Hi friends!  I hope you’ve had a good week and an even better weekend!  This post comes at the end of a crazy week for me.  I actually have a couple of announcements to make.

I will start out with the big news first.  Hoch and I have been thinking it’s time for a change from the NYC scene.  Don’t get me wrong, we love it here, but it really is crazy how much it costs to live here and what you get for that cost.  Plus our work/life balance has a tendency to be more work.  I am sure some of this imbalance comes with our professional development and gaining more responsibilities.  However, I also think Manhattan’s fast-paced nature translates to all aspects including our work load and even us being OK with it, since everyone else is (or appears to be).

So all that being said, we’ve decided we are going to move somewhere new.  Which isn’t the big news, the big news is that in between NYC and somewhere new, we are going to take time to travel.  And by time, I mean 6 months!  And by travel, I mean travel the world!  This is something that I’ve ALWAYS wanted to do.  I’ve kept putting it off thinking I have time, but now that I am pushing 32, I realize I need to make it happen.  You can say you will plan something, but if you don’t actually start planning, when is it really going to happen?!

Hoch and I had been thinking about it for a while and were debating if we wanted one more year in NYC.  On our trip to Spain last September, we met an Aussie couple in a hostel in Granada and they had been traveling for 3 months and had 5 more to go.  Just hearing about where they’ve been and what their plans were really pushed us over the edge.  We decided we were going to go for it.  We started planning a tentative itinerary and getting an idea of a budget.  However for me, nothing is official until you book that one-way flight.  So one day we just did it.  We’ve purchased 2 one-way flights to Seoul, Korea on May 15th!  Which is only a little over 2 months away.  It’s getting real people.  Our plan is to start in Korea, where Hoch’s family is and then make our way over to southeast Asia.  We will be buying flights as we go so nothing is set in stone.

There you have it, that is the big news!  Don’t worry, I plan on sharing all about it here on the blog so you can come along for the ride. 🙂

You may be wondering what the other announcement is.  Well, as I mentioned before, work has been crazy for us and I was slated to work on a large project for the next 4-5 months.  Knowing my own plans, I did not want to screw the team over so Hoch and I decided to tell our managers this past Monday.  Which is much earlier than we were initially planning, a 2 month notice to be exact.  I’ve been with this company for 8+ years and they have treated me well.  After our travels, we will be looking for work again and I would definitely consider working for them again so I did not want to leave on bad terms.

It is such a big weight off of my chest!  I was so nervous leading up to it.  But now the cat is out of the bag (and our trip is becoming more real) and though some people think we are crazy, most think it is awesome and to be honest it doesn’t matter what anyone thinks anyways.

Before I leave the company (April 22nd is our last day), they’ve asked me to help out on a pretty big project out of Pittsburgh.  I was there most of last week and will be flying back and forth for the next 6 weeks.  It is going to be rough and I am going to have to work hard, but I like a good challenge.

My work/life balance is going to be mostly work for the next 6 weeks, but knowing that I have 6 months of once in a lifetime experiences following my hard work will help get me through it. 🙂

Sorry for the long post with minimal pictures.  I had a lot to share with you today.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Kimberly