Hey Dear Traveler!

Today, I’m posting something completely different on my blog— It’s a feature on a well-seasoned traveler that I know personally! My goal is to do one of these every other month with the intention to give other travelers the space to share their story & how they have been able to deal with taking their first (& ongoing) solo trips. So, grab a cup of your favorite drink & read on— I hope you enjoy today’s piece & that you learn something new that helps you feel more prepared or encouraged to take YOUR own adventure!

My guest for this piece is Taylor! I met her in 2018 when I took my solo trip to Madrid, Spain. We were both doing the Auxiliares de Conversacion program & thankfully we decided to room together with another awesome female traveler!

Currently, Taylor is teaching English in Busan, South Korea, so given the time difference, we thought it’d be best to do this interview via e-mail. We hope you enjoy it & if you have any questions or would like to know more about her, you can follow her journey on Instagram at @TaylorCargile

Let’s get started! —

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Q: When was your first experience traveling solo & how did you decide that you wanted to do that? Did you experience any culture shock?

My first experience traveling solo was actually when I moved to Madrid in 2018. I needed a change and felt like moving abroad solo would shake things up, haha! I was working long hours at a job I didn’t love anymore and I felt l had outgrown the city I was living in. The only true shock I had that hit me once I arrived was that I had moved to a foreign country completely on my own. I was THOUSANDS of miles away from home and I didn’t know a single person in Madrid. I obviously was aware of this before coming but it doesn’t really hit you until you’re living it.

As for culture shock, I don’t think I experienced any major culture shock in Spain other than finding out 8 pm is too early for dinner time! It can be difficult navigating life in a language you’re not fluent in or visiting a country for the first time. I have felt anxious at times of not wanting to stick out or do the “wrong” thing. But it’s bound to happen and you’ll never see these people again. There have been many encounters in my travels that I can laugh back on now.

Q: What did you travel solo for? How did you prepare for it mentally, financially & emotionally?

For both my Spain & South Korea trips, I solo traveled to teach English. It was a lot of planning. I was working a full-time marketing and sales job saving up money before I moved. There were so many things I needed to do before moving abroad (packing suitcases, visas appointments, selling all my furniture, among many many other things) that emotionally it doesn’t hit me until the day of the flight. You are so focused on everything you’re prepping prior to the move that when the day comes, your emotions play catch-up and hit you the morning of the flight. Saying goodbye to friends and family is hard but thank goodness for Facetime!

Q: In your opinion, how easy or difficult was it to apply for programs to teach English abroad? What was your experience like?

For Korea, the application process to teach at a hagwon (private academy) is extensive. A certification to teach English as a foreign language is required. I contacted about 15 recruiters who help set up six interviews with different schools before deciding on the school I am working at now. The visa process was fairly similar to Spain, plus or minus a few documents. It was about a 4-month visa process when I first started getting all my documents together.

For Spain I think the application was fairly easy in comparison. For the Auxiliares de Conversacion program, you are basically a teacher’s assistant. You technically only have to submit your resume, statement of purpose, & fill out other documents. You get to choose your top 3 location choices in Spain. Then, a couple of month later you find out if you’ve been accepted or not and which of your top 3 locations choices you get to teach in. There’s no interview which is nice! What’s difficult & time-consuming is the visa process that follows & the residency card appointments once you’re there. There’s a lot of documents you need to get within a certain time frame but in order for you to get that one document, you need to have a specific document beforehand! It’s like a chain-reaction.

Q: Have you ever dealt with loneliness when being abroad? What would you recommend someone do if they experience it?

Definitely. It’s bound to happen. Facetime calls to family, friends, loved ones help tremendously. I lean more on the introverted side, so it can be difficult for me at times to put out there to make friends. But it’s really important to build yourself a community wherever you are. Think about joining Facebook groups! One of my favorites is ‘Girl Gone International’ which is a female travel community that has a Facebook group for almost every major city in the world. I joined the one in Madrid and the one in Busan. They host meetups every so often. There are so many other groups out there like this too!

I also recommend going to the same café frequently. Maybe you’ll make friends with the workers or start to see familiar faces if you go often. It’s a sense of normalcy if you’re still adjusting to being in a new place!

Q: What has teaching English abroad taught YOU?

A LOT. But one thing I’ve learned is to not take myself too seriously. When you loosen up & have fun, your students enjoy your classes a lot more. This also applies outside of the classroom. You’re bound to make mistakes or do the wrong thing when you’re living in a foreign country. Learn to laugh at yourself! There are so many language mistakes I’ve made I can laugh about now (Like the time I learned “estoy caliente” does not mean “It’s 100 degrees outside, I’m hot!”). Don’t take yourself too seriously, we’re all figuring it out along the way.

Q: How do you decide where you want to go explore when you’re not working?

Instagram is a big help to me in deciding where I want to go explore. I follow a ton of Instagram pages decided to the city or country I’m living in to find new places to eat or explore.

But right now, I mostly explore my neighborhood and city. Here in Busan, South Korea, I live right next to the beach. I am working a lot more hours than I was in Spain so I don’t have as much time to explore as I did then. But I am so thankful to live a 5-minute walk from the beach so I can go there when I get home from work. I’ve only lived here for about a month and a half now so I am still finding my way through the city and searching for the best places to see!

In Spain, I was working part-time so I had a lot of time to spend having picnics at Retiro Park or Templo Debod. The terraza culture was one of my favorite things about Spain! There are also so many beautiful places to visit that are just a short train ride away from the city center of Madrid. With the auxiliar program, you always have a 3-day weekend so you could easily do a weekend trip to any European country. This is pre-Covid, of course, so travel restrictions may make it a bit more difficult to travel right now.

Q: Let's talk budget! Do you have one?! How did you prepare before your trip?

I was really good with a budget and tracking my money in Spain. So far in Korea, I haven’t kept up with one. But I’m a pretty careful spender. I had a full-time marketing and sales job before moving abroad so I saved up a good amount of money before I left. There’s a lot of start-up costs when moving abroad so you need a good cushion until you get your first paycheck abroad.

Q: Is there anything that you would change about your time abroad (from the past) if you were able to repeat that journey?

I wish I would’ve learned more of the language before I arrived. It’s a stressful time moving to a new country so preparing as much as you can beforehand to learn a language is really important I think. I took Spanish classes throughout school so I thought I was prepared enough for living in Spain. I was wrong. People don’t talk like they do in your textbook haha. My Spanish vastly improved while in Spain, I wish I just would’ve prepared a bit more beforehand.  There are so many different ways to learn now with YouTube and finding native speakers online to practice your target language before your move. 

Thank you so much to Taylor for sharing her insight on solo traveling & on teaching English abroad! If you want to follow her journey, she welcomes you to tag along on Instagram.

I hope you enjoyed reading this & that you gained some valuable information for you to use on your next trip— See you for the next one 👋

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