The Bachelorette alum Katie Thurston has admitted she's "totally winging" her relationship with fiance Blake Moynes following their televised engagement.
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Katie recently insisted she's still engaged and happily dating Blake after the Canadian wildlife specialist popped the question during The Bachelorette's seventeenth-season finale, which aired this past summer.
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But Katie, 30, and Blake, 31, apparently have no plans to move in together any time soon, and they are currently navigating a challenging long-distance relationship from not just different states, but different countries.
"I'm, like, totally winging my life right now," San-Diego based Katie told Us Weekly of her excitement to reunite with the Toronto, Canada native.
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Katie conducted her interview while backstage at Whitney Cummings' "Touch Me Tour" on Friday at the City National Grove of Anaheim, CA.
"I literally leave tomorrow in San Diego at, like, six in the morning. So I'm driving back home after [the comedy show] at some point," Katie revealed.
Blake has been spending time in Africa rescuing rhinos, and Katie -- who originally competed for Matt James' heart on The Bachelor's 25th season -- has clearly been keeping busy in the meantime.
"We're figuring it out," Katie said of her romance with Blake. "We don't know. This is very new to us still. I'm just focusing on myself, he's focusing on him, and if we work doing that, great."
Although Blake could not physically attend Katie's Friday-night show, which marked the first time she's ever performed comedy in front of a live audience, he expressed his support for her on Instagram.
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"The face you make when you realize your [fiancee] has bigger balls than you!" Blake wrote on Wednesday, October 20.
"Sh-t, I thought crashing a group date gave me them... I don't think I could ever even attempt stand up comedy. Super proud and excited for you @thekatiethurston !"
Katie admitted to Us that she "wanted to bail a thousand times" on the comedy show but recognized it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that she couldn't pass up.
"I was surprised [over Blake's post]," Katie shared. "I mean for him to be so supportive publicly, it actually meant a lot. For him to be, like, 'You have such big balls.' No, it's p-ssy power, okay?"
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Katie added how she's most looking forward to a time when she and Blake can stop "traveling back and forth." Katie said she'd like to settle down with Blake "eventually."
Katie told the magazine in August how she was totally shocked by Blake's marriage proposal but is so glad he chose to commit to her at the end of her The Bachelorette season.
"It's hard to say the impact of that in the real world, [if he didn't propose], because you go through so much and you want to take this very seriously -- and a proposal and engagement is very serious," Katie explained at the time.
"I didn't come here to find a boyfriend. I can do that on a dating app," she added. "So it's hard to say if we would have survived just as a dating couple."
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Katie said her relationship with Blake strengthened once they promised each other forever.
"The fact that we're both committed to each other as future husband and wife, it just says a lot about our confidence in our relationship," Katie said.
Shortly after the show wrapped on TV, Katie visited Blake's hometown in Toronto and then moved into a new apartment in San Diego in August.
The former bank marketing manager and Blake also spent time together in New York City in September.
"I don't think people fully understand what it's like to date someone from another country and the rules behind that and the visas behind that," Katie said in a series of late-August videos posted to her Instagram Stories.
"I think right now Blake can only be here for 60 days before having to go back to Canada," Katie continued, seemingly referring to how a Tourist Visa works.
"So we really do have a lot we have to look into -- and we just haven't yet -- before we can plan really anything else."
Once Blake left for Africa to continue his endangered-animal conservation efforts, Katie reportedly wrote on Instagram earlier this month, "It can feel lonely moving to a new state... I've had trouble sleeping lately... I'm still trying to navigate this new life and city while seeking normalcy."
Katie and Blake have told multiple press outlets they are in no rush to wed and intend to travel together and learn more about each other's backgrounds, interests, hobbies and hometowns before deciding on an "anchor spot," or city in which to put down roots as a couple.
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