The last couple of days I was thinking about the topic for this blog. Is there anything significant going on in my life I’d like to share with the world (not that I have a global reach…yet)? Perhaps I can start by mentioning I received no parking ticket since. There was a short scare when I picked up my bike at the train station the other day. I saw a piece of paper in the spokes of my wheel, what I thought was a parking ticket. I was pleasantly surprised when I found out it was just a commercial leaflet. And one of the earlier parking tickets got expunged after appealing. Good news all around.

Yin

What else is on? I am keeping up with yoga and I am starting to enjoy it. Who would have thought. I am no longer a newbie in class and I even take the time at home for stretch exercises. I notice the improvements, getting more flexible by the week. I was never able to touch the knee with my nose doing a leg stretch, now I can. Amazing! To correct something: I say yoga, but I am actually doing yin yoga. This is a slow-paced style of yoga with postures that are held for longer periods of time: from 45 seconds to two minutes. Apparently, this can increase over time up to five minutes, but it is fair to say that is way out of my league. Who knows, someday.

Awareness

The timing of this new hobby couldn’t be better. I have had many hamstring problems over the years. It’s a reoccurring injury that affects my fitness during the hockey season, stepping out of the game every so often. I recently started seeing a physiotherapist for it (finally!) and he’s been helping me to get into shape to really change my physical composure. Strengthening and lengthening the muscles. I’ve learned a thing or two about the body and the connection between different muscle areas. There seems to be an obvious explanation why I pulled stuff in the past and what I can do to reduce the risk in the future. Yoga, or yin yoga better said, fits perfectly in all this. It gives extra meaning to what I am doing in class. It makes a nice new project altogether and we like projects. A project of great significance if that means I can play hockey injury free. There is, however, one recommendation I am having trouble reconciling with. The physio asked me the other day whether I am willing to stop wearing heels. The jury is still out on that one…

No place like home

There were the first signs of homesick, one weekend two months in to be exact. It didn’t last long, but it was there. Thoughts about my family, my friends, my social life back home. My house. Seeing lifelong friends having dinner in a nice restaurant, chatting away, was one of the triggers for feeling homesick. Another thing that triggered was my first international social night out. I have been a member of the Facebook group for months, but I had not yet made it to an actual event (they gather weekly). Until recently.

I thought it was about time to start investing in new relations. Putting an effort in to meet new people. Growing the social network if you will. Literally meeting new people being in the same boat. Starting a new chapter in a different country, having our own reasons for doing so. Don’t get me wrong. I haven’t been exactly bored since my move. Enough social activity. It’s just that friendships are not created overnight. You have to start somewhere.

Entering the bar in particular was a bit scary, I am shy by nature. Although, nobody I meet nowadays seems to believe that. My spontaneity and bubbly character cover up the fact there is a shy part in me. Trust me, when I was young, this was totally evident. I was a flower girl once at the age of 5 at my aunt and uncles wedding and I remember being too scared to go into the wedding car. My uncle is a very tall guy and he had a frightening moustache at the time. Being shy and outgoing at the same time is one of many peculiar contradictions I have to offer.

Back to my social outings. Not sure whether it was since that homesick weekend per se, but my social life has been picking up. I’ve started to hang out with people more frequently. The same people, not just the random social meet ups where you get to pitch your life story in 20 minutes. Basically, telling the same things to different people. Those of you who travel will recognise this. I have started gathering a nice bunch of people around me, working to achieve what I was looking for taking the plunge in the first place: new social stimuli.

This all calls for a celebration. In a few weeks’ time, me and my housemate are throwing a housewarming party. It will be great to have all the peepz we met here in the same room and have fun. And there will be a few guests coming over from Holland too. That makes it even more fun: blending the old with the new. Or, as I like to see it: the more, the merrier 😊