[Personal Blog] Creative Mommy Phase

I know it's a little bit weird to say that I'm doing the "mommy living" but sometimes I feel that way. Truly, it's difficult to not feel like a mother who is burdened with two young children that need entertaining at all times. Even though it's technically only 4-5 hours each day during weekdays and maybe 3-5 hours during the weekends.

Every day, I try to think about ways to take their attention away from their iPads or from the SmartTV. I hate that they consume a lot of YouTube videos and I hate that the eldest, who just turned 5 this July, started saying, "what the fuck" all of a sudden. You can't imagine the horror that I felt once he started dropping those F-bombs. I did my best to stay calm, casually dismissing it the first time that I've heard it from him (thinking that it will just go away if you don't have any reactions to it--as most of the things they say at this age) but the second and third time really did it for me. I immediately checked all the videos that he watched and looked if there's a new channel that he just watched recently that is not suitable for young children or tweens. I didn't found any so I reported it to the parents. They told me that he must have heard it from someone during conversations but they did not elaborate any longer. I think I have an idea where he heard it after all.

And so, we paint. We color coloring book sometimes. We go out and play on the playground. I took the youngest, who's only 2, outside and play with bubbles or the watergun. Sometimes we even water plants. From time to time we go to the library and pick up books to read or just do some reading in there. I love that here in Sweden, libraries are per city and you'll find them in the centrum. Centrums are like the town centers and you can find all major establishments and supermarkets there most of the time.

But the whole reason that I am doing this blog post right now is to tell you how we made a whole board game for ourselves, consisting of all the things that the eldest kid, O, really likes.

Just like any other kids, he plays Minecraft. I introduced it to him and life has never been the same ever since. He learned to make a lot of cool tricks and builds just by watching YouTube (it can be helpful at times BUT NOT ALL THE TIME) and sometimes we play together in his server. I love Minecraft personally and it's a game that my boyfriend and I play religiously (if my internet permits it). 

He likes Roblox too. Something that I am not familiar with. I can't understand the game so I just read, or rather skim online, some lores and gameplay of it. So yeah. Haha.

He also plays a lot of Five Nights at Freddy's, watches a lot of Jamesify's videos (who plays GTA5, btw) and of course, Star Wars. I don't even know how it started but I remember telling him about Star Wars when I got so hooked up by The Mandalorian. 

All of these things we combined to create this monstrosity:

We also added some Swedish things

We made everything from scratch, with him coloring most of the figures in here (as I encourage it so that he will not be bored and just go back to watching on the TV while I do this). 

Coloring on the floor since his sister is using the table

Even with the dice, since I really don't want to buy a new one, we just repurposed a Bamse dice from their Mix n' Match game. I cut 5 small pieces of paper, asked him to draw dots on them from 1 to 5 and just leave Bamse's face as the number '6'. The figures, I drew them as well.

My character is the Princess Peach Among Us Crewmate. Don't ask why.

He was so excited when we started this project and he was even more hyped after we finished. The parents, especially the dad, was really amazed that we managed to concoct one, manageable and easy board game for kids. They were so happy to play it even when it wasn't done yet. 

So yeah, my host kid and I did this together. He was included in everything and the whole idea of the game is from his interest. I hope he'll remember this one day that we spend two days creating our very own board game consisting of all the things that he love when he was 5 years old.

Liège Day Trip

During my summer holiday, I found out that I have a lot of time on my own. My boyfriend is studying for an exam for his Masters program and I am not that selfish to force him to do things with me that much. I wanted to visit a proper Belgian city so I decided to choose the closest to Aachen and that was Liège. During my first visit in Germany, I've only crossed the borders (NL, BE, DE) from time to time. Only visited Maastricht, which is a Dutch town, and just step foot on Belgium when I was in the Three-Country Point (Dreiländereck in German). 

Me in three different countries all at once

Me in Maastricht

Back when I was planning for this trip, I was promised that we will visit Brussels on a different day (which didn't happen due to time contraints) so I guess Liège was fine for me. I booked my Liège trip via Flixbus (so affordable and convenient for a voracious traveller like me!) and then I was all set. It was cheap. I think I only paid 17 Euros back and forth. The town is only an hour away from Aachen so it's really a nice day trip tour.

So, after a 30mins delay from the bus (also the first time that I've experienced this on Flixbus), there I was in Liège. Not to be mean, but this is the dirtiest European city I’ve visited so far. It’s giving me Manila-vibes; with cigarette butts and wrappings everywhere. One has to be also alert because you might step on dog poops and you’ll be wary to stand in corners or walk on seemingly empty alleyways because it smells like pee. This is also the first time in this continent where I feel like I am not safe. There are a lot of seemingly shady people loitering in the area (I've even seen two peopel just casually sitting in front of a kiosk, with their black eyes and bleeding wounds on their faces besides a pool of blood) and men stare at you, as if they're checking you like some goods in the market. It was so weird because I haven't really experienced that in Germany or Sweden. 

The first thing that you'll see when you arrive by bus of train

Liège-Guillemins railway station

Most of the time, staffs won’t be friendly on you if you only speak English and not French. Interactions would be curt and sometimes impolite but of course, it might just be isolated cases. Hopefully.

Provincial Palace (Front)

Liege University - Main

Some French posters I've encountered while walking in the city

St. Paul's Cathedral in Liege

A memorable thing that happened for me though in Liège is when I was circling around the Provincial Palace (previously the Palace of the Prince Bishop) going to the Museum of Wallon Life was when I met a Moroccan guy. I asked him to take a photo of me on the side of the Provincial Palace because it really reminded me of France. We had a little talk then and when he found out that I came from the Philippines, he told me that he was saved by Filipino seamen when he was crossing the sea on his way to Europe. I was so confused at first why he was saved in the middle of the sea (or ocean because I think he was saved in the Atlantic Ocean?) but then he told me that he wanted to work in Europe so he did it. He was in the area as a matter of fact because he has a 13:00 appointment at the Palace of Justice which is behind the Provincial Palace. He's working on his papers to be a legal migrant in Belgium.

Photo taken by the Morrocan guy

After that encounter, I visited the Museum of Wallon Life (everything is in French inside the museum so you need to get an audioguide with you. It's free.) The entrance is 5 Euros and everything inside is about the life of the Wallons. I'm not gonna even try to explain what it is to you but to my best understanding, they are an ethnic group living in Belgium who predominantly speaks French. Maybe just read this Wikipedia article if you're interested. Photos from inside the museum can be found below. Sorry if I didn't took much. I was trying to understand what I was seeing in there.

After the museum, I  went to the Montagne de Bueren. It has a 374-steps staircase and online blogs will tell you that you'll have the best view of the city on top. I guess it's okay but I think there are some buildings blocking your view on top, so yeah. It was really exhausting to climb it that day because the sun was hitting the staircase directly.

According to Wikipedia, 

In 2013, Montagne de Bueren was ranked as #1 on The Huffington Post's list of Most Extreme Staircases.

Another fun fact from the Wikipedia Page is this:  

In July 2020, in response to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium, Belgian explorer and adventurer Louis-Philippe Loncke ascended and descended the staircase 135 times carrying a 15 kg backpack, simulating an ascent of Mount Everest. The 9000m climb, which took 65 hours 30 minutes, was meant to show that one could still "trouver des défis physiques près de chez soi" (find physical challenges close to home).

For the full article, click this for the link. 

Me before climbing

Somewhere up there

“Pedestrian is King” here though. I feel like a badass crossing streets because cars stop for you and Stop&Go traffic signs are only used on major highways and intersections.

They do have lovely pastries though. I've never tried the Belgian waffle in this town because I'm not really a fan of it. I just got the chocolate croissant and bought some sweet wine.

I've only visited a couple of spots because I was only there for 5 hours and that's a lot of walking. I was so tired. 

Living MY Best Life

 I haven't been here for a while and there's a good reason for that. 

For the first time ever in my life, I feel happy and contented. As if everything is falling into place. I still have some worries, of course, but I find them trivial unlike before. I am living, truly living, for the first time ever.

There is really a huge difference to one's state of mind if you have some kind of "hope". It can be the hope for a generally optimistic stance about the future, hope for the things that will be or just a simple hope that you'll be fine for tomorrow. As for me, I am hopeful for what I am becoming. I saw [and continuously seeing, as a matter of fact], how strong I truly am. I never thought I have it in me to leave everything behind and start a new life thousands of kilometers away from home. I never thought that I would leave my crappy job, that I will leave my comfort zone, that my perseverance will take me places and that loving myself is the beginning of a great realization. Even when as I was boarding the plane to Sweden, I've always thought that my love for my boyfriend is the only reason I was doing it. It took me a couple of sleepless nights to tell myself that I ultimately did it for me. 

Foolish me believes that I can move mountains for someone I love. It is a great sentiment of mine. My fault in this though lies on the fact that I always attributed "someone" to a different person other than myself. I can see myself: flaws and all. Everything became easier and filled with patient once I started to love myself.

A1 Deutsch PRÜFUNG Result

 Yeah!

I passed. I got the result last June. Haha.

It's so weird to finally know that I have my A1. I am currently working on my A2-B1. 

My grade was 98/100; sehr gut. Kinda mad though because I wanted to get 100. Hahaa.

But yeah.

Just updating in here. Reminding myself from time to time that I've already come so far working towards my dreams (or at least a part of it.)

Tips? Maybe another post. Kinda busy atm.