When Moving to a New Country Please Don’t Do This

If you do I promise I won’t be your friend

Image purchased from rf123.com

When I packed my bags and jetted off to Guatemala in October of 2015 I had no idea what I was doing or what was in store for me.

not.a.fucking.clue

All I knew was that it was time to leave Canada. I knew nothing about being an expat, being a solo female traveler, travel etiquette, or even about Guatemala…nudda.

You could say I was flying blind.

My first year in I made a lot of fucking mistakes. I ran into situations that I had never run into before in my entire life. The main problem was that I was alone to figure out solutions.

It was hell.

Many times during my first year I questioned my actions. I wondered what the fuck I was doing.

“Iva maybe you should just pack your bags and go back to Canada”

I shuddered with this thought. Does this make me a loser? Again? I mean, my entire life was filled with failures and losses. Is this gonna be another “Oh here we go again” moment?

I was determined for that to not happen. And I pushed through. And I learned an awful lot.

Geezus, I did that????