I think in the Official Spanish Frases Hechas Dictionary, my picture must be next to the entry for “Culo de Mal Asiento” which translates literally to “ass of bad seat.” Hi, I’m Dina, and I’m a culo de mal asiento. I’ve moved A LOT of times since I turned 18. I have had well over 20 roommates by now. I’m on my eleventh city. Apartments, I’ve completely lost count. I don’t feel weird about this at all, even though at times I would love a more stable lifestyle. I sort of feel like I was born for this. In fact, my parents told me that on our first family camping trip when I was a baby, I was wiggling on the picnic bench too much, and they kept telling me to sit still so often, that I said my first real sentence that day: “Sit still!”  Haha, that life mantra did not work out at all.

All this moving has helped me really embrace the minimalism movement that has swept the world with Marie Kondo’s life-changing book. Not only are my clothes much more organized, but moving day is always so easy for me with my small number of suitcases and not too many shoes or pots or pans. But the downside is starting over, looking for new people to befriend and activities to join, getting used to a new neighborhood, getting lost in yet another grocery store because I had just memorized where everything was in the last Mercadona. I barely even decorate my apartments anymore unless it’s with easily removable sticky stuff. So here I am in León with blank walls, wondering if this is going to be a long-term spot or if there will be more change in the future. This year I fully work from home, so this transition hasn’t been as easy as other times. Meeting people has taken more effort. I’m home all day long and have to force myself to go for walks or run errands just to leave the house. Well, I can’t forget that I have met people through Couchsurfing, my go-to meetup group in any new city!

Recently in the spirit of joining activities in a new place, I signed up for a photography group called Focus León which has meetups from time to time. Last night I packed up my newly acquired Canon 100mm 2.8 macro lens and my trusty 24mm 2.8 lens and headed off to the monthly Night Photography meetup where I snapped a few interesting shots while playing with white balance.

 Also, this week I officially started my UI Design course which will involve using various design tools to  create responsive designs for the web. In the first week I’m learning all about goal-centered design, atomic design (how websites are broken down into tiny components), and interaction design principles. The coursework is intriguing and I’m finding myself spending evenings sucked in for hours completing assignments with no awareness of the passing of the time. For my first project, I had to create an icebreaker graphic. I compared my own graphic to the other students’ work and felt a little behind – I’m nearly 35 and just starting to learn these things, and my career path (and life path!) looks nothing like anyone else’s. I have to put aside the “I’m an old grandma” anxiety and know that these are things I enjoy learning and will put long-term effort into! I’m publicly committing myself to NOT be a culo de mal asiento with creativity, design, and photography. Now, back to idealista.com…. 😉