Six months in and I can already see the mistakes I made in week one. If you could go back and tell your just-arrived self one thing, what would it be? Let's save the newcomers some pain.
Rajesh's digital copies point, plus: name the files properly. "scan_0034.pdf" at 11pm the night before an appointment is its own special kind of misery.
Find the free things first. Library card, parks, the community centre noticeboard. I spent money on things my neighbours got for nothing because I didn't know to ask.
Diego, the scan_0034 thing is painfully real. I've started renaming everything with the date first and it has already saved me twice this month.
Buy the good winter coat locally. The one from home is never the right kind.
Call home even when you have nothing to report. For my first year I only called when there was news, good or bad, and my mum told me later she got nervous every time my name came up on her phone. Now it's a boring ten-minute call every Sunday and everyone is happier, including me.
Mild addition to my own point: keep the paper originals together too. Digital copies got me through most things, but one office insisted on seeing an original birth certificate and I had to dig through three boxes to find it.
Write down the name of every person who helps you at an office, and the date. When something goes missing later, "I spoke to Aoife on the 12th" works much better than "someone told me".
You will not use the bread maker. Leave the bread maker.
Say yes to the first three invitations, even the boring-sounding ones. Two of my closest friends here came from a barbecue I nearly skipped.