Well, it’s only been two weeks since we sent our February newsletter… but we need to get back on track. So, here we are with March!

We spent the first half of the month in a camper van zipping around the North and South islands of New Zealand. Then, we hopped over to Hong Kong for a quick few days before heading to Bali, Indonesia, for the second half of the month. Blog posts coming soon! As always, you can check out our Where We’ve Been page on our website if you’d like to read more about our adventures in each country we’ve visited. Here are a few reflections from March…

❤️ We’re starting to miss home a bit — Friends having babies, Britt’s parents finishing their pool, Chicago St. Patrick’s Day. We miss YOU! BUT… exciting news (for us at least)… over the next few months we get to meet up with friends and family along the way! Yesterday, we spent the day with our friends Kayla & C in Tokyo (pictured below, left) who we happened to overlap with. Later this month, we’ll meet up with our friend Lauren in Seoul, South Korea. In May, we’ll be in London where we’ll get to see Alex & Hayley; Deniz & Chris; Jatin & Aru; and Rachael. Then, in June, we’ll meet up with our friend Melissa in France and Britt’s brother Zack & his wife Jackie in Portugal! We are beyond excited to see friends and family and to have the opportunity to share part of our adventure with them. (P.S. We’d love to see you, too! Let us know if you have any international trips on the calendar this year and we can see if our plans line up or if we can shake things around to make it happen!)

🔄 We’ve swapped roles — At home, Britt has always excelled at relaxing while Justin has never had any chill and always wants to be on the go. We aren’t sure how, but for some reason, the tables have turned on this trip. Now, whenever there’s an opportunity to slow down and relax, Justin is all for taking advantage. On the other hand, Britt has felt anxious that we are not doing enough, wanting to make sure that we maximize every second. Going forward, Britt plans to work on managing that anxiety a bit better and giving herself space to slow down, relax, and appreciate even the less planned moments. 

WHAT WE’RE LISTENING TO, WATCHING & READING

BRITT
📚 Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin
📺 Stutz — In this film, Jonah Hill and his therapist, Phil Stutz, discuss mental health and their approach to therapy. They share helpful tools on how to move forward and make personal progress when you’re still sorting out what you want your life to look like. This resonated deeply, especially given our current situation. 🤣 (Rating: 10/10)

JUSTIN
📚 Pineapple Street - Jenny Jackson
📚 What Color is Your Parachute - Richard N. Bolles

BOTH
📺 Full Swing — Watch this. If you’re not into golf, you will be after watching this mini series. (Rating: 10/10)
📺 Formula 1: Drive to Survive - Seasons 1-5 — Yes… we may have watched all five seasons in the last two weeks. But in our defense… we wanted to catch up so we could follow the 2023 F1 season real time. We’re happy to finally join the F1 bandwagon after putting it off for so long. Hit us up if you want to talk favorite drivers! (Rating: 10/10)
🎙️ Coldest Case in Laramie — The latest podcast series from Serial Productions. Interesting story, but not as satisfying as previous seasons. (Rating: 6/10)
📚 How to Win Friends and Influence People
📺 You - Season 4 - Pt. 2 — Incredible as always. Great acting from Penn Badgley, and a really interesting portrayal of mental health. (Rating: 8/10) 

APRIL GOALS

🗣️ Try to learn more of the local language — Whenever we travel to a new country, we always try to learn how to say hello and thank you, but with English being so ubiquitous everywhere we go… we often stay in our comfort zone and rarely push ourselves too far beyond the courtesies. Japan will be a perfect time to give this a shot because we know that there will be fewer English speakers compared to some of the places we’ve been thus far. We’re excited!

Update on March Goals — We learned how to surf! 🏄🏻‍♀️🏄🏽‍♂️

FRIENDS WE’VE MADE ALONG THE WAY

One of our favorite things about traveling is meeting people along the way. This month we wanted to share two stories about new friends!

Claudia & Borja (pictured below, right) — For those following along our Instagram, you may remember our Auckland Airbnb hosts, Claudia and Borja. Meeting this wonderful couple was somewhat fortuitous. We already had a place to stay in Auckland, but we made the last minute decision to switch accommodations so we could be more centrally located. It was a risk at the time because Claudia & Borja were new hosts on Airbnb and had no reviews, but we could tell by the listing that the hosts were genuinely great people. And we were right. Claudia and Borja showed us true Spanish hospitality by welcoming us into their home and sharing a traditional, home cooked Spanish meal with us. It was the first time we’ve felt settled and at home since departing on this adventure in December. We’re grateful to have met Claudia and Borja, and we look forward to the opportunity to welcome them into our home… whenever and wherever that might be! 

Robin, Peter & Quinn — We were lucky to run into this Canadian couple and their adorable baby Quinn during our first night on the North Island of New Zealand. Initially, our plan for the night was to buckle down and figure out our route for the North Island. Internet had been so sparse on the South Island that we had not been able to do any proper planning and we were feeling a bit stressed. And, as luck would have it, on the night we were going to sit down and dive into research, we parked our van right next to Peter and Robin. They were just wrapping up a month on the North Island and graciously started sharing their favorite places, experiences, and lessons learned with us. We ended up chatting the night away. Crazy twist — A few days later, a friend of ours from home (shoutout @Tina!) texted us saying that Peter and Robin met up with her Canadian friend on the South Island and told them about “this cool American couple they met a few days ago”… What a small world! We couldn’t believe it. 🤯  

FRIENDS DOING COOL THINGS

Jack Donovan — Jack gave Justin the inspiration (albeit crazy) to run the Chicago Marathon, which has also now turned into running the Berlin Marathon later this year. Jack has been on a mission to complete the six Abbott Major World Marathons and will be running Boston, his fourth major, on April 17! Last month, we mentioned Justin’s high school, Saint Pat’s, and their successful gala that raised over $900,000 for the school’s tuition assistance program. The program offers a limited number of tuition grants for families that may be experiencing financial hardship. Jack, also an alum, is generously supporting the tuition assistance program through his race. If you’re inclined to support Jack and St. Pat’s, you can visit Jack’s page here!

WHERE WE’RE HEADED IN APRIL 
Feel free to send any tips, recommendations, or thoughts our way!

🇯🇵 Japan — We are kicking off three weeks in Japan with a first stop in Tokyo! Our time here started on a high note because we had a chance to spend a day with our friends Kayla & C who happened to be here at the same time as us. Ironically, we also ran into them in Colombia last year. They live in California and we’ve seen them more abroad in the last 12 months than we did in the States! After Tokyo, we’ll head to Kyoto and Osaka for one week each, and we plan to use these cities as hubs for day trips using our Japan Rail (JR) Pass that allows for unlimited travel on all JR rail lines.

🇰🇷 South Korea — We’ve already started planning our skincare treatments in Seoul, where the prices are super cheap for high end products and services. The challenge is knowing where to go! Lucky for us, we have a former Deloitte colleague, Lauren, who recently moved to Seoul and offered to show us around and be our tour guide!

🇱🇰 Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka wasn’t on our initial plan for the year, but after chatting with two English ladies we met in Vietnam, we immediately worked it into our itinerary. We have since met a number of people who have visited Sri Lanka, and we have resoundingly heard that the sunsets are incredible and the train between Kandy to Ella is one of the most beautiful in the world. The ride cuts through tea plantations, jungle, and mountains. We are hoping to land a seat in the panoramic car, but they sell out quickly. Fingers crossed!

MARCH RECAP — PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES
…but still no trains… and another ferry. Trains coming soon!

Christchurch (CHC) 🚐 Queenstown ⛴️ Wellington 🚐 Auckland ✈️ Hong Kong (HKG) ✈️ Bali (DPS) ✈️ Tokyo (NRT)

That’s it for this month! Don’t hesitate to reach out if anything we shared resonated with you, if you have tips on places we should visit, questions about what we’re up to, or if you just want to say hello. We’d love to hear from you! 

If you were forwarded this email and want to be on the mailing list, click here to subscribe on our blog!