The older I get, the less keen I am on writing. Since I left academia, my writing skill seems going downhill. So, at least I‘d like to keep this habit once a year. Better than nothing, I guess. While last day of the year is a good time for a reflection and putting them into words, so here I’m, writing the highlights and lowlights of 2022 while waiting for fireworks, if there‘s any (and if I‘m not falling asleep 😴).
I started 2022 with some hopes that life returned to a real normal as close as before pandemic. One particular wish I had personally for new year is a new job. Nothing was wrong with my previous job, I just simply wanted a new challenge after… 1.5 years 😬. Since I finished my PhD, I always dreamed of working for an automotive industry. In December, I applied to Volkswagen which then I got a call from Wolfsburg which I missed since I was swimming 😆 and later got invited for the first interview and then the second interview both in January until I was granted an offer. I was so excited. Bernd was supportive as always. On the other hand, thinking about again frequent traveling between DE and AT already made me tired.
A second challenge I set up for myself was running a half marathon. I was not sure whether Vienna City Marathon would be happening this year (there’s no light at the end of the tunnel about Covid at that time), but I decided to sign up for it. The next 2.5 months, I trained my self: running 3-5 times a week. I ran when the weather was nice and sunny, I ran when the weather was shitty and rainy, I ran when it‘s snowy, I ran when the temperature below 0 deg C (my body was sweating, but my fingers felt numb, it also felt weird running using ski gloves). On the weekends, I ran in the morning, on the weekdays, I ran during lunch break (because in winter, that‘s the only time when I didn’t work and there‘s still „sun“ outside). Looking back, I did enjoy my training journey, just I had limited possibilities to do other kind of sports. I still managed to go skiing with Mba Ika in Kärnten though.
Talking about skiing, my third challenge: skiing faster, less braking, and more flows. So, before winter was over, while I had enough holidays to spend from the previous year, we went for a week ski holiday in Schladming. I practiced every single day signed for a day course which helped me optimize some basic techniques (Bernd actually already told me those several times, just I never listened). I managed a black slope which was a quite an achievement. A very much like an old snail, but at least I didn’t fall.
Although I submitted my resignation letter already in February, I still had to work for another 3 months. Life started to get a bit normal. On-site meeting took place which was nice to meet colleagues live before leaving, both from internal and external. My half marathon was approaching. I was quite disciplined in the first two months, but the last two weeks before the D-day, I skipped some which was bad and led to my poor performance. It’s my first 21k run after all. I got nervous at the beginning, thinking “what the hell I was doing” in the middle, super super happy at the end when I reached the finish line. Ulfah and Rasmi have been supporting with their cheers and sweets. We celebrated afterwards at one of our favorite Asian Restaurants in Karlplatz.
It‘s a transition time between my old job to a new job. I didn’t want to go back home for Eid in this transition time, but I somehow missed Indonesian foods, so I took a train from Cologne to Amsterdam and met Amank there. On my last working day, my colleagues and my boss prepared a small surprise farewell party for me which was sweet.
For a new job, I needed to find a new place near Salzgitter. I decided to have a shared flat in Braunschweig. Also, a car to commute to Salzgitter as no public transport is available (ckckck). By the way, my fourth challenge for me was driving outside Austria and somehow universe set it up perfectly for me. Now I feel more confident to drive almost everywhere.
I started my job, got to know many new colleagues, even found some new friends and swimming buddies. Unlike my previous jobs, I felt less nervous and somehow I took it easy. What I liked about it is having flexibility and mobile work possibility.
After almost a month away, I could enjoy summer at home. For our anniversary and Bernd‘s birthday, I baked a Black Forest cake as his favorite one. It‘s by far the most complicated cake I have ever made and I was quite proud of myself 😊. I reunited with Ai in Vienna after… 6 years.
I learned at the company that they have so called „Werkurlaub“ where all employees „must“ go for 3 week holidays. When I first heard it, I was like “what the heck?”. I negotiated that I could take 1 week since I didn’t plan anything in August and I‘d like to save some holidays for winter. Nevertheless, Croatia would be a perfect destination as I’d like to spend summer by the sea and no flying was required (I had enough carbon footprints from my frequent flights!). We visited Plitvice National Park and Krka National Park for gorgeous waterfalls and lakes. I was also driving from Zadar to Split. Everyday we were swimming in the Adriatic Sea. If God created a swimming pool, that would be it. Clean beach, crystal clear water, gorgeous sunset, beautiful.
By the way, Croatia is the 43rd country I have visited and I would love to go there again.
I had a surgery (Laparoscopy to be exact). I was nervous, even though I already knew that I had to do it since two years ago. Let alone the surgery, I have never been so sick in my life that I had to go to hospital. I didn’t tell my parents at home until D-1.After the surgery, I couldn’t barely walk for almost two weeks. At the same time, my workloads got heavy as some colleagues were leaving. I liked the project I was in charge of, so I didn’t want to screw it up. I worked from home under painkillers and only took 3 days off while I was hospitalized.
My workload didn’t get less. So many meetings, so many things to be done. A new day, a new chaos 😆. Sometimes at night, I had no left energy doing anything else other than sleeping. At the same time, I was not capable doing any sport anyway. At least I am still into reading (this year I finished 25.5 books).
By the end of October, Bernd has a month assignment near Naples, so I took almost two weeks off to visit this region. It’s my 7th visit in Italy but I was super excited to go there and took a break from work.
We ate many pizzas, went for road trips to Amalfi coast, visited Pompeii, hiked Mount Vesuvius (glad that I survived). Naples is the birthplace of Pizza, so I thought why not signing up for a Pizza making course? And I did it.
Good food, good coffee, mild weather, oh man, I didn’t want to go back to gloomy and cold North. Ah, we visited Matera at last, such a gorgeous and impressive old town.
It’s usually the most hectic month of the year. But this time, it’s been reasonable. Less meetings towards Christmas, at least. As always, we celebrated birthday and Christmas at Bernd’s parents.
We got PV system installed at home and they finally started working. Our garden is however still a mess. My parents promised to help me with that next year 😜.
Well, since two weeks I decided to slowly train my stamina again. I started with swimming (oh God, I missed swimming so badly), doing Zumba at home, and even back to Alps for hiking and skiing!
We just came back from Obertauern yesterday night (I did crying there on the mountains because it was so magnificent!). By the way, while skiing, sometimes you go up and most of the time slide down. When suddenly a steep slope is ahead of you, you feel nervous and stressed which is normal especially when you’re a beginner. The bad news about skiing is, there’s hardly any chance for turning back. Once you’re up there on the slope, you can’t simply “oh man, I give up now”. It’s almost impossible. You can rest for a while and take a breath, but you have to go on (otherwise you would be stuck there in the middle forever). When you‘re loosing control, you might fall and hurt like hell. And that’s okay, you get up again, and continue. That’s pretty much life. That’s pretty much my 2022, challenging but also fun.
Einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr!
Vienna, 31. December 2022
