Welcome to Corner to Corner. This blog is to keep everyone updated on the happenings in my life. From teaching shenanigans, to traveling around Korea and Asia.
Today I am sitting in my living room in downtown Portland, definitely procrastinating packing up my apartment. I'm leaving Thursday.
I recently accepted a job in Korea, teaching English as a second language. Of course, I left all the big stuff like packing to the last minute.
Did I know this was going to happen? Yes.
Did I have enough time to prepare for the move? Also, Yes
Did I do anything to lessen this last minute scramble? Absolutely, Not!!
A little background if you're new around here, or are just curious and wondering how all of this happened. A few years ago while I was finishing up my bachelor's at Portland State University, I decided I wanted to travel and see more of the world but do it while making money. At first, I thought, "I'll get my master's in Germany and also get to see a different part of the world". The problem with that is that I absolutely hated school. I had been working towards my bachelor's for over the average 4 years and was tired of papers and tests. Then a few wonderful people entered my life and inspired me to go after teaching abroad as a way to travel and get some new perspective on the world.
With this new plan in action, I finished school and graduated in 2018.
I definitely hit some bumps in the road because, as we all know, nothing ever goes as planned. My biggest bump was love. I had just started dating my boyfriend Alex at the beginning of 2018. I let him know early on that this was my plan, he wasn't immediately turned away and just asked that we take it a day at a time. As our relationship progressed, he decided that he wanted to join me.
We took our TEFL certification together in spring of 2019, and started looking for jobs in the fall. I got a job pretty quickly and was so excited but also completely mortified because Alex hadn't heard anything from any schools. If he didn't hear from any schools that meant we would be apart for a few months. I don't know about anyone else out there, but we are pretty obsessed with each other. The thought of being apart that long was terrifying.
In the end, we got pretty lucky and it's all been working out for us. Alex will be joining me in Korea in a few weeks rather than months. So the packing has commenced.
If you are anything like myself you definitely understand the paralyzing anxiety that comes with making big life decisions and packing up your whole life. I have no problem with making the decisions, it's the details and follow up that really get me in all up in knots.
I'll wrap things up here and finally get to packing up our apartment. I sure will miss Portland and all the friends I made while living here. Korea is an exciting change though, and I can't wait to keep you all posted.
