Welcome back, Tangerineys. If you're new here, my name is Maddie, this is Jordan and behind us is our Siberian Husky,
Laska.
After some reflection,
these are the things that we've learned in 2020 after nine weeks in quarantine. The first
extremely important lesson that I've learned in 2020 is that I can get so bored that I will try to plant
black beans. And the next important lesson that comes with that is black beans grow like weeds!
What the actual F. Check this out? I
planted this
three days ago
into soil. It did take a couple days to put them in a wet paper towel and have the bean itself sprout
but then, three days later...this???
What? [Laughs]
That's unreal! It's blowing my freaking mind right now. Making me feel like I need to
refine my green thumb a little bit and start experimenting with other crap. So, I already have, celery also.
Our celery went bad. I chopped it off at the butt and then put it in water
And I already have celery sprouting up too. So, there you go. On a little bit more serious note than beans.
It's been pretty fascinating to me to see recency bias in society. Recency bias
is you tend to
overestimate
something that has happened recently and underestimate the probability
of something happening that hasn't happened for a long time. Before this
pandemic happened, it would have been totally out of the realm of possibilities
that something like this could possibly happen
to most people. And then now that it's going on, I'm hearing a lot of "It's going to be like this forever"
"Life is forever changed." I see this happening a lot in our comments section, of people saying, "Well,
I hope you enjoyed the good life as a travel vlogger because travel vlogging is dead."
I think that's a really short-sighted view of this.
Fast-forward a year or two from now, I think we will have moved on.
But anyway, this is something that's always been the case in society
but the pandemic really highlighted this for me.
Another lesson that I have personally learned is that I need more non-travel-related hobbies and
basically, since we started Tangerine Travels, travel has become our life
and working on Tangerine Travels has become our life;
planning, being on trips, going all over the place, making videos about it. And that takes up a lot of time.
So, basically, every hobby I had before starting this whole Tangerine Travels adventure,
I put those on the back burner and I haven't been focusing on them at all.
Part of that is because we can't take all.
Of the things required for those hobbies, with us, from place to place,
but just the fact that takes up...
Travel and then everything that goes along with it and our channel, it takes up so much time.
I have just totally shoved those things aside
but then, when you're in a situation like this; where we've now been
in quarantine for nine weeks, then you start to realize,
"Wow! I really don't have any hobbies apart from travel!"
And when you can't travel, that kind of becomes, you know, a big bummer. [Laughs]
So, that kind of leads me into the next
reflection I had. Preppers have kind of been ostracized in society but unrightly so. They
helped make sure there was food on the shelves for other people, they helped make sure there
was toilet paper for other people, that
there were masks for people. Why this led into this one though is something I feel, that
preppers probably
underestimate is
boredom - that's one thing they don't prep for is the boredom factor that
may come with some crazy catastrophe. Stock up,
have some toilet paper, but also have some games, have some novels, puzzles, other things you enjoy doing.
Another lesson that I've learned is that, it's kind of scary how misinformation
circulates on the Internet and this was especially
highlighted by this pandemic, seeing the way that information,
Even what was considered accurate information at the time that it was being given and seeing how people
internalize that information and then act on it, only for that same accurate information
to change a week later or two weeks later.
It's just truly
(no words)
Let's take one example -
masks. At the beginning of this pandemic,
it was thought that masks made it more likely for you to
contract the virus or that they weren't effective for people who didn't have it, various things like that.
So then, people were anti masks and then anybody who got masks were
reprimanded for it basically, for taking them away from health care workers.
But then, fast-forward a couple of weeks later and then all of a sudden,
entire societies are being mandated to wear masks because it is the best practice in this type of a situation.
So, to see the shift of information like that
and really how people act, it's just wild to see how people are influenced by
information online, especially on social media. This has a lot of similarities with
another one of my reflections and that was how fascinating it's been to watch the herd move and watch the herd act.
This is probably going to get me a in a load of poo [Laughter]
because this is basically generalizing all of the society. With that said, [Laughs]
Let me generalize. Back in January, if you were warning about the corona virus,
you were labeled a conspiracy theorist. Even YouTube was removing videos about the corona virus
because they didn't want the conspiracy theory. Later, they ended up changing their thing and allowing
corona virus videos and only removing the things that they then considered a conspiracy theory.
But, for example,
and by the way
discouraging
creators from posting about the corona virus by demonetizing all videos.
In the beginning, when Vegas shut down right before our eyes, we posted a video about it that got demonetized.
We submitted it for review and it still remained demonetized. Just a few weeks later,
we were then all of a sudden allowed to post about the corona virus. So, you can see
companies like YouTube controlling the flow of information.
Which is a whole other can of worms, a whole topic for another day. Yeah, but continue.
But that doesn't really have to do with
seeing the herd move.
So, in January,
if you thought the corona virus was a problem and in February too, you were a "conspiracy theorist."
But come mid March, it was really starting to shift and then
most people were getting on board that "Hey, this is a big problem". In March,
people are like, "don't wear masks," like you were saying.
People were being reprimanded for wearing masks. Fast forward to April,
then all of a sudden, "How dare you not wear a mask." Now,
it's May, the herd is splitting. Now the herd is splitting like "we need to keep everything closed" or
"This is a scam and we need to open things up."
I've just found that all fascinating. Laska, you're being really cute. Look at her. Aww...
Okay, head scratch.
The next thing I learned in
2020 is, if you have gift cards, use them because you don't know if that company is going to be around tomorrow.
We've seen a lot of companies going bankrupt. Corporate debt is at an all-time high. When times are good,
debt is fine. Earnings are growing every year. You can continue to pay off that debt and
continue to service that debt and it's no problem, but I think companies got a little too
lackadaisical in their finances, took on too much debt, and now after one bad quarter
we have a whole bunch of companies on the verge of going bankrupt.
Something else I've learned in 2020
is that a lot of you are enjoying your chirp wheel. [Laughter]
We mentioned this in our quarantine vlog that we did a couple weeks ago that this is like our traveling
chiropractor and it works so well! So much better than a foam roller to
get all the cracks and align your back.
And you just
Roll your back on it like this.
It doesn't totally substitute a chiropractor but it's almost as good.
Ahh!
But anyway, we also wanted to say thank you for everyone who's used our link to buy a chirp wheel.
We really appreciate that because we're an affiliate for this company because we love this product so much and
whenever you use our link
we get a little chunk of change from that, so that helps us
to produce more videos just like this. If you're interested in getting
some of these puppies, we will put our link down below in the description. Oh! An important note,
these are available on Amazon, but they're actually more expensive.
So, using our link will take you directly to the company's site
which is a cheaper price.
The next lesson
that I've learned in
2020 is that I probably want to start cooking
more of my own food at home and I have to give a little bit of background here.
For a number of years, something like five or six years before we came to Mexico,
I was having to cook basically all of my own food because I was
developing more and more food allergies and food
sensitivities as the time went on. My health was in shambles.
It was totally in the toilet, so I wasn't able to go out to eat for
basically like half a decade. So, when we came to Mexico,
the food, for whatever reason, vibed more with my body or my health was improving, so I was able to eat out like
basically all the time, with just a few select restrictions: onions, sesame seeds, and peas, and I don't eat gluten.
but since this
quarantine and we've been in self-isolation, we've cooked
100% of our meals. Something that I've noticed is
my skin has cleared up a little bit more.
I know we're eating a little bit healthier now because we're
controlling everything that we're eating and the ingredients, what oils we're using, and
cooking and everything.
I don't think that I'm going to give up Mexican food by any means because it's freaking amazing -
Some of the best food that I've ever had in the world
but I do think I'd like to shift more towards cooking at home a little bit more to save money,
to kind of have some more downtime for ourselves among all the travel and stuff that we're doing and to
have a little bit more of that control over the types of ingredients
that are going into my body. I do like eating out
but I also like knowing what's in my food.
Since we've come to Mexico there has been
no period where we had as much free time as we do right now
but even though we have more free time than we did before,
when we think we have all the time in the world,
time still flies by. I don't know, that's kind of crazy how that works,
so, I guess the lesson is, make use of that time and don't let it go to waste.
And
speaking of time. Another lesson that I've learned is that, the longer we are in isolation the more my sanity
deteriorates. Humans are not meant to be locked up in tiny boxes, aka houses and apartments.
They're meant to socialize. We're meant to interact with other people on a day to day basis.
It's even scientifically proven that your life expectancy
will be shorter if you don't have a lot of friends -
You're not being social. And probably also, people who get exercise live longer than people who don't. True!!
So, I think part of this is - for that obvious
psychological and
human reasons. But the other thing is, we were just about to leave and continue on our travels,
so we got rid of basically everything that were activities, like puzzles, my paints for
painting - doing art, basically, any possession that we had that was not
absolutely essential, that we needed in our suitcase,
we got rid of, so that meant now, we're forced to be in an environment with less
Like I was talking about earlier. Fewer hobbies, less things to do. And so the routines start to feel a lot more
mundane,
stuffy, and to me, almost it's like I'm dealing with this
existential crisis, almost. Like "What is the meaning of life?" "What is the point of all this?"
I can feel the depression
slowly creeping in and some of my happiness dwindling on a day-to-day basis. Not to make this too glum
but that's kind of where I'm at after nine weeks trapped inside with no human interaction besides these two.
Thank goodness for you and Laska though. Is she a human?
I mean she's kind of like, human. She talks sometimes. She does. [Laughs]
But you know, what I do have to say is I'm thankful
I have you and thankful that we have Laska because I can't even...
our situation is not bad, compared to somebody who is like literally by
themselves and doesn't have the resources they need or that are sick.
So, I try to count my blessings at the end of the day instead of focusing all on the negative
aspects of this situation. But it is getting a little bit harder day after day. Another lesson
I've learned in 2020, seeing the actions at the Federal Reserve and the U.S government have taken
during this
Corona virus, it tells me that they don't care
what happens to the U.S dollar. The lesson here is that I need to be very careful with our
investments and
looking into the future, to not be relying on the success of the dollar for our well being.
I think it's also kind of crazy
how the average person has absolutely no idea
who the Fed is and what they do, why they do it, the lack of checks and balances
there and I would fall into that category as well because if it wasn't for you
taking the time to educate me on it and
explain what it is that's going on behind the scenes,
I would basically think, for instance, recently
with the stimulus check that was sent out. It would be like, "woohoo! free money!"
Thanks to the president for pulling this out of his pocket and
giving it to me. When, in reality, that's not even remotely close to what's happening.
They're just printing it out of thin air, which leads to inflation. Basically giving you money
but taking money away from you at the same time by devaluing everything that you currently have.
Yeah.
And the whole thing about how money's created - the Federal Reserve, the Treasury,
how they're intertwined and the big banks. It's a really complicated and convoluted
subject, so it's pretty hard to understand but I do think it's important to try to understand it for
your financial well-being. And another lesson that I've
learned in 2020 is that, I really enjoy going for daily walks
and this is something that we learned (hush). I
She didn't hear.
I completely forgot to spell it out. Laska is in the room here.
She goes bananas when we mention that word because it's her favorite time of day.
And now, it's my favorite time of day considering we're trapped inside
basically 24/7, well,
23/7, we're trapped inside 23/7 except for that one lovely hour
where we get to go outside in the very hot and humid
Puerto Morelos, Quintana Roo.
It's like we're present and that's our yard time. Our yard time, it literally is. [Laughter]
But since we've been doing that every single day for nine weeks,
since this quarantine started, I'm realizing that,
that type of exercise... I can notice the difference in my health and it's not even doing anything crazy like
going and lifting weights at the gym or anything. But I can tell it gets my
heart rate up and it's improving my health.
It's keeping me as sane as
possible or keeping my head a little bit more clear than it would be if I wasn't
getting any activity. It's actually just nice to
get up, get away from work, talk about whatever we talk about - every
random thing under the Sun. And nature's always nice.
Like being outside in nature, yeah. We've both known that we've loved nature for
a long time. That's why we love places like Tapalpa so much.
Yeah, so it's kind of just like a silly little lesson, but
we weren't really making time for a daily w-a-l-k (looking over for Laska)
before this.
It's silly but it's meaningful, it is, because even
something as little as whenever we go to Vegas, I come back
and even though we're eating at the buffets and I'm eating
like 47 pounds of bacon every single day and we're drinking
and having lots of sugar and stuff and generally not being very
healthy while we're there, I come back and it's like "Oh my gosh!"
I feel like I've lost like five pounds, like my clothes are fitting looser,
my body just feels better, my metabolisms higher,
but it's probably because we're doing so much walking over there, like thirty thousand
steps a day compared to our regular
10,000 steps.
So,
that should have been an indication to me long ago
that a daily walk would probably be a good thing to add into our routine
and a healthy thing even when we're not getting to the gym to do anything else.
Yeah, and that wasn't on our list but another thing I learned was that, I miss working out.
Yeah, I want to be able to work out and I wish I had access to a gym. We used to go to
Planet Fitness.
Yeah. We used to go to Planet Fitness and it was like 20 bucks a month.
We could both go, it was air conditioned. Oh my gosh! What a luxury, a gym with air conditioning and
I agree, I've missed the gym also, but for now, the daily walks, I'm good with that.
Anyway, these are the things we learned in 2020 so far and after nine weeks in quarantine, please,
please, Lord! Let this quarantine be over soon. Oh my gosh!.
Um, what's a lesson that you have learned so far this year?
Let us know down below in the comments,
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