Life updates: catching up

I feel like I have a lot to update you as work has taken over my time and mental space lately. I am almost up-to-date with work thanks to working on weekend (more below).

The girls started a new swimming club since school swim training has ended. This is supposedly to be the best swimming team in Indonesia, run by two olympians brothers. The pool is 50 meters long, which the girls are getting used to it. During June and July, they’ll train 4 times a week there.

Sofia’s moving on ceremony was lovely. Tears were shed from me seeing her becoming this beautiful person, diligent, responsible, kind, and driven. She’s moving to middle school, another campus, next school year, where she has her swim training. Lizzy will stay in her current school which is walking distance to home. I really like the middle school principal speech. They said the middle schoolers have 3 priorities: try everything, do your best, be kind. LOVE IT!!!

Husband and I had our annual check up on Thursday. It took 5 hours as it’s very comprehensive. The place is so well run, like a 5 star hotel.

when we were 90% done, we had breakfast. How cool is that that the hospital provides you with food after you break your fast

my plate: chicken corn soup, chicken dumplings, veg

Sofia got another medal, highest score in math Olympia, Cookie looks so good with it.

I’ve been feeling behind with a project, a research paper that I am invited to present in DC in July. Due to my work load, I haven’t had the time to work on it. The date of the talk is approaching and I haven’t done anything. This feeling of not ready, not knowing what I’ll say, was causing me anxiety and stress. So I decided to go to office and work on it on Saturday. I’m the type of person that NEVER works on weekend. Many of my team members wrote on my feedback that I model work like balance. But sometimes you got do what you got do to get it done and stop feeling anxiety about it.

I spent 5 hours in the office of very productive focus time, allowing me to advance a lot and left feeling less anxious about it. Something even better happened! I felt that I am having so much fun. My daily job doesn’t require much intellectual effort (I’m being honest), so when doing academic research, I feel like I’m resuscitating my dormant brain cells. I can’t and don’t want to stop thinking about the new ideas that are popping up. Even when I woke up at 3am, I had an idea that I want to try next. Oh… that’s what my 5 years in grad school was about… obsession about my research. hahaha…. fortunately I don’t need to do that for my job anymore, but it’s fun to be remember what was like.

When working on a weekend doesn’t feel a drag….. it’s a sign I’m into something good.

Girls had a fun day at water park with their friends, which left me less worried about them when I was working, one of the main reasons I don’t want to work on weekend. When I got home, they came back and continued to play as Sofia’s friend is staying for a sleepover. This friend is leaving the next day to her mom’s next assignment, Maputo, very very far.

Sunday: I had the most amazing 18 miles run! Out of this world! It felt so easy after 10 miles that I could have kept going. When I stopped, I was covered in salt (heavy salt sweater), and feeling the post run euphoria.

I walked about the food stands

Got Sofia’s favorite Indonesia snack, a rice flour based sweet

I also got one of my favorite local dish, kind of like gado dado, boiled vegetables with some protein topping and peanut butter sauce

they had tempeh, tofu, fried veggie, egg, and cow lung (sigh..)

I took my time to shower and breakfast, done by 10:30am only. Meanwhile Sofia continued to hang out with her friend. by 12pm, her friend had to leave, so I took few pics of them before her departure. Sofia is sad but again she’s so wise and said: The person that stays is sad, the person that is leaving is scared. She’s been in both roles, so she knows. Fortunately no tears as both girls are matured. They will keep in touch and it’s likely we will see each other again as her mom and I work in the same organization.

Lizzy also had her playdate with her best friend who’s also leaving on Sunday evening, to Jordan. They played for 4 hours before the girl had to leave. Lizzy said she’s sad but no tears fortunately. I’m not sure we will see her again as her mom is not my colleague.

I admire my girls as they really played until the best last minute with their friends despite knowing they may not see each other ever again. I’m not sure I could do that without falling apart. Maybe because they’ve known from day 1 that this expat life means they wont’ be able to have long lasting friendship. Maybe because they know life is short and we got live every minute of it because we never know what will happen next anyway.

I was debating whether to go to work in the office or not and decided to stay at home as I wanted to be there when their friends leave. I didn’t have to comfort them but really glad to be there to see how they treat and enjoy their friends.

Magically I still managed to work on my project for 3 hours before dinner. Time flies when one has fun, right?

A great and memorable weekend. Despite having worked both days and run 24 miles, I feel super recharged for the week ahead.