Yikes! Three Months Today Since We Left Home

As ever, where is the time going?

I think I’m almost at a stage where I don’t miss home so much any more. I plan on going back at some point but I’m not *yearning* for it now.

The last three months have been a roller coaster of events and emotions. We packed up our entire lives, got rid of everything we owned, and moved into Josh’s parents’ place a week before we left Perth. Then very early on the 17th of September, we drove to the airport. I still remember how surreal it felt on the way there, and the late winter fog made it all the more so.

Since then we’ve Couchsurfed in London and Marseille, become tenants for the first time, settled into life on the other side of the world, gotten jobs… the amount of experiences we’ve had in just three months is incredible and I won’t go into details here. What I will focus on is the lessons I’ve learnt since leaving home and what our next three months are hopefully going to look like.

Things have been tough. I’m one of those people who needs to control everything and have structure and, most importantly, to be liked. Coming to France ripped all of that out from under my feet! In the beginning, I felt really depressed because things weren’t turning out the way I’d envisaged before we left home. Reality hit hard when we got here and it wasn’t all *perfect.* People could be rude. The city is grimy. Nobody picks up after their dog. We struggled to find housing. But in going through all of that and coming out the other side, I’ve learnt perspective. The perspective to say that there are bad things happening, but there are good things, too. I don’t know if any experience can top moving abroad in terms of gaining perspective!

In the next three months, I will complete almost all of my program (I’ll have about a month left), and we’ll determine what we’ll do thereafter. In terms of the program, I hope to improve my lesson planning and teaching skills by reflecting on my lessons and maybe even communicating with my teachers a bit more. Personally, I’m hoping to write more frequently and I’m setting a goal to write one blog post and one short story a week.

Finally, I can say that I’m glad we came. The challenges we’ve faced are worth it. The more I believe that it will all be alright, the more of myself I put into it and the more it does turn out alright.