Taking the weekend off.

Living and working overseas can be exhausting.

When I'm living back in Melbourne, it's relatively easy to fall into patterns. I go to work, I have my various hobbies, and my social circle manages to fill the rest of the gaps pretty much without having to think too much. And if there's nothing happening, then I can just enjoy a book or watch tv or something, and not feel too bad about it.

But it's different when you're overseas. On one hand, there are the everyday challenges - trying to learn the language, learn a new job, make new friends, seek out opportunities for socialising without seeming too weird and needy. And that's just part of being a new person in a new place - you have to get up to speed before this little voice starts piping up in the back of your head...

Then there's the FOMO - fear of missing out. Taking every opportunity to make the most of my experience of living overseas. Travelling to another country each weekend, finding out where the local festivals are happening, or even just taking a day trip to a nearby heritage site.

I always feel like a day of doing nothing is a day wasted.

But at the same time, I realise that it's important to take time off constantly trying to push myself forward toward winning at life. And because I've got two big weekends coming up, I've decided to take this weekend off.

And so, my day consisted of:

- Sleeping in until 11am. I've had terrible insomnia lately, so I figured I'd let myself get a full cycle of sleep, even though I hope that changing my usual waking-up time won't make things worse.
- Going on a long walk. I discovered a small amusement park, and a couple of nice parks for walking through. I also saw my first hedgehog - not something I'd experienced before, having only ever previously lived in the Asia-Pacific region.
- Going to the cinema. Saw Pitch Perfect 2, which had its fun moments, but lacked a lot of the charm of its predecessor.
- Sitting in a cafe and read a sizeable chunk of the book that I'm currently reading.
- Writing my daily #blogjune entry.

Now it's Saturday night, and I'm going to bed at a respectable hour. With some luck, I'll be asleep by midnight. Yes, it's boring, I know, but I'll get back to my usual shenanigans next week.

For now, I'll let myself recharge.