Tomorrow!

I cannot believe I leave TOMORROW! Part of me feels like the time leading up to leaving has flown by and part of me feels like I’ve been thinking about this trip forever. Either way, I’m about 75% packed and ready to leave for my summer in Europe!

To be honest though, leaving is a little bittersweet. Whenever I told anyone I was moving to Chicago, they’d all have the same reaction, “you know it’s cold, right!?” But for anyone that knows the city, it would immediately be followed up with, “but the summers are incredible.”

We’ve been having beautiful weather, which makes me sad to think about missing time on the lake, walks around the city and all of the street festivals. I actually really struggled with this while I was waiting to hear back if I was accepted to the program. My friend Mikela finally had to stop me and say “Emily, if you end up not going, you have your first summer in Chicago. If you do end up going, you have a summer in Europe. You’re really in a win-win situation here.” What can I say, I have incredible friends who seem to know exactly what I need to hear, when I need to hear it!

I’ve taken full advantage of the nice weather this weekend and tried soaking in as much of summer-in-Chicago as I can. I went to a Cubs game with my friend Maureen, enjoyed a wonderful patio dinner with Mikela, Dave and their family (thanks for letting me join you guys!), met up with my Aunt Barbara, Aunt Ann and cousin Kaitlyn for pedicures and lunch, saw my Grandpa, had lunch with all four of my aunts and enjoyed a walk on the lake. Fingers crossed the weather is still nice when I get back mid-September!

Look at these awesome seats. And they won!

I was trying REALLY hard to convince Mo to come meet me this summer. TBD if I succeeded. Also, please excuse the hair. It rained on us multiple times and I’ve yet to figure out this whole humidity thing.

One of the perks of living in Chicago – I get to see my Grandpa more often!

Never get tired of this view.

Turns out packing for 3½ months is not easy. My mom helped me choose which clothes to bring when she was here two weeks ago, but when it comes down to it, you start questioning if you need more. I keep telling myself no, no I don’t, but it’s so hard!!

I’m sure I’ll be really sick of these clothes by the end of the summer.

I don’t exactly know what to expect when I land in Croatia. I’ve been emailing with my roommate and a few other girls who are on my flight from Newark. We’re planning on meeting for a drink before we takeoff and it will be nice having other people land with me so I’m not totally by myself when I get there. But beyond that, I’ll just have to wait and see what Croatia and The Remote Experience brings!

Just Apply

The Remote Experience kind of fell into my lap. Back in January, I was served an Instagram ad for the Remote Year, a similar program but (obviously) for a year rather than four months. The name intrigued me so I immediately looked it up.

Remote job? Check. Opportunity to travel all over the world? Check. For a year? That’s a long time, but to visit 12 countries over 3 continents, that doesn’t seem all that long.

I looked at the application and all it required was providing your name, salary, if you currently had a remote job, and a link to your LinkedIn profile. I quickly filled out an application and started day-dreaming of working from a beach in Thailand.

Over the next couple of weeks, the reality of what the Remote Year actually is started to set in. Yes, it opened up the world of traveling and living abroad like I never imagined, but would my company really be on board for letting me do this for a year? I just moved to Chicago and love it here; am I ready to pack up and leave already? And how does one actually make working from Asia feasible? That’s a 12-hour time difference, meaning literally no overlap with the US’s work day.

As I continued to research Remote Year, I stumbled upon The Remote Experience; an almost identical program, but only four months and only in Europe. Looking into this, it seemed a lot more doable.

In February, I visited my friend Katelyn in South Carolina. She knew all about both of these programs and kept encouraging me to apply (at this point, I had made it to the second round of applications for the Remote Year). Every week, I’d tell her “by Tuesday, I will have applied.” And on Wednesday, I’d tell her, “by the end of the weekend, I will have applied”

While sitting in her apartment that weekend, she finally called me out on what I hadn’t admitted to myself; I was scared.

She pointed out that I just needed to apply. If I didn’t get accepted, ok. If I did get accepted, I could then decide if I wanted to go or not. But at least I knew I had tried. And thank goodness she convinced me of this, because I can’t imagine 40 years from now looking back at this opportunity and regretting not applying.

A view of our walk along Lake Murray in Columbia, South Carolina after convincing me that I just needed to apply.

I left South Carolina on Monday night and promised Katelyn that I would actually apply that week. On Thursday, I was finally able to send her a text that I had officially applied for The Remote Experience and my second round of applications had been sent off to the Remote Year. Sometimes you just need a little bit of a push.

The Remote Experience

When I tell people what I’m doing, I get a mix of reactions:

“You’re doing what?”

“Wait, will you still be working for FWI?”

“It’s like study abroad, all over!”

“I was clearly born in the wrong decade.”

Whatever the reaction, most people have still never heard of the program, or anything like it. For good reason. This trend of the ‘digital nomad’ is pretty recent. It basically combines the desire to travel and your career, but removes that whole pesky visa thing.

The Remote Experience is a group of 30 remote workers, from various companies and backgrounds, working and living together abroad. I’ll be part of a four-month program through Europe, spending a month each in:

• Split, Croatia
• Turin, Italy
• Barcelona, Spain
• Prague, Czech Republic

I will continue working with Four Winds Interactive, my current employer, but instead of living and working from my apartment in Chicago, I’ll be working from the aforementioned cities.

The Remote Experience provides all housing, transportation and co-working spaces; essentially giving me the tools to continue being a productive team member and work a normal job, without having to stress about all of the logistics. While my hours might be a little out of whack (I’ll be 8 hours ahead of my coworkers), I’ll get to live and experience the culture of four new countries; essentially, my dream come true!

Here’s a little more information on similar programs: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/274247

It’s In My Blood

I don’t exactly know when I decided I wanted to live abroad, but I do know the desire has been there a long time. I grew up hearing about my Dad’s childhood overseas, imagining what it must have been like to live in a grass shack or watch monkeys torment golfers as daily entertainment.

My Dad, as an adorable 2-year-old in India, his turban wrapped by his Ayah.

I’ve always loved listening to my Gram’s stories about India, Pakistan, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia, laughing along at their exotic absurdity, imagining what her life must have been like.

My Gram in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) having been thrown onto a bareback elephant.

In the fourth grade, I became obsessed with Russia and checked out every book available in my school’s library. (And in a tiny little town in central Pennsylvania, there were about six. Shockingly, no one else had ever checked them out). When I was 11, our family went to England and France, staying with my Dad’s business associate in their ‘Hall’ outside of Sherwood Forest. Walking through the 14 bedrooms and choosing which I wanted to stay in was like living in a fairy tale.

Waiting with my Dad for the changing of the guards in London. When I asked my mom to send over pictures from this trip, this was her email: “The 1997 Europe pictures aren’t great…and not the most attractive stage of your and Patrick’s developments. How did I let you wear those clothes!!!”

When I was 18, I had the world’s best babysitting job – accompanying family friends to Australia to watch their 10-year-old while the parents took part in a race through the Outback. While I could easily call Sydney and Melbourne home, I was fine leaving Broken Hill to Crocodile Dundee.

Marley and I at a zoo in Sydney.

At 20, I finally had the opportunity to live in Europe. I spent 4.5 months “studying” abroad in Prague. Those that knew me then or have since heard stories know that my “studying” really meant tasting as much Czech beer as possible, eating delicious fried chicken sandwiches from street carts, and traveling throughout Europe to visit other friends who were also studying abroad.

My study abroad crew walking the streets of Prague.

I got back from Prague and immediately started thinking about how I could live overseas again. When I graduated college, I applied to countless jobs throughout Europe, only to be continuously turned down. (Correction: I wasn’t even turned down, I simply never heard back. Which we all know means I didn’t even come close to qualifying).

A few years ago, while working at Western Union, an opportunity arose in the Vienna office. I was confident it was going to work out; I could finally call Europe home. But once again, no dice.

At this point, I kind of gave up hope of ever living in Europe, or anywhere else overseas. And I was ok with it. I would make it a priority to travel as much as possible; experience other countries and cultures for short, two-week stints, which is better than nothing.

But then, The Remote Experience happened.