The Wrap Up
It’s been a year… again! Welcome back to another season of Leni reviving this blogosphere. It’s been ages, as you can guess since I wanted to write down my thoughts in concrete blocks of paragraphs (battling with coherence with my head) but a long list of excuses got the better of me. Today, however, I decided it’s now or never, without any concrete direction to where this is heading, we’ll just have to see where this goes.
I thought that, maybe, a good way (sure, not the best, but the acceptable way) is to do a quick wrap up and we shall take it from there!
The last entry was about the job search journey. A year after that odyssey, I resigned from my job. A big leap from where I left off, huh? But I’m getting ahead of myself, and that’s a story for another day.
Dear reader, let me present to you a quick wrap-up of highlights from the last happenings since May 2021.
Skyline of La Défense viewed from Avenue des Champs Élysées
May 2021: I started a new job!
The first job I got in France was my first permanent position. It started well, it paid well and it went well. Until July of the same year, I was under probation (as most new hires here). Ultimately, my probationary status was validated and so I stayed the entire year.
I felt empowered and back on my feet once again. I felt in control of my life for a while. This is not to say that there weren’t any struggles. Keep reading and you’ll get a glimpse.
June 2021: Trip to Lille
A much-needed break from work. What, already? Yes, the bro-in-law invited the entire family for a weekend up north. It would be our second time visiting, this time during a much better and kinder season - summer. We visited different parts of the city and a zoo, had meals, sang, and played - some quality time as a family.
July 2021: Trip to Rouen
And again a much-needed break from work. Yes, again! By this time, I was looking forward to spending weekends outside of Paris. Work’s great, but with life mostly spend underground, it’s starting to get on my nerves. My commute is 50 minutes long, and while it’s a smooth ride (for the most part), it’s a depressing one. All in all, I spend a minimum of 100 minutes of my 24 hours underground. Not complaining, just a simple fact.
In July, I get to go back to Normandy for a weekend, where I spent two years of my adult life pursuing my Master’s degree (see entries on Life Abroad > Rouenderland). It was the first time in six months that I felt with myself again. It’s like I reunited with myself! At least, that’s the best I can put to words how it felt emerging from the train station, Gare Rouen-Rive Droite. It was refreshing to see something familiar, something which is known to me, as I struggle to get acquainted with my new environment and new life in Paris.
August 2021: Summer Break Trip to Vilnius & Malaga, and a solo weekend trip on a boat
Any excuses I can legitimately make to get out of Paris, I will use. While I’m grateful for my life in my host city, I looked forward to every opportunity I can grab my hands on to make a trip away from Paris. For the two-week school break, I spent five days of which in Vilnius with B & to reunite with D, and four days in Malaga to get together with my longtime friends D & K. By some miracle, I hope I get to dive deeper into those trips on a separate entry!
I also spent a desperately desired alone time on a boat along the Seine River, just 15 minutes outside of Paris! Surprise, surprise - I was able to actually sit down and tie together a video of that weekend, one of the lasts one I was able to make time for.
September 2021: Back to Pixie
With a new season coming and all these refreshing moments I’ve shared with family, friends and myself, I felt that a radical haircut might just be the way I can express that confidence rebuilt in me. From there, everything was a blur. I can’t remember much of what happened from when I resumed work, which brings me to say that for the next month…
October 2021: Work
Life passed me by and I get a taste of what the French would call metro, boulot, dodo - a three-word rhyme that translates to subway rides, work and sleep. I did get to attend a graduation ceremony in the Philharmonie Paris in the 19th district. I honestly and unfortunately have never heard about it, but I’m given to understand that it’s not somewhere you can get into just as easily. So for that, and if only for that, I’m going to hand that to October to give it a little sparkle. In retrospect, I don’t mind that October was a little flat. It was a welcome change. Huh. Or none-change, for what was to come next.
November 2021: Moving in
In late October, the turnover date of the apartment the Husband bought in 2016 was finally announced. Over the next days, we quickly whipped multiple spreadsheets and designed a sprint that would help guide us for when we moved in in November. It was a period of decision fatigue, loads of arguments but also a time of extremes - a really confusing time. We humbly celebrated our first wedding anniversary over generous pots of moules frites (fries & mussels) delivered to our old Parisian home. This same month, we also finally settled the dispute with my name in the French records, and consequently, filed for marriage in the Philippines. Fun fact: the first wedding anniversary in France is often referred to as the cotton anniversary!
December 2021: Furnishing home
The decision fatigue saga goes on, together with delivery anticipation (failed, rescheduled and successful). After weeks of eating and working on the floor or on a less-comfortable set-up and daily commute in three different places, we have received most of the essential furniture, enough for us to say thank you and goodbye to our Parisian home for a year. The better half of the month was spent again away from Paris at B’s folks’ place in the countryside, and so was a pleasing break from the year that was.
January 2022: Destination wedding - Denmark
Not our wedding, but a friend’s - an intimate one at the city hall of Copenhagen. It was short but really sweet and romantic (compared to my French wedding which was simply administrative in nature)! By a sweet coincidence, my longtime friends D & K were also in Copenhagen so I get to celebrate my 31st birthday with a couple of my favourite people! B and I had flown out of Paris the morning of my birthday and even though this day is not a big deal, I didn’t want to spoil it either. Except that I was missing so much love from home, and the airport officer almost didn’t want to get me on the plane! Long story short, I got on the flight.
February 2022: Podcast feature
Krizelle, a friend from grade school, contacted me months before to guest on her growing podcast - The Greener Side. Of course, I indulged her request! The episode on my take about migrating to France was scheduled to be released in February. Come listen here. She also features many other countries from different profiles. My particular take was about student visas.
March 2022: Took on therapy
I will spare you, dear reader, the gruesome details but if you still didn’t get a hint that migrating for me was not all roses, well, this is me telling you face to face that it wasn’t. I had two very significant meltdowns when I came to my senses that I needed help. I started my session in March after one major breakdown and it has been going well. I’m still going to weekly therapies as of writing and I am in a much, much better place now! No shame.
April 2022: Attending a concert
B took a leap of faith in April 2021 and booked seats for the Hans Zimmer concert a year later, despite the pandemic that never seem to go extinct. It just kept dragging on month after month and two years in, with restrictions slowly being lifted, we were able to enjoy a very crowded but entertaining concert by Hans Zimmer. I kept my mask on the entire time.
May 2022: Voted for the Philippine elections, went home
What a lovely way to cap off this wrap-up by telling you that for the first time in my life, I did my privilege and duty to vote. The results of the 2022 Philippine elections were a major disappointment from which I am still recovering. Therapy helps - and now I have a different reason to go through therapy. But I am proud of my vote and I am even prouder to say that the choices made were for the Filipino people. I am part of the quieter ones, but I stand proudly by my choices.
I hesitantly came home to the Philippines (still because of the election results) but I knew I needed to go back to my roots, my home. Two weeks had gone by so fast: paperwork, mini family reunions, spontaneous dates with friends, seeing longtime friends get married (finally!), meeting newborn babies of friends, island hopping… Two weeks will never be enough to fill the void that uprooting has left since I decide to leave home. But I go back to my Host country with my love tank fuller than ever… as full as my Aunts’ grocery haul in my 30-kg suitcase!
If you made it to this point, reader, thank you. I have not had my thoughts heard/read/understood for a long, long time. One year can breeze through so fast, but also, now that I look back and as I wrestle to find the words to finish my thoughts, I’m thinking, gosh, I have an entire year to catch up! Seems like so much work, but I’m happy to finally have time and this space to safely house them. Thank you for skimming through the year that has been for Leni on the Road. Drop me your kind thoughts below? Not that you care about what has happened to me the entire year but did any of the things I mentioned spark feelings or ideas in you?