A few moments ago, I was pregnant, and now, abruptly, I am not. It is a strange feeling.
Continue reading Grief, In WritingCategory Archives: gibberish
Digital Detox for the Girl Who Can’t Step Away From Her Phone
Drug Dealers and IT are the only people who call their customers “users”. – Daniel O’Leary
It is quite impossible to dodge all the foreboding articles lamenting that people nowadays spend too much time on their phones. All this time online is supposedly going to bring our society to ruin, melt our brains, turn us into slaves of evil robots — pick your Armageddon ending. While I do concede that having too much of anything can turn out badly, is all screen time bad though?
Continue reading Digital Detox for the Girl Who Can’t Step Away From Her Phone
Ruminations while on a Faux Getaway
Ever since I found out that there was a picture-perfect lake with matching open air swimming pools just 10 minutes by foot from our house, I’ve been looking for every opportunity to spend the day there and pretend that I’m in some far-away beach resort — minus the gigantic price tag
Continue reading Ruminations while on a Faux Getaway
Lessons Learned From Our Baby’s First Long-Haul Flight
It’s every flyer’s dreaded sight: that parade of babies through the priority boarding queue, threatening to crush any dream of peaceful sleep during the flight. I confess, I used to cringe whenever I would see a family with a baby settling within a 10-row radius from my seat.
Now, I find myself on the other side, the bringer of the ominous boarding infant. I braced myself long and hard, and obsessed with every detail to prepare ourselves for Tobias’ first long-haul flight. I even dressed him up in an adorable tiger onesie, to make it at least a bit impossible to stay angry even if he makes a scene. Continue reading Lessons Learned From Our Baby’s First Long-Haul Flight
Creative Ways to Learn a New Language
Have you tried every app, book, site or workshop out there, and still feel like you’re butchering your target language whenever you speak? I’ve been there, feeling like I should apologize to every native speaker for forcing them to listen to my atrocious interpretation of their own tongue, even after months of taking classes.
So you’ve hit a plateau. This might actually be where things get interesting. If the old formulas no longer work, then it may be time to set your sights on the unconventional, to take approaches you’ve never tried before. Reframing your mindset might just be what you need to send the gears whirring again, to rewire your brain to finally make that new language stick. I’ve got a few ideas — shall we start rewiring? Continue reading Creative Ways to Learn a New Language
10 Ideas for a Wanderlust-y, Travel-Themed Wedding
An event as momentous as your wedding warrants your personal touch. Think about it –it’s an occasion wherein your closest loved ones from both sides come together, most meeting for the first time, to celebrate precisely the fact, that the two of you are together. How much more personal can that get?!
For Daniel and I, we knew we had to work in TRAVEL as a theme for our wedding, as it laid deep in the core of how we’ve met and how much we’ve grown with each other. We also knew that we’d rather save up for our future home, rather than go overboard with the expenses, so that meant DIY all the way. The craft-crazed kid in me cartwheels. Continue reading 10 Ideas for a Wanderlust-y, Travel-Themed Wedding
A Brave New World
How time flies! It’s been almost six months since I made the big leap and turned my world upside down. Leaving a stable job and a comfy existence, I slingshot myself halfway across the world to Germany to finally be in the same timezone with the man of my dreams.
As you can imagine someone who was raised in a (very noisy) household of seven strong women, I was always taught to always flaunt my smarts and my strengths, no matter what anyone else thought. Of course, this giant shift from career woman to penniless student for me was not without doubts and scolding from my own subconscious. I thought, however, I would be holding back a part of me, a part of me whose strengths I have yet to uncover, if I didn’t make this jump.
And so I leaped, and so far, no regrets. Continue reading A Brave New World
25 Travel Goals to Set for the Year (For Those Who Can’t Wander Very Far)
This is not your usual travel bucket list, where Mt. Everest, Aurora Borealis, and Oktoberfest are sure to be in the line-up. Most of these, in fact, can be made right in your hometown, or at least would simply ask for just a bit of gas money and, of course, one’s own resourcefulness.
You see, goal-setting for this year poses a bit of a challenge for me. As I have recently made the leap from being a corporate bee back to a penny-pinching student, I needed to be more creative this year with quenching my wanderlust, without draining my savings.
The more I gave it thought, the more I realized that there is no reason why travel goals should be restricted to globetrotters. Continue reading 25 Travel Goals to Set for the Year (For Those Who Can’t Wander Very Far)
What a year! Top 12 Highlights from the Rollercoaster Ride of 2016
Love it or hate it, 2016 is definitely a year to remember. It was when I felt the wind getting knocked out of myself, as it seemed that one by one, the world seemed to veto the principles I thought were universal. It was the year when I realized, more than ever, that there is much to the world that I have yet to know, more perspectives that I have yet to comprehend, more life experiences that I have yet to open my heart to. Continue reading What a year! Top 12 Highlights from the Rollercoaster Ride of 2016
30 Lessons I’ve Learned From Travelling
1.) Bloom where you are planted.
Whether fate takes you to a beach, a mountain, a bustling city, or an isolated shack in the middle of nowhere, make use of every opportunity thrown your way to be an even better, stronger and more enlightened person than when you first came.
2.) Travel light.
Leave behind as much belongings behind as you can; packing is a good lesson on prioritization and improvisation. Also, leave behind your prejudices and grudges. Every destination has a lesson to teach you, and it doesn’t help if you let your past disappointments get in the way of meeting your future happiness.
3.) Sometimes, destinations will disappoint. Have fun anyway.
That rustic, peaceful paradise you were looking forward to might not have been as isolated as you’ve hoped. Timings might suck. Loved ones will bicker. Having a sense of humor might just make the difference between what could have been a total disaster or what could have been your best travel story.
4.) It’s always about the people. Always.
It’s great to check off seeing the Statue of Liberty, and other famous landmarks in the world. But one sure-fire way of missing out is to close yourself off to making new friends, or maybe even to getting to know your loved ones in a whole new light. More often than not, your go-to travel stories will mostly be about the funny experiences you’ve had with wacky personalities you’ve bumped into, and the enlightenment you didn’t expect them to share with you.
5.) Learning a bit of the language goes a long, long way.
That teeny bit of effort into learning how to say even just ‘Hello’, ‘Thank you’, and ‘Delicious!’ in the local tongue has a mighty pull on the heartstrings. It has the power to instantly put a smile on a person’s face, and that could pave a way to a warmer welcome than you had expected.
