I don’t know if I had mentioned it in an earlier post or not. Some time ago, I created a list of the basic things I had to do in here but had avoided them. This procrastination had made my life awful. It was full of stress. Those were very basic things, like registering for radio/TV tax, creating a bank account, etc. During a normal day, it happened a lot to remember I haven’t done them. At these moments, I felt a spike of stress. These instant spikes were the things that caused me to have a stress all the time. After creating the list and resolving the items in the list one by one, my mental situation improved tremendously.
After some time, I talked to a friend. She is German and so she is a native person in here. I saw how life goes well for her. She did a lot of sport, had a driver’s license and could drive her parents’ car, etc. Also, my younger friends came here for a summer internship. I saw how they are enjoying their stay in here: Traveling a lot, going to restaurants, etc.
So, I started to think of the things that weren’t mandatory for my life like the items in the first list that I mentioned in the first paragraph, but it could make my life much more enjoyable if I did them or at least knew how to do them. For example, of course I don’t have enough money to travel as much as those interns or go to restaurants and bars as much as them, but the fact is that I don’t even know how to go to a restaurant. =))
That’s why I created a second list. Instead of a to-do list, it was more like a wishlist. There are a lot of things that I want to know, learn, or achieve. Some of them require a long/constant effort, like learning the language or learning to walk on my hand. =)) Also, some of them require an instant effort, like learning how to buy unpacked fruits in the supermarket. For that, I just have to ask some people and then go there and try it myself.
That’s a long long long list composed of both easy and hard tasks. But I’m trying to prioritize the items in that list (based on their importance and required effort) and approach them one by one.
I created it about a week ago, and I can say it has unbelievably changed my life and how I feel about it. The fact that there are some small items and you can aim for them and simply do them, makes me feel a lot better. It makes me feel the progress of settling in. Also, it would be fun to return to this list later and sort the items according to the date I achieved each item. It’s like rewinding the movie of my life to this day and then fast forward it and see the path I’ve come. That would be really cool if I commit myself to put an effort on these items.
There’s nothing more about the philosophy of the list. But as a final note, here are the items of the list I’ve achieved so far, just to see how simple they are:
- Pay with my bank card in the supermarket: I always paid in cash before now.
- Host someone at home at night: Of course I don’t have an extra bed, but I have a sleeping bag and always wanted to know if I can host someone at night or not. It turned out I can.
- Buy ice cream: People eat a lot of ice cream in here. :)) I’m not a huge fan, so I had never tried them by myself. I just wanted to do it once. At least to know how much they cost and taste.
- Go to a bar with a non-Iranian person: It was a stressful situation and I couldn’t imagine myself in it. Generally, spending 1o1 time with someone is a big deal for me. I feel so stressed. That could be even harder if that person wasn’t Iranian and had a different background. I did it successfully in this week.
- Pay with phone in the supermarket: I hadn’t used this feature of my phone ever. So I just wanted to do it. It could make my payments much easier.
- Go to KFC: I really had missed the taste of KFC, but I avoided going there both because of its relatively high prices (compared to the food I make by myself) and because it was a new experience and I was afraid. I mean, none of these two are the main reason, but their combination kept me from going there.
*burnt my feta reading this*
Just so you know, Henry’s Eis at the Markt has some of the best ice cream in town. Their halva ice is a signature.
Yeah I went there to try their ice cream. It tastes good!