It's been the longest and shortest two years of my life. (Sometimes I feel like I've been living here FOREVER. And sometimes I still feel like I just arrived.August 2018 marked two years of living in Japan, and it's been quite the ride. I never expected that at the ripe old age of 33 that I'd be going into my third year of teaching English here and going on almost eight years of living abroad... but here I am.What I've DoneSo much. I've done so much since I've been here! I've ...
Living Abroad
What I Wish I Had Known Before Coming to Japan
I tried to include this in my First Six Months in Japan recap post, but my "What I Wish I Had Known Before Coming to Japan" section was longer than the post itself. It clearly needed its own post, so here you go! Or, if you're an ALT: here you are! (Inside ALT joke - students learn "here you are" instead of "here you go", and after months of saying it constantly, it starts to replace "here you go" in your natural speech!)This list of things I wish I had known before coming to Japan is ...
Happy Holidays from Japan!
I haven't been home for Christmas in close to 10 years.My family doesn't really "do" Christmas, so I'm not missing much. But the above statement seems to horrify a lot of people! I think if you've ever worked in the service industry, you have gained knowledge that Christmas is sometimes just another day.The last few years in Roatan I spent Christmas working, just like any other day. Imagine all those people coming down on their winter vacation and being told there's no diving on Christmas ...
You Shook Me All Night Long
One thing I kind of forgot about when I got all excited about moving to Japan was earthquakes.Japan has A LOT of earthquakes. Actually, 6% of all the earthquakes in the whole damn world happen here. We get about 1500 a year.Our disaster preparation seminar at orientation was comprised of 30 minutes of showing footage from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster, a short remembrance of a JET Programme participant who died in the disaster, and a card to put in our wallets with emergency info ...
Homesick for Somewhere That’s Not ‘Home’
I am a crier. People who know me, know this. I cry in children's movies (Finding Nemo is a nightmare for me), I cry when I see cute old couples on the train, I cry when adorable fluffy puppies clamber up my legs, I cry at all the images on the news of war-torn countries and shell-shocked kids. I am a crier. Do not play that goddamn Sarah McLaughlin SPCA commercial around me.I also recently found out that I cry when I'm homesick. I have never been homesick before, so this one is new to me. When ...
Should You Do a Cubicle Throwdown Like I Did?
Guys, I see you.I see you landing on my site after Googling, "how to move to Roatan". "How to move to another country". "How to work as a dive instructor in another country". "How much do divemasters make". (That one is easy. Not much.)I feel ya dudes. I did those Googles too. And about 755,000 more.I know what it's like to look around your office and see people who have been there longer than you, and thinking, "is this all I have to look forward to in my life?" I know what it's like to ...
So I’m Moving to Japan… WTF
Yeah, so I know I kinda just slid that in there among all my "I'm leaving Roatan for good blah blah blah" stuff lately... "oh and PS I'm moving to Japan".WTF?(I know, right.)It's actually been a really, really, long time coming. To be accurate, about 10 years in the making! Here's the story.From the time I was a little kid, I have always been fascinated with Japan. Not Asia...not other countries in the area. Just Japan. I wasn't into anime or J-pop, but I was in love with the food, the ...
The Comedown: Tales from an Ex-Expat
Find any expat blog where the expat has returned to their country of origin, and you'll find the same stories over and over.It's weird being here. My friends here don't understand my experience. This, that and the other thing here now drive me crazy. I miss my expat home and friends there. (So if this post is tl;dr for you, just look at those four lines and that's basically it.)To recap, I'm back in Canada for a few months getting ready to move to Japan in July as an assistant language ...
Dutty Love, Drunk in Love or Delusional Love: Dating on the Island
One of the first things that readers ask me when they meet me in real life is: why don't you ever post about a boyfriend/dating/etc.?accurate.Other than the fact that this part of my life is usually not very entertaining (you can read my girl Shannon's recent post if you want to see a somewhat similar rundown), it's something I've always been hesitant to put out there for the world to see. Since I started this site, I've seen many other bloggers include this part of their life online, ...
Roatan Rent: What $350/Month Gets You
Roatan Rent time again! Keeping in line with all the changes I've been making lately, I finally made one that's been a long time coming: I just moved to a new place!(You may remember the other posts in this series - Roatan Rent: What $300/Month Gets You and Roatan Rent: What $400/Month Gets You. These are some of my most popular posts, so I guess people are interested in this...?)I'm on move #8 in three years here which is kind of a lot, but what can I say... I've got itchy feet! The last ...