Today is not particularly easy for me. There were so many things that happened and I’m emotionally exhausted because of them. Luckily today I have two new things, and you know that new things made us giddy with happiness and expectations. I’m just blessed to have these two things precisely on a tough day like this.

New website, everybody!

As you see (though I know nobody asks and cares, haha), I have a new blog. Yippie!

This is the very first time I have a personal website with a paid domain, and all credits go to my dear Sep and her husband who tirelessly always support me.

My journey in blogging is nowhere fancy. I started blogging in 2008 thanks to never ending encouragement from my cousin. I left writing for many years after my wedding and recently started again also because she encouraged me. She guided me many times on how to create a blog and all the details required in it. I owe you, sister!

And after joining a writing community for 10 months, I gradually started to love writing more and more and decided to have my own ‘professional’ blog. While I’m nowhere planning to be a writer, having a blog that is purely my own is ecstatic. I hope to write continuously and share my lessons in life here in this blog and hope that somehow somebody out there can be blessed by reading my writings.

Choosing up a name was not very easy. I spent weeks trying to find a catchy and yet meaningful domain for my website. It got on my nerves because I would be anxious at night, trying to sleep but kept thinking about the names. I kept browsing the internet to find the available names for so many days, and made a long list of name candidates.

In the end what happened was pretty silly. I had two candidates for the name, and asked my sister to try to buy the domain for me (her dear husband helped her to help me). It’s gone, said Sep. Why? What’s gone? It’s taken, she said. How could it be? Try the second one, I said.

It’s taken as well, answered her. What??? That’s crazy! It was still there yesterday! What should I do? I freaked out and was lost for words. Then I suggested the third name that was merely a suggestion: let’s take a look at this name.

It should have been a question, but somehow turned out to be a command. Because a second after that the message prompted: OK, deal. We bought the domain! You have to use it for at least a year even if you want to change your mind again. Whatt??

I jumped from my seat and laughed so hard. I can imagine all the stresses I have given to Sep about this domain thing had been transferred to her husband. He immediately bought the domain at the 3rd attempt! You know what they said? Women love to do the thinking, but men take the decision. LOL!

Anyway here I am, stuck with this domain. I can’t even change it anymore if I’d wanted to. Though it was a little bit bumpy in the beginning with the installation and settings, I love how my blog looks right now and I love its short name.

I’m also happy that I can import the contents from my old blogs here. Now my new house feels so lively *heart*

New library card

Today I also got a new library card for myself. My children are members of the library because it’s free (until they are 18 years old). But I’m not always registered as a member because the annual fee is quite high – almost 60 Euro per year.

But next week I’ll start school again – it’s just a language course actually, but here in the Netherlands people don’t say you go to a language course but to a language school. The course will be pretty intensive, six hours a week and I have to invest at least two more hours to study at home.

I can imagine that the course will be quite challenging because my ignorant alter ego took control on the day of the placement test and decided to play smart that day. I did all the tests excellently, it went so well until the examiner kept asking me: are you sure you never had lessons before? You do so well!

Well, I actually did ten years ago, I went to a basic class in the university. But that’s it and my Dutch is still so bad I can’t even make a proper conversation with people. “Yes, but you are doing so well that you need to go to the advanced class,” argue the examiner. Oh dear, thank you Mrs. Alter Ego. You ruin my chance to learn the basics grammar properly and send me to misery! I can imagine how hard the class will be: me, without enough grammar knowledge in a Dutch advanced class.

Anyway here I am stuck at that level. I wouldn’t be able to change my level because apparently the school believes in my test result better than my words. I can only push myself harder to be able to appear as smart as I did at the test and for that very reason, I thought I deserve an access to the library.

Coincidentally the library offers a big discount for a new membership. From 55 Euro to 30 Euro for the first year! Yippie! What can be more exciting than the fact that you need to pay less than what you had to? Yeah, I’m cheap like that. So though it seemed that I didn’t have a good start today, I can say that it ended up beautifully!

Yay for me!