Sittin' on the dock of the bay

Sitting in the morning sun
Sitting till evening comes..

(Essentially my last four weeks in the Maldives).

Maldives.

All said and done, I'm going to miss you.

33.

That's the amount of days I spent working here as an intern at Sales and Marketing.

That's 792 hours I spent with new people, learning new things, experiencing new things  (yes, I know cliche, deal with it).

It's been... an experience.

I started this post a few days back when I was "working" on press releases.**

And a few days ago I wasn't feeling all that positive about this place. I've learned that on this 6km island your emotions escalate tenfold.

But hey.

It's cool.

Alls well that ends well. (That's what they say right? Or not. What?)

Fast forward a few days from that day and I'm back home in Delhi with my bearded vampire dog.

To continue.

I'll start with the work itself.

Every day I'd roll into work with that Rihanna song stuck in my head. You know the one. The one that goes like "workworkworkworkworkworkworkwork." I think there are some other words as well. Possibly. I do not know.

I'd roll into work, see everyone's incredibly excited (read: slightly dusty) faces and just keep on keepin' on.

We'd have our morning meetings which were... interesting. Who knew worm farming was a thing?

My work consisted of press releases (which I have to admit are some of the best things I've ever written. Yes. I can be that vain. And I'm okay with it), market research, making itineraries and. I don't know. A whole bunch of other stuff.

OH.

One day I did an actual intern thing and carried coffee down the hall.

Halfway.

Fine.

A quarter of the way.

My favorite part of the job was when I got to tour the island looking for "inspiration."

Actually. Am I even allowed to say any of this?

Essentially I ate tiramisu and ice cream my last few days.

The island itself was of course beautiful. It's true what they say, I lived in paradise for a month. There aren't many places in the world where you can walk five minutes and just see this:

Morning runs were made a hell of a lot better. Walking down to Fanditha after work to see the sunset was actually a huge highlight. Followed by the fact that we drank a couple of bottles of cava at 7:30pm because we deserved it after walking so much.

And what made it even better is that the next day we went snorkeling with the turtles. In hindsight, we probably should have relaxed on the cava.

But hey.

It's fine.

No worries.

No turtles or fish were harmed in the snorkeling.

My work crew made the month essentially. I can't thank my team enough for everything they have done for me the past few weeks.

And again, I apologize for distracting you guys in the office.

Actually.

No.

I'm not sorry.

I'm an absolute pleasure to have around.

Guys, don't be strangers when you come to Europe, London or Germany, I'll be there.

As for the rest of the Cheers crew: wherever I am in the world, you're always more than welcome.

What was meant to be my "most healthy month ever" turned into "well, there's always next month."

Don't judge. It's not like you'd be able to pass up tempura shrimp. Or burgers. Or fries. Or food.

Food.

So.

To sum everything up:

I had a horrendous time and I never want to go back.

(This is a joke. I genuinely had a good time.)

Goodnight Maldives.

You've taken me on a hell of a ride.

**To any future employers who may read this, I am a very hard working person. Please hire me.

Good grief (part two)

I forgot how difficult this whole writing thing actually is.

I mean how do people do this on a daily basis. I can hardly complete three sentences without taking an unnecessary Facebook stalk break. Or I look up tricks I can teach my dog who ultimately just stares at me as if I'm insane to think a 14-year-old dog would want to learn something new.

No he wasn't having it

So we're in Delhi. Sofie came and for the first two days she was here we sat at the pool. But can you really call it a pool when its regular temperature hovers around 34 degrees celsius?

And then we left for Sikkim!

First things first: drive up a ridiculously long winding road guaranteed to make anyone feel carsick.

Lucky for me the roads were so creepy and steep that I completely forgot how horrible I was feeling!

Not to mention the Indian obsession with overtaking people.

Alright the anti-sick pills may have helped.

A lot.

We arrived in Gangtok about five hours later to this:

Sofie and I were super cool and went to bed at 9pm.

Next day we get a wonderful wake up call at 7am.

Because we only needed to wake up at 8am.

Because we were only leaving at 10am.

So makes sense.

7. AM.

We visited monasteries:

And dogs.

And football! Who knew Sikkim was so into football?

Now this is how you're supposed to play.

I need this view.

So for lunch that day, Sofie and I ate momos (Indian dumplings).

And that was the last time Sofie and I ate momos.

Ever.

Yup. You guessed it.

We got......... food poisoning!

And it was absolutely horrible!

So. A day later. When we finally could. We ate a lot of bread. And bananas.

There are few things better than butter and bread.

At least the view was nice.

Note to self: I may be Indian, but my stomach is not.

The next day we drove to Namchi where we saw the tea plantations, a gigantic Buddha and a gigantic Shiva (who isn't a woman?! Who knew? Actually everyone probably knew that. But it's fine.)

Tea. 

Gigantic Buddha.

Gigantic Shiva.

After Namchi we went to Pelling which is located at about 2500m above sea-level.

So. We arrive at the hotel and we can't find anyone. Turns out the receptionist fell asleep on the sofa, nicely hidden from view.

We check in and go to our room.

No wi-fi, no English language TV.

What were we going to do with our lives.

Sleep. We slept. A lot. Kind of.

We woke up to the lovely sounds of a cow moo-ing at 6 in the morning.

6. AM.

But hey. We also woke up to this:

This is the Kanchenjunga mountain range, the mountain itself is the third highest in the world. Behind it is Nepal.

Oh I forgot to mention that we were landlocked between China, Nepal and Bhutan for the duration of our stay. Which means that if we could actually eat we'd have been able to eat really good Chinese food.

But. Again.

Stomach =/= Indian.

While in Pelling we saw this, this and this:

It's safe to say we had amazing views all around.

We had a fairly interesting trip.

Whatever mountain range I visit next, it will have a lot to live up to. Even with its (fine my) dietary struggles, it was a trip not easily forgotten.

Sofie and I got back to Delhi and while Sofie was off discovering Delhi I did nothing.

Well. No not nothing. But close enough.

I saw a monkey so you know theres that.

Oh! But we had a visitor!

We had a mini six-year high school reunion!

Shenil visited us in Delhi for the weekend! It was really fun and anybody who didn't come (Shonit) missed out cause it was fun (Shonit).

Thanks for visiting Shenil! I'll make it down to Mumbai soon.

I'm not quite sure what else to post to be honest.

So.

I guess.

Um.

Well.

Now this is awkward.

I''ll just end with this:

Good Grief (part one)

GUESS WHO'S BACK

(In Delhi.)

Originally I was going to do a rundown of the last six months in one post, but Sofie (one of my two loyal readers) pointed out that that was not a good idea.

Because.

Well.

No one has the patience for that.

So. Fine. 


I think I left off somewhere after the Maldives, when I was going to return back to Belgium.

Have to admit. I was not happy about returning.

I liked my little Delhi bubble. My bubble was nice. Nice little bubble.

Luckily, these two were there upon my return.

And then these two were there.

And because, I of course can't stay longer than two weeks in one place, about three days after I returned I booked flights to Berlin. 

Because. 

Why not. 

And because I can, I convinced Riana and Karyna to come as well.

No. 

We didn't have any work to do for class.

No. 

Shush. 

I can sum up Berlin in about 3 words. 

1. Shots.

2. Barman.

3. Free walking tour. 

(Yes. I know. That's technically 6.) 

GUYS

I mean don't get me wrong, we saw tourist stuff. 

You know. 

Like that square. 

And that thing in that place with those people. 

Oh and that other thing!**

Anyway. We returned. 

And then these guys were there! 

Cause a little BSB reunion can't hurt (even if its three Fridays in a row.) 

Well. And then I went back to Delhi. 

To see my old squishy beard face. 

(You'd think I'd go for my parents. But. Dog.)

(No, I'm joking.)

(Really, I went for the food.)***

To be honest, I needed to be back in Delhi those two weeks. Delhi may be one of the most chaotic places I've been to, but it's a calming chaos. That no matter what happens everything somehow seems to work out here  (I should be a motivational speaker). 

When I went back to Belgium someone came to visit. 

Someone whose joke book I'm still waiting for. 

Someone. Whose name is. 

Fabby!

I think we had a good weekend no? Watching ridiculously horrible movies but those noodles. Wow. Noodles. Yes. Noodles.  

Thanks for coming! I'll be in your neck of the woods around September. So. Just you know. Be ready. 

And then. Then we went to a ball organized by my faculty, of which the one picture they took was quite horrendous.

And subsequently I do not have permission to post it. 

I mean it's really not that bad guys. Can I really not post it here?

Fine. I won't. 

The weeks following were pretty standard actually.

What did we do.

Well. We had a barbecue. 

It's a dog wearing sunglasses.

She's WEARING sunglasses. Also, her name is Cat. 

We went swimming in a lake. (No catfish present)

Had another barbecue. 

(Imagine bbq picture here)

Okay to be honest, those barbecues mostly happened because Riana and I wanted to see the dogs. 

Don't get me wrong, people are nice, but. Dogs.  

Anyway. At this point we're at exams. And we've come full circle. 

It was wonderful. Exams are great. They're the best. 

Especially that horrendous Dutch exam. It was that type of exam where the teacher would explicitly say "no this won't be on the exam" and then proceed to put exactly that one thing on the exam. 

And I mean explicitly. 

Anywho. 

My family came down from India, San Fransisco as well as Tervuren and we spent two weeks at the beach. 

And now we wait till Christmas to be together again. Family far away you guys better come. I'm don't want to wait a year to see you guys again. 

Please.

Pretty please. 

I'll make mac and cheese. 

I went to Antwerp a few times. I forgot how nice Antwerp is. I like Antwerp. 57 more days till I can see Antwerp again. 

I had another visitor, from a teeny tiny state called Delaware. 

PIA!

What didn't we do when you were here. 

Well, sleep. We didn't sleep.

Tuesday: Babysit a munchkin 

Wednesday: Bruges.

(Did you guys know Bruges was that nice?! I didn't know it was that nice?! I finally feel like a proper Belgian for having visited Bruges. I'm one of you guys now!) 

Thursday: Rock Werchter

First time going to Werchter to see Imagine Dragons, Arcade Fire, Chainsmokers and Kings of Leon. Only. As I left Arcade Fire to go to Chainsmokers (I know I know scandalous) I couldn't get into the room so I got stuck outside with about 200+ people trying to fight their way in. FUN.

(It was actually a fun day).

Crew.

Friday: Nope.

Just.

Nope. Today was nope.

Oh actually thats not true. Somehow we ended up out again.


Saturday: This day was nope.

Nope.

Just. No.

Dead.

Sunday + Monday: PARIS.

Riana, Pia and I went to Paris for a night! Because we plan amazingly! And completely didn't suffer walking 30km in 1.5 days!

Tuesday: Brussels and Antwerp. Again, because of my amazing scheduling I made Pia walk 10km+ that day. But hey. Can you really call it getting to know a country if you don't rush from place to place and only allow for about an hour in each city?

Exactly. 

It's fine.

Wednesday: 

Bittersweet. 

Bagels.

Bars.

Sushi.

Byes. 

Thursday: Delhi. 

And that's where I'll leave you for today because I've been trying to write this post for about a month but no. I. No. 

I'll post about Sikkim in a few days because I don't want Sofie to be disappointed, even though she went with me. 

Later gators. 

** We did actually see stuff. No, we're not being "millennials". 

***I'm just joking. Mama, Papa, love you! 

Adje Out

My time in India has come to an end. And honestly, these months have been some of the best months I could have imagined.

Granted, spending the last week in the Maldives definitely helped.

heeeeeeeey

Right so I went to the Maldives. I mean yeah. It was pretty cool.

I went snorkeling and it may have been the best thing ever but you know its whatevs. Probs saw better fishes than at the Great Barrier reef. I mean. I swam next to a shark. Basically risked my life right there. It came right up in my face.

A whole two meters away. In my face.

But you know.

It's cool.

No worries.

I mean the views were alright, if you're into the whole white sand, clear blue ocean kind of thing.

It's not like this was paradise or anything.*

Anyway. 

It's been an eventful 7 months, to say the least. Pretty sure I experienced every single emotion humanly possible.

I've come to the conclusion that to live in a place where you need to layer to survive is just not the way to live.

July, August; beginnings are always tough, as it was for me at JNU. But these two came to my rescue in September. We're clearly better than the original and new K3.**

You're not getting rid of me.

October I took a leap of faith, ignored what my parents said about talking to strangers and trusted (those then) complete strangers to take me to Dharamshala. Only to go with them on another trip two weeks later. Even with the questionable musical stylings of Anna and Fabienne, I can honestly say I'm glad I did. (Guys, I'm still waiting on your debut album.)

I'm thinking a reunion is in order. Brussels some time in the next few months?

Dharamshala

PS: Udaipur: the rooftop where part of the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel was filmed. Definitely recommend it for rooftop-pool-drinks.

November I finally got be a part of a tradition that I would have otherwise missed out on: Diwali with my grandparents who I'm pretty sure bought out all the fireworks that could have been available. Also two important people had birthdays!

Family!

December was a bit more up and down, but then again, can you call it living in a country if you don't experience the trepidations that come with it?

Exams, stress and a ridiculous amount of sleepless nights definitely made up the first half. All that nonetheless added to a great way to end 2016. And of course Nepal and Australia may have helped a tad.

Nepal

Melbourne

January.

Australia.

Maldives.

Delhi.

Lucknow.

Straight A's.

23.

Coolcoolcool.

My minion picture is better than your minion picture.

February. This blog and traveling will be put on hiatus (until further notice or until I get bored and need an outlet).

I'll be back. I wouldn't want to disappoint my two loyal readers.

To end on a very, very cliché note: one of the main things I seemed to have learned the last few months is that spontaneity is in fact not scary and life can be more fun without planning everything in precise detail.

India, I was doing just fine before I met you (properly). Good thing you've made me better than fine.

I'll see you in July.

Thank you and goodnight!

*It's at this point that I would like to eternally thank my parents for taking me with them. This was honestly the best thing ever.

**If you're not from a Dutch speaking country, please don't look up K3. They're both the pride and shame of our countries.