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⚘ Bisdak 🇵🇭 figuring out life in #Munich 🇩🇪
✨ Manifesting wholistic happiness: 💶🏝🧠🏃🏽‍♀️📚💪🏽
💌 backpackingwithabook@gmail.com

𝐉𝐨𝐧𝐚 👋🏽 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐲 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐬
It started with a 10-minute guided meditation I fo It started with a 10-minute guided meditation I found on Spotify.

Every morning, the past three weeks, the first three things I do right when I wake up: brush my teeth, make tea, and do my 10-minute intention setting. And I am surprised how well it worked for me.

With just ten minutes, I become so aligned with the things I have been struggling to achieve for years.
Now,
1. I diary right after my meditation
2. Work out
3. Clean the apartment
4. Shower
5. Deep-work on deadlines with a 1-hr timer on
6. Walk, forest-bathe, and read by the river
7. Deep-work some more

Hence the Instagram silence😅😂. I am not making any money on IG, so. 

But I will push through some IG projects like SEO series, digital nomadism, and money stuff. How have you been? 

Did you miss my silliness? 🤪😜
Home, the physical aspect of it, requires frequent Home, the physical aspect of it, requires frequent trips to plant shops, affordable decor stores, charity shops, and most importantly, a frequent visit to creativity, and imagination.
I got envious of the kids in the hood. So I did th I got envious of the kids in the hood. So I did the same. 😳 Also it is very refreshing after sunbathing for an hour.
A much-needed me time. I’m glad A started going A much-needed me time.

I’m glad A started going to the office on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have the entire apartment on my own. It feels good. 😌☺️ Only humans who love being alone can relate to the feeling. My people, where you at? 
*
I’m almost done with Meiko Kawabata’s Breasts and Eggs, and it goes straight to the I-wish-I-wrote-this-book.
*
Less stupid reels for now. Too focused on things that matter. 🤪😂🤣
This is quite a hit among Munichians. A part of #I This is quite a hit among Munichians. A part of #Isar River that has deep parts for quick swims, perfect for summer. And yes, rivers here are well-protected, hence they are clean and swimmable. ☺️
#weideninsel #münchen #travel #munich #isarmünchen #münchencity #muenchen #muenchenliebe
I’m here again with my stupid #reels. Hello, I’m Jona, for years, I have five incurable obssessions: travel, making my own money, books, cats, and plants. 

Hi from our home office with @anumalei’s artwork gracing our wall.

How about you? What are your obsessions? And how much money do you spend for it?
Every relationship that ends, as Jack Gilbert wrot Every relationship that ends, as Jack Gilbert wrote, reaches the peak of its triumph.

Past relationships always help us know more about ourselves, who we really are, and who we wanna be with, if we actually  wanna be with someone. Because not being with someone is totally awesome too. 

And indeed I’m way more thankful that the past relationships did not work out.  I realize I am happy alone. I realize that I do not need relationships to have a fulfilling, happy life. 

When my second relationship reached the peak of its triumph long before I accepted that there was no way for this to work out, that there was no other way but downhill (I wrote a poem about this right at the beginning of the relationship 😂🤣), I came to terms with my nonnegotiables.

I do not mind living, growing old alone, so why would I compromise my nonnegotiables? 

#relationships #happiness #friedrichshafen #germany #travel #travelgermany #germanytourism 

*

Friedrichshafen, which I always have to associate with fried, rich, shafen (even though the German pronunciation is so far off from the English one), has this rich German vibe. While Konstanz is where the young ones stay, Friedrichshafen is mainly appealing to the upper middleclass. 

We just stayed here for a night, as a kind of introduction to Ambros’ teenage life (no, Ambros is not rich 😂🤣; most of his friends are🤣😂). I would choose #Konstanz over Friedrichshafen.
If I live my life based on what people say or migh If I live my life based on what people say or might say, that would be a sad and terrifying life. 

Got flabs, but want to wear a bikini or tight clothes, go for it.

Have uneven skin tone, but want to wear skin-revealing clothes, go for it.

Got cellulites, folds, scars, stretch marks? Those are normal. Do not let photoshopped photos, very angled bodies, and media say that you cannot wear these clothes because you do not have the “ideal body type.”

Do not forget “ideal” changes over time.
Do not adhere to this bullshit.

Wear the clothes that make you feel you, that make you feel sexy, that make you smile.

It’s your life, it’s your body.

We advocate for kindness all the time. 
Let's start with our own body. Be kind to and with it. Our body, after all, has done a lot for us. Do not limit its functions on the curated feed you see on social media. 

Instead of comparing our bodies with befores and afters, let us all learn to accept the different versions of our body. Instead of before and after, say, this is me and this is also me. I accept both. 

I'm not any wiser, but at 36, I learned body acceptance and confidence are sexy too. ;-)
Photo diary. In the true fashion of oversharing m Photo diary.

In the true fashion of oversharing my life to my friends, frenemies, enemies, and strangers alike, every Sunday I will dump filterless photos and thought farts until I do not have the energy to do it anymore. 

1.	My lovely summer beach towel and dress bought in Brunei in February 2020, right before most countries bolted their borders. I tagged along in Ambross business trip and explored a bit of western Germany, mainly Konstanz and Friedrichshafen.
2.	Any Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli fan knows the consistent boat plane themes in most of his works. I really thought those boat planes were born from his own imagination. Until I saw the real flying thing in Munich, and there are many in Bodensee. Meet Ferdinand Zeppelin, the man behind boat plane engineering. 
3.	Do not expect a decent photo of the partner in this space. He will not have any of this social media nonsense.
4.	The gorgeous evening light in Konstanz. In the hunt for dinner, which turned out to be Greek. 
5.	A: You’re becoming more Asian. 
Me: I know, but isn’t this Bluetooth super-light travel tripod amazing? Got the idea from @normalise.acne—a really cool Swedish-Filipino I met in Split, Croatia. 
6.	An evening scene in Rhine River in Konstanz. It is so gorgeous and romantic it makes me want to move there. 
7.	Brown and happy. I normally worked in the morning, walked to the river in front of Ambros’ workplace, trained my eyes to observe my surroundings (you would not know with the amount of semi-stupid reels I have been posting these days) to write better, to encapsulate real people and happenings in words.
8.	Books bought in @ravensbuch. Siri Hustvedt always delivers nuanced, poignant, eloquent, informed, personal prose on feminism. I highly recommend her. I have not read Xiaolu Guo. I hope it is good. I’m always down for the Asian experience outside our native country. If you want to delve into this kind of literature, I got a list I can surely share.
I love us. #igat I love us. #igat
If I live my life based on what people say or mig If I live my life based on what people  say or might say, that would be a sad and terrifying life. 

Got flabs, but want to wear a bikini or tight clothes, go for it.

Have uneven skin tone, but want to wear skin-revealing clothes, go for it.

Got cellulites, folds, scars, stretch marks? Those are normal. Do not let photoshopped photos, very angled bodies, and media say that you cannot wear clothes because you do not have the “ideal body type.”

Do not forget “ideal” changes over time.
Do not adhere to this bullshit.
Wear the clothes that make you feel you, that make you feel sexy, that make you smile.

It’s your life, it’s your body.
There are three different routes to fund your cost There are three different routes to fund your cost of living in #Germany.

1. Scholarship. Check out @daad_worldwide’a website for scholarships. It also makes sense to scout for information on private scholarships. If you are working in the academe, chances are the university can loan you money. 

My former employer University of the Philippines works that way: allow their teachers to study abroad, fund their studies, and they come back to the Philippines and apply their studies to the local learning and academic communities.

2. Sponsorship. A letter of guarantee, normally from a German citizen, that explicitly mentions that they gonna help you fund your life in Germany.

3. Blocked account. The law mandates a €10600 deposit in a blocked account. I use @fintiba, and it automatically transfers about €800 every month into your local bank. Or in my case, to my @wiseaccount. This amount covers all the essentials in your life in German. Of course, this is the most expensive way of doing it. 

But I went for this route. If you got money anxiety that makes you sleepless at night, having a blocked account is a kind of reassurance that you will not be homeless for the next month.

The entire first year is covered. And luckily, I found a part-time job within my first three months in Munich. So yeah, life in Munich is financially and comfortably covered in the first year.

Got questions. Ask them away. #lifeingermany #studygram #studyingermany
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