I’m an American expat living in southwestern Poland.
By day I work in the soulless drudgery of corporate content marketing. But as soon as it’s 5PM I am many things: a writer, a baker, a crafter and maker, a learner, a gardener, and a landscape designer.
How did I get here?
I’m originally from the Central New York area. After a childhood of being driven up and down the East Coast for various family vacations, I set off on my own adventures as an adult.
Convinced by a friend I made while on a misguided youth exchange year, I got my TEFL certificate and moved to Northeastern China because, “It’s just like youth exchange. Except there are no rules, and you get paid.” It was the first time I was more than a time zone away from family, and the first time I found myself someplace really, truly foreign – it was exhilarating. I was thrown in with other teachers in a small-by-Chinese-standards city, where living was cheap and basic Mandarin skills were necessary.
That year (and two miserable years at home that gave me some perspective) set me off on my greatest adventures. I moved to Thailand, briefly, before returning to the same school in China for another year. Then came western Honduras, and two years on the outskirts of Mexico City teaching kindergarten. After enrolling in culinary school for the Fall 2018 semester, fate intervened and I was offered a job in southwestern Poland, which I took. In the middle of my first year here, fate (and dating apps) again had the last laugh, and I’ve been here ever since.
I’ve experienced loneliness in the middle of the biggest cities in the world and explored all sorts of hobbies to cure it. I’ve missed weddings, funerals, births, and family reunions. But I’ve also explored places people only read about or see on TV and movies, grown comfortable with being me, made lifelong friends, and found the kind of love they make rom-com movies about (no, really, it’s hilarious).
There has been a lot of sacrifice for this way of life, but I wouldn’t trade it because of what I’ve received in return. Yes, I get questions about moving home (and I would love to say yes someday), but this is where I am at this moment in life.
Jess Jeziorowski 