I've always been a suburbs kind of gal. That is, until I had no choice about it and had tovlive in the countryside for a few months earlier this year. Here's what I learnt:
1.) It's not silent. Dammit TV shows, you had me duped (again). I lost count of the number of times I woke up to screeching owls, cat fights, or a cow having a little mooing session.
2.) I really hate bugs. Leaving your windows open at night is basically an invitation for the entire wilderness to come in. I have not missed moths or daddy long legs flying around me 24/7.
3.) Everyone wants to chat. I'm used to not knowing any of my neighbours' names, let alone their life histories. Here even the postman knew who I was. My stranger danger anxiety was on a full-time high.
4.) Everyone has pets. Okay, this part I loved. All the neighbours had dogs, cats or both, as well as a myriad of other little creatures. You were basically never more than two feet away from a friendly little stroke. My bunny wasn't quite as impressed as me with this though, hehe.
5.) I really, REALLY like fast internet. This was basically the bane of my life for those few months. It took forever to even upload a blog photo. And YouTube? A seven hour upload time for a ten minute video is simply not okay.
6.) Phone signal is actually pretty handy. Especially when you're job hunting. Unlike with the internet situation, I simply had no signal whatsoever. No signal, no mobile data, no access to the outside world.
7.) Nature controls our lives. Living in towns and cities has given me this false illusion that we control nature. Being in a raging storm in an outbuilding in the middle of the countryside however, really showed me how wrong I was.
8.) Nature can be truly beautiful. I've never really seen a sun setting without buildings being all up in my grill. I've got a little collection of gorgeous photos of colourful sunsets from this summer, which are completely unobstructed by architecture.
9.) I don't like being isolated. I'm such an introvert that I thought I would love to be out in the middle of nowhere, without having to see and talk to people all of the time. But I actually hated it. I felt so alone and missed the hustle and bustle of normal life.
10.) I really kind of like my boyfriend. Shoddy internet, no phone signal and living in one room in the middle of nowhere for four months taught me a whole lot. Mostly though, I realised that my relationship is strong, and I love being in it. We survived that without murdering each other, so we can survive anything, right?
I hope you enjoyed this post! Have you ever lived in the countryside?
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