Guess Where I Live Now?

Ya boi has gone off the deep end this time.

I am currently writing this from Dahab, Egypt, a few meters from the Red Sea on the south end of the Sinai Peninsula. I will be here for six months. This is day one.

This all feels incredibly crazy. I just started a full-time writing position with a client in Canada, which requires a lot of my time. Here, I cannot access Medium ("took too long to respond," whatever the hell that means). And as of this moment, our living situation could very well be described as "poverty."

And this is exactly why my fiance and I are digital nomads.

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Jess and I have been together for three years now. We've known each other since we were five years old, but it wasn't until college that we got together as a couple. Our first year and a half was essentially virtual, as Jess was going to school in Lugano, Switzerland. Me - the American doofus - went to college a whole 2 hours away from my hometown. So for a while, it was one person living in a foreign country, where you don't have amenities like a dryer or English or supermarkets, and one person living in what I now know to be absolute splendor.

For the latter half of our relationship, we have been together for the most part. Working in the same office, getting a nice 1-bedroom apartment in the Oregon suburbs, and saving for trips was our life for a while. And it was good.

But it wasn't great. It wasn't until February 2017, when I told Jess I would go to South Africa with her, that our nomadic lives truly began.

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You see, Jess loved Durban, South Africa. A little ways out there (halfway across the world), everybody thought she was crazy. I didn't, though; I saw how important that place was for her, and so I agreed to travel with her and live for three months in both Cape Town and Durban.

We saved like demons, Jess started her own company, and we touched down in Cape Town on September 16th. For the next three months, we found ourselves and learned a lot. I started my own freelance writing, Jess grew her business, and we created a lifestyle centered around our priorities:

• Fitness: Walking everywhere, access to workout equipment, being outside a lot, and exercising as often as possible.
• Nutrition: Eating fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, water and coffee makes us feel tremendous, healthy, and alive.
• Vibes: We have to be near a body of water, surrounded by great people - not great "things" - and in an area that makes us feel happy.
• Simplicity: A few quality items - solid laptop, books, a handful of clothes - is all we need to have a great time. Memories > Materials

This is where we get to Dahab, Egypt.

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Before we left for what is going to be our longest adventure yet, I wasn't nervous. In hindsight, that should've worried me. Instead, after three flights, two days, and a long layover in New York, we're here.

Now I'm nervous.

Our place is, for lack of a better word, shit. It certainly doesn't scream SAFE. A dog barked all night long and other people in the apartment watched TV - on loud - until 2 AM. And the entire place, including the street, the shower, the lack of good water, and the doors, looks like sets from Zero Dark Thirty. You know, the bad parts.

On top of that, we don't have WiFi at the apartment, which is a big problem with our careers' dependence on it. Thankfully, the inn we're working for here has adequate internet connection (at least for my purposes). But man, talk about a 180. Jess cried last night, and if I wasn't super tired, I would've cried too. And I don't cry often.

As far as our lifestyle is concerned, it will be tough, but I believe it can still be salvaged. The fitness and nutrition is always on us. We decide how much movement our days consist of. And food is a matter of ordering right when eating out and making a lot of stir fries and Buddha bowls.

The vibes, on the other hand, will take some time. The vibes are a cross between Slumdog Millionaire and a doped-out hippy joint - which is to say very foreign to how we feel normally. The advice given has been "patience," but that is a finite resource.

For simplicity, Dahab hits that right on the fucking head. All we have access to is food. Our suitcases are our lives. Like I said, it's enough for us, but it's always nice to have things on standby. Such as air conditioning. Or hospitals.

I might be overreacting to this whole thing. Our first impressions were not good - crying within the first three hours of being in a place you're supposed to live in for half a year is never a good sign. But maybe it needs time. So we'll give it that.

It's new, and most times new is scary. Whether it's starting your side hustle, opening a new business, or traveling to a new country, you won't always be in your comfort zone. The trick is to tally your blessings, be grateful for what you do have, and make the absolute best of your situation.

It's day one, and that's what I'm going to do.

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I'm Jake Lyda, writer and psycho traveler. Currently, I'm gallivanting around Dahab, Egypt. Follow me on Steemit to see if I make it out of this adventure alive! For day-to-day visuals of my live abroad, check me out on Instagram.