Living Abroad

I was 18 and leaving home for the first time.

I was a homebody for the first 18 years of my life.

The two times I had left and been out on my own

was when I was 14 going to Church Camp for a week,

and when I was 16 going on a choir trip to Colorado.

So that's two weeks out of my life that I chose to leave home

and I'll be honest, both occasions were terrifying.

I loved being home, with my family and friends,

there was nothing happening that would surprise me.

Everything was normal, easy and safe!

Then I went to University in AR and lived

on my own for the first time and it really rocked my world.

Like i've said before, I hated it.

I felt lost, everything was hard and the small

town that I lived in was so far from home.

Then I decided to make a change in my attitude.

To realize that this world is not as scary as I had made it out to be.

That I was an adult and could make my own decisions.

That I had control of my life, and my future.

That's when the whole world opened up and 

I became more free than I had ever felt before.

At the end of these 5 months in England I will be able

to say that i have lived abroad for a total of 8 months.

3 months in France, 5 in England.

My 18 year old self would have been shocked!!!

It's never ideal being away from family.

And I know it's hard on both sides.

My family misses me just as I miss them

but i'm just so thankful to have the family I have.

They are supportive of everything I do, and without their

guidance, love and support I would not be having

this amazing experience that i'm having today.

I know i'm living in a little dream world right now.

I also know that won't last for forever.

Jobs/rent/bills will creep in and life will get real.

But i'm a firm believer that life can be the best if you're

surrounded by people you love and who love you in return,

and It doesn't hurt to be in a place that makes you happy either.

I'm an optimist/dreamer...my life will always feel amazing

because that's just my attitude towards everything.

As I've mentioned before, after my five month stay in England

Tom and I will go back to being long distance love birds...

And it's going to succkkk!!

So we've been looking into loads of ways that two people

can be together for longer than 3 months and work at the same time.

Because like i've also said...we both need to be working.

We need to be saving money..paying off student loan collectors

and well just lots of other things...

So how do we do that??

Well there are a few options.

Go bankrupt flying back and forth

to see each other for a week or weekend

like once or twice every few months...

Get hitched

Marriage is expensive.

I may be an optimist/dreamer but Tom is a realist

and in reality you need moneeyyyy to be married!!!

Especially when you also have to get a visa 

for one person to get over to the other country...

get a work visa {go bankrupt getting it}

Work visas are hard to come by and expensive to get

if you go the non traditional route.

Traditional route is go to school...get hosted by company.
Probably not happening...

- Get a Working Holiday Visa - 

A lovely person left a comment on my blog

about checking out WHV's.

Mind blown!!!!

I didn't even know something like this existed...

I hope if you are looking for an adventure and need to

make money at the same time that you will look into this.

A few Countries offer this Visa.

The one's I know of are Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

I don't know much about the Canada one but Tom and I

have been researching Australia like crazy.

Is it totally crazy to think about going to another country

that isn't home to either of us just to ensure that 

we are able to stay together longer???

hmmmmm....possibly.

But it seems like a really really cool option

so instead of being apart we will be together...

instead of only one of us working we can both work...

The Visa is not expensive in terms of how expensive visas usually are.

It's only for 12 months but that's more than enough time for us

to explore, make some money and figure out some more details.

A lot of people use this Visa mainly to backpack across Australia.

Which is crazy cool if you can afford to do that.

I think in our case we'd be using it to stay in one crazy amazing place

for about 6 months...work...save some money and then move on

to another totally amazing place for the last 6 months and do the same.

Jobs seem to be pretty available from what i've seen.

So there's that ;)

Let's just say the 18 year old me would pee my pants

if she knew she could go to Australia for a year...