February flew back so quickly, I forget to put up our month in review post. To be fair, if February had 31 days in it like so many other months, then I would only be a day late. I blame it on February.

Whatever, let’s get to it.

Where We’ve Been

Thailand: Bangkok (3 days)

Laos: Luang Prabang(4 days)

Singapore: (Julie, 3 days)

China: Shanghai (Drew 21 days, Julie 18 days)

Highlights

Year of the Pig: Chinese New Year has come and gone. We had a fantastic trip out of China, to Bangkok and Laos. We’ve written a lot about our time there, from a street food tour in Bangkok to visiting one of Laos’ big tourist destinations, a small set of rural waterfalls. We also really enjoyed exploring a new neighborhood in Bangkok and chillaxing by the pool of a luxury resort. I find, in general, that our pace of travel has slowed since living in Asia, but it’s still my favorite way to spend time, so here’s hoping to much more where that came from in 2019!

Classes and Teams: In February I finished up a several-month small group Chinese class. Drew successfully completed one round of competition with a new tennis league. He’s also joined a trivia team that competes every week at a pub quiz, and I haven’t been able to join yet because of my Chinese class. Starting this week I can hopefully lend my very specific knowledge of early 1990’s American pop music (let’s be honest, my one true strength in any quiz environment) to what I hear is a very difficult competition.

Lowlights

Rain, Rain, Go Away: We’ve heard that 2019 has started as one of, if not THE, most rainy in Shanghai’s history. For the past two months, it rained all but a few days. The gloomy days put a damper (pun intended) in our activity levels for sure. We’ve spent many weekend days cozily binging Netflix while it pours outdoors. We’ve traded lots of fun restaurant and bar experiences for the convenience of a city where ordering in is a critical part of life. As I write this, we’re supposed to have a full day without rain, and we both have a list of errands to run while it’s dry and comfortable.

Visa Issue: Somehow, we arrived in Luang Prabang, Laos without either of us checking on the visa situation for US citizens. Needless to say, you need one. They were available upon arrival, but we did not have enough cash on us to pay for the visa. Thanks to the general chill vibe of the Laotian staff, they let Drew walk through immigration and get some money from an ATM in the arrivals hall. It took me at least two hours to calm down though, as my heart was pounding and I was angry that seasoned travellers like us made such a basic error. Won’t happen again.

What We’re Loving Lately

Ordering In: Drew wrote a long article recently about important phone apps for Shanghai expats. They’ve had a lot of use from us this month, especially Bottles XO, our go-to wine resource that delivers within thirty minutes. Not to mention all the grocery deliveries we’ve had this month in our attempt to avoid the rain.

Finally Joined a Gym: I really hesitated joining a gym. There is only one near our apartment, and it is pretty high-end (read: expensive). I have avoided joining because I was looking for a better value option – like going a little further for a cheaper gym, finding one near the office, sticking with outdoor running, etc. As always, convenience won out and I finally joined the gym nearby after all. It just took four months of resisting but eventually I got there.

Coming Up in March

This month, Drew is adventuring out of Shanghai. He has one friend trip scheduled (I can’t share the details yet so he’ll share later in March) and he’s taking a trip out of town with the charity Heart 2 Heart in a couple weeks. During that trip to Anhui province, the team will bring a busload of supplies to families and schools and visit the previous heart surgery patients that have been associated with the charity for years. I plan on spending the month in Shanghai and welcoming in the spring (hopefully!).