I was surprisingly disorientated at the beginning of this year because at the end of last year it seemed like I had everything sorted, a job, a house, house mates and a plan. When my working visa got rejected I tried to remain positive but I was really depressed for a while there.

I ended up going to a meditation retreat in the middle of January and it helped me significantly. I was ready again to welcome all sorts of positive energy into my life and started to realise why things had happened the way they had.

In early February, just after my birthday, I was feeling very calm and back in touch with my intuitive self, something I hadn't been in a long while. I felt good, healthy and calm. It was in this state and surrounded by friends that I met someone very, very special. Shortly after we met little signals started popping up and it soon became undeniable that we were supposed to be together this lifetime. I had met the soul mate I had agreed to share this lifetime with.

At the end of February I was working briefly in the UAE at the Education Without Borders Conference. While there I landed a job offer to work in Dubai. It sounded like a great opportunity and although a little out of my previous experience, I was up for the challenge. So was my new partner.

As it turns out, the job offer was really dodgy and so I eventually said no. My partner and I decided that we would still move to Dubai however, because we had heard from several sources that money was phenomenal there.

In May we left Aus and set off for Dubai on a round-the-world ticket that would have us stop in California, New York and Berlin before landing in the UAE. We were able to catch up with many friends in the States, visit Disneyland, volunteer in Mexico, club in Hollywood and go on a road trip to San Fransisco, all before hitting the sites in New York. While in California my partner and I also decided to get engaged and it was in Times Square, New York that we exchanged rings to a crowd of delighted, cheering onlookers!

Next stop was Berlin. We ended up resolving that life in the States and Berlin was a lot more liberal than what we were anticipating life in the UAE to be and so it was in Berlin that we found ourselves settling.

We have now found jobs (after much hunting) with a tour company and are having lots of fun meeting new people and commenting on cultural differences. We know that the jobs we are in are not enough to keep us here but for now at least, we are out of options.

And so friends, it is in Berlin that we find ourselves at the end of the first 6 months of 2007.

Right now we are off to Amsterdam for a birthday weekend adventure and who knows what is in store for us ahead???

Hope your first half of the year has been splendiferous!

Kristiana