In the past decade, I’ve lived in the United States, Vietnam, India, and now South Korea. As you can tell from the blog entry dates, I wrote once on ExpatHeather.com when we first arrived in July 2019, and then the blog went on hiatus as we settled into a new school, new job, and new country. Our first semester was hectic, with all the usual trappings of an international move, and me sending out 800 students on 9 different experiential education trips around Korea during my first two months on the job.  

Once we finally felt like we were settling in, finding routines, and making friends, Covid19 arrived in South Korea, and our lives changed.

It was February 23, 2020 when the Korean government decided schools would go virtual. I was set to leave the next morning on a work trip to the Philippines for six days, along with three colleagues. Our goal was to do research, relationship-building, and risk assessment for an international trip for Korea International School students for Fall 2020. The trip was focused on jungle survival and sailing. We had worked for months with the providers, including working with the native Aeta people of the Philippines who would be running the jungle survival camp.