A year today

hello Sydney...

one of them

time is flying

Hi everyone,

It is a year today that I landed in Sydney, packed with nothing more than 23kg.

How light it felt to sort of start from scratch but also how nervous I was to know that many things I would miss are far away. A year -- How can a year go by so fast is what I am asking myself.

I remember walking through the streets of Sydney, trying to make a new friend with this city which should be my new home. I would compare so many things to home, sometimes unconsciously sometimes pretty consciously....but I realized soon that it is not about to move the country, the habits you are used to into a new country but to understand what it is you loved and liked at home and to being able to miss that without making it hard for the new situation. And to try to be open to explore new things, be curious and appreciate new things and be happy when there is something new you start liking knowing it belongs to the life you are in at the moment.

The light here in Sydney is one of the things. It is extraordinary, I sometimes try to catch it with my camera but I think you are not really able to capture it. I have never experienced light like this before...sometimes on a Sunday morning when I go for my run through the Botanic Gardens I think how magical it is...and how lucky I am to enjoy all this here right now...

There are many things I started liking, e.g. the coffee, I seriously think I never ever had better coffee in my life like the one you can get here//Food, like veggies/fruits are in general so good here//the different sounds, like the laugh of the Kookaburra bird or the different trees, flowers, bushes and their smells//the Art Deco houses in our neighborhood .....and so many other small things

I have written many emails in the last year - sent letters & parcels, spoken into my computer, waved into the little camera of it ending up at a different screen somewhere in Europe...trying to be still part of the lives of friends and my family is a lot harder and much work and the time difference doesn't really make it easier. I needed to learn that I can't come by for a birthday brunch or just ride on my bike to a friends house to stay for dinner and have a good chat. And I miss this a lot.

I also miss Saturday mornings at my old apartment in Hamburg, giving personal birthday hugs, living in the same time zone, being a sister, daughter, friend and just being physically closer than I am at the moment...

How did the time go by so fast. Do you know - I hope you liked the moments of my last year I shared here with you. Thanks for coming by.

Maria