Expat Girl: I'm just a girl in the world: Thoughts About Vacation

The word vacation has taken a dramatic shift for me in the last 16 months. It used to mean laying around all day, exploring, hiking, shopping and doing whatever I wanted on that particular day. It also meant having a suitcase 100% dedicated to my things like numerous pairs of shoes, makeup, cute clothes for any type of weather and maybe some things for entertainment like a book and my computer. I also thought (depending on the location) that maybe I could get some kind of a tan.

This trip to Morocco has magnified what was and what is now and they are so different. The first major difference is packing. We traveled a lot last year but mostly to the US and places in Europe. Our major trip was to Greece but the baby was barely crawling so we could still kind of lay around. The climate in Greece was also very warm, so there was no guess work in what to bring (shorts and t-shirts and some swim diapers). This trip we were in the city and now at the seaside, a temperature shift of about 15 degrees. It's made having the right clothes (and enough of them) a challenge (not to mention we were in full winter mode in Switzerland). Also, we flew on Easy Jet (the only direct way to get from Basel to Marrakech), which is a budget airline (much like Southwest) except you have to pay for the amount of luggage you bring. You'd think a baby, being a smaller person, would need less luggage space but it is completely the opposite. He needs a 100 more things than any adult would require like diapers, wipes, pacifiers, all types of baby medications in case he gets a fever or has diaper rash, toys, and the list goes on. Packing for this trip was definitely a challenge.

A small sampling of Mickey's clothes

Just a few baby necessities

The next major difference has been the way we enjoy where we are staying. We are currently in a lovely 2 bedroom villa overlooking the ocean. We have a private pool (which is a bit too chilly to swim in) and the doors to our place open all the way. Normally I would have these doors wide open but since the pool starts right at these doors, they must remain closed. Our baby WILL fall in. We have to keep most things out of his little baby grasp (like the phones, drinking glasses, remote controls) and attempt to make sure he's not destroying anything that doesn't belong to us (sometimes that is a real challenge). 16 months is a great age but Mickey is into everything!

If only they'd open these doors!

Another hurtle to this trip is that we can't drink the water. This is challenging for adults and adding the baby into the mix makes it a bit stressful. We have to do all the bottle washing and formula mixing with bottled water (although he drinks regular milk now, we brought formula in case milk wasn't readily available and it hasn't been so I'm glad we did!). We also have to do a lot of distracting tactics in the bath tub to get him not to drink the water. It sounds crazy but it's something we have to watch out for.

The last major difference is there is no longer flexibility to our vacation schedule. Our little guy wakes up, takes naps, eats and goes to bed on cue. This makes sleeping in, eating whenever you're hungry and enjoying your time late into the night almost impossible (sleeping in? What's that?). There are times I really miss those things.

On the flip side...we have a very patient baby most of the time and he's rolled with the punches on this trip. He's eaten a lot of strange food at random times, napped in cars and charmed the pants off all of the strangers we've met along the way. He even slept until 7am today! So, things are definitely different but I wouldn't change it for anything. Life has changed for the better by adding our little Mickey to the mix. Things as we knew it will never be the same, vacations and all.

Now that I've shared a little bit about how I used to and am now vacationing, here's a glimpse into how Mickey likes to vacation: