California! Here We Come!

We’ve been on the run, Driving in the sun, Looking out for #1, California here we come, Right back where we started from.... Califorrnnniiiaaaaa, here we come! Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll have no doubt heard of the The OC theme song ‘California’ by Phantom Planet. If you haven’t – youtube it now. Diogenes and I have been singing this song over and over because...

...CALIFORNIA HERE WE COME!

In short, we have decided to make the bold move and head to the United States, packing up and leaving Brazil. What? When? Why? How? You ask. As you may have gathered from my implicit (and often explicit) sentiments in previous blog posts, Brazil is a complicated country. Diogenes and I were at a point where we weren’t really sure how to make a life work for us here without huge sacrifice and an unknown (and very extended) period of uncertainty. Uncertainty in a country like Brazil is not easy. There is little security if things go wrong. We are both ambitious people who really value the freedom of building our own futures, careers and lives. On our way back from Ubatuba we received a call from the US offering Di an internship through Ohio State University in Monterey, California. We had disconsidered the idea of leaving Brazil and were really focussing out efforts on making things work for us here. However, when this opportunity came along it all seemed too good to be true. After lengthy discussions with both our families and much research, we concluded that moving to the US would not only give us more opportunities and more freedom to reach our goals in the short term but it would also be an adventure – and hey? When you’re 21 and 23 life should be an adventure!

So Monterey California is where we’ll be at the end of September/ beginning of October. It's a gorgeous part of California with roughly 500,000 people in the whole county, some of the cleanest air in the US, a stunning natural coastline and mountainous terrain. Its about an hour away from San Francisco and a bit north of Los Angeles. To top it off, because its on the west coast we can enjoy the sunset over the ocean every evening. It's perfect for us! We are currently in the middle of the frustrating and timely process of organising visas and travel arrangements. I have to laugh because I was really just starting to be at peace with Brazil and really started to feel comfortable and ‘at home’ here, and now we’re off again. I’m definitely not finished with this country though, and I know I will come back and master it one day (maybe with a bit more money, stability and fluency of the language). Nevertheless, the US is a place I never considered going before and probably wouldn’t otherwise go to on my own accord, so I am grateful for yet another opportunity, experience and interesting twist in my life. Deep down I’m thrilled, nervous, excited and I can already feel my ambition starting to boil as I start thinking about all the opportunities I will strive for. Conversely, I have to say that the thought of finding my feet in yet another country already tires me out... but of course I need to look at the bright side, at least my blog will live on!