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Melanie Van Orden,
Jet Set Now Editor
May
15
Surprise! We’re Back in NYC!
May 15, 2008 by Melanie Van Orden
So, it’s no secret that Jason and I were starting to feel pretty homesick for New York during our stay in Buenos Aires. We blogged about it, posted about it on Twitter and told every friend who emailed us lately.
Well, one of the benefits of a jet set lifestyle is that you can change your location plans at any time. We decided that there was no reason to stay in Buenos Aires and wait for winter to hit us if we would rather be in New York enjoying the spring and summer!
So, we booked our flight, sublet a place in Manhattan, and told our Bs.As. landlord that we would be leaving early. And now, here we are in NYC for at least seven weeks, and possibly for the whole summer!
You may be wondering if culture shock was a major reason for us ending our stay in Buenos Aires early. When Jason and I asked ourselves if that we true, we had to say, “I suppose so.”
Yeah, culture shock and homesickness are hard to deal with and we needed a little stay over in our home city to wean ourselves off of our US lifestyle.
There are challenges to adjusting to a jet set lifestyle, but they’re challenges that pay off big time once you overcome them. The great thing is that the choices available to you as a jet setter can help you ease into international living.
We’ve also learned that three months is a pretty good amount of time to spend in a jet set location. I’ve heard from other global nomads that three to four months is a sweet spot for location hopping, and now we can confirm that with personal experience.
Jason and I are looking forward to our plans to continue learning Spanish while we live in Panama, the Dominican Republic, the Mexican Caribbean or some other Spanish speaking location in the near future.
We loved our stay in Buenos Aires and plan on returning to Argentina someday, especially with our future children. We want to see the Iguazu Falls, parts of Patagonia and Mendoza on future trips.
For now, we are gearing up our plans for our next jet set location. It may be Spanish speaking, it may not. After we attend the New Media Expo in Las Vegas in August, we will be open to go anywhere!
Where do you think we should go? What do you think of our early return to NYC?
Photo credit: bondidwhat
Filed Under Misc., New York City
Comments
11 Responses to “Surprise! We’re Back in NYC!”
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Welcome back!
You can take the Jet Setters out of NYC…
Welcome back!
How long are you guys here?
MasterMind group on the roof deck?? They mowed the tiny lawn today and we thought of you guys!!
laura
Fantastic site/blog!
My wife and I left in early march for a 2.5 month trip (sort of mini-retirement) to Australia, with a stop for a couple weeks in New Zealand (we’re due back in San Diego next week).
We can totally relate to the homesickness thing, even though the culture is not HUGEly different here down under, and they speak english.
Our problem is that we locked in plane tickets using miles, so our airline would not allow us to come back early. Also we sub-letted our apartment to someone back home for 2 months.
We made the best of the trip and definitely had a good time here, but would do a lot of things differently. Even though Australia’s dollar is a little less than the US dollar (around .94 now!), this country is WAY more expensive and we ended up spending more money living here than we were in our San Diego home.
Anyway, I would love to hear more about how to be more flexible in traveling, locate cheap countries that aren’t 3rd world, and more money-saving travel/mini-retirement tips.
Thanks!
Kevin
Forgot to mention, the main problem with Australia/NZ if you have a web business: the internet down here is a total pain in the ass. Email me if you guys are considering coming here, the internet problems caught me completely by surprise.
Hey Melanie - it’s great to be connected to this site and live vicariously my own jet setter dreams. Some day when I get tenure and a sabbatical, I’ll do that long-term trip!
Glad you’re back in NYC. While it’s “home” it’s still an adventure being here! And you can use your Spanish, too.
My brother lived in Dominican Rep for 6 months, and my sister in Bolivia for 3. They both loved their stays there. Bolivia is a bit dicey in some ways, but not expensive.
Hope to see you while you’re in NYC!
Lisa
OMG, OMG, OMG!!!!!
WHOOOOOOPPPPPIIIIIIEEEEE!!!
Wow, I am quite surprised! We have been traveling for almost 2 years and have not been the least bit homesick.
I am curious about what did not work for you there? One really has to find so much that they love to withstand the inevitable cultural shock & challenges. We can handle the challenges, because we love the freedom, beauty and bonding.We live a better life traveling the world than our wonderful life at home ( for sooo much less!) so we do not miss it.
It could be that the jet set life is not for you or not for you at this point in time in your life. I don’t think one really knows until they jump in and do it. We certainly did not know that we would love it so much and were perfectly prepared to return if we did not. There is really no way to know before hand and some people thrive and some don’t. We have found it much better than we expected and keep on adding years.
I think you did the right thing by following your instincts going and coming back. Perhaps your idea of traveling around the U.S. will suit you better. I did that for 6 months once when I was young and look forward to doing it as a family at some point late in our world tour.
Perhaps it was BA that was not right for you and you might be happier somewhere else. It is certainly harder to live an expat life in a country where you do not know the language or customs. It is a 3rd world country, was that the problem?
I remember that I was depressed and had culture shock when I first moved to NYC ( and I am an American)! It was an extremely different life than the one I led in Ca and other places, but after I adjusted, I learned to adore it ( sweltering summer,cold winters and all). So culture shock can happen even in your own country. ( Then when I moved to LA after many years in NYC, I hit culture shock again.lol)
Give yourself time to sort out what worked for you and what did not. Sometimes just a different housing arrangement or location ( maybe more rural and authentic?, better internet, better bathrooms? safer? etc) can make a difference.
It only takes about 5 months of intensive study and immersion to master Spanish and knowing the language can make a HUGE difference.
Enjoy your time in NYC and take time to reflect about what you learned through this experience. There is always a perfection to things.;)
@Rob Blat
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@laura
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@Lisa C
-Thanks for your “welcome back”’s! Can’t wait to see you guys while we are in NYC for a short while.
@Kevin - Your trip to Australia/NZ definitely interests me. I will be contacting you about internet issues before we head in that direction!
@Soultravelers3 - This trip was certainly a learning experience for our future travels! We did get very homesick, but we LOVED Buenos Aires. We loved our apartment, loved learning the language, loved the culture, etc.
Yeah, there were some inconveniences that irritated us, but the culture shock probably wouldn’t have been a big enough reason for us to leave if Argentina wasn’t heading into winter. The approaching cold weather where we were combined with the awesome weather in NYC pushed us over the top in our yearnings to spend a little time in NYC.
We won’t be here for long, and then it’s off to who knows where! We’re thinking we want to be in Paris for much of 2009!
Ah, weather, yes that does impact things. Bad weather is not fun to live in and we try to avoid it at all costs. LOL.
Endless summer or spring is definitely the way to go and it does make things so much more enjoyable.
I have lived all over and lived for many years in NYC, but always thought it had some of the worse weather in the world.Hot muggy summers, long cold winters, rainy springs and falls.
Paris winters can also be a bear ( we run into all the desperate northern Europeans who try to escape it in southern Spain who are always talking about it). So keep that in mind. It is a great city, but maybe plan that winter elsewhere.( Remember dryers are almost non existent in Europe do to costs, lots of hanging clothes inside is standard).
Also the dollar will probably continue to decline, so do what you can in that area as it makes Europe painful for many Americans. We got mostly out of the dollar when it was high, so that has helped our long stay in Europe tremendously. You will get much more for your money in more rural areas.
The long stay visa’s are also a pain to get.You could get around it by doing some place like Dubai? for the winter, but then long flights always add to costs so much.
There are lots of things to consider with this lifestyle and weather is definitely one. I lived a year in Italy once and that winter is why I made sure we were in sunny, deep southern Spain.
I will never do another northern European winter ( nor NYC or snowy winter one). Life is too short to live in bad weather. 
Maybe we will be able to connect when you come to Paris, before we head out to Africa! I am trying to make sure that I plan that long stay well, including timing the weather and avoiding high tourist season.
So glad to hear that you loved BA, Melanie. We will be headed that way after Africa, so I wondered what you found unpleasant about it.
We can all learn from each other, so hopefully there are less surprises when one makes the move.
@Soultravelers3 - Thanks for the great advice. I will be publishing a post here later today about what I did and did not like about Argentina. I hope you find it useful!
Hey Melanie - I’m a listener on Jay’s podcasts and thought I would swan over to have a look at your site after Jay mentioned it on the latest IBM podcast.
I noticed that New Zealand was on your list of possible locations. I’m a New Zealander and live in Wellington NZ with my wife and kids. Great location for families.
If you do head down this way send me an email and we would be happy to show you around. NZ has internet access and all other modern conveniences. No burning fields - just lots of clean green air, lots of coastline, lots of mountains, lots of sheep, and lots of rugby (think American football without pads, helmets, or hotdogs).