Whole Wide World Travel : November 2014

A) keep going

B) turn around

C) the tough get going (does anyone even say this any more?)

D) sleep all day and hope to wake up when it's over

E) make visits to Hong Kong and Taiwan assuming that will solve your problem

About 3 weeks ago I started to really get myself into a funk. I tried to wiggle, climb, squirm, and pull my way out but it just wasn't happening. I was really feeling stuck. Here I am, doing the most incredible thing I could have ever imagined – exploring the world for a year with my husband – and it just wasn't fun any more. Out of all the things we had planned for on the trip, I hadn't really planned to not be having fun and I didn't know what to do about it. I wanted to feel grateful, energized, excited, curious, and adventurous not frustrated, bored, irritable, tired, and stressed out. Worse than that I started to feel like I was “failing” at what we set out to do. I worried that I was disappointing my partner. I thought that if I couldn't turn my ship around I would ruin things for the both of us.

Luckily my husband is a superhero and it was easy to talk to him and let him know how I was feeling. I felt loved and supported my him but there was no magic wand. Simply getting this all out wasn't enough to fix anything. A quick blog search and I realized I wasn't alone which made me feel a bit better (misery loves company, right?). Turns out we should have know that at some point we would "hit the wall", burnout, or just feel "over it". See what others had to say here or here or just read my summary below.

(Before you jump to "Wait, didn't you say you are traveling around the world with your husband all year? You don't have a job to go to or rent to pay or a car to fix or crap to deal with every day? And now you are going to complain about it? Most people couldn't do that even if they wanted" please remember that just because something seems awesome and may be a dream come true, it doesn't mean it's always easy and it's okay to say when it isn't.)

I'm over it!!!

1. Wearing the same stupid clothes every day. Even when they are clean I feel dirty. And I can't take my roots any longer! Brandt says I should just get my hair colored here but I really don't trust that they can get the blonde right here. Call me snobby, but I'll call you crying when my hair gets ruined. I am scheduling a hair appointment for the day after I get home :)

2. Living out of a backpack. We had been moving every 2-3 days or so. I became a pro at taking out as little as possible but was simultaneously annoyed that I wasn't using/wearing/touching "any" of my stuff.

3. Not having any money. I've been really impressed and proud of us to stick to our budget quite closely over the year. It's been a great learning opportunity and has forced us to stay financially responsible (although I think we were before as well), but it's getting old! We always select the cheapest meal, shop around to get the best price, and fight to save every dollar. I'm grateful to have the money to meet our needs but I also honestly miss the days of having a paycheck and being able to go out for lunch and order whatever the hell I'm in the mood.

4. Not having any friends. Of course I still have friends. I actually feel pretty connected to the people I call friends even though I am 10,000 miles away. But I just miss the interactions you have when friends and acquaintances are in your world. I have myself and my husband to keep me company but it's not always enough. I miss having coworkers and happy hours and PA dinners. I really miss that.

5. Making decisions and coordinating plans. Now that we are moving around Asia faster than we were traveling in Central America, I feel like we are constantly on hotels.com, looking into transportation options, figuring out what to do where to go and what to see. It gets to feel like a job and I would rather someone else just make all the decisions for me.

Now though, I'm over that!! Well, not really. I still have all the problems I just mentioned, but they don't feel like too much to deal with as before they did. That really the point in life, right? It's not that you are ever going to be free of problems. It's that you just need to accept them, figure out how to navigate them, and not let them weigh you down.

We made a visit to Hong Kong to see Brandt's cousins. Maybe 8-10 years ago they did a similar thing: stored their stuff, quit their jobs, traveled the world. It was so good to spend time with people who "got it". They had been there, done that, and I knew we could vent our frustrations without being judged. We could also stay put in a really nice home for a week which helped a lot. And most importantly, we could spend time with close family. To spend a week hanging out with good friends was really important. Also, some of our above problems were solved! My wardrobe was replenished with very posh hand-me-downs, we didn't have to make decisions for a whole week, and we were very generously treated to some incredible meals and given a room to stay.

The good times kept rolling as we flew to Taiwan next to visit an old friend of Brandt's in Taichung. Again we were met with the most amazing hospitality and generosity from our friends, Mark and Peko (and their little baby bean)! Having tour guides made our visit in Taiwan much easier and enjoyable. We explored Taichung, ate amazing (and sometimes very adventurous) food, and enjoyed learning lots about the Chinese and Taiwanese culture.

Our visits really did help change my attitude and mindset. I feel recharged and optimistic which is how I prefer to feel! I look forward to the homestretch (2 months is a homestretch when you are traveling for close to a year) which will include beach time in Phuket, a 10-day meditation retreat in Malaysia, more beach time in Phuket, some "living large" as we cash in points for fancy hotel rooms, and spending Christmas and New Years together in Bali.

The moral here is hang in there! Things that are bad aren't bad forever. It's hard to figure it out sometimes but keep trying, it's worth it!