All posts filed under: journal

Surviving the Chiang Mai Air Pollution

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Basically the best action is to leave town and return once the burning season is over. That is probably not what you came here to read so I have a few tips that will help but they won’t keep you as safe as leaving the area will. • We brought with us a multipack of high quality N95 rated face masks from our home country. • We went to Tesco and purchased several packs of M3 Filtrete filters & followed this youtube vide to install them in our rented room AC unit. • Wear the face masks religiously • Looked around for an air purifier but they were outside our budget, in hindsight we should have ignored the budget, respiratory diseases are no laughing matter.. • Keeping doors and windows firmly shut, wiping the floor with a wet towel regularly, placing a wet towels at the door to block the polluted air flow into the room, rinsing in the shower frequently as we bring in pollution on our clothing and body. That’s all I have …

Project German – American Citizenship / Projekt Deutsch – Amerikanische Staatsangehörigkeit

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Ahoi, ich bin die Birgit und ich lebe zweisprachig. Hey, my name is Birgit and I live a bilingual life. Ich wohne zur Zeit in Amerika aber fühle mich gleichzeitig Deutsch, das wird sich niemals ändern. Dennoch habe ich durch meine Beziehung auch eine starke Verbindung zu den Staaten. I currently live in America but I simultaneously identity as German and that won’t ever change. However through my relationship I have developed an important bond with the States.   Das Jahr eilt jetzt schon wieder so schnell voran. Es ist Mitte Februar und die Winterzeit sollte sich ja eigentlich super dazu eignen endlich wichtige Bürokratien in Angriff zu nehmen, aber irgendwie liegt noch immer alles unbearbeitet auf dem Tisch. The year is flying by faster than I can keep up with, a blink of an eye ago it was the beginning of January and now we are already passing the mid-February mark. You would think that winter is an excellent time to tackle important bureaucratic paperwork but somehow it remains untouched on the table. Die …

Levitation practice in San Francisco

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So where is this story at now? Well. We are part way through home sitting, watering plants, keeping the place safe, feeding cats and giving them time and attention so that they feel well… And how is all that going? I think ok. I have my first German language students, taking 2-3 classes per week each, which is a huge, giant, levitation inspiring, relief.It has been a while since I have had such interested students and it feels incredibly rewarding. But then there is the annual housing conundrum, the issue that always causes the break in our make-or-break life in America.. (You might know that I have had a green card since about 2013, or was it 14, and since then, even more than before been trying to make a go of living here. This year was the year where I made the big announcements that “I AM MOVING TO AMERICA”.. So here I am.. But really it is all as uncertain as it ever was. But the world is changing and we need to, …

Daring to embrace New Horizons

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My partner Jason and I have lived a peripatetic, nomadic life, straddling the far western coast of California and the West Coast of Great Britain. Growing the roots of our relationship in an ever changing plant pot. Our 8 year anniversary is coming up very soon. It will make exactly 8 years since our first kiss, under the grand finale of Venetian fireworks at the foot of one of the two famous columns on the even more famous St Marco Square. We could have no idea that from this one, unbelievably romantic moment so much happiness and struggle would emerge. Neither of us had any plans of spending 8 years in regular intercontinental movement, not spending one whole year in any one place. We only once managed to spend a completely uninterrupted 13 months together, for a seemingly endless number of years we survived long geographical breaks, the longest lasting 5 months, twice! (But then again, we also know of course we only had 8 total, so it can’t have been THAT many years.) We …

So very soon I will return to America!

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I can’t quite believe just HOW soon I will return to living in America! HOW did this happen? Remember back in the years before I met Jason? Back then I had just absolutely no interest in the Americas. And then whoosh, I got swept off my feet and piece by piece of me got slowly reeled in like a fish on a tasty worm-laden hook… I am also completely hooked on the books by Isabelle Allende, many of which taking place in the early days of discovering and establishing life in South & North America. So many stories of immigrants, so many courageous women in the pages of her books! And now, now I have a green card, now I am preparing to envision my life in America! I am still bewildered by it all. I know it’s been a slow and gradual process and maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised, but I thought I’d just go visit, stay a little while, go back to Europe and that would be it. Little did I realise that …

The world needs delicious snacks

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This is one of the most tasty and simultaneously outrageously healthy snack treats that I have ever made. And here are the necessary ingredients: • nuts (any nuts, mixed is great, with pecans is fantastic) – lightly toasted (if you have the patience) • dates (pre-soaked in hot water is fantastic, but if they are medjool dates or other soft types then don’t worry too much about soaking, but have some warm water to hand to help loosen the mixture as needed) • ground green cardamom (unless you don’t like it, then skip it) if you like: ground nutmeg, cinnamon, chilli, perhaps you are a fan of aniseed? • the all important HIGH QUALITY 100% coco powder (not the one that has dairy mixed in with it if you can avoid it, but in the end: take what you can find) This Organic Fairtrade Cocoa Powder by Green and Blacks is the one that I use because it is both organic and fair trade, but the company has been bought out and if you can find something …

My Yoga Student completed her 10 day Yoga Challenge!

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2 weeks ago I challenged my yoga student to a 10 day yoga challenge! She came to my house every day for 15-60 minutes to learn a simplified Sun Salutation, of which we did 2 rounds each day, adding a couple of postures as we progressed through the challenge; following the sun salutations I gave her 2 floor based postures each day, mostly postures to help her with a personal health issue. I am super impressed that she got through 10 days without a fail and she did amazing! I am really proud of my student’s discipline and determination. I think this was a great experience to guide a private student through this journey of discovering her strengths and working with weaknesses. And here is what she has to say about her experience: “When the challenge was offered to me, I was not sure if I could do it time wise, physically and mentally wise. Everyday to go out of my house at a time where i would tend to sit on the sofa and do …