Our turbulent start to 2021

I woke up New Year’s Day feeling like this year would be a good one. I was in a great mood (with no hangover in sight thanks to our very mellow New Year’s Eve at home) as I bounced down the stairs eager for a cup of coffee and a quiet Friday taking down Christmas decor to discover to Russell throwing up, shaking, and urine that looked like straight blood. Getting worked up to the point of getting sick isn’t uncommon for him following a lot of ruckus, and New Year’s Eve around our neighborhood was full of ruckus (ugh, airBnBs.) but the blood had me on high alert and he was so lethargic and clearly not comfortable.

I woke Tate up and we spent the next hour tag-teaming to call nearly every pet hospital in the city as well as some as far as Columbus we found out every one had a 4-6 hour wait. I’m not sure if it was the fact it was New Years Day or covid staffing issues but it was absolutely crazy.

Hola, Havana

The past few days here in Indianapolis were what the forecasters kept calling “extreme heat”… or what Tate & I lovingly refer to as CUBA HOT. It seems to me there couldn’t be a more perfect time to reminisce on the ol Cuba trip.

 

Without a shadow of doubt Cuba wins my award for best food, and probably a podium finish for warmest locals. 

 

Showing Up (and squats)

I started this new ‘thing’ thoughtfully titled “100 Squats Every Day in May”.  I talked a handful of friends into doing it with me (in all actuality, it was an open invite for ANYONE to join, but let’s be honest who willingly volunteers as tribute for bum burners) and have actually shown up for seven days straight thus far.

Why am I sharing this? Not because I think it’s news-worthy that I’ve been doing squats for seven days, but because (as sad as this sounds) this is the first time I can recall actively showing up for myself in a realm that wasn’t involving work or personal obligations to others.

(Pensive, deep-in-thought photo complements of my husband, it felt applicable)

A weekend in Kuala Lumpur

It just so happened that our second weekend in China fell on Mid-Autumn Festival,  a nationwide holiday that most businesses shut down for. It worked out well for us since we went into this trip with the intent to make the most of our time in Asia, as best as we could.

There were a handful of spots we could fly direct to from Wuhan, and Kuala Lumpur was one of them. (Tokyo was also one, and as tempting as it was to go on a sushi-eating weekend bender, the flights were surprisingly pricey for such a short jaunt over the East China Sea). A few Pinterest searches confirmed it had seemed to have enough cool spots to keep us entertained for 3 days, so we booked a couple seats on the ol Airbus.

China’isms – Part One

Today was bring your wife to work day! We’re on the outbound to shanghai by way of train – supplier visit – train – supplier visit- train. Since we checked out of the hotel room this morning I tagged along to LongChen and hid out in the corner of their conference room sucking up the free WiFi to push peanut butter whiskey on the masses while they plotted a world takeover one EGR valve at a time.

Oh China…

China is a challenge.

 

That’s the best way I think I can sum it up. Some of you are probably sitting there going, ‘well, duh, Chelsea… what did you expect?’

Wuhan, China: giving the street food of Hubu Alley a shot

Yesterday evening we decided to pay homage to Anthony Bourdain and venture over to Hubu Alley, a well known Mecca of street food here in Wuhan with over a hundred vendors hawking their fares.

We had been doing a little shopping beforehand so we hopped in a DiDi (China’s version of Uber) and got to Hubu right as the hustle and bustle was beginning. Vendors were all just starting to set up their carts and it was CRAZY the difference an hour made. It went from an open alley where we could walk pretty freely to being shoulder to shoulder packed, with a high chance of getting accidentally impaled by a haphazard bump into a skewer.

An afternoon on TanHuaLin, the boho hideout of Wuhan

I first heard of Tan Hua Lin in a blip of an article talking about cute, local coffee shops in Wuhan. If I remember correctly, the author described Tan Hua Lin as a “bohemian, artists’ street” and it was immediately clear I would be making my way there at some point during this trip.

After breakfast while lounging around the room, I realized this was our only true free weekend in Wuhan, so Tate and I decided it was time to head out of our little Hilton home-away-from-home and see the city.

Preparing for The People’s Republic

Two weeks from today, at about this exact time, we will be touching down in Shanghai.

Directionally challenged in the East China Sea

They say you learn the most about your partner when you’re abroad. Strange foods, foreign landscape, don’t speak the language…. really brings out the best in yah.

Tate often takes the lead as navigator, partly because he claims to find it “fun” to look at maps (freak), partly because he knows if he lets me lead we will inevitably wander along every which way, stopping to gander at anything and everything and that’s basically the antithesis of a good time in his eyes.

It’s not that I don’t know how to get from point A to point B without interruptions, it’s just that I enjoy a detour or two along the way. The scenic route, if you will.