The hurricane has passed. Last time I updated my “now” page, I was in a different continent, and a lot has shuffled since. The US and the rest of the summer was just great. Full, to the brim. It actually feels good to look back at how much has happened, how many places we were in, how many people I met, and how different times were experienced.

The tail end of my Midwest experience was about living what a regular life in the US would look like. My partner being from there, I am now content with visiting and living a few weeks/months at a time within the country. And just like any other, there’s how you hear about the place and how it feels to actually live there.

Being able to live a simple day-to-day made me realize even more how toxic my relationship to the news was and how it has constantly degraded my view of many places I didn’t know of. After that period, I decided to try to do something about it and disconnect from the constant flux. It is not a battle I am winning currently. Some moves I have made were steps in the right directions, though.

I’m leaving scrolls in favor of RSS again and try to consume news through aggregators, slow news feeds that only publish about once a week. I’m still not feeling happy about being aware of everything all the time. It sadly feels like another addiction I need to break away from.

After leaving the US, the planets aligned for me to lay in a long period of rest. The summer was very eventful, and I could sense my mind needing some time to settle back to some form of normalcy before I hop on the travel saddle again. My batteries were low, but as I have done before, I pushed through only to feel the blunt of the drain once everything slowed down. My body was calling for a break, and I now had time to listen.

I flew back to Hanoi in August with my only responsibility to take care of a cat for a month. I was able to fall back into a heavy routine for a month, back to a familiar place. Time flew by and healed. It opened up space for my mind to wonder and think of all those things that were parked in my mind during the travels. There’s a buffer of topics that you just can’t deal with immediately when life gets busy, unpacking all those was necessary. I told my therapist that my objective for that month was only to feel calm. Many things were changing, and I knew I couldn’t get comfortable with everything just yet, I just wanted to be calm through the storm.

Calm, it was.

After a quick month of being a cat dad (photo attached), I decided that I wanted to see something new but not get too busy just yet. This is when I headed south to the mountains of Da Lat, taking the time to “live like an old man” and discover yet another facet of this country. This place continued the process I was on, with much more depth and intention.

I enjoyed nature every morning before the clouds inevitably brought themselves overhead, ate regularly the same delicious meals, and just surrendered to being heavily routined. After about three weeks, some brain fog cleared from my mind, and I felt some energy I hadn’t felt in a few months. I was excited to take the next stride ahead and get going, despite the hardships tagging along. Through this experience, I learned a lot about my needs for grounded routine and what it brings to me. I think this is becoming something I need to do regularly, anywhere I am. Fall into sameness and make fewer choices to find balance.

My exit from Da Lat was a short victory lap through the beautiful yet sadly Russian beaches of Nha Trang. Surrounded by signs reading Неоколониализм, I took a quick break for what seemed like the most “vacationy” moment of the summer. It was fun and happily short-lived. A short hop later back in Hanoi and I flew back to familiar Taipei.

This is where I’ll be based for the next year to come. It is a good time to be stable for a bit, and this place has always been a great environment to grow. Four days in, I have moved to a new house and new neighborhood, reconnected with friends, and fell back into habits built earlier this year. I am excited for the next few months to come and look forward to spending my first winter here.

An experiment I am making while staying here is using Anki regularly to learn Mandarin Chinese. I had never really used this tool before and stumbled upon what seems like great decks to get started. What really hooks me with it is the surrounding data, so much so that I am building some accountability by publishing my data here for anyone to see.

Through my downtime, I managed to write a bit, in different styles and sometimes fictiony surprisingly. I think I am starting to enjoy sharing ideas in different ways. Writing has also helped build new habits. The writing circle I have been a part of for the better part of the last year inspired me to connect with friends in similar ways and continue to stay engaged with the practice within different groups. Just hopping on a call with someone close to practice a shared art and discuss it together is fulfilling. It helps us grow but also connect in a very different way, which brings me joy as I am now again far away from many close friends.

Through all these adventures, work has been a consistent sideline, nothing too loose for me to freak out about, nothing too pressing to burn out on. It’s been nice to have this, dare I say, stability?

I’m slowly building a new routine.

In yet another place to close out the end of the year, but this time it feels more stable than anything happening since I left Amsterdam.

This is odd and scary and somewhat comforting.