bonjour and au revoir

Oh how beautiful are the seasons of life...

Last year was a wild year for me. If you keep up with the craziness of my life and SaltWaterVibes than you know that Rashawn and I packed up everything and set sail to travel the world! You can read more about it here. After traveling Asia and the States for a few months we decided to make one more crazy decision and move to BELGIUM! Rashawn's parents serve in the Army and are currently stationed there, so we decided we couldn’t let the opportunity pass us by. So last October we packed up once again and - well - moved to Europe.

We truly came out here for the fun of it with no expectations - the idea of traveling all through magical places like Italy and Spain just sounded so appealing ;) But after about a month we really played with the thought of staying over here for about a years time. So step one: we bought a car! Meet Eddie or Ed for short. He is the cutest most European car you could imagine! He is great, except that he is a manual. Poor Rashawn tried to teach me how to drive about 5 times and every time ended with me in tears #fail. Seriously I hated that I couldn’t do it but I swear stick shift in Europe is a whole other ball game LOL.

So shoutout Rashawn for being the ONLY driver driving 20,000 miles across Europe, love you big head :)

After we got a car our next focus was getting me a visa. Rashawn still has his Military Dependence so he already had a visa through SHAPE, the NATO base there in Belgium. I applied for some civilian positions like the week I got there so I could also get a visa through the base. We also desperately needed jobs but truly didn't realize how hard it is to get employment overseas! We took French in College, but it didn’t qualify us as bilingual - so we were basically stuck. I started doing the only thing I know best...nannying! It was awesome I had about 4 families all across Belgium that just made the transition so fun and easy.

However being a nanny did not get me a visa so again - #fail. It was December and I was starting to really freak out because my standard 90 day VISA was about to expire, but then I got a job on the base! It was like fate ha. So I started working at the Child Development Center at SHAPE as a Child Care Specialist and it was so much fun! Rashawn worked as a Substitute teacher for the American High School so we had a great time working and traveling when ever we had a free day!

When we first got to Belgium we wrote out a list of places we would love to go and hung them up on our wall. When it was time to pack up and leave I pulled down the papers and realized we went to EVERY place we said we wanted to go except one. That just goes to show you if you can dream it you can do it people!!! In all we touched 12 countries in Europe and the only one we missed on our list was Greece - which I know we will plan an epic trip one day :)  

So how the heck did we get to 12 countries in 7 months!? With a lot of hard work and patience ha! Europe taught me a whole lot, but some of the best lessons are you can travel anywhere if your willing to, and money is no joke. Europe opened my eyes to a lot about travel because it truly is so easy to get around and move country to country. From planes, trains, automobiles and even boats there is no excuse not to get around! I have TONS of awesome blog post full of helpful content for you on how to do + see all the stuff I just did & more! Summer is the best time to go to Europe so get those bags ready my friend :) The next lesson about money - well thats because the Euro is sooo expensive right now! Let's just say Rashawn and I share a 20 piece nugget meal from McDonalds and its $25 :-) Again I’ll be sharing tons more about money, food, travel, life ect. But don’t let the money scare you - we are the King and Queen of Frugal Travel!

In all life in Europe was one crazy adventure. It was SO fun to be around Rashawns entire family and hangout + travel together. I truly think nothing can replace the fun times and laughs with family - that's what really counts right! While it was so fun and a great adventure, after our 23 birthdays we truly felt like we need to start taking life more serious! It’s time for us to get our own places again, get some big kid jobs, and really give this adulting thing a go! So we left Belgium last week and are currently in Colorado looking for all the above haha. My main goal is to really start taking this blog and SaltWaterVibes serious so you’ll be seeing some really great stuff soon :) Sorry for being ghost for so long - but thanks for sticking around, it’s gonna be worth it!.

aloha,

Savannah

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