Why simple, yet ever-changing routines might be all we need
Postcard 13 October ‘24: Arriving to Aarhus
My alarm goes off at 6 am. I quietly slip out of the bedroom, careful not to wake up my mum. Molly is snorring gently in her bed.
I get dressed in one of our two still empty rooms between moving boxes and a yet-to-be-mounted computer chair, then go to the bathroom to get ready.
By the time I am ready, Molly comes stumbling out of the bedroom, legs still too tired to make it downstairs. So I pick her up, close the bedroom door and we walk down the stairs. I have some water, then do some morning stretches and next, we go out into the darkness of Danish countryside fall mornings. We pass by the construction workers that already started their work and head further out on the field.
Once we are back, I start making coffee and get Molly’s breakfast ready. I pack my things, wake mum with a cup of coffee and turn on the radio for her. Then I leave the house around 7:45 to walk down to the light train that takes me to Aarhus downtown. I start my day at the university. I leave around 16:00 - 16:30, usually meeting my mum and Molly when I depart the train again. We go home, make dinner (or go out to get to know the city and have dinner), take care of some random tasks, play a card game. Then we walk Molly again, I go have a shower and go to bed while mum keeps reading for a bit.
Hope you have not fallen asleep while reading about our new temporary routine. It’s simple. It is unexcited. It might even sound boring. It’s perfectly soothing, maybe even healing, from the craziness of the past months.
We are far from having both - fully physical and mentally - arrived in our new home. Sven will join us on the last day of October and there are still a bunch of minor and major things to take care of before we are “all set to start living Danishly”. And of course, I want to have some workout routine and social activities back in my life. However, I am pretty proud that this first week helped establishing such a supporting routine in a completely new life with all the uncertainty that comes with moving abroad and starting a new job. And all by living together with my mum with the two of us not having been living together for 15 years.
How did we do it?
Well, that’s kind of the point - we did not actively do it - but since you might wonder 😆:
We started with the essentials: Meaning going for work, taking care of Molly, food and sleep.
And we discussed how we incorporate these things supporting our individual rhythms (me being more of an early bird and mum being more of a night owl).
We did not force anything else into our days but rather discussed what we felt like doing (or what needed to be done) once the other things were taken care of.
And suddenly, we had build ourselves a small Mini-routine that started sparking new elements (such as mum and Molly picking me up from the station after work). A routine, that to our own surprise grew quiet dear to BOTH of us within just a single week.
It is a temporary routine and that’s all fine. Maybe, the best routines are anyways fluid and provide the stable foundation of whatever our life demands in any given moment. They might last as short as a week or as long as needed and useful.
And I know that I there eventually will be another routine for whatever my days will look like once my parents have left again and I am on my own with Molly - and then again when finally the pack will be fully reunited and ready to start our life here together.
If you want to read more about routines and habits, you might like this post, too:
About this week’s postcard
Relocating the pack to DK
Well, the current state is that the pack has partially relocated now - which refers to Molly and me.
One of our biggest tasks is still selling our old cars and deciding on a new one in Denmark.
And then, we really need/want to start learning Danish ☺️
On my desk
Well, apart from starting my PhD …
Publications
… this week was simply crazy. Remember the two publications related to underwater noise pollution from expedition cruise vessels I have been working on during the course of the summer? Well, BOTH got published this week.
First, we got the article for WWF’s Arctic Programme published in a special issue of “The Circle Magazine” about pollution in the Arctic published and they even chose to use two of my photos for the layout! It’s an article targeting non-scientific people, so I hope you might enjoy reading it, too!
You can read the online article here.
Or also have a look at the entire magazine (it’s digital and free).
The second one is the scientific paper (yes, got my first paper as a scientist published). It’s a bit more complex, but I am still linking it here.
On my ears, page or screen
I am listening to this song on repeat right now.
I love the melody and lyrics, and it’s especially those two lines who keep speaking to me:
“You don’t need to be the king - ‘ cause I just want the last man standing”.
Damn, I don’t NEED to be the queen - I just want to be the last girl standing. Meaning, I don’t need to show up giving my all and everything each day. In fact, I need to maintain my energy and health in order to be the last girl standing 😊
Things that made me smile, laugh, think, cry or curse this week
Smile & laugh
Seeing my mum and Molly finding their rhythm together and my mum telling me about all of Molly’s attitudes at the end of each day. They are just the cutest.
The dramatic skies over our new home - from stormy to beautiful sunrises and sunsets - and even the Northern Lights (wasn’t able to see them but a neighbour got some pictures!).
Being welcomed with a beautiful autumn-themed flower bouquet from the secretary of my new work place!
Receiving a 2 minutes explanation to a physics topic I was not getting just to end up still without more clarity while widely smiling and nodding because I could not bear shattering the enthusiasm and ease my new colleague just put into his explanation. Learning acoustics is going to be fun - said no one ever 🤣.
Think
How magical this time first with my dad and now with my mum is - and what kind of new bond it seems to be creating in a new parent-adult daughter relationship. We all have changed over the past 15 years since I moved out and it just seems we got to know each other in a so familiar, yet completely new way. I love you so much, Mama & Papa.
Cry & curse
Locking the door of our old flat for the very last time was one of the toughest moments I have been going through in my life. It felt like the most severest case of heartbreak for multiple days. There is nothing romantic or heroic about this very final stage of fully moving abroad and turning the last page of a story that spun across 12 years. I had moved to Karlsruhe at the age of 22 - for a job, that would define most of my 20s. The place that I got to know and love my husband and where we built our life together. The place that I called home and grew dear - maybe strangely even more during the last years when I was studying abroad. But I spent MORE time in Karlsruhe when being home than I had while working in my consulting job. Got more in touch with our direct neighbours of whom some became friends. I got reminded of this article I wrote a few weeks ago:
But now, I conclude differently: As humans, a life without places, people, routines, and yes, even material things that grow dear to us, to me, is not a life worth living. I want to deeply fall in love with the life I call mine, even though I know it is constantly changing. But we can’t feel all the love and excitement about the life we live without also grieving what we feel is “lost” when going through unavoidable change. And change is part of life. Because if we try to hard to hold on to things that belong to a chapter that is to be concluded, that’s when we get stuck by those very things that we used to love. Maybe it is not that we must reach some kind of a non-attached state of living (this feels kind of a numb state to me anyways). We must rather detach from idea that a life fully lived is about keeping attached to the very same things forever. That’s not how life works anyways. A life full of love and joy inevitably brings along grief at times. And that’s okay.
Up next
I am super stoked about the coming week, and I can’t even get how I can write this. But: I will be able to take this entire week to wrap my head around all the physics, maths and processes of calibrating a hydrophone to actually calculate how loud a sound underwater is. I know this sounds super geeky, but I am excited.
I even was given my own little Soundtrap (it’s like a hydrophone but more sophisticated) to play with and my supervisor left for vacation telling me: “You might even want to throw it into the harbour to get some recordings - just make sure to tie a rope around it SECURELY!”. Aye, Sir 🤣. I guess I will be anxiously sweating, afraid to lose it, but it is going to be fun (until I start crying because I still don’t get the physics 🤣)
Hug,
Yes! I read your piece and it was fun and informative. I never ever have had a chance to read from a scientist about their work and the excitement they were looking forward to. I sucked at math in high school, but physics was my fun. I skipped classes to goto the physics lab. You daily routine for now, was exciting, so I guess I a geek too. Yes! LoL I am so excited to learn about your work and how you go about it. Your energy and excitement about this has me thinking about your days and goings about. I know one thing, the times I was in Germany, life there was, to me, simpler and maybe easier. In a small town you can walk to whatever store to get your things for the day or whatever. I like how you take the train in to work. I wish we had that here in the states. Anyway, I could go one forever asking and looking for more of your work. THis was a very good one. THank you so much for sharing. THank you for all you do.
What a lovely routine you’ve built! Sometimes the simplest things in life are the most pleasant 💕
And congratulations on the publications! 🎉🎉🎉🎉