New Life, New Country, New Job

It has been a very long time since I last posted to this blog.  Years and years.  There is so much to catch you all up on, that is if you are still reading.

The long and the short of it is that my time in Bangladesh only last 2 academic years.  A multitude of reasons from safety, stress, professional growth and so on contributed to my looking for the next posting.  And after what seemed like a whirlwind of interviews and conversations, I took the job in the place that I'd never heard of knew least about: Ulm, Germany. 

I've been in Ulm, working as the social/emotional and university guidance counsellor for the past 2 academic years now and I'm very happy to say that I've signed on for a third year that hopefully turns into a fourth and fifth.  Going from Singapore to Bangladesh to Germany has been quite the ride and I've ever so grateful for all of it.  I've learned more about who I really am in the past five years than I thought was possible.  And, here in Germany, my creative self is starting to wake up again. I've recently gotten back into my art, to crocheting, and to writing.  It feels good to open that part of myself again when I felt afraid or too busy for such a long time.

Watch this space as I update you on all we have missed for the last few years.  I do want to share Bangladesh with all of you as it's such a special place to me for so many more reasons than why I felt like I had to leave it.  I also want to share my new romance with my new home.  To say I'm smitten with Germany would be an understatement.  I'm also thrilled to have had some wonderful travel opportunities as well as professional developments. 

See you soon with more!!

Japanese? In Dhaka?!

Yes, you read that right.  One of the other newbies and I had thought to get our meal from our favourite bakery (and I was out of the DELICIOUS granola they make) but it was closed.  So, off we went in search of a restaurant.  Our poor driver (Ashraf) had NO idea where the restaurant was and even resorted to shouting out the window for directions to a Japanese restaurant.

How did we know where to even look?  Thankfully my friend had the skinny on a great site for locating the best foods in the city (I love people who already source that stuff out for me).  So if you are ever in Dhaka (if you are ever in Dhaka... hahaha), make sure to check out Dhaka Snob when looking for something really delicious to fill your tummy.

Tonight, we went to a place in Gulshan 2 called Izumi.  In the middle of the chaos that is Dhaka:

we saw this:

This was actually from the inside but it was simply too pretty not to include.

The entrance

Looking to the left when entering

The entrance of Izumi

While we were instantly charmed by the entrance and the decor, we were even more impressed with the delicious food we ate (and we ate too much of it)!!

The beautiful, simple table setting.  The chopstick holder was made to look like edamame.

Baskets lined the ceiling.

Your standard soy container

The salmon sashimi and avocado salad (crazy good)

The vegetable tempura

About half of the kaarage (there was so much of it!!)

The tempura tuna and avocado roll

Sorry for the tilted picture, but this was our free miso soup at the end of the meal. 

Really and truly (and not just because I've had enough curry already), Izumi was one of the most pleasurable meals I've had.  The food was fresh and delicious.  Even the ginger was hand cut and pickled.  YUMMERS in my tummers is all I really have to say, that and I can't wait to go back!

When Fairytales Come True

When I was a little girl, I wanted to sleep in a princess bed. You know, the ones with the fancy curtains and gauzy netting all around. It didn't need to be pink (in fact, I hated pink back then) or gold or even very fancy, but it needed to have the pretty gauzy curtains. I held on to the romance of that childhood fantasy for years, right into my 30s. And now, as I'm about to turn 40, the fairytale bed has become my reality... Sort of:

But the romance of the bed is lost to the function of the gauze. It's there to keep the dengue filled Mosquitos from biting me in the wee hours of the dawn and making me sick. So, while I now have part of my childhood fairytale, there is none of the romance.  However, I'm more grateful for the practicality of the gauzy curtains than the romance or fantasy. So, thank you Dhaka for teaching me that practicality is a good thing! 

Driving SItes

Bangladesh is a colourful place with lots to look at when the monsoon rains aren't rearing their ugly heads.  I won't say that Dhaka is a beautiful city but there sure is beauty to be found there, as well as the quirky, and downright dangerous.

The other day driving home from school we saw monkeys on the road, cows grazing in a small paddock next to apartment buildings under construction as well as just on the road in general.  We also saw street dogs and cats as well as the odd goat along the roadside.  The most amazing site had to be the commuter train with people sitting on the top, on the outside!!!  What?!  Unfortunately, it was dark and my camera phone was buried in my purse.  I tried not to make that same mistake today as I rode to and from school.  Here are a few shots:

A type of rickshaw.  Apparently several students will come to school this way.

I was trying to get those big bales behind the man, they were on the back of a bicycle!!!

Beautiful sari'd ladies in the street this morning. 

The buses, people ride on top of these too!

An amusement park close to the school.  Don't worry, Mom, I have no intention of testing out those rides.

Colour Overload

So I've just been in Dhaka a few days and I've let the colours get me down rather than bring me up. Not the beautiful colours of the saris, or the amazing rickshaws:

Not even the bright colours in school (which I love), but the colours in my new place. They aren't my style and I've certainly obsessed about how much they aren't my style. I've let in get in the way of how gloriously big my new flat is and how nice it is to have a neighbour. I've let the colours I dislike rule some of my conversations with people I really like. And while I'd still like to paint over them, maybe my lesson to take away is that I choose how they make me feel. So I need to choose better, it's part of the process of living overseas.

Wall paper in the dining space

Corridor and dining/living room

Master bedroom

First Impressions: Dhaka

Always rushing to get in line to go nowhere fast. This is my first impression of Dhaka, at least at the airport. Once outside, your senses are assaulted with beeping horns and people chattering and rain falling. There isn't much to see in a monsoon but I did see lots of lush green trees everywhere. 

The heat doesn't seem too oppressive but that might be the three years in Singapore talking. The people are friendly and very interesting in getting to know who you are and what you are doing, which is as welcome a change as are their open, smiling faces.

No photos yet as I'm still jetlagged and stuck indoors with all the rain!

Hello Again

It's been nearly 3 years since I last produced a blog entry. Ever since I left Turkey behind and started my Singapore life, I put my blogs to the side and stopped writing. It wasn't as though Singapore wasn't interesting but somehow in my mind I felt it was too "vanilla" to be interesting to others. I also struggled my first year here with a debilitating back injury that ended up costing me over $10,000 in treatments etc, so it was fair to say that my feelings about Singapore ranged around bitter at best. 

But now as I prepare to leave, I deeply regret how little I shared of this adventure in my life. So over the summer holidays I'll be doing a bit of a catch-up series of the trips I've taken, the experiences I've had, and the people who've impacted my life.

So stay tuned!