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19 things making me smile today
A daily Dili dose of dopamine. Working quietly and alone, upstairs at Black Box, steady on a Monday morning Crisp local cucumbers ready for pickling in a pink plastic bowl New-to-me Tetun idioms; that fickle guy’s an ai-kakeu, the tree that moves with the wind Taking selfies with the chic dressed-up women in the orange office…
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14 things living overseas has taught me about myself
A few weeks ago, I asked on my Instagram, as I do sometimes, what people would like to know about my life here in Timor-Leste. One reply: What have you learned about yourself moving overseas? I loved this question; I hated this question. It may surprise you to hear that a girl who’s published 192 sodden,…
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One way foreigners can help
Hi! If you’ve come here curious from Dili Expats, I’d love it if you could please read this whole post, including its post-script, before making a comment on that Facebook post. This blog is 1,044 words long, which will take you between four and five minutes to read. The last time I was back…
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A letter to myself, 749 days ago
Dear Sophie, Hello, from 2019 — it’s 4:41pm on a Thursday after Indonesian class, you’re sitting up at Castaway with the sea breeze coming in and the light just starting to fade and blush over the esplanade, and you’re thinking, as you have been lately, about comings and goings. You’ve lived in Timor-Leste for about seven…
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Homegoing
Last night, on beach road outside Esplanada, as two carfuls of middle-aged Australian men hauled their suitcases out from the tray of the Hilux and shook strong handshakes, the bespectacled professor turned to me. We’d spent two days bumping through the hills and holes of Manatuto together on a project review field trip, and I’d…
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My landmarks in learning Tetun
A couple of weeks ago, my friend Laura and I signed up for Indonesian language classes. This surprised a couple of people, who asked us, fairly, why. We replied that we thought it would be fun; that we thought the language would be useful for us, and it’s got hundreds of thousands of speakers here…
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Two birthday cakes: on perspective and sweetness
When I first moved to Dili I lived in a little green house in a compound just around the corner from where I do now. It sits behind a small electricity kiosk, which was run by a couple, Fredi and Angelina, who lived with their two small kids in the compound. I used to make…
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My cheesy Timor soundtrack
“I’m trying to hold… my breeeeath…” Has anyone seen The Greatest Showman? I have not. But this song from the film, called ‘Never Enough’. I think I’ve heard about forty times and its lyrics, which start with this one dramatic line, I could probably recite by heart. Because one day a couple of months ago,…
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Practical tips for living in Dili
Over the two-ish years I’ve been writing on this blog, I’ve covered topics from anxiety and anorexia to Dili market shopping, catching microlets, and what to do when work forgets to invite you to the workshop. As I’ve mentioned several times, I started this blog partly to record my new life abroad for friends and…
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The Timor-Leste list
Would I be my giant sooky self if I didn’t make an ambitious list of final things to do before I leave Timor-Leste? I made a similar list at the end of the the year-ish I spent living in Melbourne — a long, thorough, and consulted list, peppered with suggestions from friends who loved and…
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Sophie Rai Liur 