Day 578 OUT OF Beijing: 201.1 and Just Run…

 

201.1 and time to Just Run...

201.1 and time to Just Run…

 

Jill is in much better shape than I am right now.

She tends to keep the weight off and lose it more quickly than I do.

This is partially because I eat too much and partially just body type.

My dad has a belly and my brothers seem to have the same body type that holds that fat if we don’t eat healthy, exercise and take care of ourselves.

It is what we are born with but it is not an excuse.

It is a motivation.

That is how Jill and I see life: You can either use what you are given as an excuse to fail or as a reason to try harder and succeed.

Think about this: Jill has run a website, about travel and tourism in San Francisco, for the last 1.5 years in Beijing, China.

There is a reason she’s succeeded in this endeavor: She did a massive amount of groundwork before she came over.  She took so many pictures, visited so many places, and talked to so many people that she had a huge collection of information to keep building her site and her business while not being anywhere near it.  That takes skill and dedication.

Then, even with the daunting task of dealing with China’s “Great Firewall”, she continued to work and not give up, so that when we finally would come home, she could build the business into exactly what she wanted and make it possible for us to succeed and prosper.

We are building our second site, right now, and are looking forward to sharing that with everyone by the end of January.  I will also be selling my first ebook on it and we think it will be a fantastic new beginning for us as we continue to build the SF Tourism Tips site at the same time.

That is where exercise and Just Run… comes in for both of us.

Just Run… is a group that my friend, Bonnie Vasquez, put together for people that are inclined to get in shape and start running again.  She just decided she wanted to make a change and did it.  No excuses, no waiting until tomorrow and no other reasons needed.  Her choice.  Her change.

It isn’t for hard core runners, although they are welcome, it is just a group for us average folk trying to do a half marathon in the next few months and lose that extra weight, gain that extra confidence, and build a better mind and body.

Jill and I went for our first run a few days ago and I did 2.65 miles and she did about 2 miles.  She had a lot of lower body issues and so she took her time and rested so that she doesn’t injure herself.  I walked a block or two with her, in the middle of the run, and then took off by myself to finish it.

I felt great, other than a stitch in my side, but that is probably because I’m so out of shape and haven’t been drinking enough water.  So, when I got home, I drank a bunch of water and had a very healthy salad for dinner.  Jill and I made it together and it was a wonderful way to start a new year and start being the new people Jill and I want to be in 2015.

My plan is to do push ups in between the days that I’m running.  I’d like to get up to around 200 push ups a day doing 4 sets of 50 at a time.  This may take longer than 12 weeks but that is fine.  I have a plan and will stick to it as much as possible.  If I need to adjust it, I’ll do that.  A plan is just that: A plan.

Keep building your dream, working hard, and it will happen.  One never knows the path to a dream but it will be paved by you.

In case you are wondering what the 12 week week half marathon plan is, and want to join along, I’ve posted it as a picture here:

 

Our workout plan for half marathon within 12 weeks.

Our workout plan for half marathon within 12 weeks.

Day 575 OUT OF Beijing: The Windy City.

 

Jill, Dante and the fallen tree.

Jill, Dante and the fallen tree.

 

All apologies to Chicago but San Francisco was doing its best to be the Windy City a few days ago.

Jill and I took Dante, the dog we are sitting, for a walk and almost got blown away a few different times.

Supposedly there were gusts above 60-70 mph at certain times.

The winds knocked trees over all around San Francisco.

Even Divisadero Street was shut down because of a huge tree that was blown over and blocked it completely from sidewalk to sidewalk.

At Corona Heights Park, above where we are house sitting, a beautiful old tree was knocked over and it ruined the fence beside it.

We did a short walk because Dante is so tiny we didn’t want him to get hurt.

He seemed to actually enjoy the wind and was running around like mad.

Maybe he was smelling all kinds of new scents and having fun with that.

I’m just glad we got him home and safe and secure!

 

 

 

Day 574 OUT OF Beijing: San Francisco City Hall For The Holidays.

 

The man was holding his date's head so she could take a picture with shaking from the cold.

The man was holding his date’s head so she could take a picture with shaking from the cold.

Jill and I needed to take some pictures of City Hall for our website, SF Tourism Tips.

We went down a few days ago and were reminded why we love San Francisco.

You could say, without question, that we left our heart here and have found it again.

The City Hall is so beautiful and lit up so nicely that it took our breath away.

Of course, it could also be the incredible winds we had lately that blew over trees and cut people’s power but I think it is more likely the beauty of San Francisco.

It definitely was much colder in Beijing and it is nice to walk around in a windbreaker or a fleece sweatshirt and be warm.  No need for massive jackets, gloves, scarves and definitely no need for air quality masks since the air quality here is fantastic.

We cannot explain how amazing it is to have fresh air, every day, and not take it for granted.

Almost everyone in the USA would take it for granted, as we did, before we lived in Beijing.

I also don’t think anyone that hasn’t lived in a polluted city won’t be able to realize what it is like, even if I explain it, because it is such an overwhelming and all-important feature of your life each and every day.

There were days when we wouldn’t leave our apartment because it was so bad and we could barely see apartments 1 block away.  It is like San Francisco fog but your eyes start to tear up, you feel your throat tighten up, and you are lethargic for no logical reason other than the air is not breathable.

If Jill or I had babies, there is no way we’d raise them in Beijing.  I’d be afraid for their health and their lungs being born into that toxic mess.

One doctor stated that living in Beijing is equal to smoking 1/6 of a cigarette a day because of the pollution.  I would have to think it is more equal to smoking a full cigarette a day when the air quality gets bad enough.

Suffice to say, we are unbelievably happy we are home.

 

Day 572 OUT OF Beijing: Happy New Year’s Eve!

 

Goodbye Airpocalypse!

Goodbye Airpocalypse!

 

Jill and I have started our new life and are moving along swimmingly.

Today is New Year’s Eve and we are going to be celebrating with friends and doing a little salsa dancing.

We will probably drink a lot of champagne, eat amazing food, and have a truly incredible time since we are back home and things just feel “right” again.

We are definitely missing our friends back in Beijing and wishing them a wonderful New Year’s Day since they will have crossed the New Year’s Eve dateline before we do here.  We love you all and wish you were here to celebrate with us.

I have posted before about the Airpocalpyse app on my iPhone.

This will be the last time you, or I, see it since I deleted it.

I don’t plan on ever going back to Beijing, and I don’t want to be reminded of the pollution and conditions of living there, anymore.

Neither does Jill.

We are moving on to bigger and better things and want to focus on that.

I will be, however, writing a book about our experiences so we will be looking back at it.

But not right now.  Today is for the future and for enjoyment.

The air is clean in San Francisco and not a cloud in the sky.

Our website SF Tourism Tips is doing incredibly and we are working on our new site to help others live the life they want and figure out how to change what is in their way to being more content.

So, say goodbye to the Airpocalypse App.

Give it a good send off and a huge, “Thank you” for the laughs and the information that allowed Jill and me to figure out if we would leave our apartment on certain days or just stay home, order in, and watch Breaking Bad, 30 Rock or some movie that we’d have downloaded.

Happy New Years to all and I hope 2015 is the best year of your life so far.

I am sure it will be for Jill and me.

 

Day 571 OUT OF Beijing: Christmas Morning above the Castro.

 

The view from one of the houses we are staying at over the Castro District.

The view from one of the houses we are staying at over the Castro District.

 

Jill and I have been house sitting, at two different houses, for the past week.

One house has a gorgeous little Italian Greyhound named Dante and a very cute tabby named Goya.

The other house has two super cute kitties named Buzz and Coco.

We walk Dante everyday and most days we walk him twice.

We also go check on Buzz and Coco when we walk Dante and he seems to enjoy hanging outside the house and checking out everything in that part of the Castro District.

It is nice because the houses are only about 15 minutes walking distance from each other and we are able to meander through Corona Heights Park and a few staircases and back alleys.

It is also quiet and calm here and the exact opposite of the constant hustle and bustle of Beijing.

We can not express how different it is actually.

It is like going from Manhattan on steroids to a town of 400 people in Nebraska.

Coincidentally, in about 4 months, we will be living in a town of 400 people in Nebraska as we will stay with Jill’s parents, Bill and Emma, for a month or two.  They live in Cedar Rapids and she wants to catch up with them and introduce me to my soon to be father and mother in law.  The wedding is probably gonna happen in 2016 so there is no rush but it will be nice to meet each other’s parents, other than on Skype, since we haven’t been able to yet.  This is what happens when you meet someone 8 days before you leave for China and then ask them to marry you in Turkey.  It’s an expat life for us!

On this trip around the USA, we will also see our friend Christopher Rubin and his family down in LA and spend a week in Cancun with Jill’s sister’s family in Cancun.  After that we will head to Galisteo, NM to hang with my mom and step-dad for a few weeks before heading to Costa Rica or some place in Latin America to start looking for a long term residence as we build our websites and businesses.  It is one of the true wonders of the internet age that we can work “anywhere” and strive.  We plan to teach others to be able to do the same once our new website is up and running in a month or two.  We love the vagabond life and what it affords to us.

So, Jill and I wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Wonderful Kwanzaa and any other holiday or pagan ritual that you subscribe to.  Here’s a little view from the second house we are house sitting and of the Castro District.  Just another gorgeous Christmas in San Francisco.  And not wisp of smog anywhere in sight.  So glad we are home.  Whatever, and wherever, home is.

 

Day 566 OUT OF Beijing: Merry Christmas and Grace Cathedral.

 

Grace Cathedral in all its glory.

Grace Cathedral in all its glory.

 

Jill and I love Grace Cathedral.

It is probably the most beautiful Cathedral in San Francisco and it is located on the top of Nob Hill.

It has an amazing view out towards the bay and also back towards Daly City and out towards Ocean Beach.

It has been built out, as needed, through the years and yet the style has never changed.

It is a gothic cathedral and the acoustics are fantastic.

We also needed new pictures for our website and business, SF Tourism Tips.

It just so happened that the Rainbow World Fund Tree of Hope has been located at Grace Cathedral the last two years and we were able to see it this year.

It was located at City Hall last year, but we were both in China and were not able to see it, so it was nice to see it in such a magnificent location this time.

It is based on the 1000 origami cranes that were made by a Japanese survivor of Hiroshima in the belief that if she made 1000 of them she’d be cured of cancer.  She died about 300 cranes short but the legend lives on and this tree is a symbol of that hope.

I actually visited Hiroshima in 1997 and was taken by the Peace Plaza and how many thousands of origami cranes were there.  It was a magical place and it is dedicated to world peace as they have seen the worst humanity could ever do to itself.

This tree has another part of it’s own story that is quite incredible: “The wishes are then printed and folded into origami cranes by a diverse team of volunteers, including members of San Francisco’s LGBT and Japanese American communities, survivors of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, local children, and life-­‐sentence prisoners from San Quentin.  The origami “crane wishes”are then placed on the tree.”  From Grace’s Cathedral’s website.

Jill and I walked around and took a lot of pictures, enjoyed the scenery, and just sat in silence for quite a while.

We really loved looking at the amazing streamers that hung down from the ceiling and probably were over 100 feet in length.  I tried to find out what the represent but was unable to at this time.  I’ll have to ask a docent next time I go.

 

 

Day 565 OUT OF Beijing: Mornings in San Francisco.

 

A cable car making a stop on Nob Hill.

A cable car making a stop on Nob Hill.

 

Jill and I went to meet some of my co-workers for lunch this morning.

We had forgotten, after 1.5 years in Beijing, how gorgeous San Francisco is each and every day.

The Christmas tree at The Fairmont Hotel.

The Christmas tree at The Fairmont Hotel.

Especially today.

It was a balmy day and we didn’t even need jackets or sweaters.

It was a short sleeve day on December 22nd.

Just amazing.

We had a wonderful lunch with my co-workers and then decided to just walk around and breathe in the clean air and take in the sites.

It is really hard to explain how luckily we feel to be out of Beijing and free of the pollution, the crowds and the constant pressure of living under regime that we were always worried about in regards to our own safety.

It was interesting, to ride the buses and walk the streets of San Francisco, and see how many homeless, and mentally ill, are out and about.

Christmas at the Fairmont Hotel

Christmas at the Fairmont Hotel

We almost never saw any mentally ill, and only a few homeless, out in Beijing.

This is probably because the government wouldn’t allow them to be out and made sure they were not in public view but I’m not sure.  Just my guess from what I’ve seen their government do to people they don’t want seen or heard from over the last 1.5 years.

The USA has problems, no question, but we are free and happy compared to what we lived under in Beijing.

We don’t take it lightly how lucky we are to have been born in the USA and the choices that gives us in our lives.

 

 

Day 563 OUT OF Beijing: Greece Comes to San Francisco!

 

Our first drink at Palia Kameni.

Our first drink at Palia Kameni.

 

Jill and I spent a few nights in little town of Fira on the island of Santorini, Greece after we got engaged.

We had been to Mykonos, Naxos and Paros and were worried Santorini would be too crowded and expensive.

Imagine our surprise when it was actually about the same price as the lesser known islands and not crowded at all.

We walked around Fira and found this amazing bar named Palia Kameni Cocktail Bar.

It was facing towards the caldera and where the sun would set later that night.

We decided to sit down, have a drink and hang out.

One of the waiters, from the UK, talked to us for a bit and seemed like a nice guy.

After our drinks came, the owner, Vassilias came up to talk to us as the waiter told him we had just come from China and were engaged.

We talked for about 1-2 hours and discussed how he came to own this bar at such a young age (he was 28 years old), how to live the life we want to live, and how to achieve financial freedom as soon as possible to be able to travel and see the world.

Vassilias told us that he took the bar over from his dad and he is slowly making changes. One of the changes was to pay his staff enough that he, and they, could shut down for the 6 month winter break, and be able to live without fear of running out of money.  For Vassilias, that also includes going to visit his girlfriend, Soneth, who is a speech therapist in San Francisco and Los Angeles this winter.  We told him that we will be back in SF and wanted to meet up with him.  He agreed and we came back the next night to watch the sunset again.

We just got back to SF on December 15th and Vassilias told us he was leaving on the 20th for LA and we decided to meet up at the Squat and Gobble in the Castro Area.  We had a wonderful time talking and figuring out future plans and how we can support each other as he builds his business and we build ours.

It is everything we love about owning our own business, being able to travel, and living a life that is less structured and more independent.

It is not for everyone, but there is no way we want to live any other way, at least not at this point in our lives.

I’ve include pictures taken from his restaurant in Fira.  If you ever go to Santorini, please say hello to him and enjoy the sunset from there.  It is life changing.

 

Day 561 OUT OF Beijing: Seeing the San Francisco Sites.

 

The credit card christmas tree.

The credit card Christmas tree.

 

Jill owns her own website SF Tourism Tips.

Running a San Francisco tourism and travel website from Beijing for a year and a half is a tremendous achievement.

Overall, she’s done an amazing job and didn’t miss a step.

She did ask a few friends for pictures and to help with information, but overall, she’s been a champion!

The site has been doing well and continues to grow each day.  It really is something amazing to behold since we are both going to use this site as a building block for our future travels and life.

We plan to hang out in the USA for about 9 months and then take off to parts semi-unknown.

Our goal the day we arrived in SF was to get pictures and reacquaint ourselves with the city.

We are house-sitting for our friends in the Castro District and decided to walk down Divisadero Street to start our day.

We walked by a wonderful Christmas display and then got a nice tea to help us wake up.

Walking by the Victorians made us feel right at home.

We also saw a guy with a gorgeous dog.  We did love the dogs in Beijing and thought we’d go through doggie withdrawal when we arrived.  No chance.  They are everywhere!

The owner is a real estate agent and we talked about the changes and what has happened.  He’s lived here for 20 years and has seen an amazing amount of change in the Western Addition and all over SF.  His dog, Fenway, was so cute and friendly.  We talked for about 30 minutes before we headed off to have lunch and take more pictures.

We ended up taking a lot of pictures of the murals around Valencia and Mission since Jill needed updates for her site and we both just wanted to cruise around and enjoy the spectacle.

The weather was gorgeous and the sun gave us wonderful light to take the pictures.

It could not have been a better day to start our re-adventure back home by the bay.

 

Day 559 OUT OF Beijing: The Flight Home.

 

The clouds above Seattle.

The clouds above Seattle.

 

Jill and I finished up saying goodbye to our friends and did the last bit of packing up.

We ended up giving away a lot of stuff and have decided to be as minimalist as possible.

We never really had much so it was a pretty easy decision.

We both came here with 2 check ins and our 2 carry on.

We are leaving with 1 check in and our 2 carry on.

Yep, after 1.5 years we only have 1 check in bag (less than 50 lbs) and one carry on.

I’m actually writing an ebook on how to minimize what you own and maximize your life and it should be out within the next two months.

It will be self-published and our the new site we are working on currently.

However, at this moment, we were focusing on getting to the airport, checking in, flying home, and starting our new life.

Our friend, Sarah Ting Ting Hou, set up a driver for us and it cost about $32 USD to drive us to the airport in a van door to door.  It takes about 45 minutes to get there so it was a great deal.

We then checked our bags, went through customs, and immigration and had our bags searched at three different locations (hey, I guess it is a good way to keep employment high in China if you have 10 people to do one person’s job).

After all that, we went to the vending machines and bought a few semi-cold beers.

We brought along our new gift from Peter and Gabrielle.  He is a statue that they bought us and we decided he would be out “gnome” that we’d go everywhere with and photograph him as if he is a real person. We decided to name him “Niubi Geme’r” (which means “Awesome Homey” in Chinese), and our two teddy bears, who were a wonderful surprise gift that the administrative assistant at my company, Emily, gave to us when we flew to Singapore.  We’ve named them “Pijiu” (which means “beer”) and “Bing” (which means “cold”) so we always have a “Cold beer” with us when we travel!

 

As you can see, Niubi Geme’r also likes cold beer so it is a perfect fit.

The flight took about 11 hours and it was a short lay over in Seattle.

Well, it was supposed to be a short lay over in Seattle.

However, the storms that have been pounding the West Coast made sure that our lay over was longer than anticipated.

It ended up being a 4.5 hour lay over and we had time to grab some nachos and beer.  It was perfect actually.

Our flight was then diverted into Oakland, into of San Francisco, because of the storms.

Our friend, Alethea, said she didn’t mind and would pick us up there instead of SFO and we just relaxed and flew on down.  We happened to sit by a very nice young man named Rafael who had just spent 6 months in China and had flown on the same flight as we did from Beijing.  We had a bit of conversation and then we all passed out for a a bit.

We landed without event and grabbed our baggage.  Alethea picked us up and we bought some wine, and a fantastic carnitas burrito at El Pueblo in Petaluma (where they live) and celebrated with her, her husband and my dear friend, Randy and their son, Cyrus.

It was, in my humble opinion, a perfect way to end our time in China and start our new lives here in SF.

Soon we are onto the rest of the USA, and after that, the rest of the world.