Dear readers, 2016 is almost over! There are only a few hours left here in France, but the day is just beginning for all of my family and friends back home in Nebraska. I think we can all agree when I say what. a. year. It may have been a trash fire of a year for the United States and for a lot of the rest of the world, but for me it was really my best year so far. I’ve put together some of my favorite moments from the last 366 days, and hopefully can keep this from being too lengthy. Let’s rock.
Travel This was the big one for this year, obviously! I packed my bags and moved to France to teach English. Since then, I’ve made my way around the region and visited many of the nearby towns. I was also able to go to Paris with one of my best friends, and to Amsterdam with my boyfriend. Back at home, there were some fun trips taken to San Diego, Austin, and Chicago. It was definitely the most I’ve ever been able to pick up and go to new places, and I’m hoping that 2017 will hold even more adventures.
Food
Ah, food. You know I love French food so far, but I also really enjoy trying new recipes and practicing my cooking skills. Earlier this year, I attempted a Whole 30 with decent perseverance (I remember something about a horrific realization that my guacamole had a secret sugary ingredient). This forced me to try a lot of new food combinations, as I couldn’t have any sugar, wheat, legumes, alcohol, or nuts. Certainly a mental and physical challenge, but well worth it I found. Other adventures in food this year included many many tacos and margaritas, getting into air-roasted coffee and grinding it myself, a sea salt bagel in Austin, and literally everything I’ve eaten in France.
Books A bookworm through and through, I adore Goodreads. It’s a social media site centered around…books…and helps you keep track of and categorize everything you’ve read. One of the best things to me about the site is that it has a yearly reading challenge. I guess I compete best against myself, because I found myself checking after every book I finished how much closer I was to my goal (so lame, I know, but it tells you if you’re ahead or behind for the year and puts all of the covers together in a grid…help me I’m a nerddddd). I didn’t finish my challenge for 2016, but I read much more than I would have otherwise. My two absolute favorites of the year were No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy and The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Here’s hoping I can take advantage of all my free time during the remainder of my stay in France and read much much more.
Music I didn’t go to as many shows this year as I normally do, and the list is pretty sad: Purity Ring, Surfer Blood, and Justin Bieber (LOL). A major shout-out to my number one song of the year: Tilted by Christine and the Queens. I was introduced to this song during my birthday visit to Strasbourg, and it’s basically been on repeat ever since. Albums on heavy rotation included Depression Cherry by Beach House, Skin by Flume, 22, A Million by Bon Iver, and ACT ONE by Marian Hill.
Personal moments, aka the humblebrag section I received a French student recognition award in the spring for my work during the 2015-2016 school year, which was especially nice as I hadn’t seen my fellow students or professors since graduation in December last year. I was accepted to TAPIF (haha, didn’t you know?), fulfilling the last three years of work toward one of my biggest goals. I celebrated my golden birthday in Strasbourg and with a little party thrown by my colleagues. I focused a lot more on my physical fitness and completed another Nike+ running challenge this summer, beat all of my old personal records, and went to an awesome yoga class at my gym every week for about six months.
This was truly my year to challenge myself and go after what I wanted 100%. I hope you all also had fulfilling and happy moments throughout 2016, here’s to 2017 being even bigger and better.
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