Old memories

Sometimes I read old things. Old blogs. Old facebook statuses. Old messages. Old emails. Sometimes I go through old pictures.
And I realize how awesome my life is, despite all the drama I bring in. And I realize I have some amazing people around myself. And I realize that some people got lost. For good? For bad? Will they come back? Who knows.

I like reading these things. Looking at old pictures. And going back in time. In these good times we had. Then I come back to the real life and realize how lucky I am to have everything I have.

And this is one of the old things I found. From almost 4 years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5HXKAmnHkA&feature=related

So, when are you coming home?

This is one of the questions I sometimes get from my friends in Slovenia. And, even though that I know to what they are referring to, I am still a bit confused. Home. What exactly is home? I guess there are plenty of definitions and each individual probably has its own, unique perception. Yeah, Slovenia is my home, but it is only one of them. Since I moved to Switzerland, it also became my home and I have to admit Australia was my home as well while I was living there. I can also imagine that a place where I will move after my PhD will be my home too.

When people ask me where I am from, I always pause a bit. And then I say I am from Slovenia, but I live in Switzerland. And when we compare general living, how school system works, how public system is organized etc., I probably try to include both countries into this. I guess, Zurich is becoming my city and it is normal this way. I am getting friends here, I know my way around, I can find something to do on rainy Saturday morning. Though there are still times when I miss my friends home, the comfort of my mum's food and my old room. And when I am explaining to people where I come from, I tell them how beautiful both countries are and many of my friends have since been in Slovenia and Switzerland and have just been amazed by everything that they have to offer.

So, what is home? I found this magnet: Home is whenever I am with you. Home is where the heart is and heart is big enough to have many, many homes. :)

Our flat

After living in Switzerland for over a year, we finally decided to move in together. It took us over 3 months to find something. We did not like everything we have seen, but it also happened many times our request was returned back to us. I guess there were better applicants or they were just looking for someone different. There needs to be someone better when over a hundred people are applying for the same place.

But then, we finally got it. Completely renovated and a bit over our budget. But it is ours. There will be no more phone calls where we meet tonight. There will be no more mine and yours. No more going from one place to another to pick up something we need. No more double shampoos, razors and other bathroom equipment. Now everything is together.

After moving for almost a week and being very, very, VERY grateful to all of our friends to come and help us with the move, the majority of the things are moved. There are still boxes everywhere and we still haven't found the swimming suits. The bed is put together and the wardrobe has already accommodated our enormous amount of clothes (this is what happens when you put clothes from two places together). The amount of the glasses in the cupboards increased and now we have two coffee machines. We found out that the floors are a bit tilted and there are ants coming from somewhere. And every night you go to the toilet, you bump into at least one of the boxes on the way.

But ... It is our first flat and we love it.

Discussion

We have been watching yesterday The Hunger Games, second part. And it doesn’t matter how good or bad it is, it did start a debate between us afterwards that people are not guilty to be born where there are. I guess we are sometimes not aware how happy we are to be born here. To have the opportunity to get good education, to be able to travel, to have an access to as much food and water as we want, to be able to go a doctor when it is needed … We could discuss that as recently these things are changing even in Slovenia where we are having many kids that cannot afford food, that are often hungry and that have parents that would like to work, but they can’t. However, I don’t want to go into this debate. In general we should still be happy for what we have and try to understand that there are people around the world that don’t have the access to everything we have. I am nowadays looking back to my upraising and am now aware how lucky I am to be born where I was. That my parents always supported me, that studying was my only obligation during my school year, that I was always supported to travel, to meet new people and new cultures. To always have something to eat and to be able to go to a doctor when I got sick.
And yeah, even though that sometimes things are hard in life, we still should be happy for what we have. And maybe give something back to the society when we can.

Sick (in Science)

Since I am employed, I am probably sick a bit more than I used to be. I guess this is the only way that I slow down and rest. Usually I am good after a day in bed and then I am prepared to work a 100% again.

However, this was not the case this time. I came home on Tuesday at 8 in the evening after feeling bad the whole day already. I just managed to get into the bed and measure the temperature: I had over 39 degrees, not sure when this happened the last time. I was not aware of myself nor anything around me and I was never more grateful for having Mischa around to take care of me. The next two days I spent in bed, mostly sleeping. Knowing that I will not be back at work before next week, I knew my experiments were ruined. One was probably saved by my coworker that was kind enough to take over my cells (besides already taking care of my students). The other one will be trashed tomorrow as I cannot save it anymore. One month of work and I don't want to think about the money that was wasted in a few days. It was not a month that has taken my full time to work on it, but it does mean I need to start from the beginning which means that I will not have the results for one more month. Ah ... Sometimes I wish our work could be halted. ;)

However, it was nice at home. It was nice to sleep and watch series. But I am also looking forward to being completely recovered. To go back to work. To go running. To go climbing. And to finally have some social interaction again (besides the one through the message where I was offered help: thanks Klara, I appreciate it).

New Zealand

We have been dreaming about New Zealand since we met in Australia, but there we barely had enough time to explore that country. So New Zealand had to wait. At the end of the first year of my PhD we finally had enough time and money to go. In the beginning of December we left the fresh snow in Zurich and started our trip with 30 hours on the plane. We did`t have much plans: landing in Auckland, leaving from Christchurch and in between ... Who knows. Renting a van that will be our home for one month and just enjoy the life.

After 11 months of work and barely no holidays it was so good to put my thought on off. I have been so happy when a friend of my mum picked us up at the airport and took us directly to the beach. I fell in love with this country immediately. With its mountains. Awesome people. Closeness. Thousands of cows and sheep. Easiness of travel. The ability to do so many things ...

We have traveled from north to south. Having 35 days, we thought we will have enough time to see everything, but we couldn`t be more wrong. We have done over 6000 km in this time, but we had left a fair bit of things to see next time. We enjoyed in the nature and amazing food. We did a fair bit of the adventure sports that New Zealand has to offer: rafting over the highest commercially raftable waterfall, blackwater rafting, surfing, skydiving (ok, only Mischa did that), ice climbing ... I was really happy that I took my running shoes with me when I woke up early in the morning and went for a run before breakfast. Especially after finding the best running spot around an old volcano next to the sea in Mount Maunganui. Since the pictures tell more than a hundred words, I will share this with you: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151945800514001.1073741827.595374000&type=1&l=bea26bcbba and finish with my blabbing.