Let’s review January, shall we?

Where We’ve Been

China: Shanghai (Drew 24 days, Julie 22 days), Guangzhou/Shenzhen (Julie 2 days)

USA: Indiana (6 days)

Thailand: Bangkok (1 day)

Highlights

Celebrating Life: 2018 ended with a death in my family, a hastily rebooked flight back to China and an extra week at home. While this wasn’t what we were expecting for the first week of January, it was actually a really nice way to ring in the New Year. We got in a lot (a LOT!) of quality family time, we planned a fantastic celebration of life which was attended by pretty much everyone I’ve ever known, and the rest of January has just reverberated with all those good vibes. While I’m not advocating for a major family loss to bring clarity and purpose to your new year, let’s just say…it works.

Four Season Living: I was really looking forward to moving to Shanghai, partially for the weather. I found living in the tropical Shenzhen climate difficult most of the year, and I missed four season living. Now that we’re up north, in proper winter, I am doing my darndest to appreciate it. I have a beloved ‘sherpa robe’ and these amazing fleece-lined slippers that I never wore in Shenzhen and they’re getting daily use in our drafty apartment. I really adore my Sunday afternoon couch/throw blanket sessions, devouring books and movies and hot chocolate. We bought a hot water bottle from Pinyin Press with which I have a mild obsession. But my favorite thing about the changing seasons is that feeling at the end of one season when you just really can’t wait for the next one. We’re nearing that point in winter when I am really looking forward to spring, open windows and day-drinking on a patio.

Getting Dressed: I’ve made a pact with myself this year to get dressed every day. Like, in an outfit. Not my usual half-baked attempt of jeans and a T-shirt, or better yet my favorite 20-year old hooded sweatshirt. This year, I’m going to learn to layer, find my jewelry, make an effort. I’ve even been painting my nails about every ten days (with a tiny polish collection I picked up post-Christmas). I have a joint goal for the year to wash my face and take care of my skin. I’ve been terrifying Drew regularly with multi-colored peel-off face masks which he thinks are horrifying in their appearance and removal process. Today, rather than just wearing a sweater, I dug out some earrings and a vest to wear over the sweater. Basically, I’m a fashion blogger now.

Lowlights

Hot Water/Heat/Plumbing: The trifecta of home annoyances, and from my count, we’ve had to deal with all of them in January. We know that living in a traditional lane house opens us up to quirky apartment issues. But when it’s too cold in the morning for the hot water heater to kick on for a shower, it is a sad, sad day. We can’t fight nature, so we have just updated our habits a bit during the winter, showering at night when the hot water supply is high and strategically running our various heaters on a schedule that keeps us warm at the right time. We also bought an air purifier and a dehumidifier which helps.

Small Things: There was the morning when Drew tried to book a flight and the page timed out and everything was lost and the price went up the next time he was on the site. There were several nights when I was at evening Chinese class and I just hate that cold commute home which reminds me of when I used to commute between Portland and Boston for grad school. There was a morning that I wanted to go on a run but the air quality was too bad to risk it. There was the day when Drew realized that it’s impossible to watch CBS sports using any of our normal hacking solutions and he couldn’t watch football (and we probably can’t easily watch the Super Bowl). Those are all my complaints.

What We’re Loving Lately

TV and Books: Here’s the short list of our recommendations – for the screen, Sex Education (Netflix), both Fyre Festival documentaries (Netflix and Hulu), and this season of Top Chef. On the book side – I’ll be Gone in the Dark (non-fiction, true crime), Being Mortal (non-fiction, examination of death and dying in the US) and Tell Me More (non-fiction, essay collection). I read far and wide and I’ve been told my taste in books isn’t very consistent or easy to describe, so take what works for you. Drew and I agree on the TV side of things, so that’s two votes on those items.

Coming Up in February

Chinese New Year is upon us – the year of the pig!

We’re off to Bangkok and Laos (Luang Prabang) right now and we’ll be back in Shanghai next week. We’re doing one small project for the blog while we’re gone which we will share later in February, but we’re mostly looking forward to the rest and relaxation. And the hot weather. And the smoothies. When we visited Bangkok eight years ago, I didn’t dress properly for the Grand Palace and couldn’t go in. We’ll rectify that this weekend.

And here’s hoping that my ankle and stomach stay strong this year, as opposed to last year’s minor disaster in Bali.

新年快乐！