Transcription
I know that moving abroad is very glamorized. Everyone always posts the highlight reels and how great it is and how amazing life is and all of these things are definitely true. But I feel like not many people talk about the lows and the bad days and the sad days because for me the low days have been pretty low. Like the high days are high but the low days the low days can get really low.
Good morning, buenos días. I am in Colombia. I have officially been here for a little over a month now and oh my god, it's been such a journey. In the beginning, I would definitely say it was a honeymoon phase and I feel like I'm still kind of in the honeymoon phase. However, there are for sure highs and lows. So, this is just more of a really raw check-in. Like, this is not a highlight reel. This is my honest opinion, my honest thoughts, and my honest feelings as I've been navigating in this country for the last month and a half.
First, let's start with the positives. Number one, I would just say my overall quality of life has increased by like 1,000%. Um, just like the affordability. I can literally spend $30 on groceries for the entire week and be good, be full. Um, the weather here, I'm in Bogotá, so the weather here is kind of rainy, but on the nice days, like when the sun is out, the weather here is perfect. It's not too hot, it's not too cold. The people here are great. And just overall, I felt very welcomed here. My pace of life here is also so much slower. Like I wake up in the morning, I can have a slow morning. I have a routine. I found a Pilates reformer studio that I work out in. Um, I found a local cafe that I go to. So, you know, coming up with a routine has really helped me get settled here. I love that there's fresh fruit everywhere. Like literally, I have a store right down the street and I can go buy a pineapple. I bought a pineapple yesterday and it was like 80 cents. Fresh, ripe. Like just having access to good quality fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy. Like y'all, they have shelf eggs here. I don't know if you guys know this, but they're dairy products and the eggs shelf like they don't need to refrigerate it. They don't have all this extra like preservatives and stuff that we use in America. So when you buy eggs and when you buy milk, it's on the shelf. It's not refrigerated. So it's just been great. Like just comparing the quality of the ingredients and even when I eat out guys, like I get food delivered, like good Colombian food for $7 and that is like a big piece of chicken, some rice, some maduros and a drink. So it's like in America, like I said many times, I felt like I was surviving and here it's just I can just be. I don't have to check my bank account.
Like the thing is, I will say things are more affordable here. But because they're more affordable, I don't know if this is for anyone, if this goes for anyone else, but like I tend to spend more because I feel in my head it's like a psychological thing. And I'm like, "Oh, it's just $5," or "It's just $2." But honestly, it all adds up. I'm not going to lie. It definitely adds up, but I'm definitely spending way less money than what I was spending in America.
I'm challenging myself to do a lot of things. Like I'm doing Airbnb experiences. I did a whole fruit market tour here through Airbnb experiences and it was amazing. I tried like 50 different fruits native to Colombia. I met so many other people. I never used to just do things by myself when I was back home. Obviously, like you have access to your friends, you have access to your family, but when you're solo traveling, it really forces you out of your comfort zone. And it's been really nice actually. It's been really nice. It's been nice being here, being able to reflect and just heal my soul in a different atmosphere in a different location. I feel a lot more at peace. I don't feel like I have to hustle, hustle, hustle all the time here. And I think that's affected my overall mental health, my quality of life, everything.
I'm not even going to lie to you guys. While it has been such an amazing experience thus far, there are definitely low days. Like there have been days where I've just been in my apartment and I've just cried and cried and cried, like multiple times a day. I mean, I have realized that you can change your environment. You can change your location. But things are still going to come up for you, especially if you were working through things, dealing with things back home, which I was. Um, I didn't really expect moving to get rid of the things that I was working through. But I definitely expected it to help, which it did. However, there are still bad days. Same as in America, same as in anywhere you're going to be in the world. I think the difference here, which can be good and bad, is you are navigating it alone, completely alone. You're sitting with your thoughts, you're sitting with your feelings. You don't really have anyone else around. You're in an unfamiliar space, so it can feel a little jarring and it can feel a little bit lonely. But I think the plus side to that is they always say the best way to get through it is to go through it. And like when I tell y'all, I don't know. Like I've, I for sure have had some days where I've been like, "What the hell am I doing?" like feeling stuck, feeling sad, feeling lonely. All of those things still exist. They still exist here.
I also just kind of feel like I thought I was going to be a lot more connected with the people back home. Um, you know, I'm talking to my mom, talking to my brother, talking to like my dad pretty often, but I have realized that I'm not talking to my friends as much as I used to. Um, and like for no major reason, I kind of just also feel like I'm in this, I don't know. I feel like I'm in this isolation period where I almost feel like I need to be by myself right now. I need to figure out my thoughts. I need to figure out my feelings. I need to figure out just life. And I don't know if anyone else has felt this way where I've just kind of felt disconnected from people back home. Um, and it might just be a me thing. It might just be like where I'm at right now in like my life journey and my healing journey, but I definitely feel a lot more isolated here. Um, I still talk to my friends here and there, but I don't know. I was expecting to just for it to be the same as when I was back home, and it's just not.
But man, guys, the emotional waves that I've experienced, and I don't think it has anything to do with being homesick, I just think that, like I said, being here, being alone, I'm forced to just face everything head on. And that's been, I think, my biggest struggle for me is just really sitting with myself. Um, processing my feelings, processing my emotions, and just allowing myself to just feel everything. It's been really healing for me, but at the same time, it's been really, really difficult. Literally, I still can't believe that I'm here. It's crazy to even think about that I've been here for almost two months now. I'm literally cutting this uh pineapple. Look at this that I got from the market for 80 cents.
But I think for here, being here, the biggest difference when you have a lot of feelings and when you're working through things. In America, I had a lot of distractions. There's always things that you can do. Even if you have all these feelings that you know you need to process, there's always a distraction. There's always something to do. There's always people to hang out with. So, it's easy to avoid your feelings. It's easy to avoid processing. Here, when you're in a different country and when you do it by yourself, yes, there's distractions. Yes, there's things you can do, you can explore. But at the end of the day, when you come home and it's just you and your thoughts and your feelings and it's silence, like the silence is so loud. It's so loud and it just forces you to be present, be with yourself, figure out what you're feeling. And it's a lot. It can be pretty overwhelming. I mean, it has been pretty overwhelming. Look at this beautiful pineapple that I got for 80 cents. Look at it. Can you guys see this? The fruit, guys. Oh my gosh. So freaking good.
I know that moving abroad is very glamorized. Everyone always posts the highlight reels and how great it is and how amazing life is and all of these things are definitely true, but I feel like not many people talk about the lows and the bad days and the sad days because for me, the low days have been pretty low. Like the high days are high, but the low days, the low days can get really low.
So, I think um what's helped me a lot is for one, finding a routine. If you don't have structure to your days, if you don't have routine, it could kind of feel just like, what am I doing? You're waking up, you don't have a plan, you're just not doing anything or you're just like drowning in your own thoughts and your own mind. So, for me, routine has been really important. I'm really big into fitness and I've always been big in like reformer Pilates. So, I actually found a reformer Pilates studio here. And I found it on like my second day here because I was like, I have to find a studio. I have to get like my workouts in. And it's actually kind of crazy the way that things kind of aligned because I ended up meeting the owner that day and I used to coach for Solid Core, which is like another type of reformer back in the States. And long story short, I ended up talking with the owner and I told her that, you know, I loved her studio. I used to coach and she basically invited me to come and coach some classes at the studio. So, I've been volunteering at that studio, coaching classes, which has been so good. Community is so important when you're abroad. Like, it's so important, especially when you're traveling alone. Your friends are not here, your family's not here. So, you have to find people that you can connect with. And for me, I've been able to do that through this uh reformer studio. I've met so many people. It kind of adds to my routine. Like, when I'm participating in fitness, when I'm participating in like activities, I keep my body active. I feel so much more productive. It's a way for me to just kind of just release.
Other things that I've been doing to just kind of keep me grounded, I've been treating myself a lot here. Like I do things for me that I've never done back home in America. So, I'm like taking myself out to nice solo dates, nice restaurants. I'm having spa days. I'm having self-care days. And really just focusing on me, especially on the hard days, has been very extremely helpful.
I think the last thing which is just kind of very basic but helpful is just accepting my emotions as they come. Not trying to fight them, not trying to run away from them. Like if I'm sad, I let myself be sad. If I want to cry, I cry. If I need to do it five times, I do it five times. If I need to sit in it, I just sit in it. And I think that doing that versus pushing away the feelings has been really helpful because yeah, it comes in waves, man. It comes in waves. Like I'll wake up one morning and I'll be great and then by midday I'm just crying for no reason. And yeah, I'm just learning that that's okay. That's a part of life. It's a part of growing. It's a part of healing. So, just been trying to embrace that as I go as well.
I definitely do not have everything figured out yet. But I know that I am exactly where I need to be. I'm supposed to be here. I think that this journey is kickstarting a new Amber. It's so crazy because someone said to me the other day when I was just, I was talking to someone about, you know, just being sad and just feeling just stuck and unsure. And they literally told me, they're like, "You're grieving your old life because your new life is on the way." And it hit me so hard. I'm like, "You're so right." I feel like I'm in between this. I'm leaving things behind and I'm transitioning on to like bigger, better things which I know is coming, but it's hard. It's hard. So like that in between point of like discomfort, it's been a struggle, but I'm so happy to be here. I still feel like this was a great decision.
If anyone else has made a move like this and has had the same sentiments, let me know what you guys have done or are doing to kind of navigate. And yeah, I'll keep y'all posted.