What does it take to be a Senior Nomad?
怎样才能成为一名资深的流浪汉？
Should you want to become one, a few requirements: Be willing to cast off your stuff and accumulate no more; have a flexible definition of what it means to be at home; master the Excel spreadsheet; accept, and even grudgingly appreciate, the ubiquity of Ikea.
要想成为这样的人，你需要满足几点要求：要乐于摆脱身外之物，不再积累更多家什；要对家有一个灵活的定义；要熟练掌握Excel的使用技巧；还要接受宜家(Ikea)已然四处泛滥的现实，就算不情愿也得学会欣赏。

Debbie Campbell and her husband, Michael, who have embraced, if not promoted, what they refer to as the Senior Nomad way of life on their blog, might add another criterion: the willingness to uproot oneself at a stage in life when others are settling down in a recliner with the remote.
黛比·坎贝尔(Debbie Campbell)和丈夫迈克尔(Michael)可能还会在此基础上再加一条：在步入寻求稳定的人生阶段后，当别人舒舒服服地坐在躺椅里看电视时，你要仍然愿意让自己四处漂泊。在博客上，黛比和迈克尔将自己的生活方式称为“资深流浪”，他们对此的态度即便算不上大力倡导，至少也可说是甘之如饴了。
“We were nearing the time to consider retiring,” said Ms. Campbell, 58, who until recently owned a graphic design business. “We both decided we had one more adventure in us.”
现在58岁的黛比直到几年前，还在经营着一家平面设计公司。“当时，我们都快到考虑退休的年龄了，”她说，“但我们决定再冒一次险。”
That decision was made just over two years ago at the couple’s townhouse in Seattle. Their daughter Mary Campbell, visiting from her home in Paris, thought they should travel. A friend of her husband’s, she told them, had lived all over, including South America, where he rented apartments and worked remotely.
仅仅两年间，他们就做出了这个决定。那会儿，夫妇俩还住在西雅图的联排别墅里。他们的女儿玛丽·坎贝尔(Mary Campbell)有一次从巴黎的住所过来看他们。她认为他们应该出去旅行。她告诉父母，自己的丈夫有一位朋友已经住遍了全球，包括南美。他在世界各地一边租公寓，一边远程工作。
“My thought was, ‘Had she looked in our bank account and seen more money than I thought we had?’ ” said Mr. Campbell, 69, a former sports marketing executive.
迈克尔说：“我的第一反应是，‘难道她看了我们的银行帐户，发现我们其实比我自己以为的更有钱吗？’”现年69岁的迈克尔曾是体育赛事营销高管。
But rather than staying in hotels, Mary suggested that her parents use Airbnb, the home rental site that has inspired devotion from many tourists and criticism from affordable housing advocates, the hotel industry and some city officials. The Campbells had never used Airbnb, but weren’t dissuaded by their lack of experience or the criticism. Sharing sites like Airbnb, Mr. Campbell said, “meet a real need in the marketplace.”
不过，玛丽并没有建议父母去住酒店，而是建议他们使用一个叫Airbnb的租房网站。这个网站受到了许多旅游者的热捧，也禁受着保障型住房倡导者、酒店业和一些市政府官员的批评。坎贝尔夫妇从未使用过Airbnb。虽然他们缺乏经验，而且这家网站也受到过批评，但他们并未因此止步不前。迈克尔说，Airbnb这类住宿共享网站“能够满足市场的实际需求”。
His daughter’s suggestion planted the idea that he and his wife could wrap up their careers, downsize and reduce their living expenses, Mr. Campbell added. If they could afford to live in Seattle without working, could they also afford to live abroad, renting other people’s homes? After three months of Excel number crunching, they concluded that they could.
他还补充道，女儿的建议让他萌生出一个念头——他和妻子可以结束职业生涯，轻装上阵，减少生活开支。既然他们不用工作也能在西雅图生存，那么他们是否有足够的财力，以租用他人房子的方式住在国外呢？他们用Excel精打细算了三个月，最终得出的结论是，这个方案是可行的。
So the sailboat on which the couple had spent so many weekends — sold. Ms. Campbell’s little Volkswagen convertible — someone else’s dream ride now. Their townhouse — occupied by renters. Everything else was stashed in a 12-by-15-foot storage unit.
于是，帆船被他们卖掉了——以前夫妇俩经常周末时乘船度假。黛比那辆小巧的大众敞篷车，现在也成了别人的梦中座驾。他们的联排别墅也被租了出去。其他东西则都塞进了一个12×15英尺（约合3.7×4.6米）见方的储物间里。
The Campbells have spent the past year and a half crisscrossing Europe, living for a week or more in one rental home before moving on to another. They’ve stayed in a grand formal apartment in Florence, a graphic designer’s funky place in Paris and a farmhouse in Wexford, Ireland. Their home in Luxembourg had beautiful exposed beams and a loft; their apartment in Tallinn, Estonia, had a sauna. And when they arrived in Rome, they found themselves in the unusual position of not knowing which street door their home was behind.
在过去一年半时间里，坎贝尔夫妇游遍了欧洲。每到一个地方，他们就至少租一个星期的房子。他们在佛罗伦萨住过一套富丽堂皇的气派公寓，在巴黎住过一位平面设计师的时髦住所，在爱尔兰的韦克斯福德(Wexford)住过一栋农舍。他们在卢森堡的住所，装饰着漂亮的裸露横梁，附带一间阁楼；而在爱沙尼亚塔林(Tallinn)的寓所，带有一间桑拿浴室。当他们抵达罗马时，却发现自己竟找不到住的地方在哪儿。
“We’re not on vacation,” Mr. Campbell said. “We’re not retiring in the traditional sense. We’re out seeing the world in Airbnb apartments because that’s how we can afford to do it.”
“我们不是在度假，”迈克尔说，“我们过的不是传统意义上的退休生活。之所以通过在Airbnb上租房来环游世界，是因为这个方式在我们财力允许范围内。”
The Campbells were discussing their adventures last month while settling into their latest home on the road, a spacious riad in Marrakesh. They had flown south from Paris, their unofficial hub, in search of warmer weather, and were curious to see the apartment they had selected from hundreds of listings online, as they always are.
坎贝尔夫妇谈到了他们上个月的冒险之旅。当时，夫妇俩正准备在他们最近租的马拉喀什(Marrakesh)那套宽敞的庭院式住宅（riad，摩洛哥的一种传统建筑形式——译注）中安顿下来。他们的非正式大本营在巴黎，为了找一处天气更暖和的地方，他们乘飞机南下，来到了马拉喀什。而在那里的住所是夫妇俩从网上的几百套挂牌房源当中挑选出来的。和往常一样，他们对自己的新住处很好奇。
“Most of the fun comes from opening the door and not knowing what’s on the other side,” Ms. Campbell said, adding that as the family cook, “I go straight to the kitchen.”
“在打开大门之前，你往往不知道门后面会是怎样的。大部分乐趣往往就在于推开门的那一刻，”黛比说，她还补充说，作为家里负责做饭的人，“我会直奔厨房。”
In Morocco, the Campbells were struck by the local architectural style, the way their riad was furnished with long couches and low tables for people to sit and drink tea, and designed around a courtyard with an opening to the sky instead of windows to let in light.
摩洛哥当地的建筑风格让坎贝尔夫妇感到震撼。他们的庭园式住宅配有长沙发和矮桌，可供人坐着喝茶。整套住宅的布局设计围绕着一座庭院，以露天采光而不是通过窗户。
“Debbie and I just had dinner, and we were sitting at what looks like a dining room table, but if it rains, it’ll come right down on the table,” Mr. Campbell said. “Riad is not a word I was familiar with until six weeks ago.”
“黛比和我才吃过饭，我们围坐在一个看起来像餐桌的地方。但如果下雨的话，雨水就会滴在桌子上，”迈克尔说，“直到六个星期前，我才开始熟悉‘riad’这个概念。”
The couple’s friends have expressed skepticism about staying in strangers’ homes glimpsed only online. What if they arrive in Berlin to a pigsty?
夫妇俩的朋友都怀疑，单凭网上的几张图片来挑选陌生人的房子住，到底靠不靠谱。万一到了柏林，发现网上看好的房子其实形同猪圈，该怎么办呢？
Of the 46 apartments they’ve rented so far, there have been duds, Ms. Campbell said. And in those cases, “I take pretty scarves and tie them around lamps I don’t like.”
黛比说，他们目前一共租住过46套公寓，有些房子确实不怎么样。每次遇到这种情况，“我就会对房子稍作装点，比如拿一块漂亮的丝巾围在难看的台灯上。”
But those have been rare, and the couple has developed a careful selection process. They use filters on the Airbnb site to find a handful of well-reviewed rentals in their destination city, looking for places around $90 a night, with Wi-Fi, an adequately stocked kitchen, a location in the town center and, ideally, outdoor space. They email the hosts and begin culling the list based on availability, past experience and gut reactions.
但是这种情况很少见，夫妇俩已经摸索出了一套精挑细选的方法。他们使用Airbnb网站上的筛选器，在目的地城市选出一些口碑较佳的出租房源。他们要找的房子必须满足几个条件：价位约在90美元（约合人民币564元）一晚，要有Wi-Fi，要有设施齐全的厨房，要位于市区中心地带，最好还带户外空间。他们会给业主发电子邮件，然后根据房源可入住的时间、过去的经验和直觉来沙里淘金。
“After 550 days, we’re getting pretty smart about what we like,” Mr. Campbell said.
“经过550天的历练，我们已经非常清楚地知道自己喜欢什么了。”迈克尔说。
They are also noticing cultural differences about how people live. For instance, the austerity of Scandinavian apartments. Or the way homes in southern Spain tend to be dark, with windows shut to the blistering sun. In Helsinki, Ms. Campbell said, “every house had a big boot scraper on the doorstep, so you knew bad things happen there in the winter.”
他们也注意到了各地民宅间的文化差异。举例来说，斯堪的纳维亚风格的公寓比较质朴，而西班牙南部的住宅往往光线较暗，窗扉紧闭，以遮挡毒辣的阳光。黛比说，在赫尔辛基，“家家户户的门口都放着一个刮靴器，你就可以想到那里冬天路不好走。”
The universal design language, at least with Airbnb rentals, is Ikea.
宜家家居已成为全球通用的设计语言。这一点，至少适用于Airbnb上放租的房源。
“I have washed more Ikea plates than any human on earth,” Mr. Campbell said with a laugh. “People must get a checklist from somebody and go to Ikea.”
“我洗过的宜家餐盘比地球上任何人都多，”迈克尔笑着说，“大家肯定是拿着什么人开出的清单去宜家统一订购的。”
The Senior Nomads have their own checklist, little rituals to lessen the feeling that they are camping in a stranger’s home. After arriving, Ms. Campbell heads straight for a market; cooking at home saves money and gives the couple a chance to try local foods. And after chatting via FaceTime with Mary Campbell or another of their four children, they watch a podcast of “NBC Nightly News,” delayed by one day.
这两位资深流浪汉也有自己的清单。他们会进行一些小仪式，来减轻旅居异乡的漂泊感。到达目的地后，黛比会直奔市场；在家里做饭不仅省钱，还能借机尝试一下当地的美食。夫妇俩通过FaceTime与玛丽·坎贝尔或其他孩子（他们有四个孩子）聊完天后，就会收看播客《NBC晚间新闻》(NBC Nightly News)。他们的收看时间会比节目首播晚一天。
“We’ll wake up tomorrow, have our cereal and orange juice — that makes us feel at home,” Mr. Campbell said. “And because of the Internet and Wi-Fi, you instantly feel reconnected.”
“第二天早上，我们醒来后会用麦片和橙汁当早餐——这让我们有家的感觉，”迈克尔说，“而且，有了互联网和Wi-Fi，你马上就能感觉到，亲友间的纽带重新建立起来了。”
At night, the couple break out one of the few comforts from their Seattle home that wasn’t sold or put in storage.
到了晚上，夫妇俩就会拿出他们从家里带来的枕头。这是他们为数不多的几件没有变卖、或堆到储物间里的行李之一。
“Whenever I see people travel with pillows I think, really?” Ms. Campbell said. “But no matter what bed we land on, we have our down pillows.”
“每当我看见别人带着枕头旅行时，我都会觉得不可思议，”黛比说，“但是我们自己无论睡在哪儿，都会带着家里的羽绒枕头。”
Beyond that, she added, they don’t find themselves longing for anything from their old life. (Well, some things they do long for. Ms. Campbell recently confessed on the couple’s blog to having a cry over the lack of a vegetable peeler in their rental in Naples, Italy, an outburst, she said, caused by always taking inventory of new kitchens and finding them lacking.)
她补充道，除此之外，过去的生活中没有任何事情是他们觉得留恋的（好吧，这样说也不尽然。黛比最近在夫妇俩的博客上坦言，她在意大利那不勒斯租房时，因为家里没有果蔬削皮器而哭了一场。她说自己之所以会情绪爆发，是因为每次清点厨房用品时，总会发现少了些什么）。
Mary Campbell, 32, a food stylist in Paris, has acted as a Sherpa of sorts to her parents, guiding them through European public transport and the visa process, and occasionally joining them on the road. Her parents’ views about home and lifestyle have changed, she has noticed.
现年32岁的玛丽·坎贝尔在巴黎做食品造型师。她给父母充当了向导的角色，指导他们如何利用欧洲的公共交通，告诉他们办理签证的流程，偶尔还会跟他们一起旅行。她注意到，父母对家庭和生活方式的看法发生了变化。
“Now, over a year into it, they’re much more comfortable in a smaller space,” she said. “They don’t have a car over here. The walking lifestyle has been a discovery for them. They’ve redefined what they thought they needed.”
“现在，一年多过去了，他们已经很习惯住小房子了，”她说，“他们在这里没有车。多走路的生活方式对他们来说，是个全新的发现。他们对自己的需求有了完全不一样的看法。”
She added: “It’s so adventuresome and so different from anything else I hear that my friends’ parents are doing.”
她还说：“他们太有冒险精神了，我从没听说朋友的父母会像这样生活。”
Patrice Fiset, the friend of Mary Campbell’s husband whose rootless existence inspired her parents, said he follows the Campbells’ blog and is similarly impressed. He joked that his own parents’ retirement as Florida snowbirds pales in comparison.
而她丈夫的那位过着漂泊生活的朋友帕特里斯·菲塞(Patrice Fiset)，正是他激发了玛丽的父母旅居世界的想法。他关注了坎贝尔夫妇的博客后，也同样非常感慨。他开玩笑说，自己父母退休后在佛罗里达州的云游生活，与坎贝尔夫妇相比简直是小巫见大巫。
“In a way, I wish they were like Debbie and Michael,” Mr. Fiset said. “Because then I’d be visiting them in Morocco.”
“从某种程度上讲，我希望他们能像黛比和迈克尔那样，”菲塞说，“因为这样一来，我就能去摩洛哥看他们了。”
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Last July, the Campbells returned to Seattle to visit friends and attend a son’s wedding. But it wasn’t a homecoming, exactly. They stayed in an Airbnb apartment in a different neighborhood and renewed the agreement with their tenants for another year.
去年7月，坎贝尔夫妇回到西雅图拜访朋友，参加朋友儿子的婚礼。但是确切地说，这不能算是回家。夫妇俩通过Airbnb在另一个社区找了套公寓，又和租住在自己家里的房客续签了一年租约。
“We drove by our house, and I didn’t say, ‘I really wish we lived there,’ ” Ms. Campbell said.
“我们开车从自己家门口经过时，我并没有说，‘真希望我们住在这里。’”黛比说。
And when they flew back to Europe this time, she added, the Senior Nomads did something different.
而且，她说，在这次飞回欧洲时，这两位资深流浪汉又做了件与以往不同的事。
“We bought one-way tickets,” Ms. Campbell said, laughing.
“我们买了单程票。”黛比笑着说。
Mr. Campbell chimed in after his wife, and there was almost a sense of giddiness in his voice: “We don’t know when we’re going back.”
迈克尔紧接着插话道，“我们不知道什么时候会回来。”他的语气中几乎夹杂着欣喜若狂的意味。