Hello! We are Catherine and Sam, two aspiring digital nomads who want to share our passions and experiences with you! We are foodies and language lovers always looking for cool bars, coffee shops, and restaurants to explore.
From crawling through a dog flap to get into our apartment (yes, really!) to hiking sand dunes in Inner Mongolia, travel can be an exciting and life-altering experience. Is it always perfect? No. But when is life ever perfect? We are all about the journey AND the destination and look forward to sharing our lives and experiences with you.
Our Mantra
We believe that travel can be accessible for anyone! We live in the moment and want to share the highs and the lows of traveling.
Our Purpose
Even though digital nomad life is rewarding, we want to share our experiences to show that this lifestyle isn’t always perfect.
Our Travel Postcard
So, Sam and Catherine how did you meet?
From Sam’s perspective:
I was established at my teaching job in Chengdu, China when a new colleague arrived. She has blonde hair, blue eyes, and a cute smile. She was new to China so I remember empathizing with the plight of getting a VPN, accessing work content etc., so I helped her. I remember when we met, I wanted to be helpful. I was not long out of a relationship so it took me some time to realize that she was the best thing that ever happened to me.
After my first trip back to England since beginning my time in China in April 2018, I realized that I couldn’t be without her. Since August 16, 2019, we have been together.
From Catherine’s perspective:
I was placed in an EF center where I was the only female foreign teacher. It was intimidating, and I mostly hung out with the local teachers instead. Sam was one of the few foreign teachers at my school who made an effort to talk to me and help me out. We lived close to each other, so I’d catch a ride with him and another coworker on the way back from school. Sam and our other coworker would usually talk to each other about DnD and games which I had no frame of reference for, so I would sit in the back seat quietly most days.
One day, however, the other coworker (who is still our dear friend to this day), was sick. The ride home was just Sam and I. We ended up talking about many topics including the Enneagram and how we both studied French in school, so that’s where our friendship started.
Soon after, Sam suggested that we watch one of his favorite French movies together. I thought it was as friends, so I was in my sweats with no makeup on when he came over. To my surprise, he came with two bottles of nice red wine. I later came to find out that it was a date.
We ended up binge-watching every season of Game of Thrones and hanging out as friends for about 5 months. It seemed risky to start a relationship since we worked together. After Sam came back from his trip to England, we officially started our relationship and the rest is history.
How It All Started
2016 – 2018
Sam gained his TEFL certificate through LoveTefl and went to Kanchanaburi, Thailand in April 2016. After two months in Thailand, his experience with LoveTefl was over, but his passion for travel was just beginning. Sam decided to continue his adventure by volunteering at an orphanage school in Cambodia for a couple of months. His next big adventure led him to teach in Chengdu, China in April 2018.
Catherine spent her last year of college studying abroad in Rennes, France, and getting her TEFL certificate online through the International TEFL Academy. After graduating, she got accepted to teach in South Korea with the EPIK program but the opportunity fell through for visa reasons. She still didn’t give up her dream of living and teaching in Asia, so she decided to apply for a teaching opportunity with EF in Chengdu, China.
2019
Catherine moved to Chengdu, China in January 2019 and fell in love with China. 2019 was the year that we met. We were both teachers in the same school in Chengdu and we ended up starting an office romance. Spicy! The relationship became ‘official’ in August 2019. We were enjoying a vibrant expat life and life was great in China at that time, so we decided to stay for at least another year. Little did we know what Covid had in store…
2020
Covid hit China right during Chinese New Year, we went from quarantining at home to spending our first trip together in sunny, beautiful Bali. Even though we had a great trip, we ended up going back to our own countries because our flight back to China got canceled. Sam returned to China in mid-March and Catherine got stuck in the States when China closed its borders. Catherine took some odd jobs, including working briefly in Montana as a server at a 5-star ranch. She finally made it back to China in November 2020! After 2 weeks of hotel quarantine and 1 week of home quarantine, she and Sam finally reunited after about 10 months apart.
2021
China still had Covid under control and life was pretty good there. The rest of the world was suffering greatly and we were free to go out and live normally. We traveled a lot in China during this time. We went to Inner Mongolia (awesome trip), Guangzhou, Guilin, Yangshuo, Dali, and Jiuzhaigou. Travel was possible for us, but only in China of course.
Our trip in October 2021
2022
2022 started fairly well when we did our first-ever bougie staycation. We pretty much self-quarantined in the Fairmont Hotel without stepping foot outside for 5 days since the hotel had everything we needed. By mid-2022, the climate around travel was certainly starting to change. We took a 2-hour high-speed train to Chongqing but had to get 24-hour Covid tests each way. It ended up being a pain and we almost didn’t get our results in time to get back to Chengdu.
Covid requirements continued to make traveling more and more impossible. Our trip to Sanya was cut short due to the rising number of Covid cases, daily testing requirements, and the shutdown of bars and restaurants. We were fortunate to return to Chengdu just a day or two before the entire island of Hainan was locked down.
After the summer, we spent the fall taking daily Covid tests, stressing about lockdowns, being locked down, teaching online, and staying close to the city. In early December, China suddenly changed its Covid policy from “zero tolerance” to a more relaxed one.
2023
After being in China during all the lockdowns and Covid times, the expat community moved on and we were finally feeling like it was time to go. Chengdu wasn’t what it once was and we were looking forward to traveling after so many years of being stuck in China. After 5 years in China, we packed up our belongings, sold our stuff, and officially left China in summer 2023. We spent the summer meeting each others’ families in the UK and US, only to go back in September to work on a movie being shot there.
After spending a month in China for work, we headed to Thailand for our first experience as digital nomads. We spent most of our time in Chiang Mai and loved the vibrant digital nomad community there. Our last international stop in 2023 was Da Nang, Vietnam where we spent a few weeks sipping cafe muoi (salt coffee), walking on the beach, and eating amazing noodles.
We rounded out the year spending time in the UK and the US with our families and friends.
2024
In January, we housesat around the Northeast of the US. We are currently based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which is our first experience in Latin America. Our experience so far has been incredible. We love the wine, cheese, steak, and welcoming culture.
