i really like your reflections on your mentality vs that Singaporeans in Singapore and the bit on the Berliner aesthetic. my husband and i were just discussing the very same thing yesterday on how we feel quite out of place here (having both come from an unconventional career/life trajectory though he's a tech analyst now).
condos, or upgrading cars are all our colleagues/relatives seem fixated on and form the bulk of lunch topics. we have been contemplating an overseas move and Berlin was one place we thought about (which was how I found your blog in the first place!) but with a 2yo we aren't so sure how. we enjoy your writings tremendously and it has been quite inspirational and comforting to us, strangely. to know that there's a decent human out there with similar thoughts - though i know that sounds quite dramatic. hopefully one day we'd be able to make that move overseas...
Oh, you're one more person to the list of Singaporeans who feel out of place in their own country for not wanting to keep up with the hamster wheel! It came up regularly with the friends who visited me in Berlin too. It's just hard to be the one resisting the culture all the time, even if you really don't like it, right?
Thanks for calling me out as a decent human being, I don't get to hear that often! Warms my heart to know you and your husband are finding comfort in some of the things I write. On moving with a 2 years old - it can be done. It's been done. We met a family with a kid that I think is exactly 2 years old at the National Day gathering of Singaporeans in Berlin recently and they made it work. Their kid even attends Kindertageschule (nursery) now. It won't be easy, there will be tradeoffs, but it's doable. I honestly think it boils down to how much you really want it.
i really like your reflections on your mentality vs that Singaporeans in Singapore and the bit on the Berliner aesthetic. my husband and i were just discussing the very same thing yesterday on how we feel quite out of place here (having both come from an unconventional career/life trajectory though he's a tech analyst now).
condos, or upgrading cars are all our colleagues/relatives seem fixated on and form the bulk of lunch topics. we have been contemplating an overseas move and Berlin was one place we thought about (which was how I found your blog in the first place!) but with a 2yo we aren't so sure how. we enjoy your writings tremendously and it has been quite inspirational and comforting to us, strangely. to know that there's a decent human out there with similar thoughts - though i know that sounds quite dramatic. hopefully one day we'd be able to make that move overseas...
Oh, you're one more person to the list of Singaporeans who feel out of place in their own country for not wanting to keep up with the hamster wheel! It came up regularly with the friends who visited me in Berlin too. It's just hard to be the one resisting the culture all the time, even if you really don't like it, right?
Thanks for calling me out as a decent human being, I don't get to hear that often! Warms my heart to know you and your husband are finding comfort in some of the things I write. On moving with a 2 years old - it can be done. It's been done. We met a family with a kid that I think is exactly 2 years old at the National Day gathering of Singaporeans in Berlin recently and they made it work. Their kid even attends Kindertageschule (nursery) now. It won't be easy, there will be tradeoffs, but it's doable. I honestly think it boils down to how much you really want it.
You’re making me miss Berlin! And seriously contemplating living abroad too.
Do give it a good think and then with sufficient reasons, make the leap, Andrea!
CAMPERVAN!!!
I love these reflections and I'm glad you are getting good use of that camper van.