The scenario: you're brand new in a completely different culture and climate. This is your first week. Your first need is to survive. These skills are much like tourist skills, but are harder if you're going to live somewhere for a long time.

One way to view the situation is as personal space. On the first day, you need to know where your belongings are, where you'll sleep, who your host is, and how to get the basic necessities of life (food, the bathroom, etc.) That's not a lot of personal space, but many people need to know that there is somewhere that is their little part of the world. It helps you feel that you have some control over your life.

Ask your host how you get clothes laundered. And you'll minimize a potential tension point if you know how much your accommodation costs and to whom you should pay as early as possible. Of course, you'll want to communicate with people "back home" either by email, telephone or postcard.

During the next few days, make sure you get plenty of rest because the change to a new place is usually inexplicably tiring. Unpack and organize your things, and take some walks around the neighborhood to expand your personal space. Make your own map and draw in landmarks that you notice. You'll soon start to feel familiar with your area, and local people might start to recognize you.

A common initial reaction to a new culture at this stage is to love it. Everything seems novel and fun. That's why it’s a good idea to take your camera and get photos now, because later on you won't even notice many things that are radically different from your home country.

Meet your new co-workers. Try some local food. Go to local shops, and visit the city centre.

Get someone to explain a little about the public transport and try it a couple of times. You might need instruction on how to prevent your belongings from being stolen. But you can expand your personal space to the size of a city when you know you can catch public transport anywhere you want without help and get yourself home again. (It's amazing that some people go for years without using the public transport, and their personal space is very limited.)

All the time you're learning lots more than you think:

• a new daily schedule,
• how to live in a different climate,
• how not to offend your host family,
• how to dress according to local dress standards (as opposed to tourist dress standards)
• the layout of the town, and
• how to sleep. 

The last one isn't so obvious, but you'll know what I mean if you've ever moved to a new bed with a different mattress in a noisy room. How about all-night mosquitoes, late night or early morning traffic, a 4.00 a.m. mosque call over a loudspeaker, quarter-hourly bell chimes all through the night, or full sunlight from the first rays of dawn?)

The next step is to become a little more independent. Learn how to greet people, get money from the bank, get a feel for how much buying power the currency has, and buy your basic personal supplies.

Some people find shopping very threatening. If you want an particular item, it might be in a specific kind of shop in a specific part of town.

When you find the shop, you might be unable to find the item you want. Perhaps you don't know the local word for it. You might find that they don't have the same sort that you have back home but have an equivalent product that is totally unfamiliar to you. You might be unable to choose because:

• none of the brands are familiar
• you don't know what quality to expect
• you don't know what price you should pay
• you don't know your consumer rights (Will I be able to get a refund if the item doesn't work? How do I get a guarantee and will it be valuable or worthless?)
• You might not even know the buying procedure (bargain, ask for a discount, pay the full price to the person behind a counter, get a note to take to the cashier, or something else.)

You'll figure out all these things fairly soon, even faster if you're an experienced tourist.

Later, you can make superficial friendships, although you might be swamped with friendly people, for example, students who want to practice their English.

All the cultural theory is absolutely important, but not necessarily much help at first unless you're unusually observant. You'll probably be preoccupied with more superficial things like the unusual water containers, or the way people design houses, unusual clothes, fancy public buildings, different traffic rules, and unusual modes of transport.

You might be given a list of cultural "rules" to follow. Superficial things can be extremely important; so just follow the rules for now, but understand that almost certainly there are good reasons for them. Ask questions, but don't expect to understand everything straight away. Just accept that to them, it makes perfect sense.

BIG Hint: Keep a diary of your questions and the answers your were given, your observations, and things to which you had to adjust.

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