Our 16 month world trip was coming to an “end”. We were finishing up our travels through China and making our way down to Hong Kong, where we would be flying out to Vancouver. So many thoughts go through a traveller’s mind when they reach the end of a long trip and are going back to “the real world”: How am I going to manage being back at work? Have I changed a lot? Have my friends and family changed? Will I feel different and weird being back in my usual surroundings? Will I fit in anymore? Luckily for us we didn’t have to think about all of those things, this was just going to be a one month break out of our travel lives!
Around month #10 on the road, we began thinking about returning home. We knew we wouldn’t be able to endure a year (or longer) of working in Canada. When we were home in 2010 working to save for this adventure, we were going stir crazy. We craved the freedom that travel gave us. We’re backpackers, we need to be travelling! So what did we do? We booked a return ticket from Hong Kong to Vancouver. We didn’t have a job waiting for us in Hong Kong, we were running low on money, but that didn’t stop us. We knew something would come up, so we just went for it.
As we predicted, something did in fact come up. After volunteering teaching English in Myanmar, we realized that we really enjoyed being teachers. So, when we were in China, we started sending out resumes, contacting different recruiters and with 1 week left before going home, we had ourselves a job.
Our epic journey had taken us to Europe, The Middle East, Africa, SE Asia, Asia and the Sub-Continent. We had seen a lot and done a lot and we were excited to visit home and share all of those experiences with our friends and family.
When we touched down at the Vancouver airport we were greeted with smiling faces, flowers and wine…oh our family knows us so well! We visited with so many people and had some great times. The familiar loving faces and foods we’ve been craving are the things we always look forward to when we come home. Our visit had an expiry date this time and even though it was short, it was definitely sweet. The love and support we received (and continue to receive) from our friends and family will forever be appreciated. Before we knew it, we were back at the Vancouver Airport boarding a plane to Hong Kong.
There’s something about going home that makes the weary backpacker feel recharged. After being spoiled by our friends and family for about a month, we were feeling great and were ready to set out on our next adventure. This time, we would be staying put for a year in China and adding something new to our resume: English Teachers.
