For the non-native English speakers that read this, 'burning the candle at both ends' is a British phrase that means your working too much
and playing too much.
After a hardcore past 6 months, I went back to the UK for 5 days over Christmas, and although the flight was long (10 hours), thankfully there were no problems. And for those reading this from the UK, the fog over London that you suffered - it looked amazing from above.
During these 5 days I met up with many of my friends and family. It was a little hectic at times to make the most of this time, but I loved seeing all of you again and spending some quality time to catch up and chat. During this time I accidently walked into a lamppost, drunk many cups of English tea, enjoyed amazing food and decided what I want to do next year - on Christmas eve I decided that I'm going to apply to work for AIESEC Brazil next year, starting in the summer. Like when I applied for China, it's an incredibly scary option, but the most exciting opportunity I have and in my free time I can't stop thinking about it.
When I returned back to (another very exciting place) China, the team had some time off so for the next few days including new years eve Juan, Birtan and I partied hard (western style), getting in at 6am and waking up at 3pm three nights in a row, it was really cool but now my body clock has become even more odd, so I've had trouble sleeping and have been really tired in the past week. This weekend I need to catch up, but in the last week, I've managed to do some relaxing things like sitting in a cafe reading for hours, went to a golf driving range with Kitty at what was meant to be a networking event and today the team played pool together.
We went back to work this week, which was quite exciting but I've realised that I need to become more clear on what results I'm trying to drive, and make sure that I'm being as productive as I can be. I love what I do, but it's certainly not easy.
Now the team is back from their holiday travels and this morning we have a new member join the team, called Caio from Brazil. I've met him before at an international conference, he's really cool and has settled in very quickly, and what sealed the deal was when he showed us what we brought with him... Brazilian coffee - proper coffee!
7pm. Some of the team are having a few hours sleep, some are on the internet, and some are out having a facial massage. I'm going to try to download the Brazil application package, then grab an hour or two of sleep before going out for dinner, then to a club with the team. Tomorrow I'll sleep in, hopefully go ice skating on a lake, and spend some time with some cool people.
If you burn the candle at both ends, does this mean you have twice as much light in your life?