The best thing you can do when moving to a new city as a relocated partner is to make life in that city your own.

Sure, your partner has the most obvious purpose - the job that brought you both over-  but if you act like you’re just along for the ride, you won’t be able to make the most of your experience. You’ll be bored, homesick, discontent and possibly even resentful.

Avoid all of this by building your own life and your own relationship with your city and the people in it. It is a proven fact that you will be happier if you create a local support system of friends instead relying too much on people from home. Still call your mother and best friend every day, but also make an effort to meet your neighbours and other people like you.

Almost every city has at least one women’s group, and in big cities, there are dozens to choose from. An easy place to start is with people from your country. New York City has a Canadian Women’s Club, Thailand has an Australia-New Zealand Women’s Club, Kuwait has a British Ladies Society and almost every large city abroad has an American Women’s Club.

Volunteering is a great place to meet other women, especially if you do it through women’s clubs that are open to all nationalities. If you’re in the U.S. there is probably a Junior League chapter near you (there are also a few abroad), and every major city will have at least one, if not several, international women’s clubs. And while volunteering is the stated purpose, there’s no shortage of social opportunities as well.

A good place to start to search for women’s clubs is in ExpatWomen.com country pages.

Being a relocated partner might also give you a chance to make a change of career, improve in your favourite sport, or become an expert in your hobby. Take advantage of the clean slate and the free time if you have it to cross something off your master to-do list. Or become an expert on a certain area of your city (a neighbourhood or a type of cuisine, for example), and start a blog about it!

On a purely social front, join groups and do activities with your partner that will put you in touch with like-minded people. These could be wine clubs, running clubs, tennis clubs, sailing groups, cooking classes or places of worship.

As with almost everything in life and everything in moving abroad, the more you put into it the more you get out if it. So make the effort and commit to making it your home.