is different from a "service apartment" which would have dishes, cookware, sheets, towels, etc. we landed in Beijing and arrived at our furnished apartment we'd rented only to realize we had no sheets or towels! Lucky for us we had done friends already living in the same building, so they completely hooked us up for the first few days or we'd have been sleeping on a bare mattress and dripping dry!

Another thing to ask about is tax assistance. Will the company hire someone to handle your Korean taxes? What about your US taxes? The US ex-pat tax return is not very straightforward, and fir the year you move abroad it can be a total nightmare! Especially if you move late in the year. We moved in October and couldn't file our return until late the next year because of the physical presence test.

Do you have pets? Are they coming? Whole new can of worms there. Pet relocation services are easiest but expensive. My company wouldn't cover this. We moved two cats to Norway ourselves, and it was not easy.

E-books are the greatest thing ever. I don't have a Kindle, but I use the Kindle app. It's so nice being able to buy almost any English book without dealing with international shipping. If you don't like reading on a backlit device, you might consider investing in an e-reader. Bonus: e-books are so much easier to move!

[caden]

Thank you all for the tips! You guys are super helpful. I'll be bookmarking this.

For those of you with kids, if you moved to a non-English speaking country, did you bring all your kids' books? Just a few? DH & I have kindles (agree e-books are the best thing ever) but I don't want my kids reading on iPads because they can't handle it and will want to play with it all day.

[audette]

*pops into post for a quick post and run* Work has been nutbar the last two weeks, so I've barely had time to breathe, much less go to fun places online like here. alleinesein sent me a PM when she had trouble tagging me in this post, though.

My husband and I live in Korea. A little bit outside of Seoul, but not horrendously far. We have the advantage of being able to shop on base for US type goods (DH is military, and we're on orders in Korea). That helps for us, because some American goods can be hard to find on the Korean economy, or they can be very expensive.

It's a tossup with the stroller. Yeah, most places will be wide enough for it, but baby-wearing is _huge_ in Korea, and a lot of places will have an oddball step or two here or there. They will have a ramp, somewhere, to get around it, but it might be inconvenient.

Neeps is right about the land of Dunkin Donuts. Crazy number of those all over. Baskin Robbins, too. Be prepared for these to cost more than in the US, though. There are also a number of local bakery chains that are pretty big.

We have no kids ourselves, but do know some folks that have children with them. Koreans almost revere children. The kids seem to get a lot of positive attention, although I've had a few friends comment that sometimes the Korean ajumas get quite close to the kids, more so than they were initially comfortable with.


Get the details from your husband's company on shipping restrictions (they'll have some, and there is no way to know what they are until you get the details from them).


Will your husband be working for a Korean company? Or at an office that is staffed mostly by Koreans? The working hours seem to be quite long and late in Korea, at least as far as I can tell. Many shops/businesses (even coffee shops) don't open in our area until 10am, because there just isn't a customer base before that to warrant opening. The few folks I know that work for Korean employers, though, indicate they have a pretty exhausting schedule. There seems to be a certain expectation of employee socializing after hours, too.


Um... I find a lot of the produce is fairly seasonal at the Korean stores near me. Some things I just can't get in winter (unless I buy them on base), and some things I can't get in summer. So if your kids are picky eaters, it might help to get the word from your neighbours on where to get the out of season stuff (I assume in Seoul there are shops that will carry such, although they might be expensive).


Anyways, my flight back home to Korea is in the morning, and I should have gone to sleep a couple hours ago by now. Feel free to PM me any specific Korea questions, and I'll try to check on this thread again after I am home and online again.

[anna7602]

Mar 8, 2014 10:18:58 GMT -5 GilliC said:

Mar 7, 2014 14:40:28 GMT -5 anna7602 said:

What's the deal with Korean deodorant, neeps and GilliC?

It's not Korea specifically. In china I had a tough time finding any deodorant at all, and in Norway I can't find any that works well for me. It seems that if you're not into basic roll-on, much of the world does not stock many options.

I've been out of the US for 9 years, and I still buy all of my antiperspirant in the US.

My favorite deodorants are all foreign!

[Deleted]

After living here a little while, here is what we consistently bring back from the U.S./other places:
- deodorant (all the expats I know do the same)
- tampons - I'd check a Korea specific site for info on that; in China most women use pads so tampons are hard to find and very expensive
- makeup and face lotion (a lot of them in Asia have whitening agents) I will buy mascara, eyeliner, and lip stuff here though
- shampoo and conditioner bc I have really oily hair and the only clarifying shampoos I have seen here go for $20+/bottle nope nope nope
- candy - this shouldn't be as much of a problem in Korea
- shoes - I wear a size 9 and it is really hard to find shoes that size, plus quality shoes are so much more expensive in China - prices should be better in Korea, but size might still be an issue
- OTC drugs, like cold medicine pain killers, Benedryl; I also originally brought a year supply of my BC and other prescription medication

We really only brought personal electronics with us - MacBooks, Apple TV, electric toothbrush, phones, etc. nothing that required a converter. We didn't bring any kitchen electronics or other small appliances. If you do decide to make sure you get good converters, cheap ones you run a very high risk of frying your stuff. We bought a toaster, rice cooker, hair dryer, and have gotten by using those just fine. I know appliances are supposed to be even less expensive in Korea than they are in China, so that is what I'd recommend doing.

I brought some things to make our apartment feel less like a hotel - 4 or 5 picture frames, a small wedding photo book, and our wedding guest book. I also brought stuff that was older that I will be okay with not bringing home with us - blankets, sheets, towels, kitchen stuff; we had a set shipment amount and I knew we would accumulate some souvenirs and such while we were here so I know we'll have room on the way home when I don't take that stuff

And a random item, I brought measuring cups and spoons, because its hard to find those and expensive to buy them with U.S. measurements. All my cookbooks use U.S. measurements and I didn't want to mess with trying to convert.

[Deleted]

No experience with Korea, but I know a lot of people who have been stationed there (military), and I'm currently in the UK, so I'll chime in with a few things:

- Electronics: US uses 110 voltage, Korea uses 220. MOST electronics that do not contain a heating element or a motor will be fine on just a plug converter. Check the tag next to the plug (or the AC/DC converter) to be sure. Your laptop and TV should be fine. Game systems may or may not (though note that Korea might have a different format for video game disks/DVDs, etc). Your coffee maker, toaster, blender, vacuum, etc will require a good voltage converter. Our move was temporary (3 years) so we put a converter in the living room (for DVD player, etc), one in the kitchen (for kitchen appliances), and one in the office that we use to charge all of our miscellaneous stuff like toothbrushes, razors, dust buster, etc. We run an extension cord from this one to run our Dyson.

- TV. I have no idea what the TV format is in Korea, but at least in the UK we just use HDMI for everything and the format is fine. I believe HDMI is universal, so as long as you can connect to an HDMI output (whether the signal is technically hi-def or not) you should be fine. We brought our US DVD player and DVDs, but we also bought a cheapie UK DVD player (like 25 pounds) so we can watch UK-format DVDs if we want. Honestly, we mostly use Netflix and Apple TV (amazon prime streaming doesn't work here), and aren't really watching many DVDs anymore. You MAY have issues watching your favorite US TV shows -- there are some ways around the geographic blocking that a lot of American TV sites use, and these ladies can educate you on that. We get a lot of US shows on our satellite package, so it's NBD to us. If you are big sports fans, I recommend looking into whole-season internet viewing packages (we splurge on an NFL.com package and NCAA because H is a huge sports fan and it's worth it to us). Keep in mind the time difference before you spend a lot of money -- you might not watch games in the middle of the night or the middle of the work day (we don't).

- Packing. Get specifics on how much volume/weight the company will pay to ship for you. Personally, having moved around a lot, I get pretty attached to my "stuff" and a place just doesn't feel like home without some of our furnishings -- I'm mostly talking about pictures/art, bedding, and a few special pieces of furniture.