Author: ericaeyoung

Seasonal Migration Chapter 3: London

Published by ericaeyoung

There were about 12 days in the middle of August that honestly felt like pure bliss. It’s funny, because if you had caught me at the moment I was thigh-deep in mud pushing my kayak downstream, you might think otherwise. Or the moment I raced home to meet someone who was buying a piece of furniture and then didn’t show. Or the moment I was awake at 3am worrying that I had upset a friend. My baseline was so positively buoyant that those types of moments couldn’t detract from my overall mood. It felt like I had finally unlocked how to live well in the UK. I guess absence does really make the heart grow fonder :p.Below are reflections from the third chapter of my seasonal migration experiment and my first time returning to a place in the seasonal migration rotation.ReflectionsThis summer I really fell in love with the UK. I can’t say that it was ‘again’, as my relationship with the UK didn’t begin with love at first sight like Hong Kong. It also didn’t get serious …

Seasonal Migration chapter 2: Mexico City

Published by ericaeyoung

My ‘Hasta Entonces’ party was almost a slow motion train wreck. At 5:30pm it started to pour, which brought everything in CDMX to a standstill. It also caused a power outage at the bar, so we had no electricity for lights, music, or air conditioning. We gathered as many candles as we could find and set up a fully-charged laptop to play music. Then the electricity pole outside the bar caught on fire, dropping burning ash onto the sidewalk. When the fire department came to put out the fire, it provided entertainment to the handful of guests who braved the rain. Eventually the skies cleared, the electricity came back on, the bar filled with guests, and we found the bottom of a bottle of bacanora ;p. For the last act, an adorable ringtail appeared in a tree outside the bar and then darted across the street in front of a passing car. Thankfully it reached the far side unscathed. Let’s just say it’s a party I won’t soon forget! Below are reflections from the second chapter of my seasonal migration experiment. If you want more …

Wednesday dinner club experiment – Mexico City edition

Published by ericaeyoung

This was my third Wednesday dinner club series after hosting the first series in London during the summer and the second series in Hong Kong this past fall. Here are a few stats and reflections about this iteration of the experiment now that it’s over. Many of my qualitative reflections below are also based on comparisons between these dinners and the ones I hosted in HK and London. ExperienceEven though I hosted the CDMX dinners at an Airbnb and not MY home, it still felt slightly nicer than the rental space in HK. Not sure if the design of the space or the fact that we were also outside (same as London) made the difference, but it felt more unique. I decided not to co-host the dinners in CDMX even though my network here is much smaller than Hong Kong. The main reason was that since I hosted the dinners in my last month here, I wouldn’t have had time to follow up and build meaningful connections with the new people I met at these dinners. In HK I …

Seasonal Migration Chapter 1: Hong Kong

Published by ericaeyoung

Was hoping to finish writing this before I arrived in Mexico City, but the jellyfish that stung me had other plans :p. Mercifully, it happened after my last morning of kayaking in the Sea of Cortés and as of now the burning and itching sensations have mostly subsided. Below are some reflections about this first chapter of my seasonal migration experiment. ReflectionsOverall, I feel like my time in Hong Kong was a huge success! Since moving to London in 2015, I have travelled back to HK 5 times, usually for a week or two at a time. As a result, the city remained very familiar even though there have been plenty of changes, both good and bad. Unsurprisingly, a number of my close friends have left over the years. Thankfully, a handful still remain and many of them have started to raise families in HK. In general, it was easy to reintegrate with most of my old friends and start to build relationships with their children. It was harder to reconnect with previous weak ties where I …

Wednesday dinner club experiment – Hong Kong edition

Published by ericaeyoung

This was my second Wednesday dinner club series after hosting the first series in London during the summer. The main differences between the two were that I hosted the London dinners by myself in my own home. In Hong Kong, I cohosted each dinner with a friend in a hired, private space with a kitchen. As a result, we asked people to help cover the cost of the dinners rather than asking them to bring food or drinks to contribute to the meal. Here are a few stats and reflections about this experiment now that it’s over. Many of my qualitative reflections below are also based on comparisons between these dinners and the ones I hosted in London. You can read more about that first experiment here.ExperienceIt was great to see that hosting in a private space that wasn’t my home didn’t seem to make a difference in terms of the experience. I also worried that asking people to share the cost of the space would change the dynamic, but if anything it made people more committed …

Seasonal Migration Experiment

Published by ericaeyoung

Recently I’ve mentioned to many of you that staying in one place all year round doesn’t spark joy. So, I’ve decided to experiment with a new rhythm. For the next year, I’m going to split most of my time between three cities. If it works, going forward I will spend the fall in Hong Kong, travel for a month over the holidays, spend the spring in Mexico City, travel for another month around Easter, and then enjoy summer in London before hitting the road again. Notice how I don’t even mention winter ;]? For now, I expect the three main cities will remain the same from year to year and where I travel in between will vary. What’s the experiment? Here are some of the things I’ll be testing out over the next year:Why Mexico City? Both Hong Kong and London make sense because I already have a network in each of those cities. Here are a few of the reasons I’ve chosen to give Mexico City a try:Hope you’ve had a wonderful summer. Can’t wait …

Wednesday dinner club experiment – London edition

Published by ericaeyoung

This past summer I decided to host dinner at my place in London every Wednesday for 8 weeks in a row. My goals were varied, but in general I wanted to see who would participate and what impact that had on my network. I also wanted to understand how important curation actually was for dinner parties I hosted. Last but not least, I wanted to see how much more efficient it would be to host dinners this way in terms of coordination and preparation. To kick things off, I sent an email out to my entire network that went something like this:It was a huge success and I learned lots from the experience. Thought people might enjoy a few stats and reflections about the first experiment now that it’s over. ExperienceAs I have previously shared, there is a sweet spot in terms of size, usually around 10 people. Smaller groups basically require the table to have one conversation, where larger groups make it near impossible without facilitation. After this experiment, I’m even more convinced that active …

Creative destruction

Published by ericaeyoung

Sunday morning I indulged in a peanut butter and condensed milk toast at Lulu’s in Shek O. It’s one of those unique east meets west delights that Hong Kong is famous for. Lulu’s used to be my regular, if basic breakfast spot when I stayed in Shek O. Now they have an espresso machine and avocado bagels on the menu. It was fascinating to explore the city after four years, on the lookout for all the ways both big and small that it has changed. You can now go straight from Admiralty to Lo Wu on the East Rail line, there’s a massive contemporary art museum called the M+, and a new 92km hiking route called the Tinworth Trail. Apparently they have also changed the bolts on metal railings throughout the city so they can’t be disassembled without a special tool. They are working hard to reinvent themselves after a tough several years, and I can’t help but root for them.Creative destruction is an economic concept that describes “the dismantling of long-standing practices in order to make way …

Change is the only constant

Published by ericaeyoung

It’s late Sunday morning and I’m sitting with a (decaf) cup of coffee on the sofa, re-reading my last update to all of you. It’s almost comical how many of the things that I shared have changed. While I don’t know if my mom still wears her Ethereum T-shirt with pride, I do know that I’m no longer working at Anthemis, rowing across the Atlantic, or able to work remotely from anywhere full time.What else changed? We finally made it to South Africa, just in time to see Grant’s niece Hannah walk for the first time. My brother moved in with his girlfriend Hilary, who is fabulous and an incredibly curious anthropologist. We kayaked in Washington DC and hiked in Atlanta with them this spring. I received “settled status” in the UK and lost my HK permanent residence. Thankfully, I retained my “right to land”, which means I can still live and work in HK without restriction. I have a hard time imagining a day when I’d take advantage of that right.After much reflection, Anthemis …

Where the time has gone

Published by ericaeyoung

Where has the time gone? It’s been a while since I last shared an update. Here’s my best attempt to account for where the time has gone…My family finally had the chance to meet in Portugal for Thanksgiving, which was wonderful! It was the first time I got to see my brother in 2 long years. After being nomadic for most of the pandemic, he has settled in Atlanta. My mom is healthy and as busy as ever. If you follow the crypto craziness (and know my mom), you’ll appreciate this quick story. While exploring the back streets of Ericeira, we stumbled across a small shop selling crypto t-shirts with different currency logos on them. The designer was beside himself when my mom looked at the shirts and said “No, that’s Polkadot, I want Ethereum“! Unfortunately, the new variant may impact our plans to visit Grant’s family in South Africa. He has a 1+ year old niece that we’ve never met and we haven’t seen the rest of his family since well before the pandemic began :/.As many of …