Hello everyone! It’s been so long since I last posted (let
alone even wrote) a blog post and I have so much to tell you! The last couple
of months have been intense and jam-packed; I don’t even know where to begin!
I hope you’ve all been well and enjoying the warm weather
(most of my readers are from the UK, and I know the weather has been glorious
there lately). I hope you all haven’t forgotten me, and this update will
explain where I’ve been, where I’m going, and everything in between!
Goodbye England
If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you know that I
moved from the UK! This has been the biggest thing I’ve had to adjust to so far
and luckily it hasn’t been too stressful.
My family and I packed up our things and moved back to the
Motherland; more specifically to Zambia. My parents made the decision to move
back home after a long long long time in the UK – we’re talking 14 years! I was
definitely not for the idea in the beginning and I hoped that it was all a
dream I would wake up from, and even when we started packing up the house and
driving down to the airport, even when I sat in my seat and looked over London
as the plane ascended, I honestly thought my mum would turn to me and say
“Gotcha!”.
Well, she didn’t. And here we are! Seeing my family after
such a long time has definitely made the whole process much easier. I love
hanging out with my cousins, seeing new cousins I hadn’t met before, visiting
my grandparents and watching their faces light up as we make up for lost time.
I love seeing how different Zambia has become since I was
last here almost 9 years ago. I love the food, the heat, and the constant
sunshine (even on days where it’s very chilly outside!). However, not
everything has been smooth and easy to adjust to. Reverse culture shock has
been a very real thing since I arrived here, and I definitely have to make a
separate blog post about this soon.
Long Distance
Friendships
This is most definitely going to be a whole blog post on its
own, so I won’t delve into this too much but one of the main reasons I didn’t
want to leave the UK is because of all the friends I would be leaving behind!
Having my friends go to uni and not seeing them is way
different than moving across continents and not seeing them. We can’t just make
plans and meet up every couple of months anymore. Every type of communication
now takes place on Messenger, WhatsApp, Twitter or Instagram and for this
reason I am so grateful for social media!
It really sucks to be so far away from people you care about,
but we’re already all making plans to visit one another when the time comes.
Growing up and adulting means you have to take the curveballs life throws at
you and make something positive out of it, and that’s what we’re doing.
University
Another big change is that I got into medical school!
I’m one of those people who had 10 different careers I wanted
to go into as I was growing up. From being in a band, to a journalist, to a vet
to a photographer, to a nurse, I’m so glad I decided upon my path and that what
I want to happen is finally happening. I’ve mentioned on the blog before that
I’ve been on a gap year for 2 years, and a lot of that time was spent figuring
out what I wanted to do at university. Well, I no longer have that problem now!
The school I want to go to is all the way in China which
means I’ll be moving halfway across the world next month!
I am so excited to be travelling to a country that has been
on my list of places to visit for so long. I am so incredibly grateful for the
opportunity to now not only live there, but to study there too.
For the most part, I don’t feel nervous about moving to
China. I feel so excited when I think about it, but sometimes I do get a little
niggling in the back of my head. All I can do is push these negative thoughts
aside and only focus on the positives so I have an amazing time once I get
there!
To prepare for this amazing life change, I’ve started taking
Mandarin seriously, so when I get there the language classes won’t be too alien
to me. I’ve also been going all over YouTube watching any and every video I can
about living in China.
Expect to see a lot of blog posts about China coming at you
soon!
Healthy-ish...
Another change is what’s been going on with my health
journey!
I’ve made some blog posts about me trying to adopt a healthy
lifestyle (you can check out some posts here* and here*), but honestly, since
we started packing up the house back in the UK my diet and exercise routine has
been so poor.
I opted for taking walks back in England and started doing
yoga occasionally and that honestly made me feel really good. However, in
Zambia I’m kind of afraid to go out for walks because I don’t know the area at
all. So, any kind of exercise has gone out of the window unfortunately.
As for diet, I kept up with a healthy diet back in England
but once we moved, I noticed that that went out of the window too. Pizza, fried
chicken, pies, doughnuts, burgers, pastries... everything I tried to keep in
moderation just seemed to fly straight into my mouth!
Recently though, I have made it a point to really knuckle
down and limit these foods once again. I make them a treat rather than a normal
part of my diet. Sweet potatoes and watermelons have been such great additions
to my diet, and I eat them every day to curb any bad cravings.
Once I arrive in China, signing up for the gym that’s on my
campus is going to be one of the first things I do! I’m also definitely hoping
to enjoy the food that China has to offer while also remaining relatively
healthy too.
So, that’s what has been going on with me since May. It’s
crazy that we’re already in July, and that the year is just flying past! Come
the end of August I’ll be living in China for the next few years!
As for regular posts, I will try (really really hard) to get
one post up every week. I miss everything about blogging and I can’t wait until
I can get back to my 3 posts a week schedule. Things have been hectic since
about March and my blogging definitely took a toll.
Thank you so much for reading and understanding, and I’ll be
back with another post soon!