Thailand. 5 months in Thailand to be exact. It’s not a big secret to people who know me that I want to have an opportunity to live outside of the U.S. I’ve been wanting this. But it hasn’t ever seemed the right time. Lately, it has been the right time for travel. We’ve gone on quite a few adventures the last 2 years, including the Camino de Santiago, traveling around the west in a van, and 5 weeks hopping around Europe. But traveling doesn’t come without a cost. In the search for opportunities to travel without using up all of our savings, I began looking for net zero or net positive travel opportunities. Things like work exchange (working for accommodations and food) and credit card hacking to get flights. In fact, our European adventure was done with miles and points paying for all of the flights and hotels. We spent 5 weeks in 7 countries for about $6k. It’s still a good amount of money.
Moving completely to another country long-term just isn’t in the plan right now. The thing about living outside of the U.S., it’s often hard to do without a completely remote job, a huge amount of savings, retirement, or a job in another country. My work is remote but requires me to be on U.S. soil (medical records/privacy & stuff). My husband really enjoys his work as a nurse and isn’t looking to change careers. We’ve got 3 kids in the U.S. So financially our options for living abroad seem to be more of a retirement idea or looking for short-term travel opportunities. Additionally, my husband found himself a little worn from all of the travel. He wanted a home base, and a regular schedule (even if it wasn’t full-time). But he encouraged me to look for some travel ideas that I could do with little to no cost.
With a little research, I found a teaching program to teach English in Spain for one semester. It was 10 weeks with food and accommodations provided. No visa was needed because there was no salary. More of work exchange. But it was part-time, so I figured I could get spending money teaching online. I applied and was accepted, but the spots were all full and I wasn’t needed. They offered me their one-semester teaching in Thailand program. This was a little different because it did require a visa and it was 5 months. But I would also get paid.
But can I leave for 5 months? Ugh. I was on the fence. But my husband was very encouraging and said it’s a good time to go. You’ll be glad you tried it. We were already planning for me to be gone for that 10 weeks. So, after deliberating, I decided to go for it. He’s planning a 2 week trip to see me in Jan. But yeah, I am about to be all on my own for 5 whole months in Southeast Asia.
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