2015 in Review

40,814 miles. 24 flights. 10 countries. 1 year. 2015 was a crazy, crazy year, and I know 2016 will be just as nuts. Is this a thing about getting older, or is it just me that the last few years seemed to push me noticeably farther than I was before? In any case, here's my 2015 in review. I managed to cross two places off my "Want to Visit" list (Seychelles and Vilnius, Lithuania), and I added Auckland, New Zealand, and Trondheim, Norway, to my list. Those two join the following 8 locations (at least one of which I am fairly confident I will cross off my list in 2016): Sydney, Australia; Cape Town, South Africa; Andorra la Vella, Andorra; Thimphu, Bhutan; Reykjavik, Iceland; Honolulu, Hawaii; Windhoek, Namibia; and Fogo, Cabo Verde. But enough about 2016...

Since this is going to be a long post and I don't know who, if anyone, will make it to the end, here's my video that makes me happy. Except it's about something sad. But it was a surprise, and surprises are good. Like a surprisingly good year (that works, right?). Talang Sverige, Sweden's version of the Got Talent franchise, found Jon Henrik Fjällgren, a Colombian-born adoptee into a Swedish Sami family. He sang this joik, a traditional Sami song, in honor of his recently-deceased friend Daniel. I listened to this a lot over the last few months, because you don't have to understand the lyrics to feel the passion:

One of my favorite shots of Comoros

I started January by taking another trip to five countries in Africa, including the four island countries in the Indian Ocean. It was fascinating to see the big differences between the four countries (Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, and Seychelles). Some of these differences are superficial, for example, how people look. Comorans are of African descent with a slight Arab twist; Malagasy are of Austronesian (i.e., Indonesian) descent; Seychellois appear to be primarily of European/Caucasian descent; and Mauritians are primarily of Indian descent. The cuisine in each country was different too, and overall, it was like going to four completely different worlds. Mauritius was by far my favorite, and I could definitely see myself going back there someday. Or retiring there. But really, just looking for an excuse to go back to Mauritius.
 

From the Top of the Fort in Port Louis

In February, my nephew was born. He was premature, so seeing him grow up over the last 10 months has been really amazing. It also doesn't hurt that multiple people over the last few months have mentioned that he looks like me. :) But overall, it's been great to see his personality develop as he gets older and can't wait to see what 2016 for him holds.

Don't you see the resemblance? :)

Briefly skipping ahead to December, I was so proud of myself for the Hanukkah/First Birthday present I got him. It was something that really only I could get him: children's books in foreign languages. I got him the following five books, which still makes me smile!

• La Oruga Muy Hambrienta (The Very Hungry Caterpillar, in Spanish)
• Harold et le Crayon Violet (Harold and the Purple Crayon, in French)
• לילה טוב ירח (Good Night Moon, in Hebrew)
• Как Лиса Получила Свой Цвет (How the Fox Got His Colors, in Russian)
• Njiro na Mshumaa (Njiro and Mshumaa, in Swahili)

So...moving on. March provided a heart attack, courtesy of the Georgetown Hoyas. After failing in March the last few years, receiving a 4-seed against a very dangerous 13-seed of Eastern Washington, a team many predicted to pull off upsets even before the bracket was announced, did not make me feel good. Thankfully Georgetown got a victory (yay for winning games in March!) and only lost in the Round of 32 to a talented Utah team. I can take that. I wouldn't have been able to take another disappointing loss.

April passed without much excitement. May brought on my 5-year Georgetown reunion. It's crazy to think that I graduated five years ago already. The reunion brought a few friends into town, and I think my favorite event was the super fancy party at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in downtown DC (it was once called "one of the most magnificent auditoriums in the country"). Not only was it a stunningly beautiful venue, but it was a nice reminder that we all may be in our late 20s, but we all also clean up very well. Overall, the reunion was a great chance to reconnect with college friends, including many I haven't seen in a long time.

My June (and early July) was subsumed by the awesomeness that was the 2015 Women's World Cup. Thankfully the women didn't give me too many scares, and it definitely is nice to cheer on a team that wins often and looks good doing it (ahem, Washington Redskins, that's a ding on you). I also really enjoyed cheering on what was probably the most underdog-y of underdogs in any major sporting event: the Thai Women's Soccer Team. You knew they were going to lose, which made every great thing they did seem all that much better. But my heart obviously lies with the US team, and I thoroughly enjoyed having a month to cheer on Abby Wambach, Alex Morgan, Sydney Leroux, and Christen Press. My four favorite players.

July and August passed without incident, but September brought heartbreak. Apparently I'm not destined to see Kelly Clarkson in concert. She was the opening act a year ago for Maroon 5, but ridiculous traffic on I-66 meant that me and my friends arrived only to hear her last song, which to be fair, was awesome. In September, I was supposed to see her at the beautiful outdoor venue, Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts. The weather on that day was perfect and it was going to be a great time, especially with Pentatonix opening for Kelly. Except, not long before the concert, Kelly's doctors told her to rest and the concert was cancelled. I feel like I need to give it a third try--three's a charm, right?--but after two disappointments, I don't know if I can stomach missing her concert another time!!!

Amazing Vistas in Phoenix

In October I started what seemed to be several weeks of nonstop traveling. I took a family vacation to Phoenix, Arizona, my first time in that part of Arizona. I was instantly smitten by the city, between the weather, the attitude of the locals, and the things to do. We did an afternoon in Scottsdale, a dinner up in Cave Creek, and a day trip up to Sedona. I did a cross-country road trip a couple of years back, and I had forgotten just how stunning the open scenery of the West/Southwest can be. So much of it seems unreal, but no, it is definitely real. And then to think that we have that in our backyard. Well, it's a large backyard, but it's still in the US. Very few other countries in the world can boast the amount of geologic diversity that the US can. Without a passport! :)

Riga, Latvia

November was my trip just for me, and what prompted me to resurrect the blog after a couple months away. It's not that didn't like writing, it's just that remembering to type up my thoughts without sounding ridiculous takes time. But travel is easy to blog about, because it's something so unknown. In any case, no complaints since I started up my blog again to talk about my trip to Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland. Three weeks for just over $1,500, thanks to airline miles and strategic planning (i.e., going to Eastern/Northern Europe about as off-season as possible). There were so many great experiences, from the people I met to bobsledding in Latvia. I learned a lot about myself and my abilities on that trip. I'm a planner, which served me well when I arrived in Lithuania at 9pm on a Sunday, with only one bus left to take me to downtown. I do well on my own, but being solo a lot is not fun. That's where being with others was so important. I was also in Latvia

Cathedral in Tallinn, Estonia

during the terrorist attacks in Paris, which brought me back to reality and made me think about why a terror attack in Paris was so much more jarring for me than attacks in other parts of the world, such as the Middle East and Africa. I can't speak for anyone else, but I realized it was an empathy versus sympathy issue. I empathized with Paris, I sympathized with others. Yet, having the attack happen in the middle of my vacation showed me that I need to keep living my life. Things can happen anywhere at anytime. All I can do is to enjoy the time I know I have right now.

And that's what I did in December. I went to the National Zoo's Zoo Lights, which turned 20-somethings into little kids, and I went to a cookie exchange where there was more chocolate than anyone could reasonably eat. I spent Christmas alone with SyFy movies (average IMDB rating of about a 2) and Lifetime movies (average IMDB rating of about 5). Overall, it was a great year, even if the end was tame and low-key. 24 flights proved to me that I LOVE airports, but not necessarily the in-the-air time as much, especially on a meh airline like SAS. I traveled to 10 foreign countries in two sets of five, and nine of those countries were for the first time. 2016 is setting up to be a really fascinating year that I hope to document on here (I hope not to forget about this blog!), so stick around.

And as a bonus, if you made it this far, here's another surprising audition, from the 2012 edition of Ukraine's X Factor. Aida Nikolaychuk has such a mesmerizing voice that they thought it was fake and asked her to sing the song a cappella. And she nails it.