We Answer Some of Your Questions, One Month In

This week we hit the one-month mark on our year-long journey. We took some questions about our experience so far and compiled answers for you here…

Has the reality of the trip jibed with your expectations going in?

The one thing we knew for sure going into 2019 was: We have no idea what this is going to be like. Whatever we *think* it will be like, it won’t.

Probably the biggest reality check has been regarding free time for creativity. In our minds, we’d have long stretches of down time without jobs and responsibilities to draw, write, take pictures and paint.

So far that has not been the case.

Creativity requires “catching flow,” and you can’t catch flow when someone under 4-feet asks you a question every 3-7 minutes.

I can hear my own 2018 self shouting: “Just get the kids to do their own thing for a while!” in response to reading this.

But it’s so much easier said than done. If they’re drawing on their own, they want to show you a progress update every 5 minutes. Or their pencil needs sharpening — mom, where’s the sharpener?!

If they’re playing cards on their own, that’s great–but a game’s also only like 11 minutes long. The game wraps just at the moment when you’ve settled in with the first lines on paper of a never-to-be-finished-watercolor-masterpiece. And then they come drape themselves on you and go, “I want a snaaaaaaaack.”

I have yet to finish a book on this trip.

Establishing autonomy and independence are among our absolutely top priorities: Must teach kids the sanctity and delight of quiet time.

What has surprised you the most?

We are cynical, impatient, insular New Yorkers, but I’m loving our sudden and willing capacity to just be goofy, vulnerable, affable foreigners in a new place.

Every day sees us stumbling up humbly to a counter/ticket booth/shop lady and pointing dorkily at something and saying like, “Me likey one ticket-y thank yous please.”

Our earnest efforts, plus having kids in tow, has meant every single person we’ve encountered has been super friendly and helpful.

Another pleasantly surprising thing: Apparently raising kids in the Financial District of Manhattan means they are at ease in any chaotic city environment. Where we’ve started to worry and say, Oh god, it’s loud and dirty and traffic-y in this foreign new place — it must be upsetting to the kids! — we’ve noticed that they’re utterly unfazed. It’s their normal.

Are you adjusting any of your plans for the next 11 months based on what you have experienced so far?

Two things jump out:

1. We can only do one “big outing” a day. A perfect day is half chill (wandering, exercise, school, hanging out, exploring) and half dedicated to a specific mission — a destination, a tour, an outing, an activity, etc. Same as a weekend day in New York, really. If we have too much chill hanging-out time or too much touring/activity time, we’re screwed.

1. We might have to dial back the daily blogging. While Instagram is easy, the blog posts are time-consuming because WordPress is annoying. It just takes a long time to get a post up. We want the record, but would rather spend the precious kid-free time at night reading, watching TV, researching next stops, etc. We’ll continue to experiment. Need to take a page out of Axios/Mike Allen’s “smart brevity” book. More on content below.

What’s the packing update?

We’ve actually settled nicely into our packing situation.

Every single thing in our bags gets used (anything else got tossed back in Colombia), and we’ve made peace with wearing and re-wearing the same stuff every day.

When you don’t know anyone and you’re in a new place every week, the idea of changing things up or having something new to wear kind of goes away. It’s pretty liberating.

That said, we’ve definitely bought souvenirs and stuff. We got a cool colorful rug in Peru, for instance. Shipped that home with some other items before leaving the country. We anticipated/budgeted sending packages home every few weeks so that we’d be able to buy things along the way.

Packing MVPs to name a few:

• Packing cubes (the trip couldn’t have happened without these)
• Dorky fanny pack (Margaret)
• Clothes drying line
• Plus Plus small lego-like blocks
• Cards (we have 4 decks)
• Tiny Polka Dot (16 math/logic games in one small box)
• Our Anker PowerPort cube (our “charging station” at every home)

What’s the meltdown to touring ratio?

Amazingly the meltdowns have grown fewer and farther between.

It might just be that meltdowns were a way to get mommy and daddy’s scarce attention–and now that they have it 24/7, meltdowns are less relevant?

We also have a better pulse on their eating needs. Hanger is real.

Oh, and we’re doing way less touring. One activity a day. See above!

All this said, we’re not out of the woods yet. We saw not one but two meltdowns just yesterday…

I would like to know what it is like to be with and be responsible for the kids full time. Though they are darling and seem like astonishingly good travelers, being without childcare for 12 months straight after a full-time nanny must be an adjustment.

It’s a stunning change of lifestyle for us. Consider that our nanny Didi spent more time with our children every week than the two of us COMBINED for Willa’s entire life.

We worked full-time. We took kid-free trips. We had a sitter at least one night a week to go on dates or out with friends.

**We are not those people who are with their kids all the time.**

And yet, here we are.

The good news is that the parenting is 50/50. We both homeschool, do the wakeup/bedtime routines, deal with squabbling, make meals, discipline, etc. That obviously helps.

And there’s probably still some novelty to it all at just 30 days in. I’ve had maybe 1-2 moments when I’ve just wanted to close the door and shut everyone out. I think Teddy would say the same.

When they realize they have your full attention, they’re slightly less meltdown-y. And when they’re less meltdown-y, turns out they’re more pleasant to be around.

How the hell do you squeeze in so much exercise with two kids in a foreign country! Do you and Teddy have an app on your phone or some routines that you do in the courtyards?

In NYC, Teddy and I both exercise.

The difference is, Teddy is super disciplined and wakes up every single weekday morning at 6 am to work out — has for as long as I’ve known him — and I need to go to some expensive, trendy class to be forced to move my body.

So on this trip, Teddy still pops out of bed and goes for a run or goes outside for some circuit training. It’s easy for him.

I, on the other hand, have to force myself to walk or do some squats every few days. I’m on a mission to do spin classes in other countries 1) because it’s fascinating, 2) because I love spin and 3) I need an instructor yelling at me to work out.

How is spin in Chile different than spin in the US?

I’ve now gone to Cyglo in Bogota and Titanium Cyclingbox in Santiago. In both classes the vibe was way chiller than NYC, not surprisingly. Riders sauntered in after class started, brought their phones (even texted during the ride!!), and in general, did *not* ride to the beat despite insistent hollering from beat-riding instructors.

Cyglo was definitely modeled on SoulCycle (they told me so). Pitch dark, “sexy” and more dance-y. The bikes had outward-facing colored lights attached to the handlebars that flashed different colors depending on how hard you were working. White meant you were moseying, red meant you were cranking (blue, yellow and green were in between) . No one flashed consistently red in my two classes except the instructor and ME!

Titanium Cyclingbox didn’t require cycling shoes, and one wall of the class was a glass storefront window onto a downtown business district sidewalk at lunchtime. The studio was new, so passers-by were definitely curious.

I honestly loved both, even if they weren’t my obsession: SoulCycle classes with Jaidus in NYC.

Aren’t you exhausted?

Surprisingly, no. On paper it might seem like we’re doing a lot. But we don’t have jobs and we don’t have any other day-to-day responsibilities so there’s more downtime than you’d think.

Related: We were nervous that our itinerary pace was too fast — 4 nights here, 5 nights there — but the rapid-ish change of environments has so far been welcome and exciting. We’ve found that when the time comes, we’re ready to move on and discover the next place.

How many hours a day are you spending on these Instagram posts?

Short answer: 20-30 minutes at the end of each day.

Long answer:

I’m doing the Instagram. Taking tons of pics to document a day is part of my muscle memory — ask anyone who knows me well. It’s not a habit born of the Instagram era, but one I’ve had since I can remember. I’ve created a physical photo album for every year of my life since I was a sophomore in high school.

I get it from my parents, who are both remarkable photographers and especially my dad, who is a meticulous record-keeper/photographic chronicler of life events, big and small.

In 2016 I quit Instagram. Teddy followed in 2018. Why? Started to feel like an unsatisfying time-suck. At the end of a loooooong scroll sesh you’d go, How did 45 minutes just go by? Do I really care about this person’s memes or their family photos? I barely know them! No!

So I let it go for more than two years.

But when our big 2019 travel year approached, we had to decide — did we want to chronicle this thing? Did we want to share it with friends and family? How?

Challenges: We knew we wanted to document digitally and be able to share easily with friends and family.

But we didn’t want to be *those people* posting airbrushed versions of a year abroad with sunsets and meltdown-free children. We also didn’t want to post tons of pics of our kids for all the random internet to see, nor did we care to profit off the content.

Given those criteria, Instagram was still clearly going to be the best way to give quick bursts of updates to friends and family following from afar.

That’s why we decided to start a private account.

Our pics aren’t meant to show off, they’re simply meant to show. (People: if it’s coming off too smug or show-offy…tell us. You know who you are).

We also obviously have this password-protected blog. The audience for this is US in 10 years. Or our kids in 30 years. So you’re welcome to read it, which is why we readily hand out the password–but if it’s boring, remember it wasn’t meant for you. The blog, for the record, takes way longer than the Instagram, and as a result we might re-think it as mentioned above.

Ok. So. Back to the question.

How long does it take to post these daily Instagram posts? The implication is that this is a huge amount of time (…and perhaps also that we’re spending more time than we should be on Instagram?)

Let me paint a picture:

You spend 12 hours straight with a 4 and 6 year old. Touring. Speaking another language. Hot. Homeschooling. Breaking up fights. Preparing meals. Living out of a suitcase. Entertaining tiny humans. Answering 45 billion questions. Trying to navigate a new town. Reading maps. Translating. Figuring out what we’re doing next.

Then.

The kids go to bed.

The hotel room/airbnb is silent.

You relax. You have a few delicious hours to YOURSELF.

If you’re like me, someone who loves solitude as well as pictures and documenting, one of your favorite ways to unwind is to: Get horizontal. Pull out your phone. Tune out the world. Swipe through the pics and video you took that day. Review everything that happened. Reflect on what you saw. And….

Pick a few shots for Instagram. Beep boop beep boop.

It’s satisfying, relaxing–and *over* within 20 minutes.