WHERE HAVE I BEEN?

On Monday the 5th of February 2018, I moved away from home. No I didn’t move to another part of the city or even a country on the same continent; I moved approximately 4940 plane miles away. Here’s a little info about why and how I moved abroad.

The decision to move abroad wasn’t one I took lightly. I’m such a homebody that initially, the thought of not being surrounded by my family and friends was pretty frightening. But then soon enough, it became exciting and I thought about all the great things I’d be able to experience and all the memories I’d make so I went ahead and thought about how I could move abroad.

After I graduated, there was a lack of solid journalistic opportunities (I blame myself for looking too late, word of advice: start looking for jobs months in advance) other than a few internships here and there. So when I started considering moving abroad, I saw that the best offers were for teachers.

Teaching English abroad where my flight, accommodation and health care would be taken care of sounded brilliant and soon enough I had started and completed my CELTA. (you can read up on this in my previous posts which I would insert but I’m too lazy.)

Now it was time to look for some destinations. Initially my interest was in South Korea, parts of the Middle East and Japan so I applied to all those areas and naively, I assumed that I’d receive a reply straight away and be ‘abroad by January’. This wasn’t the case.

A lot of these establishments felt I wasn’t ‘experienced enough’ because I hadn’t been teaching for 5 years and I can’t lie, that was quite disheartening. I mean I did spend £1,600 on a CELTA with the hopes that I’d be moving abroad, having great experiences and what not but anyway, I persevered. Also, let me just add something, a lot of these jobs don’t even bother replying if you’re not a candidate they’re remotely interested in. So you wait for God knows how long, thinking well that job hasn’t replied so they’re probably evaluating my cv and when you email to ask, you find out that’s definitely not the case.

So how did I get a job and where did I get it?

Towards the last stages of trying to secure a job abroad I became quite fixated on the idea of moving to South Korea, so much so that my best friend and I would constantly discuss how great it would be to live there. Not only the culture shock but the fashion there is insane. Now it was during this time that I received an email telling me that I’d been accepted for a job in Saudi.

The offer was great and I couldn’t turn it down so I took it up. Almost instantly, the recruiters told me I had to be packed and ready to fly out in 4 days. Yes, FOUR DAYS. So with a mixture of excitement and nerves I went shopping, packed my suitcase and said goodbye to my family and friends over the course of two days. On the third day I received an email informing me that my ticket had been cancelled as there was a problem securing me a visa.

It was all sorted quickly and I was off to Saudi, right? Wrong.

After waiting for more than a week (and with tons of emails and phone calls telling me it was still in process) I decided to send a text to my recruiter who informed me that my visa was rejected.

I cannot begin to describe to you guys how it feels to say goodbye to family and friends and feel so excited for a new chapter in your life only to have the dream shattered. When my visa was rejected I literally lost any hope I had left which I shouldn’t have because Allāh is the best of planners and my trust should’ve been with Him. But it did. I was crushed.

Without the support of my family and friends, I wouldn’t have been able to apply again and it was their motivation and the will of Allāh that led to me receiving an email from South Korea offering me an interview, during this process of applying and waiting hours for a response, another email arrived; this time from Saudi.

The email was a job offer to teach English for a year and the benefits were amazing so I took it. This time however, I was much more hesitant and realistic about another visa mishap and within a day I was flying out to Bahrain where I would receive my visa (if all went well).

After arriving in Bahrain, I finally got my visa and it was time to go to Saudi! I’ve been living in my apartment now for just over 24 hours and I’ll definitely keep you all informed along the way.

I have a lot of content planned for the future and I’ll also write more in-depth posts about living away from home starting from travel essentials to my journey (it was intense) and everything that led me to moving away. So stay tuned!

Until next time,

L x