Hello There! If you are reading this page it either means
you are my friend/family, or you are planning on visiting or moving to
Montenegro. I would say congrats if either one of those is true.
So a little bit about me: I’m a teacher, who decided she was
crazy in love with the world and wanted to see it all. Now if you know anything
about teaching in America you will know that it doesn’t pay well, and if you
know anything about America you will know that a higher education costs a TON
of money. So when I graduated with my Bachelors of Elementary education and
then put a year of grad school on top of it, I came out with about 60 grand of
debt and this massive desire to do SOMETHING with my life. So how to make it
all work?
Move abroad.
It is much cheaper to
travel around Asia when you live in Asia and it is much quicker to get to
Germany if you are living in Europe.
So I took my highly introverted, afraid of change self, and
made a decision to just do it. I began to apply to jobs all over and was lucky
enough to land a first grade teaching job in Albania. Now this wasn’t at all
where I planned on starting out, but I decided to go for it. The plan was to
spend 2 fantastic years there, traveling all over Europe, and then head home.
The world had a far different plan for me. I had no idea how
huge this world was. I met a fantastic group of friends and co-workers there
and between their stories, and the amazing, but small amount of travel I
managed to fit in I decided that 2 years wouldn’t be enough.
After a year in Tirana, I moved to Jakarta Indonesia for 2
years where I continued to teach first grade and grow as both a teacher and
traveller. After 2 years I was ready for a change but didn’t really know where
I wanted to go. Part of me wanted to stay in Asia and continue to have crazy
beach adventures and visit a vast amount of temples, but really after about 6
months in Jakarta I was already feeling the pull back to the Balkans.
Initially, I applied everywhere, and lucky for me one of the
jobs I felt torn to was in Montenegro. With a little stroke of luck, I got a
job teaching 3rd/4th grade at an international school in
Tivat.
So this blog will be dedicated to my life around the
Balkans. I plan to go everywhere and try everything, but as I know from past
experience plans seldom work. So please enjoy reading about my adventures,
trials, and life in Montenegro.
