The Best of 2012

Well. It's 7pm on New Year's Eve. Elliot and I are relaxing at home, listening to the sound of the rain pound against our windows and slightly (so slightly) drown out the pops! and booms! and whistles of (legal) fireworks. (It sounds like a warzone.)

This year has been incredible. Full of excitement, stress, love, change, happiness, and general emotion! Started the year with a short trip to South Africa to see dear friends. In February we checked out Carnival in Maastrict and went ice-skating on a lake in Rotterdam. In March, Elliot graduated from his MBA program, we packed up our Rotterdam life and moved home to California, via India for 3 weeks (why not?). Back in the Bay, we finished planning a wedding and then we got married, surrounded by our dearest friends and family from all over the world. It was the most wonderful day of my life. A week before the wedding, Elliot got a job offer and a month later, we said goodbyes and moved again--to Amsterdam. A couple Dutch beach trips, many bike rides, a couple boat rides, and 2 temporary apartments later we were 'home' once again. Fall came quick. I took a break from job-hunting and met a friend in Rome, and another in Paris. Leaves fell, my parents visited, and Elliot turned 30 and finished his first running race. As the cold Dutch winter started setting in, we visited friends in Paris and it was my turn for a 30th birthday. After a lot of hard work, I finally got a job and life just got a lot busier! The first snow came, and then Christmas brought Elliot's mom over to Amsterdam. Holy cow, that made me exhausted.

7 countries. 47 train trips. 2 cross-country moves.  1 graduation. 4 apartments. 3 weeks in India. 1 wedding.

 

But here we are! Another year ahead. What will it bring? What new memories will we make? Every year, I think: how did that go so fast? How can we slow it down? Even just a little? Every year I'm utterly perplexed that it's already December 31. I read a great idea the other day: take a large Mason jar and when something happens through the next year, write a quick note about it and add it to the memory jar. Great idea! I still need to think about some projects and goals for 2013. Any good ideas out there?

See you in 2013! Gelukkig nieuwjaar! Happy New Year!

That's right: Africa!

Back in November during Thanksgiving dinner, Anél and I were crying our eyes out over parting ways in a month. To our amazement, our wonderful neighbor from our old apartment who is a KLM flight attendant, offered to see if she could hook us up with a visit to the southern hemisphere. A couple weeks later, she called and said she got the flight--Elliot and I would fly stand-by on January 27 for a non-stop, 11-hour flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. We couldn't pass it up.

Well, the day finally came. We went with Ilonka to Schiphol and crossed our fingers. We definitely got on and the crew was so kind that they even upgraded us. And we got to visit the cockpit!! I haven't done that since I was, like, 7 years old. We had such an amazing time on the flight that we weren't ready to get off the plane when we finally landed (or maybe that was the wine). Thank you, Ilonka! :)

Anél and Hertzog were at the airport when we arrived. It was surreal seeing eachother ... in Africa! Since we only had 3 nights and 4 days, we had a jam-packed schedule ahead. We spent the first two nights with Anél's lovely family in Pretoria. We visited a lion and rhino preserve, spent time with baby lions, and braai'd our brains out. And I thought Americans love their meat! On Sunday, we headed to Hertzog's family house, and where they are living as well, about an hour away. Believe it or not, we had two more braai's there, went antique shopping, took the boat out for a sunset spin, and even got some good pool time. We also saw the land they bought and plan to build a house on soon; and Hertzog took us on a tour of his family's steel factory.

I had such a great time just seeing and experiencing their life in South Africa. This whole year, I've heard from Anél about all these places and people -- and now I got to see them in person. Plus, this was Elliot's first time to the southern hemisphere. I gotta tell you, there's nothing like seeing the Southern Cross. It's just so romantic--at least that's what my mom says. And it's true. There's just something about it.

Plus, ever since returning from California the temperature has been dropping every day. It was 26ºF out when we got on the plane in Amsterdam ... and 74ºF when we got off in Jo-burg!

The Van Der Linden family, in Pretoria

getting ready for Saturday morning breakfast with the whole family

Father and daughter

 The Voortrekker Monument, built in 1949, to commemorate those who ventured from the Cape to Pretoria

 Blue crane, South Africa's national bird