Hello to anyone who may be reading this, and welcome to the first post on this blog! The countdown has officially begun! Okay, who am I kidding, the countdown started the moment I found out I got the job teaching English. I leave for Japan in two weeks (well, 12 days) and man, has it been a lot easier than I thought it would be! I work for an absurdly well-organized, efficient company so all the paperwork has basically blown by, gotten shipped off to where it needs to go and returned to me in a snap. I've booked my flight tickets, got my visa and my two suitcases are half-way packed. On the topic of packing: I'm basically winging it. I've never really moved-moved like this. I moved around a lot as a college student but that was from home to apartment, apartment to apartment. While I poked around Australia for four months, I only had an enormous backpacking backpack with me, no suitcase (my friend/traveling partner was adamant about the no suitcase rule) so packing for a semi-permanent move is ... difficult? Bewildering? A test of my problem-solving skills? But I also find a great thrill out of packing because nothing says 'exciting experiences on the horizon' like cramming all your precious belongings together into a bag. |
I am also a huge believer in the 'put a recognizable feature on your luggage' line of thinking even if the piece of luggage itself is perfectly noticeable (my suitcase is shiny purple and my duffel is lime green). I tend to put patterned scarves on my bags and, as you can see in the photo above, I added a little friend to the mix! If you want to know more about what he is, read this blog post I wrote about of 'yuru kyara'. Although this is a huge change, I'm not that nervous. I'm going over there with a job and housing lined up, which alleviates a lot of anxiety, and I have some solo traveling under my belt already. I know it's going to be hard and challenging, but I'm in one of those life phases where I have no set career plans, no romantic relationships, and no other ties to one place. I can go wherever, whenever - within limits, of course. Honestly, it feels like this may be a fleeting opportunity. Okay, now that I've waded through the drama ... Hopefully this post wasn't too boring and made a decent introduction to this blog! If you've got the time and motivation, drop me a comment below with a hello!! |