Hello! Long time, no blog post (my bad guys). I’ve now been living in Daegu, South Korea for around 9 months, and I’m slowly figuring out how things work. Despite COVID, I have been having many adventures and learning new things.

Here are five things I’ve learned since moving to South Korea.

Hello my on the go-ians!! It’s time for a new adventure!

It's been quiet on this blog for the past year, but that's about to change. I'm leaving Sunday morning for my next adventure! I'll be spending the next year teaching English in South Korea!

A lot of au pairs decided to go home when corona got really bad, but I decided to stay. Life is good with my host family and we all agreed it was safer to just stay put. My visa ends in June, but if situation is still bad, I can get an extension and stay a while longer with my family.

I saw Italy being canceled as my chance to see some of these places that I originally thought I wouldn’t have time for. I still had 12 days off from my host parents, their vacation plans were still intact, and I wanted to make the most of it. I hastily planned a trip surrounding three different cities in Europe.

I didn’t plan on flying to Belfast, but I was searching for flight deals for that weekend and Belfast was one of the cheaper options. I had never been to any part of Ireland before, and I still had leftover pounds from my London adventure. The main thing I knew about Belfast was that it was the filming location for many scenes in Game of Thrones. So without much planning, I found myself on a flight to Northern Ireland.

To celebrate the new year, I took a bus trip with pmtoam student trips. Their 3 Capitols trip was during New Years, and happened to be during my time off from being an au pair.

I went with fellow au pair and new friend Meagan, who is currently living in Amsterdam (hello!!).

One thing I’ve been looking forward to was my week away in Scotland. I got permission from my host parents a couple of months ago when I found a cheap flight deal from Eindhoven to Edinburgh.

AM to PM student trips is an organizer that does one day or weekend trips for young travelers on a budget. Some au pairs and I found out about their one day trip to Oktoberfest from Amsterdam and decided this was our chance.

It has been two months since I first arrived in the Netherlands. So much has happened, and yet at the same time the summer has flown by. I’ve learned a lot during this first period with the host family. At lot of people back home are very interested in my routine as an au pair, and now that the summer is coming to an end I finally feel like I’ve been here long enough to talk about my “normal routine”.

For my first solo trip I decided to remain pretty close to my home-base in Holland. Brussels, a city that I had always wanted visit, was only a couple hours away by train. I found a cheap hostel for 24 USD a night, a free walking tour through Sandemans, and I decided that was all I needed before heading to Belgium on one of my off weekends.

Hello everyone! I have arrived in the Netherlands! After being here a week, I’m finally starting to adjust. The jet lag hit me harder than expected, so for the first two days I mostly just slept.

How does one pack for a full year?

It’s sort of a ridiculous question, I mean who has 365 pairs of underwear (no judgement if you do)? But, how does one expect me to pack enough stuff to spend a full year away from home?

Anyway, all of these ramblings are leading to me finally, officially announcing that I will be spending the next year in the Netherlands as an au pair. Because who cares about comfort zones when you’re young and have dreams of traveling?

I bought my tickets and planned the trip well before the shutdown, but it still affected my trip. Many museums and other attractions that I wanted to see were closed during the shutdown, so I had to improvise. I am now here to tell you that one could still enjoy their time in D.C. during a shutdown.

It is me again, Hailey Jo! My study abroad trip ended last May and I was so sad to leave my Rome Home. A lot of stuff happened during those last weeks, yet I never updated my blog about it. Fear not, for I am here now to update you. Here are my highlights:

Bonjour à tous! Paris was where we ended our little French excursion. I got to do some of the things I didn't have time for in January, like actually go up the Eiffel Tower or visit Versailles.