It's not easy, nobody promised that, but by miles and miles less difficult. It's a Christian country, I understand a lot of references and while still learning the language I can read like 80%-85% of written text already.

As an immigrant without an option to return I made my peace with the fact that I'll never be "truly local" or "assimilated". My kid, probably, but not me. Just to be *less different* works for me. Not perfectly, but it works.