Wanderlust Wendy

As a typical Type-A Asian, I like lists. Over the years, I add to this bucket list when ideas arise, then I don’t revisit too often. Yet somehow, I find a way to steadily check off items here without intentionally chasing after them. The act of putting an idea out there is enough for my subconscious mind to get after it! Last updated: April 2020

Life Experiences

✔ Learn to paint – realized we all have our inner creativity and doesn’t need to be taught. Painted in a studio for the first time. | December, 2014
✔ Run a half marathon – completed my first half marathon in Inner Mongolia | July, 2016
✔ Go on a yoga retreat – attended an 8-day yoga retreat in Kerala, India | September, 2016
✔ Learn to code and build an app – attended Le Wagon’s 9-week coding bootcamp | April, 2018 
✔ Work on an organic from – via Workaway in Uruguay | February, 2019
✔ Experience Float Spa | May, 2019
✔ Get paid to write, so I can call myself a writer – received first payment as a writer, but also learned I can call myself a writer without external validation. | Oct, 2019
✔ Make my own pottery – attended a pottery class in St. Louis | February, 2020

• Live on six continents (no Antarctica) – still need South America & Australia
• Speak six languages – so far, Mandarin, English, French, Taiwanese Hokkien, and very basic Vietnamese
• Learn to play the violin
• Learn to play the cello
• Play in an orchestra
• Work in a boulangerie as an apprentice
• Learn to make macarons
• Try 100 Recipes
• Become a mother
• Own a café & build a community
• Take photography classes
• Become a photographer where people pay me for my service
• Find a way to make money with my blog
• Write a book
• Live a locational independent lifestyle
• Pick fruit in Australia
• Work on a coffee farm
• Have my own garden that produces 50% my vegetable consumption
• Learn to really play tennis
• Learn graphic design
• Attend TravelCon
• Attend FinCon
• Design and build a home
• Read 1,000 books – current count on Goodreads: 123. All of my reading before Goodreads existence doesn’t count. Because obviously, if it’s not on the Internet, it didn’t happen. 😛 But mostly because I can’t remember them all.
• Learn data science and apply it toward the social sector
• Teach at a university
• Go on a vipassana, silent meditation, retreat

Travel

✔ Ride the Central Park carriage | August, 2012
✔ Road-trip through California wine country – visited Napa Valley | August, 2014
✔ See a panda in real life – visited Chengdu’s Panda Park | September, 2014
✔ Stay in a Mongolian yurt – had the yurt experience in Inner Mongolia | July, 2016 
✔ Climb the Great Wall of China | May, 2018
✔ Spend a year of my life to take an around-the-world trip – visited 20 countries on $53/day | June, 2018 – February, 2019
✔ Ride the Trans-Siberian Rail | July, 2018
✔ See penguins in Antarctica – saw them in Ushuaia & Punta Tombo, Argentina. Close enough, and less carbon footprint | December, 2018

• Go sailing
• Live in Paris and work at a café
• Ride on a hot air balloon
• Learn how to really ski & go ski in the Alps
• Attend the Olympic Games
• Swim with dolphins
• Visit the pyramids in Sudan
• Hangout with a camel on a desert in Egypt
• Go on a safari
• Live the Van Life
• Stay in treehouse

Visit Every Country

Countries visited are listed by the first visit’s month and year. That first impression is often the most profound and memorable.

Shanghai Specific

✔ Walk along the Bund when it’s a.) light outside and b.) not freezing cold.
✔ XuJiaHui Cathedral
✔ Properly explore TianZiFung again
✔ Try out one (or all) of these all-you-can-eat dim sum places for brunch.
✔ See a show at the Shanghai Grand Theatre
✔ Relax and see a few trees (actually not easy to do in Shanghai) in Fuxing Park
✔ Properly check out Zhongshan park, and not just go to the shops around it…
✔ Shanghai Symphony
✔ A proper night out in one of these big Shanghai night clubs – Mint, Apartment, etc. (I can’t believe I actually need to put this on a bucket list. What has my life come to…)
✔ Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Center – for someone who is interested in media, this is a must, no?
✔ 50 Moganshan Road – known for its contemporary art scene
✔ Shanghai Urban-planning Museum