Taking the Plunge

To say that I haven't written a blog post in a long time is a massive understatement.

In my last blog post, I talked about the things that I would and would not miss about my first teaching gig. That was at the end of May... in 2014. 16 months have passed, almost to the day. That's a really long time to neglect my blog. Oops.

In the meantime, I spent the summer of 2014 traveling westward to two of my favorite places in the world, California and Arizona, where we celebrated my grandpa's 80th birthday and explored the places I grew up.

I also had my first full year of teaching at the high school that is now so near and dear to my heart, and boy was that year a whirlwind. Thus, the lack of posts here. More on that school year later, mostly because I want to be able to reminisce about one of the best/most stressful and tiring years of my life.

The summer of 2015 was spent traveling the country, again, but this time we traveled both east and west, to Arizona and to Florida, to spend time with family and meet my adorable nephew. Again, more on those later. We also spent the summer selling, packing, and storing nearly all of our belongings, moving out of our house and into Patrick's parent's house, and generally preparing (as much as we could) to take the plunge and move overseas, which brings me to where we are now: Birmingham, England. It's so strange typing that - acknowledging, yet again but on a different platform, this strange, new reality.

It has not been an easy transition for either of us, but I've had an exceptionally difficult time with it. I'll definitely delve more into that subject later as well, because Lord knows I've had plenty of time to do some serious introspection.

I've put off and blogging about this whole process because it's a bit overwhelming to try to break it down into manageable bits; there's just so much, and it all kind of weaves into itself and then all over the place, like one giant bowl of spaghetti (which kind of resembles the ridiculous streets here, too). That being said, I think I'm ready to take the plunge and start chronicling this ridiculous and awesome journey that we're on.

- - -

So the question is, where am I going to go from here? What will I use this blog to talk about? What kinds of things will I be posting, and how often will I post?

As for how often I'll post, that still remains to be seen. Going from not posting at all over the past year and a half to posting regularly will be interesting, but I do enjoy writing, and I need something to do with my time other than work, read, and go shopping for groceries. That being said, if I do it like I should, there will be new posts on a semi-regular basis.

My amazing sister-in-love, Rachel, has gone through a similar process of displacement and is in the stages of their grand adventure winding down. Patrick's brother, Jonathan, has been in Med school in the Caribbean (they're currently in Miami, FL), and they started that crazy journey by moving to the Bahamas. During the past few years, she has written plenty of blog posts about moving from Texas to a tropical island, and I found myself scouring her blog in search for those posts that I could SO relate to. They actually inspired me to get going on MY blog, so I took note of a few of her posts that I will cover in the future. I definitely plan on talking about the following things, but I have a whole list of other upcoming posts as well...
- The decisions that got us here in the first place, and how difficult it was to get here
- Packing and preparing for our move, and things that I wish we had/hadn't packed
- The Apartment Saga (because, believe me, it was a freaking saga)
- Living the nomad life: accounts of living life in a hotel, in other people's apartments, etc.
- What I wish I knew about moving abroad, about Birmingham, about England, etc.
- What I miss most, plus my favorite things about living here
- Our adventures abroad, in lands previously unknown to us, of course!

I asked those who follow me on Instagram to ask me questions about our life in England, and I absolutely LOVE the questions that have been thrown at me! Some of them have really made me think, and that's a really good thing. I'll be addressing them all for sure, but most of them I'm going to try to vlog and post on my youtube channel. I'm sure I'll talk about some of them here, though, so here is a list of the questions that have been asked thus far:
- When did you move to England? What brought you there and for how long do you think you'll be there?
- What mantra do you find yourself repeating to help you remember to stay positive?
- What songs have been on the top of your playlist during the move?
- Do people treat you differently when they hear your American accent?
- How was your first experience of a cheeky Nando's? (I love the humor of my students, by the way!)
- Have you been pretty saucy lately? (Again, I love their humor!)
- In 3 words, how would you describe the move?
- How many Brits have you asked, "You have a lovely accent, where are you from?"
- What's the best thing thus far about living abroad?
- Is there much of a language barrier? ;) (You'd be surprised... can't wait to talk about that one!)
- What do you think the biggest difference is in how Brits live their everyday lives? How is their focus or drive different?
- Are the Brits generally friendly?
- What's the food like?
- What will you be doing with your time while Patrick is in classes?

- - -

I won't be offended at all if you don't read these silly posts of mine; however, if you do make it through my ramblings, I would be tickled pink if you leave me a comment - here, on my IG, or on youtube. The days here, especially the mornings, can be rather lonely, and it brings me so much joy to be able to communicate with people who are dear to my heart.

That's all she wrote, folks. I'm off to begrudgingly drink a cup of tea (coffee is better) and read my book... or something like that. ;)