Where We’ve Been

Hong Kong: 3 days

United States – New York City, Boston, Maine, Indiana, North Carolina: 22 days

China – Shanghai: 37 days

Highlights

Perfectly Paced Trip: We have been making summer sojourns to the US for five summers. Each year the schedule is different and we really struggle to balance our need for downtime with our desire to see everyone we know. This year, we finally (finally!) got the pace right. We spent four nights in most of the locations, which we found is a long enough visit to really soak in a place and spend quality time with loved ones. There wasn’t a location where we left wistful that we hadn’t scheduled more time. For reference, a few years ago we road tripped from California to Maine in the same amount of time which was amazing and exhausting. This year was much more reasonable.

Food Highlights: We look forward to our American gorgefest every year. And every year, we scratch culinary itches we didn’t even know we had, get our fill of classic favorites and indulge in some of the best food around. Our highlights from this summer’s trip include: Cote (New York City), the breakfast sandwich from Shake Shack (New York City), Harraseeket lobster roll and onion middles (South Freeport, Maine), Duckfat fries and a shake (Portland, Maine), White Claw (the alcoholic seltzer drink that has taken the US by storm this summer), lamb kebab pita from Miznon (New York City), Sour Cream and Cheddar Ruffles potato chips, Chocolate and Peanut Butter Pie Oreos, the Inn at Little Pond Farm, blackberry pie (Little Switzerland, North Carolina), plenty of ice cream, tomato salad made with summer tomatoes, and about a million cans of sparkling water in a variety of flavors. Epic.

Lowlights

Money Transfer from Hell: Foreign residents in China are allowed by law to complete wire transfers from local banks to foreign banks up to a certain amount per year. These transactions are a huge pain because they require proof of income, tax payments, work contracts and visas. We’ve been putting off such a transfer for years because the difficulty level is high and frankly, it’s just hard to make ourselves deal with any paperwork challenge voluntarily. Anyway, I finally got up the courage to complete the transfer and wouldn’t you know, it was much more frustrating than expected. We have extra fun complications like having lived in two Chinese cities and having renewed a passport in China that throw bank bureaucrats into a tizzy, but after three solid weeks of bank visits and opening new accounts and physically moving money between banks and visiting the tax bureau, the transfer finally went through. We’re never doing that again!

It’s Soooo Hot: Back in the winter I complained about the bone-chilling damp of Shanghai but I’m back to complain even more ferociously about the heat of the summer. Today it’s 95F and feels like 112F according to my phone. Our hallway at home, which is windows on three sides, is basically the greenhouse effect come to life. Just like in the winter, the heat is a massive deterrent for any outdoor activity, so we’ve been laying low binging TV series and reading way more than normal. It’s actually hotter in Shanghai in the summer than it is 1,000 miles south of here in Shenzhen where we used to live (and where we used to complain about the weather profusely). That tropic area maintains the heat longer throughout the year but up here, it’s just a practice in extremes. And it’s brutal. By early October things should be better…

What We’re Loving Lately

All the TV: We’ve had a lot of time on our hands in the air-conditioned apartment and have been enjoying these shows: Big Little Lies (HBO), Mindhunter (Netflix), Fleabag (Amazon), Grand Designs (a fave from the UK but several seasons are on Netflix), Queer Eye (Netflix), and The Great British Bake-Off (Channel 4 UK, or Netflix). We’re also looking forward to catching up on Succession (HBO) and The Righteous Gemstones (HBO). A special note on The Great British Bake-Off – this is quite possibly my favorite annual television event and since we left the UK I’ve been forced to go to great lengths to watch the season live when it airs (late August to early October). This year, Channel 4 is partnering with Netflix and will show new episodes three days after they air live in the UK. The first episode of the season (or series, if you’re a Brit) aired last week.

Spa Junkies: Every so often we get foot massages in this glorious air conditioned (do you sense a theme here?) spa near our apartment. When we were there last week, the receptionist gave us the hard sell to buy a member card, where you load up a bunch of money into an account and get bonuses and credits to make it worth it. I think we were relaxed from our massages and susceptible to charming sales tactics so we bought the card. What was a sporadic treat has quickly become a weekly habit. Maybe we’re total suckers or maybe this was the best money we’ve ever spent.

Coming Up Next

Making Moves: We have big plans in the works, which we will be announcing later in the week. Let’s just say this autumn will NOT be a boring one. On top of that upcoming announcement, we are simultaneously planning for an upcoming holiday to New Zealand, over the Chinese National Day holiday week. Check back in a few days for more news on that front.