Unless you have been living under a rock, you will know that most VISAs have been temporarily banned until (earliest) January 2021. Including the J1 VISA which delays all my plans to start my au pair year which was already delayed. So, what am I going to do now…
I am still not too sure how to feel about it all. Maybe it has not sunk in yet that I will definitely not be leaving this year to be an au pair. Next week I might just break down and cry a little when it hits me. For now I have been looking at options, what I want to do with my time. I like to think that I am very positive person and I try to see the good in every situation. Sometimes it is harder to see than others. In these moments I like to remind myself of how lucky I am, I have a roof over my head, food to eat and a family that will support me. So what if there is a minor (major) bump in the road, eventually I will get to where I need to be.
As I was supposed to leave for America in July, and then early October, I had already handed in my letter of resignation. Even though I was going to leave in October, I did not want to start the school year with a class only to leave a month and a half later. The plan was to help some of my colleagues get their classrooms ready, cat-sit for a friend, go on holiday with my Aunt, and then leave for the US. Now, I have those plans except there is a four month gap between my holiday to Spain and my departure. Leaving four months of nothing. Almost all teaching jobs have been filled for next school year so close to the holiday. And even then, I would want a temporary position.
I have found some vacancies that sparked my interest, but only one had all the ‘requirements’ I was looking for. Subsequently, this was the best looking one, win-win. So I have applied for that job (fingers crossed I will get it). I have also looked into online teaching, which would allow me to be a bit more flexible when the time comes to eventually leave for America. And if that fails then… well I hope one of those options pulls through.
I still want to carry on regularly posting to this blog. I like writing. It feels therapeutic almost just to get everything on paper. Even though it will take longer to start the au pair part of the blog I realized it would be nice to go back to previous trips and write about them. I have been on a lot of really exciting, memorable trips across Europe and in the United States. I want to remember as much as I can about all my travel experiences and, with all the time I have now I can finally start going through and filter vacation pictures. Considering the images I used for this blog post I will probably start with my New York trip from last year!