Laura Joy Land

The last time I made a firm new year's resolution and stuck to it was in 2006. I gave up all carbonated beverages for the year. I did it because I was so ashamed of my British teeth, and I did it because fizzy drinks make me bloated. I also did it to overcome my minor addiction to buying Cherry Cokes from the drinks machine outside my place of work. I was very proud of myself for sticking to that resolution for the whole year, minus one minor lapse in July when I sipped some excess Mr Pibb off the top of Jeff's drink at Pizza Shuttle... This year I have decided to make up for lost time by having multiple new year resolutions, which are... 1) Learn Indonesian! It appears to be a simple language to learn the basics of, and my kids love it when I tell them what words I have learned, so I have no excuse not to learn it. 2) Read at least two books each month, one for pleasure, one for work-related research. 3) Practice yoga every day. I could easily just bend over a...

"My young heart's in tatters and I'm sure that it will be a long time healing" Life gets mightily confusing sometimes. I am okay. In fact I'm more than okay. I am happy and so grateful for my life, past and present. But I am also hurting. There is a pain in my heart, a sorrow that can catch me unaware on an otherwise perfectly normal day. Other thoughts crowd me too. Thoughts of home. I daydream about moving back to Bristol, of being near my family and reconnecting with old friends. Living here is hard work. Learning about cultural differences is fascinating but it is also exhausting. I always have to assume that my actions and reactions are not perceived by those around me in the usual way and that how I perceive the actions and reactions of others will never be accurate. How can we form meaningful relationships with each other if we cannot understand each other? And yet somehow it is possible... After only 14 weeks here I'm sure these...