(try!)To-do List 2016 :)

Happy New Year! E ku Odun Tuntun! Bonne Anneé! Frohes Neues jahr! Buon Anno! 

May your 2016 be full of only good things.

So, blogging kind of fizzled out for me towards the end of last year, as I became busier and busier with work and life in general. I currently have two part-time jobs, and at the time of signing the contracts, thought only about the positives, i.e. the chance to explore two very different work environments. Since then, I have had to re-think my decision as I gradually began to realise that two part-time positions doth not one full-time job make! Instead, I feel like I have at least 1.5jobs, and I'm struggling with keeping up with both places, as well as doing my usual gallivanting around Europe. In the light of this, I've been thinking about making 2016 the year of lying low in Brussels and picking up other more...non-nomadic habits. Still for some reason, I'm super excited about this year!

Anyway, as is traditionally the case every year, I have thought about and decided on this year's (much shorter) new year's resolutions. I know many people make fun of these, but I find them very helpful because as a bona fide list-checker, I am motivated by the pleasure I get whenever I can cross something off my list. Looking at last year's list, the major seemingly impossible goal was learning German and reaching a certain level before the end of the year. I somehow managed to do it, and it has both given me the skills I need, as well as inspired me to pick up Italian again. So, without further ado, I present my 2016 new year's resolutions. 

1. Learn Italian, get the CELI4 certificate by November
2. Improve German
3. Read 24books this year in Italian and German
4. Make more of an effort with my appearance
5. Take care of health: exercise, healthy diet, drink 2L water daily, good sleep routine 7-8hrs daily
6. Give up fizzy drinks except for the rare beer
7. Clear face
8. Finish paying student loans
9. Start MPH
10. Put up 52 blogposts 

Will I attain every goal on the list? That remains to be seen. In the meantime, putting them up on the blog makes me feel more accountable, and I'm also hoping I'll get the same amount of support and encouragement as I did last year. So are you a resolution maker? What are your plans for this year? Please share!

(try!)To-do List 2015: Midyear Review

 

I love list-making and goal-setting, and so it follows that I regularly evaluate my goals to see if I have achieved or am on the way to achieving them. Just before the beginning of the second half every year, I give in to introspection, reflect upon the past months and ask myself how well I have done. So, off we go with this year's resolutions

Health and Diet

• Complete ban on caffeine and fizzy drinks (failing miserably on this count, really need to re-tighten my belt)
• Minimise junk food consumption (doing ok)
• Increase intake of water, fruit and vegetables. Practise quasi-vegetarianism (spot on)
• Increase fitness, heart-rate and muscle tone (doing great)
• Get rid of acne (failing miserably, thanks to all the sugary drinks)
• Walk 2x15mins a day (going above and beyond, I regularly do 1-1.5hrs/day)

Relationships

• Stay in touch; contact at least 4 friends abroad, each week (doing ok)
• Spend more time making and developing Brussels friendships (doing great, thanks to church, internations, Hanna, Temi, Tolu, lovely work colleagues etc.)

"Self Improvement"

• Learn German, I hope to have achieved a level C1 at least by December 2015
  (on track)
• Use time wisely and improve punctuality (could be better, but I'm doing ok)
• Read more books by Nigerian/African authors (failing, but this is because of the complete ban on English/French language books)
• Go dancing, to the opera/cinema, sightseeing etc. Be cheesy, have fun! (not a lot of "high culture" opportunities at the mo, but between travelling, getting visitors and hanging out with Hanna, I'd say I'm doing just fine)
• Be aggressive with my student loan, pay back at least 6000€ (on track, thank God even though some months are harder than others! I think I might even end up paying slightly more than the amount I initially decided)

While looking at the list this morning, I realised that with a few minor adjustments, I could make even more progress in the 3 most important areas of finances, German and my health. 

Since the beginning of the year, I have given myself a monthly budget and kept a strict record of all my expenditure. This helped me see that a lot of my money actually goes on junk food and unnecessary purchases of clothing items. I mean I have so many things that I wear rarely, or have never even worn in my wardrobe, yet I continue to add to the pile! I also have a stash of toiletries that I either bought on sale myself or was given by the MIL, J from ibibiogirl or other friends, however instead of using them, I continue to spend money on new ones. As someone who has a pseudo-nomadic lifestyle, it is even more important that I have as few things as possible, because moving as you can imagine is a pain otherwise. Another way of improving both my finances and my health would be cutting out the junk food which has slowly made its way back into my diet. My face tells the story of the countless grams of sugar my body has ingested recently, and my purse certainly agrees with it. Being radical and completely eliminating junk would mean killing one bird with two stones. So the conclusion here is that I will from July to December 2015, not be spending any of my own money on either clothes (except possibly for one swimsuit) or junk food/drinks (going to restaurants with friends/family is acceptable). 

As for German, I realise that I have reached a plateau again with my learning and have become very lazy. In fact, I can feel myself slowly losing the little I know, and I am worried that if I don't do something soon, I will end up with the same situation as I have with my Italian. In order to avoid that, I have decided to register for the TestDaF (an official German exam) in September. The exam tests from the intermediate level and there are only three levels (B2.1, B2.2, C1.1), with German universities systematically accepting the B2.2 and C1.1 for studying. Now even though I don't think I'll be studying at a German university any time soon, I'd like to reach at least the second level of the test, because who knows what the future holds? The exam is quite expensive at 175€, so as a bona fide cheapskate, I'm hoping wagering money on it will motivate me to work hard on my German and I have re-enlisted the help of T, Hanna and the MIL for this seemingly mammoth task.

So those are the major goals for the next half of the year, see you in December for the next review. Have a lovely week everyone!

Decisions That Changed My Life: The Teenage Epiphany

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.

A few weeks ago, a friend Urigi asked her blog-readers to share experiences that have inspired, or been a defining moment in their lives. I wrote a very long comment, then decided that I'd like to share that comment on my blog.  Here it is...

As a child I was intelligent; coming 3rd in Nigeria at 11, in the National common entrance examinations for instance, but also very lazy. As soon as I got into secondary school, my grades basically plummeted , mostly because I couldn't be bothered with the classes and/or studying. I just really wanted to be left alone in peace to read and read and read! They eventually became so bad that my father had to resort to bribing me with cash for every A I got. As an original money-loving naija babe, this incentive made a huge difference, and I started to work hard ;)

Anyway around the age of 15, I suddenly realised that I didn't want to be like my evil cousins who lived with us and had done their WAEC/JAMB at least 9times since I knew them. One in particular always seemed so stupid and uncouth! Even as a kid, I knew that a lot of the stuff she was was either illogical, ignorant or just plain untrue. At the time, I thought this was due to her ignorance and it really motivated me to be different. I wanted to know more about the world and wanted to breakaway from that ghetto of mediocrity. I had ambitions; to become exposed, to experience other cultures, learn foreign languages, to visit other lands....to broaden my horizons. And I knew that I could only do this if I had an education.

That term at the end of SS2 (penultimate secondary school year in Nigeria), I woke up and promised myself that I'd do better the next year. And I did. I cleared my WASSCEs/NECOs and got a very good score in JAMB; enough to study geology at FUTA. And although I never went to university in Nigeria, this experience taught me that I had the power to dictate the direction of my life. Since then, my life's motto has become very similar to the sentiments that the English poet William Ernest Henley tries to convey in verses 1 & 4 of his poem Invictus.  I realised that I really am the master of my fate.