Our Story
Here’s our story at TheDailyPackers—Alex and Tina, from how we met to where we are now. Everything you might want to know about us is right here.
About us: Who is he?
Her full time clumsy and bumpy travel buddy
He is Alex, born in May 1990 in Paris, to an Italian father and a French mother.
He grew up with his little sister in a small village in the countryside.
He spread his wings at the age of 15 and left for Mulhouse where he spent 3 years studying auto mechanics. Then he went off to Paris region to pursue his study in engineering.
Shortly after graduating, an idea of joining the army sprang to his mind. Luckily it was not realized (otherwise he wouldn’t have met her). He became a race car mechanic instead.
Being a part of a multicultural team in Porsche Cup and Open tour, he realized that learning a new language holds the way to the world (we can’t say that he was the perfect study boy earlier but always managed his way through).
That was when he decided to go to London to improve his English. He did learn to speak like the Queen but more importantly he spent an amazing 6 months making new international friends and setting a record for drinking Guinness.
After that he came back to his hometown and joined the family business, a bus and coach import company.
A year after or so, he was sent to a new mission. He went to Turkey, first to Bursa, then to Istanbul. After 10 months in Turkey, it was time for him to leave and expand his wings over again.
But every time, he flew just a little further, just a little longer, proving himself and to others that he can do it. Every journey brought him a bit closer to her.
This time he moved to Zhengzhou, the capital of east-central China’s Henan province. Little did he know that he would end up staying for 3 years and meeting her. And so the adventure began, but that’s another story for “Who are we”
About us: Who is She ?
His full time wacky and cuddly travel buddy!
Her name is Kristina. She grew up in the mountains of Serbia. At an early age she was into karate, different sports, and dancing. Her wild nature, adventurous spirit, endless energy, and desire to make memories all over the world were stronger than the place holding her in.
So, she set off on a journey she wasn’t ready for, but she was brave.
As soon as she landed at Washington Dulles International Airport her real adventure began. It took her 3 months to end up in court, 7 months to fulfil her 2-week road trip California dream, and 1 year to get deported from Mexico.
Most importantly she got the best host family in the world. They treated her as a family member, and stood by her side through all her troubles. And let me tell you, they were quite a few. She also got to travel a lot while making amazing friends and lifetime memories along the way.
These two years full of first time experiences changed her completely and shaped her future.
She went back to Serbia. How happy she was to see her family and friends, and how broken her heart was to leave her host family!
About us: WHO ARE WE ?
We ? You ? Everybody ? Anybody ? Everyone ? Anyone ? All ?
That’s quite a story!
They met during their first year in Zhengzhou (China) around October 2014. When they arrived in this east central Chinese metropolis, the foreigner community was quite small.
He was working in a bus company where he met a Canadian friend, Jeff. It turned out that Jeff had a Filipina girlfriend who introduced him to their friends’ group and that was how he got one step closer to meeting her.
As she was the only foreign teacher in a school, she was desperately looking for her people. One night she went out and discovered a whole new world of foreign community. It was her luckiest night. He was there but they didn’t meet that night.
Their first encounter was at a gay home party. That was the first time they said HI to each other. She thought to herself, ”What a cutie! What a shame he’s a gay!”.
A few weeks later he hosted a mad hatter wine party :D And, there she was with her new red lady hat. Their very first kiss happened at the end of the night before she went home.
Next time they saw each other, they just pretended as if nothing had happened. They became best buddies instead. They would watch movies at night, she would cook dinners, he would make yummy shakes … untill their fist travel to Philippines.
It’s true that there ain’t surer way to find out whether you like someone or hate them than to travel with them. By the end of this trip they were at the beginning of creating their story. They started wandering the world together, tasting experiences to the utmost. They’ve got stories to tell you!
Thedailypackers’ story: From China to France
A change of scenery
Life in China was truly fun. We had an amazing group of friends, we were hanging out a lots and had our favorite bars and restaurants. Plus, at some point, we got ourselves e-bikes which made moving around a small Chinese city of 10M inhabitants much easier.
During this time, we also took the chance to travel Asia and discovered countries that would seem far from Europe but were right there. Little did we know that it was the beginning of our travel blog, yet we weren’t ready for it.
After 3 adventurous years living in central China, pollution got the better of us and we felt like it was time for a change.
That’s how, we moved to France. As it was Alex’s country, he sold it well to Tina. And slowly, they both headed there. First, they started living with his parents while continuing working. Alex was doing the same job and was going to China for business trip while Tina joined the Strasbourg academy and was teaching English.
At that time, we invested in our first apartment. What a big step! We bought it on drawings and it will be ready for end of 2020.
Unfortunately, mid-2019, Alex’s company bankrupted and Tina had enough of the French system and missed the Chinese one which was organised and where teachers were respected.
So, it was time to head for our first long travel, 3-months in South America. It was also the true beginning our travel blog and South America was our best travel ever. We ended that trip when Covid-19 hit South America and headed back home.
Alex kept working on the travel blog and Tina slowly opened her online yoga studio. Following that, late 2021, Alex got back to a corporate job for another bus company and beginning 2022 to another one. But they kept travelling during holidays and days off.
Alex and Tina’s story: Our first son, Poppy
A life doesn’t have to be long to be meaningful
A new chapter opened for us when in 2023, we got pregnant of our first son. At that time, Alex had his corporate job and Tina was working on her online yoga studio.
Our perfect little boy was due for the 26 November 2023. And almost right until the end of 2023, it was the best year ever for us. Our son was an heathy big boy, we could feel him move which was amazing. Alex imagined him drawing inside a cave, hahaha. We travelled a lot with him and visited Vietnam, the German Black Forest, Bordeaux in France, etc… hiked many trails as well, had lots of great family times.
We were making crazy plan with him, imagined moving to a dozen different countries with him. We couldn’t even start to believe what would happen.
Sadly, life is not always what we want it to be, and our perfect little boy, Poppy, was stillborn on the 25th November 2023 at 9h55.
However, our descent to hell began 2 days earlier, when one of the best days of our lives turned into one of the worst. On the 23rd November at approximately 3 am, Poppy woke up Tina as he was moving and kicking a lot. At that time, she realized that she had lost the mucus plug, meaning that he would soon be coming. That was such a happy moment for us.
Early morning, Poppy was quiet (which could happen if he moved during the night). However, as he was still quiet after lunch (which usually made him move a lot), we went to the hospital for a check-up. We never thought that what was about to happen could even be real. At around 2 pm that day, we learnt that our son was not showing signs of life anymore. From that moment, our world was turned upside down. It all seemed unreal, how could Poppy, who was fine in the morning passed away now? Especially that we are only 3 days from his term, the 26/11/2023.
That was only the beginning of that insane roller-coaster, as the next day we had to deliver our son. After taking a medicine to prepare for the induced delivery, we went back home. Thankfully, we were with family and friends at that moment, but that night was the longest we’ve ever lived. Crying, thinking about our son, and that crazy situation.
The next day, we went to the hospital for the delivery. We wanted to have it ASAP as we were afraid. After taking some more medicines during the night, contractions started around 3h30, following that the epidural was put in place and the delivery started around 9h30. Our original plan was a natural delivery without epidural and delivering squatting or on all-4, but now we were facing an induced stillbirth pregnancy with epidural. Everything we didn’t prepare for.
Poppy was born at 9h55. The delivery went well, and the midwife said that for a first delivery, it was perfect, that Poppy was super cooperative and did everything as it should be. He was the perfect little boy all along that pregnancy, turned when he had to, went down on time, and did chin to chest in the end, which resulted in Tina almost not needing any sutures.
For the next 6h, we were with our son in a cocoon, in a bubble created in the delivery room. During this time, we felt as it should have been. We wished that time would stop and that we could live in this bubble forever with our son. We told him some of the things we wanted to say or had planned to do with him, sang a lullaby, played his morning and evening songs, held him in our arms, saw him in the baby basket, etc…
My parents and sister even had the chance to be allowed in the delivery room for a few minutes to see him. One thing we are grateful for is how great, kind, and supportive the staff in the hospital we were.
There are no words to describe what we felt, what we are feeling… And of all things that could have happened to us, stillbirth was something we never thought about. We will have to be strong together to overcome the challenges facing us. Our journey will continue, and we are so grateful to have had 9 beautiful months and 6h precious hours with Poppy. He is and forever will be our first kid and be a part of our family.
We decided to name him Poppy, because that was his nickname, because one day he had the size of a Poppy seed. After calling him Poppy for 9 months, we thought that this name would be perfect for him. And now, Poppy flower and Poppy seed are reminders of him (not that we need it, but we like it).
Alex and tina’s story: Our second son, Milo
Life has continued
As you may guess, the end of 2023 and 2024 was the worst time of our lives. We also did all the tests possible, and after all, Poppy was healthy and didn’t have anything that could explain his stillbirth.
We did everything we could to move forward, and with the support of friends, family, a support group, and people over the internet, we believe we are better. But we are forever changed. There was us from before, and us now, and there isn’t a single day that goes by where we don’t miss Poppy.
Mid-2024, Alex also quit his corporate job. Life has more important priorities than this, and he saw the opportunity to become a full-time travel blogger, start volunteering in our local stillbirth group, as well as focusing on another big thing that we had arrived.
In July, we got pregnant again. It was wanted, and not managing to be pregnant was stressful for us, yet it happened, and Milo arrived in our lives. Poppy will have a little brother. In death, there was life.
We had a rough start, as our first check-up was too early, and there wasn’t any heartbeat. Thankfully, 3 weeks later, everything was fine and Milo was healthy.
The pregnancy continued, and the first 3 months were a real challenge for us.
But that is now behind u,s and we are now in the 2nd trimester, and all is fine so far. Our story will continue, and we will share it on Instagram.