I was 28 when I embarked on this personal writing journey called ReflectionsOfaNearly30. Some read it as Reflections of an Early 30, and that can work too, starting this year (2016) when I’m 31.

In this series, I attempted to document my first European adventure (or misadventures). It’s 68 days of my life as a stranger where English was not native.

This was Europe through my lenses, where I first landed in 2012. These were personal reflections before I reached the big 3-0 which I’ll be posting from here on. —   fascinations, wonderment, curiosities, fears, enthusiasm, and all emotions that make the dramas of the closing decade.

And of course, it started with:

DAY 1 : Eat-pray…

Apeldoorn, The Netherlands (Home for the next two months)

About four months ago, I decided to do an eat-pray-love. And just like in that Julia Roberts movie, it was triggered by some life-changing-epiphany-sorta-thing. That I wanted to have a change, in my environment, in the people I see, in how I see them and, hoping against hope, how I’d see myself.

So I found myself now writing this first entry (after a long time) in Holland, more specifically in Apeldoorn where my sister lives with her family in a nice apartment.

Fighting the jet lag, I lulled my 10-month old nephew, Baby J, to sleep and boy was I successful! I sang a lullabic version of a local song called “Bahay Kubo” (My Humble Hut). Who’d have thought that’d bring the kid to slumber?

I was happy at this first domestic victory — lulling a baby to sleep, and this is just the first day in Europe.

I want to find something of meaning, of relevance, of simplicity, of transcendence, that I may appreciate my life more.

That hopefully and eventually, I can settle down without settling.

That I can proudly say I have done things well, experienced life’s fullness, that making the most of my single life would merit me a good husband and a happy-ever-after.

As the trees begin to shed leaves in winter, I, too, should shed old ways of doing and of thinking, and soon this decade — with all its mirth and miseries and triumphs and tragedies — to embrace the third one that lies ahead. But first, winter. I need my trendy coat.

*This is part of a 68-Day Travel Diary called Reflections of a Nearly Thirty. Read the full Reflections Series here.