Who am I kidding, it's been an eternity since I last updated here. Yet my intention is to get better at this blogging thing but somehow I always seem to be busy...doing nothing...
Actually no, that's not true..no really, this time I have more than a real reason for the lack of updating...
So where do I begin? Well, At the end of November 2015 I made a very big life changing decision. I
moved out. Not just moved out, I moved to another country, on the other side of the World! I moved to China, to a city called Shenzhen.
So, let me back track a bit..
Since leaving University I have been doing numerous odd jobs but nothing substantial. I had the hardest time getting my graduate job, or even something reasonably paid for that matter. My family had gone through such a hard time for 3 years already.. I totally gave up on my dreams, my goals, just trying to strong and hold my family together. It was draining...and I lost hope and motivation...
Then after that hard time had come to an end, and once I knew my family was going to be okay again I decided to focus on me again. I knew a lot had changed, I had changed, but I wasn't going to let that stop me.
So for the longest time I have wanted to go abroad, well to Asia specifically to teach English. It was always something that I had wanted to do, I often researched how to do this even during my time at university. Actually, during that 3 year period I even applied several times, to go teach English in both Japan and China. I was actually a successful candidate and passed the first few interview stages but I gave up and passed up the jobs because in the back of my mind I was thinking about my family, also I wasn't sure that I was brave enough to go through with it..
Anyways, so the 3 hard years were done, over with. It was time to focus on me. So July 2015, an old friend of mine from China visited me in Birmingham. Now not just any friend, me and this girl go waaaaaaaaaaay back. We met in Shenzhen, China during my first visit here (a university study trip) back in 2007. After that she came to study at the same university as me in the UK, so yeah we have always been close friends. Anyways during her visit she basically persuaded me that I needed to come back to China to visit her and I thought about it a lot. But yeah like I said I was trying to go back to focusing on myself again.
I applied to teach in Japan again and I actually successfully passed and was set to go in March 2016. But even after I had applied and had so much joy and was looking forward to this, I kept thinking about my friend in China and thought maybe I should apply in China too, there's no harm right? And by the Grace of God, I was given the job, and the city just happened to be none other than Shenzhen. I was sooooooo happy and decided to take it and just push back Japan and go the following term in August, which the agency said were happy to do. So now I had both China and Japan lined up, and meant I was going to be able to visit my friends again, in that city that i adored since the first time I visited it.
So since then I have just been getting used to my life here, getting used to my new job, the environment, just getting used to a LOT of changes. Also to my shock and horror I was unable to access most of my social media accounts, due to them being blocked here in China. So that means, no Facebook, no instagram, no youtube, no snapchat and no google... THE STRUGGLE WAS REAL!!!
However I managed to find a way around it eventually...."the VPN" *insert hallelujah chorus here*😂
Honestly without it I really don't know how I would have coped. But I will talk more about that later. And that is the only reason I am able to blog again.
I liked it here in China so much that I decided to stay on, another year. I figured, Japan isn't going anywhere, there's always time >____<
So that is my incredibly long, way over due explanation as to why I have been away from this. And now I'm not making any promises, but I will try my best to keep you all posted on everything going on here. Also this will bring a huge change to my blog and other social media content, which I hope you will like. I want to share my experiences, and my journey with you all. So here's to the new chapter of my life. Stay tuned for more, and check out the new videos on my youtube channel and my instagram as I post more frequently there. Also I just want to let you all know that it is never too late to achieve your dreams, so NEVER give up! Have faith and take that first step. Thank you so much for reading this~
Love
Jen-jen
xoxo
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