Another year in the books

Well hello 2018!  I can't believe 2017 is over and done with already, but I can't say I'm sorry to see it go.  It was a rough year for me professionally - The Company restructured about 18 months ago and I'm still struggling with how I fit in to the new layout, which has led to a lot of sleepless nights and a general malaise.  I've been trying to focus on the perks of my job and how lucky I am to have made it this far in life to have work that I love - but at times it's been a struggle.

I have gotten to do some pretty cool stuff this year though -in the first quarter of 2017, I traveled to Egypt, Germany, Thailand, Japan and Poland. We spent a very romantic Easter weekend in Venice.  After that I went to the UK, Norway, South Africa and China.  Then Hungary, Japan again and Marseille/Cassis for our anniversary. 

Back to Japan for a third time in the fall (didn't realize I went there 3x this year!), where I had some free time to do some cool sightseeing in Hiroshima and Kyoto, and then it was off to Zambia followed by India.  And somehow interspersed between all of that were 4 trips to the US, which allowed me to spend some precious quality time with our newborn niece and to attend multiple family events (a bachelorette party, a wedding, a christening, etc).  I guess now looking back on it all, it's easy to see how the year went by in a flash - most of it was spent on a plane lol. 

And funnily enough, I'm writing this from Rio de Janeiro.  On the Friday before Christmas, I was asked "Is there anyway you could go to Brazil on Tuesday for three weeks?".  I was like "As in Tuesday in a few days?? Umm....let me check".   I didn't want to spend that much time apart from C (nor miss New Year's together), so I quickly asked him to see if he could get time off from work at the last minute, and here we are - ringing in a very unexpected New Year's in Rio.  Thank goodness for visa-free travel to Brazil with French passports.

It's been interesting here - Brazil is not necessarily a country I would have visited on my own, but I guess it's one more to scratch off on my map.  C will be heading home soon and then I'll be flying out to the countryside, which will likely be a whole new adventure in itself...

I don't really have any resolutions for 2018 - I just want to find some way to be happy and healthy.  And I wish you all the same!

2015 in review

I haven't been inspired to do much blogging this year, but it is nice to have an "end of the year" post on record.  2015 went by in a flash for me, probably because I spent most of the year jumping around time zones.  I made 10 (or actually maybe 11?) trips to Asia, and traveled to a few new countries, including South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines.  There were also a few trips to the US in there, and several in Europe (UK, Italy, plus Turkey if that counts).

My biggest concern this year with all the travel was maintaining a healthy relationship, and I'm happy to say I think we did a pretty good job of handling all the trips abroad. I've said it before, but I'm so lucky that C is supportive of my career, and he put a lot of effort in to making sure the time we had together was quality time. There is no way I could do what I do without him. (And thank God for Skype and Google Hangouts).

Next year will bring less Asia travel, so unfortunately my new-found chopsticks skills will go to waste, but there will likely be several exploratory work trips to Russia & India. I'll also be making more trips to the US.  It's kind of funny, because we have gotten used to C being able to come with me on trips whenever we felt like it, but with his new job, he's back to 'only' 5 weeks of vacation. It seems like so much at first, but then when you start looking ahead to what I've got coming up in 2016, those 5 weeks get used up so fast!

One resolution I had in 2015 that I wasn't able to keep was attempting to enlarge our social circle. Almost all of our close friends have up and left Paris, so I'm left with a lot of acquaintances but not many good friends.  There are so many interesting people out there doing interesting things, and I'd love to get to know them better, but my work schedule has made it difficult.  Making new friends requires a lot of up-front time investment, and people eventually get tired of hearing "Sorry, I'm out of town again" and they stop calling. So I'm renewing this one as a challenge to myself in 2016.

I'd also like to continue making my health a priority.  All that travel makes maintaining my weight extremely challenging (there's always so many new things to try!), but a lot of hotels in Asia have gyms, so that helped this year.  It likely won't be the case in many places I'll go next year, so I'll have to be creative.  YouTube is amazing though for finding workouts you can do in a hotel room (or at home), plus I always have my TRX bands with me.  And likely a bout or two of the unavoidable food poisoning in India will help keep things under control. ;)

Anyways, 2015 wasn't my favorite year due to a lot of work frustrations, but C & I made some great memories together, and I am overall looking forward to 2016.