Love Week: Chelsea - 'Newlyweds Abroad'


Are you loving LoveWeek?  Here in Wales Ryan and I are having such a great time celebrating our 10th Wedding Anniversary week with family and friends.  My sister Zoë just got into Wales yesterday night and so now our wedding party is complete! I have been so excited about sharing posts from this week that it will probably eventually become a series.  I was so inspired by Chelsea's posts about her wedding that I was equally excited to ask her to participate in Love Week.  I love getting to know more about Chelsea because she is one of those loving life to the fullest individuals.  I have only known her a short while and she is always so helpful to me when I am in trouble or have a question from blogging or to where she gets some of her neat travel items like hammocks or tripods.  When she wrote back that she would love to participate I knew her post would be a perfect fit as she is a fellow expat living abroad.  It is why I come back to read her blog week after week, to read about the daily expat life and the latest travels that she takes with her husband around the world.  My husband and I moved abroad together after 8 years of marriage. But what would it be like to move abroad as newlyweds?  That is what Chelsea brings us today as day 5 in Love Week.  Thank you Chelsea so very much for writing on this subject and I know it will touch many lives out there in the blogger world. 


Hey there! I'm Chelsea and I blog over at Lost in Travels. After my man and I got hitched two years ago, we started getting cold sweats every time we even thought about ‘settling down’ in our hometown. We wanted to do something out of the ordinary, something adventurous. We wanted to spend our lives traveling the globe. So what did we do? Sold all of our belongings that wouldn’t fit in two 50-pound bags and took the first flight to South Korea to teach English to snot nosed adorable little kids and never looked back!



As you can imagine, living abroad can either be a blessing or a curse for a couple. In my eyes, it's the exact opposite of long distance dating. Before we were married, we spent the first ten months of our relationship long distance, on opposite ends of the country. We hardly saw each other, only talked on the phone, and heavily relied on the presence of family and friends for support and advice.

Once we moved overseas, it was quite the opposite. Starting out we were working at the same school which meant seeing each other 24/7 in the most literal way possible. Knowing very few people, we were our own support system. In addition to that, the time difference of being 15 hours ahead of our home town made it difficult to just pick up the phone and call people closest to us. We were told by friends who had paved the way for us in Korea that living abroad was the best thing they ever did for their marriage, they had grown closer together than they had ever imagined. I wish I could say that as soon as we touched Korean soil, it was marital bliss. But that would be far from the truth. The first few months were hard; in addition to trying to get used to everything new in our lives (new career path, new language, new food, the list is endless) we were also still adjusting to married life since we moved just four short months after tying the knot. I remember thinking at one point 'I thought living abroad was supposed to be easier!' Thankfully, after a few months of being in Korea...it clicked. We grew accustomed to the new culture around us and more importantly, we grew together, worked together and began reaping the benefits of living abroad as a married couple.

While becoming our only friends overnight, in a strange land, were we lived, worked, ate and socialized together 24/7 was a challenge at first, it has turned into one of the biggest blessings I've ever experienced. Not only did we have more time to spend with each other than we ever did in the States, but we were also our only support system for the first part of living overseas. Back in the states I had the bad habit of calling a friend or my sister when we had a fight. In Korea, I didn't have that option. It forced us to sit down and figure it out completely on our own, and quickly. Because who wants to be mad at their only friend for too long? We learned quickly how to rely completely on each other and I don't know of any situation where that would have happened for us if we lived stateside. Living abroad has taught us to love in a completely different way than I ever thought possible and I am eternally grateful for that.

As hard as it can be living away from family, friends and virtually anything familiar, we have found the benefits far outweigh the hardships that we have encountered from living abroad.

Thanks so much for having me Bonnie and congrats on your marriage renewal! I hope you'll stop by my blog where I talk about our daily lives as expats in the land of kimchi, along with documenting our world travels. Be sure to say hi, I would love to hear from you!

Follow along on our adventures:




16 comments:

  1. Looooooved this, Chelsea! Ah, I loved getting a peek into your unique circumstances -- as newlyweds abroad. And I love the angle and what you decided to share with this! This makes me so excited to potentially do the same with my boyfriend at some point. And it's great to know that you can grow closer in intimacy and love and attachment through your situation (which, to be honest, could throw a lot of unknown obstacles in your way, especially being newlyweds after a long distance relationship). I think it's situations like these ones that make relationships stronger and better! YAYYYYYY! Thank you so much for sharing!

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  2. this is lovely Chelsea. I've been experiencing a similar thing - my partner being my only support and social system. At first we were both nervous about it but so far (well, a month in) it is working out better than we both imagined!

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  3. Great post and so true... often when you have to only rely on each other, that bond strengthens so fast.

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  4. It's so hard moving to another country and having only one other person to rely on...in the beginning, at least. But you're so right, it totally strengthens your bond and makes you really appreciate that person so much more! I've told D about a thousand times that I'm not sure I could have survived moving away from family and acclimating to a new culture if he hadn't be around to go through it all with me! Sounds like you've found yourself and excellent hubby and travel buddy too, girl!

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  5. Love this post! I can see how only being able to rely on each other would strengthen a marriage. What a wonderful experience!

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  6. These love posts give me hope that I'll find my travel guy one day. :) I know that love sometimes means taking risks, especially moving across the world for your true love but it is so worth it in the end.

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  7. I get it! My husband & I have been married a little over a year and a couple months ago moved to the Philippines with our [then] 5.5 month old daughter. We knew about the move well in advance though and had a bit of a network before we got here but it's tough adjusting in the beginning. I'm hoping to get to South Korea while we're in this part of the World!

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  8. that such an exciting move! we just went to the philippines in june and absolutely loved it! we really want to go back and visit again someday. the beginning is definitely the hardest but if people can make it through that, it gets SO much easier! if you come to south korea, let me know!

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  9. they're out there! ask any one of the many lovely expat lady bloggers : ) and those men are the best kind! (i may be slightly biased on this one ; )

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  10. thanks casey! and i completely agree. we had a good relationship before we moved but it only got better after that adjustment phase was over and we learned to completely rely on one another!

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  11. i would LOVE to hear your story of moving abroad with your fiance! i think it's such a great learning experience for any couple!

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  12. i love hearing other people's stories about this because i think that each one is so unique and each couple faces different trials and triumphs through it. i know that i could never survive here with jeremy! i give major props to those who live and move abroad alone, i know that i could never do it!

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  13. erika, you give such sweet comments! i always look forward to hearing from you! i really hope that you get that chance! it's truly such a great learning experience. there are definitely obstacles involved! but it isn't anything that a couple can't handle together! we learned so much more about each other and grew as a couple so much more than we would have if we stayed at home. thanks for your sweet comment!

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  14. thanks chelsea! :) and it sounds like a wonderful bonding experience that i hope i get the chance to experience!

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  15. I blame my traveling for me missing this awesome post. I relate to your story completely, just like I said when we had lunch that one MAGICAL day. It was so hard going from long-distance to all you have in just a few months and I definitely did my share of fighting in Korea before like you said it "clicked". Now that I'm in America WITHOUT Rich, I totally feel lost. Whoop, Whoop for living abroad and getting a stronger marriage for it and enjoy your vacay, lady!

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  16. @Chelsea @ Lost in Travels thank you so much for participating in LoveWeek. My readers really enjoyed getting to hear your story and I appreciate you helping to spread the love! x

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I love to interact with my readers and I try my best to respond back to all comments.

Cheers,
Bonnie Rose

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