Ich bin endlich dreißigjährig!

 Hallo zusammen, 

ich bin endlich dreißigjährig! I am finally thirty years old! People change in many ways, and I do not want to be one of those people who write about their New Year's resolution and what they have achieved. It always seemed a bit pretentious to me, and a bit show-offy. Perhaps I feel this way because I dislike the way it made my achievements seem insignificant. 

Maybe it would be better if people started writing it in a different way. For example, start writing about something new that they start doing that year, and how that makes them feel, without any mention of goals or future expectations. Because we all know how expectations can feel like a stack of bricks on your shoulder. And then you feel like you have to report the progress on your social media, and when you do not achieve the goals, you start to feel horrible. 

Anyhow, I will try this myself, and hopefully, this does not make anyone feel less than who they are. 

I really like how I have changed throughout the year. First, I started learning how to make different types of salads this summer, and I am loving it! I learned that salads are the best meal to have when it's warm and dry outside. My roommate, Victoria, taught me how to do a simple salad dressing with orange-mustard and sweet-orange vinegar, and the rest is history. I know go to a special store, where they sell various flavoured mustards, vinegars, matcha, and tea.

Pasta salad and bruschetta

Received compliments for my salad from my German friends

Which brings me to my next point. I start drinking tea, and I mean, lots of tea. I think it started with me visiting my Oma, who has various Kräutertee (infused herb tea), and Rooibostee (made primarily from the red bush plants from Africa). They became a more preferable option for me, who wants to reduce their Kaffein intake. I drink Kräutertee, like Rose or Chamomile tea, mostly at night, before bedtime. In the afternoon, I prefer Rooibostee, which for me, tastes sweet and nutty even without sugar, and sometimes I mix it with Früchtertee (fruit tea). 

My Oma and her quaint house and great cooking!

I am slowly moving away from caffeinated black and green tea, which was a bit hard to do because I really loved drinking sweet black tea. For me, nothing beats drinking sweet jasmine tea, which reminds me of home, or earl grey with milk and brown sugar, which was a great caffeinated kick in the afternoon at work. I also discovered the milky oolong this year, which originates from Taiwan (I think), and it has this milky, flowery, soothing flavour, but still contains caffeine since it is under the green tea category. 

Third, I also started to be more serious in learning German. As I continue learning at the B1 level, I also wondered what makes learning a language effective. It seems that you have to have the need to express yourself all the time, in a language other than what you know. It is actually a problem for me, who sometimes struggles to express things. But for me, having a German flatmate really helps a lot in this regard, especially one who is as nice as Victoria. With her, I can try to speak German freely without fear of making mistakes. Even if I did make mistakes, she corrects me in a way that does not discourage me. 

My husband is also motivating me in learning more German, because I see him all the time during video calls, studying for the Japanese N3 test. 

Asian salad

Lastly, I also started to watch Dota 2 games with my husband, which I find very interesting. I thought it was just another multiplayer online battle games like LoL, but Dota has an extra layer to it: the objectives. Things can go really well in early game, but there is always a risk that you throw the game away in mid or late game. So there needs to be a consistency in team fights, and also control over the battleground. In addition, there are thousands of way you can combine heroes and roles, which also adds another layer to its complexity. In the pro-scene, this seems all the more admirable because the players need to have the endurance to play for hours back-to-back games. 

Look how invested I am in it now. But there's no going back for me, and I might even learn how to play it (after finishing my PhD of course). 

There is still so much room for me to grow coming into this newfound decade. Who know how I will change in the future, I might learn to bake sourdough, or make my own matcha, which seems to be what everyone is doing right now, or I might do something entirely different. Whatever it will be, I hope it will change me for good. 

Cheers, 

Rifa