September was a blur. My friend, her mom, my mom, and I spent the first week racing through Mexico City’s greatest hits like the Museum of Anthropology, Frida Khalo’s house, Contramar, and Rosetta. The second week mom got a private tour of Chapultepec Castle, finally made it to Quintonil, and we hosted another successful dinner party (same Italian white bean soup, if anyone was curious). My ‘uncle’ visited for week three and we both caught up on work between meals and walks. This past week I met my good friends and their 3 girls in Bali. The girls had lots of firsts… first açai bowls, first rafting trip, first time feeding a komodo dragon. We had an amazing time, but I’m looking forward to settling back into a routine. Below are reflections from the 6th and final chapter of my seasonal migration experiment.

Reflections

It’s amazing how even after 2 years of this lifestyle, I’m still (re)learning things. In some instances I’m not necessarily making the same mistakes per say. Constraints (sometimes self inflicted) have put me into situations that I already knew were undesirable. In some cases it takes 9 months to implement the changes that I think will be helpful, so this learning/relearning feedback loop is not fast. 

One of the most interesting things from this summer was a tension I felt that I can only describe as balancing the time I spent in my head vs. in my body. In Mexico City, I spend a lot more time ‘in my body’, using my intuition and the sensations I feel to provide a feedback loop and guide decision making. In London, it feels like I spend a lot more time ‘in my head’, reasoning using logic and building points of view using data or facts. It’s a really interesting contrast. Noticing these differences between places and how I show up in each place is one of the things I most relish about this lifestyle.

The Stats

Here’s the data from this chapter of the experiment (including regional trips):

• Days I spent in London: 75 (not nearly enough)
• Days of family time in London: 0 
• People I saw in London: 128 (there are many people I didn’t manage to see :/)
• People I met for the first time in London: 133 (almost twice my normal rate)
• People I hung out with 3 or more times in London: 55 (similar to last summer)
• Kids I met/saw in London: 16 (similar to last summer)
• Visitors passing through that I was able to see: 24 (slightly more than last summer)
• Total number of people I connected with in London: 285 (almost 4 people/day on average)

Here are my “Stop Start Continue Change” reflections for my second chapter in London:

Stop

• Spending so little time in London – this summer I was outside London for 28 of the 75 days, which was just painful. In fact, I only had 4 weekends in London all summer. 

Start

• Planning time in Europe separate from London so that visiting my European friends doesn’t cut into my London time so much, also means I’ll be travelling back and forth less 
• Convincing my mom to spend time in Europe with me

Continue

• Planning social activities that last longer, ideally 3+ hours 
• Based on the impact it’s had so far, I’m going to make the ‘no processed sugar’ experiment permanent, though I think I’ll relax the rules a little bit 
• Living with a friend has been great because you get to share a lot of in-between moments
• Hosting dinner parties – hopefully in the same location!

Change

• The unexpected side effect of no processed sugar is that I’ve been drinking more alcohol, so I want to reign that in 
• Since I was out of town most weekends, I barely kayaked this summer. Would definitely like to improve on this next year! 

That’s the final chapter. Planning to put together a reflection on the whole 2+ year experience, which I’ll share as soon as it’s ready!