There are many things that I personally strive for. There are many things I can see myself doing. Being a writer or enjoying the written word was and never will be one of them. Be it to write in school, technical writing at work all forbid writing for “fun”. Maybe that is why it is all to easy for me to fall out of the habit of writing for this blog, but the fact is: I want this. More than I dislike writing. Not for having something written. I never felt the urge to write a novel. But for those who read this, for all the connections we have made, the people we love. Excuse us again, if you might and know we try 🙂

Moving on but still speaking of habits: We have picked up a new (or old) and very time-consuming habit. After the lovely visits in February, both Nina were quite low, emotionally. This had many a reason, the job hunt, the constant uncertainty and the stress of not having an income in the first place. These things were out of our control. But we have lived with a lot of stress in our lives before, so we asked ourselves: What is different?

The answer was quite obvious: Although food was as lovely as ever, we have entirely stopped exercising. Surrounded by this beautiful country, we have managed to slob as much as never before in our lives. That changed, quite dramatically a couple of months ago. We started working out in a local gym – and quite drastically saw how it affected us. Within two weeks, our mood lifted substantially. All of a sudden, we felt like going out again. It really is the weirdest thing. We knew that already from the last time we got our asses up and started working out, but the reality is astonishing. It takes up a lot of time, with the added need for sleep I would estimate 6-8 hrs a week, but it is so incredibly worth it. Especially now that both of us are working full-time (oops, I swear, next post!). You come off work, gloomy, stressed out and just wanting to crawl up in a hole. It takes a massive effort to drag your corps to the gym, but the moment you come out of it, all that has evaporated!

I have to head off now, but I leave you with that thought: If you ever feel like working out is too much of a hassle, do it anyway. It increases the quality of your life more than most other things I know.