general advice for anyone who finds themselves moving to another country in the near future for whatever reason:

1) it's more expensive than you think. yes, even after you take this into account. Don't be surprised or ashamed if you end up needing to borrow money from friends and family to cover the short-term spike in expenses.

2) get rid of as much Stuff as you possibly can. My employer gave me about $4000 for relocation expenses but that only covered one large shipping crate that fit my clothes, books, etc. It was way cheaper and easier to give away all my furniture and replace it on the other side.

3) That crate took something like nine weeks to arrive, it was absolutely worth it to pay for an extra suitcase on my flight to cram as many necessities into as possible.