Challenge 1: New Year, New country, New life
Something about the word ‘new’ looks awkward and capitalising the ‘N’ makes it weirder. ‘Nouvel’ (French) seems to read as ‘new’ better to me. But that’s just you, and you know very well, it means nothing about your French capabilities.
New Year resolutions…You never made them. Never believed in them. You recall your secondary school years. The year had just started, you were turning fourteen, and a relief teacher came for homeroom. You recall her to be female and pleasant looking. But to her, you probably were the ‘OMG why did I have such a student for my relief class as a newbie’. You see, you were stubborn about your beliefs even back then at fourteen. You had determined by then, that if new year resolutions were always broken (you never succeeded in any in past years), then it was a pointless exercise. Rather than write them for the sake of doing it, you should just resolve to change any point in the year (if ever). Naturally you did not write a resolution in class, and naturally the teacher notices. She comes up to you and ask why I have not written any down. You kindly inform her of your beliefs, and you recall she paused and tried to convince you to write some down. You also recall her persuasion was futile.
Now you are in your 30s, that year in school was a half a lifetime ago. But you have not changed. You still believe that if you wanted to change anything – you just get to it. Don’t wait for the new year, and don’t pretend the new year would do anything for you. In fact, as a Singaporean with Chinese Indian ancestry, you have THREE new years. The 1 Jan (Gregorian calendar), the Chinese New Year (LuniSolar calendar), and the Indian New Year (Lunar calendar). If we went by the practice of new year = new resolutions. Does that mean you have THREE of them within the first 2 months of the Gregorian calendar?! Doesn’t leave you much type to resolve them…
If you haven’t figure it out yet, you really do not believe in the setting of resolutions for the new year. Also, you quietly admit to yourself, you hardly ever have any resolutions…
BUT this 2024, you do!!! As for New Year resolutions, it just so happened to coincide. A serendipitous event for all who believe in such resolutions. Because you seem to have finally got on board. But frankly, it's because you are about to embark on the Journey to the cent…Down Under. You have decided to leave your comfort zone – leaving your job and home, for some kind of adventure whose results are unknown. Given, you have chosen such a direction, you have decided to shake up your life. No more vampirically holing yourself up in your room, no more being a proud lazy-ass couch potato. You will meet people! You will learn new things! You will exercise! You will not hole yourself up in a dark room.
Guess what? Some were so easily met; you feel you are doing amazing.
1. Exercise – where you stay is a slight walk to the free trams. Also, it is central enough that walking might be faster than taking the tram. So far, there is hardly any day in which you do not hit 10,000 steps. Melbourne city is also on a gentle incline, not flat.
2. No dark rooms to hide in – that was super easy. The room you rented has a stupid distorted glass square window (that can’t open) with no curtains. It is summer – it is always bright. Actually, you wear sunglasses in your room…(P.S. your mother is very happy you do not stay in your room)
3. Meet People – okay this takes work. BUT hey – you have to housemates! Isn’t that meeting people?
4. Learn new things – ah! The daily adventure of being in a new country. You learn many just by breathing the new air of a country with a thinning ozone layer.