I recently made it to a new country where I’m studying and hopefully will migrate to. It’s been a while since I last talked here and things then were very difficult for me. Thank you for your support then I really needed it. It’s still difficult to be honest but I’ve been doing so much better here. It took me years of seriously looking into and over a year of getting legal stuff lined up and doubling down on savings.

I’ve gone through a divorce and watching multiple good friendships dissolve over long distance. I’ve been fighting with bureaucracy every day, I don’t have a phone plan or internet at my home yet because of it. Without a phone plan I can’t connect to the internet to translate stuff or get directions anywhere when I’m away from the school wifi. I miss my cat but for now he’s being fostered by really good people who love him.

But I’m here, I’m away from the US, I’m making it work every day. I already know a lot of basics about what I’m choosing to study here so I’m spending most of my effort early on building new relationships and helping other students learn. I’m project lead in our current assignment which isn’t something I thought I’d like but I think I’m actually not bad at it. I’m really proud of what I’m doing in part because it’s so difficult for me and I’m pulling it off.

  • khannie@lemmy.world
    10·
    12 days ago

    Firstly, congratulations on the big move! That’s awesome! Well done!

    Without a phone plan I can’t connect to the internet to translate stuff or get directions anywhere when I’m away from the school wifi

    On both of these:

    • The Google translate app allows you to download a full dictionary while on wifi that you can use without an internet connection. I used this in China a lot as my SIM didn’t work there (and neither would anything google). You can even just point your camera at foreign text and have it auto translate (this is a bid dodgy at times but generally gets you the jist).
    • For directions you can get an open source app called “Comaps” which allows you to download a whole region and use it offline. Here’s their download page. It’s very good.
    • Ms. ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zipOP
      3·
      12 days ago

      I’ve downloaded the offline dictionary twice but it still keeps telling me it can’t translate without the internet x.x For the time being I’m just slowly getting better at reading Swedish so at least I’m not totally illiterate in a grocery store, but I still often run into things like the other day took me nearly 20 minutes to figure out which sugar was powdered…

      I’ll have to look into Comaps! Having an offline region would help so much. I’m still nearly a month out before I have the right paperwork to get a phone plan assuming everything gets handled quickly and I don’t to apply for anything more than once. The paperwork here is for real

      • khannie@lemmy.world
        2·
        12 days ago

        Oof. I’ll try it out in the morning and see if I can figure out what I did before to get the translate working offline.

        I did test out comaps offline earlier and it worked a treat.