I can’t believe it’s already February. Too late for a “Happy New Year” now, sorry about that. I hope you all had a good start to the year. It’s been quite a while since I’ve been active on this blog (exactly one year since the last post actually), but I’d like to get back to blogging from time to time. No promises though!

Let’s start with a look back on 2022.

2022

I don’t think there’s any argument against 2022 being a shitty year for the world as a whole. I really hope that 2023 will be better.

But for me personally, it’s been pretty good. The year started off with a week in Denmark with my friends. In addition to Denmark in the summer, we’re now doing another trip in the winter. This was the first one though and it was a much smaller group - only eight people. It was a fantastic start to the year though.

Right after that I got sick, as I often do after these trips. Not COVID though (yet - spoiler alert). At the end of February, just before my birthday, I went to Norway again. This is becoming something of a tradition and I love it. We went snowboarding, cross-country skiing at the cabin, ass-sliding, and more. Basically the only videos of any substance I’ve made this year are about that trip: Part 1 (6:33 - just my trip there) and Part 2 (16:43 - the actual video, please watch it!).

April was a pretty quiet month, but it was also the start of something that shaped the rest of the year: I signed up for a gym membership and started going to the gym regularly. I started with two to three times a week, but as the year went on I went more and more, sometimes five times a week. I also got back into bouldering and climbing, and especially towards the end of the year I had weeks where I was either at the gym or bouldering every single day. I think I’m stronger now than I’ve ever been in my life. It’s not perfect though - I’ve been neglecting cardio, so that’s a big weakness right now. But it’s still a big accomplishment for me, especially the fact that I’ve been able to pick it up easily after every single trip. I guess I’ve been able to build up a very strong habit where it’s much harder NOT to do it. 💪

In May, I went on a solo trip to Lisbon, Portugal. The first week was great. I explored a lot of the city, went surfing for the first time in my life, met some nice people at the Airbnb, and even went to a board game night. Then I got COVID and had to spend the rest of the trip in isolation. Oops. I was sick for about two days, then mostly just bored and a little depressed and anxious.

My mood and mental state improved a lot after I got back from Portugal and jumped on a flight to Norway less than two days later. Yes, Norway is now also twice a year. We have a small group of friends (nine this time) who try to make it happen every summer. It was amazing again and we had a great time!

In July I spent a week in Vienna, Austria. I happened to choose the hottest days of the year, with temperatures up to 38ºC, so I took it a little easier there. I stayed with a friend and we had a great time together. (I was really glad about that because we didn’t know each other that well before and I asked her on a whim if I could visit her). I also met two other friends there, which was really nice. Great trip!

In August, something really big happened for me: I moved out. I had lived in that apartment for over ten years, ever since I started studying here in Göttingen. It wasn’t that I didn’t like living with my roommate and the cats (I miss them a lot), but I felt a bit stuck in my life and needed a change. Also, I was getting more and more socially active and living out of town was pretty inconvenient. I was able to find a nice apartment in the center of Göttingen. Everything went pretty fast and I officially moved in the middle of August. It took a while to get used to living alone, but I like it a lot. I’ll be making a (late) apartment tour video soon, so stay tuned for that!

Also in August, I finally went to a LAN party again! For those who don’t know, I’ve been going to these small Nintendo-focused LAN parties here in Germany every year since 2006. That’s crazy. 2020 was the first year I didn’t go (because they were all canceled), so I was glad that they made it happen again in 2022. A lot of the people I know there are people I only meet there, so I haven’t seen some of them in three years. I am really grateful that I was able to finally meet them again.

At the end of August, my friends Helmut and Johanna from Norway came to visit me in my new apartment and it was amazing! One of the great things about living in the center of Göttingen is that you have access to a ton of great ice cream places, and we certainly took advantage of that. I was only able to do that at the end of the summer, so I’m really looking forward to this summer.

This visit continued with our summer trip to Denmark with the large group in September. For the first time in many years, we chose a different vacation home than usual - one that was much more modern and also closer to Germany. As always, we had a great time. Lots of swimming in the ocean, board games, Mario Kart, sauna, and so on. I’m so grateful that we can do this every year and that I have such a great group of friends that there are usually no (serious) conflicts, even though there are sometimes up to 30 people in one house.

October had another LAN party, another visit from a friend, and some really nice surprise summer days at the end of the month.

November was a quiet month. My friend Josefine came to visit, which was really nice, but otherwise nothing much happened. I started taking yoga classes to balance out the weight training a bit, and I think I will keep doing that, at least once a week.

December was also very quiet for the most part. After Christmas, Johanna and Helmut came to visit again and stayed until the new year. We also had a pretty big New Year’s party at a friend’s place, the biggest one since COVID started. It was a really nice way to end the year 2022.

Verdict: Personally, it was a great year for me!

2023

As I mentioned before, the winter trip to Denmark is becoming a regular thing for us, so that’s how the year started. The house was meh, but the trip itself was great again. Lots of board games, daily walks, I even went into the ocean twice!

Nothing else of note happened for the rest of January, so the question is: What’s next?

Very soon I’ll be back in Norway to visit Johanna and Helmut again. I’m looking forward to a fun time with lots of board games, snowboarding, a cabin trip and more. I even bought my own snowboard! It’s pretty old and far from perfect, but I think it will be fine. If we go three to four times while I’m there, I’ll have already saved money compared to renting.

My summer will be pretty busy. There’s another trip to Norway planned for June with the larger group. Some other friends have invited me on a trip that will probably be around July. August will be the big summer trip to Denmark again, as well as a LAN party. And then in September, I’m currently planning to go back to Japan for an extended vacation! Can’t wait for that. 🙂

I’m thinking of doing a separate post (or video) about yearly themes, looking back at last year’s theme and talking about this year’s theme, but I think this year will be the Year of Learning for me. To be honest, I haven’t given it much thought yet, so there’s not much to say for now.

That’s all from me. How was your 2022? What are your plans for 2023? I hope you are doing well!

Feel free to hit me up on Mastodon (and consider joining a Mastodon server if you’re not on there yet) and please subscribe to my YouTube channel! No promises yet, but I definitely want to upload more this year than last (which shouldn’t be too hard lol).

Have a great weekend and see you soon! 👋