Nine for 2009

There are only a few days of 2009 left...and since I haven`t really been blogging (but have really missed it!) I thought I`d make a list of 9 things that occured in my life during 2009 (although really - a more appropriate number would be 19...)

1. I went to Los Cabos for the first time. I didn`t like that part of Mexico – or the company that I went with (said company was subsequently eliminated from my life).

2. I failed Advanced Financial Accounting...for the second time. Or is it the third time now? I`ve lost track, I think...I don't know...I don't do numbers. ;)
3. I went on a girl’s trip to Las Vegas. Enough said. (Ok...we were behaved...but only because one of us got knocked up before we left.....ahem...)

(The t-shirts had to be edited posting...well...because they did. :O )

4. I changed jobs – I went from a fairly every day routine job – into one that challenges me like I never thought a job could. I have hard moments...hours...days... but I absolutely love it.

5. I trained and successfully completed a 200km bike ride in the Canadian Rockies to raise funds for cancer – only crying once...and never once thinking that I would give up. (Okay...maybe just once). With the help of my family and friends - I raised over $5,000 for cancer treatment and research. I was in a group with three others (Team Chemosabe) and we raised almost $20,000.

6. I purchased my first solo home –

which I lived in for a total of three weeks before...
7. I moved to Madagascar

8. I fell in love with Madagascar...





And...I`ve saved the best for last...

9. I started a blog. It started out as somewhere to document my MG research...and then journey...and to keep in touch with my family. And now it’s something that people I don`t even know look forward to reading. Just typing that seems weird to me.

The funny thing is – all throughout school I was always told that I couldn`t write. And...maybe I can`t. I can`t write an essay discussing the major theme of Great Gatsby in a thousand words and I can`t write about what I thought of The Lost Boys...
But – what I can write about is my (sad and happy) feelings, thoughts, near-nervous breakdowns, and amazing experiences while I learn to live in world that is so completely unfamiliar and foreign to most westerners (especially me!). And it’s turned into something so enjoyable for me to do as well as form of therapy. Now I totally understand why people keep journals.

(And sometimes...it’s just a place for me to put up cool pictures of myself doing goofy things (the self portrait of me and the horse resorted in some serious horse-snot on my gloves... have to remember to wash those today...))

I NEVER would have imagined any of this would happen (okay...maybe the Advanced Financial was a given...) so I can`t even dream what 2010 will bring. I have no expectations...guesses...anything. But...I can`t see it being anything short of amazing.

Happy (early) New Year Everyone. Can`t wait to share it all with you.