Top 5 Things from 2022

Where have we been?

Everybody knows we lived in China until Covid made life more challenging than we wanted. Then we lost contact faster than it takes for PCR test results to come back. One of Jamie’s responsibilities for 2024 is writing consistently because she likes doing it and she’s pretty great. And she’s so, so humble. Let’s kick off this new chapter of accountability with a quickie. What’s more quickier than a “top 5” list?

Here are the Top 5 Things from 2022 you need to know.

1. We were locked up in Shanghai for a consecutive 63 days.
2. Osprey backpacks are amazing.
3. We took a gap summer and backpacked Europe as soon as lockdown ended.
4. Plans were made and tea was had.
5. Daily calls to prayer are peaceful and soothing.

We were locked up in Shanghai for a consecutive 63 days.

Not to repeat ourselves, but we spent some time at home in Shanghai. This is when we learned how much we like working from home. We had comfortable furniture (a beanbag, even) and a well-equipped home gym. Our art cupboard was stocked, we had a pile of puzzles at the ready and a big kitchen to cook in. Our little community was cute, full of friendly neighbors. It had flat road perfect for running or roller skating.

This is also when we learned that not being able to go outside or get fresh groceries whenever we wanted was a bit of a bummer. We had a nice picture window we could stare out and see the road as it waited there silently, sans cars or pedestrians. Kitchen activity was touch-and-go, depending on our fresh fruit and veggie inventory. By the time lockdown ended, we were ready for fresh air and a little interaction with people who weren’t ourselves.

Osprey backpacks are amazing.

Research Specialist Kim made time to find what we consider The Best backpacks for us to make our European escape with: the 40 liter Fairview and Farpoint. She chose the women’s Fairview and Jamie got the men’s Farpoint. Essentially the same bag, they both zip wiiiiide open like suitcases so you can easily access those shorts you want to wear on the Ferris wheel. There’s a big zipper pocket that fits travel-size bottles of liquid that could be face wash or vodka and the Chinese TSA agent will never know the difference.

The compression straps are very comfortable, even if the pack is filled to capacity and you’re walking Greek cobblestone streets for hours. These bags also have a detachable shoulder strap that give you carrying options. When it’s time to get on the plane, you can tuck the straps and hip belt into a compartment and zip them away, keeping them safe from getting tangled in the overhead compartment or abused by surly baggage handlers.

We took a gap summer and backpacked Europe as soon as lockdown ended.

We had never smelled Europe so we sought out the fresh air over there. Bookmark our blog (we can’t believe you haven’t done that already) so you can quickly read our next post with more details about where exactly we went. It was invigorating to finally throw away our paper face masks when we landed in Amsterdam. We had so much free time to walk and wander and explore since we weren’t lining up for twice-daily nose swab tests. We drank coffee and sampled unique local food and eavesdropped on passersby speaking English.

Plans were made and tea was had.

You know how Kim birthed three kids, right? We’re skipping the gory details except to tell you that she had a bad case of diastasis recti (DR) where her stomach muscles had been separated.  Regardless of how much she exercised and ate nutritious food, she couldn’t reattach the muscles. She had a gap that could only be fixed with plastic surgery. We had talked for years about tummy tucks and when we found ourselves so close to Turkey (aka the plastic surgery capital of the world,) we decided she would seek the help of Dr. Yunus Doğan.  The successful and busy surgeon made time to meet and drink Turkish tea. We talked about her expectations and the results he could provide. We met his staff and asked questions.

Daily calls to prayer are peaceful and soothing.

During her recovery  we discovered some aspects we thought we could improve on. We drank tea and thought about returning to China. While we could, we sat outside in the sunshine without face masks. We listened to the calls to prayer that echoed from the nearby mosques, the notes and intonations reverberating a Zen vibe in our souls. And to maintain that Zen vibe, we moved here!