2010: Year In Review + Happy New Year!

The year 2010 was full of surprises and fun, much more so than I could’ve ever asked for, in many ways. The New Year’s Eve & Day were celebrated in a somewhat chaotic manner, a running theme for the entire year, waking up covered in bruises from a brutal (but fun) moshing gig at 4 a.m.

The first half of the year was spent pretty much being a social recluse, Winter Olympics and FIFA World Cup being partially responsible for the blame. Speaking of Winter Olympics, I was awed by one particular country’s team as they marched into the stadium during the opening ceremony, donned in their amazing team uniform-fur hats + pants covered in paisley prints. I had to look up the country since I had never heard of it and decided that I shall go there one day solely based on their awesome attire-now less than 11 months later, I’m here, writing this in Azerbaijan.

Did an extensive job searching all around the world since London wasn’t happening any time soon: came very close to moving to Wellington, New Zealand for a year, as well as Geneve, Switzerland but somehow in a very impulsive (yet highly characteristic) move, ended up coming to Georgia for three months. It was a lot more fun than I had expected: met some wonderful people who inspired me to enjoy traveling once again and enjoy making new friends-thank you for making me feel that I’m not too old to act myself, that I don't have to act all professional (or socially-acceptable for that matter).

For “personal improvement,” physical-wise, I started to work out every day in spring; my goal was to be able to go hiking and come out alive. I couldn’t stick to the gruesome routine, but became fit briefly, pulled my back, gained weight, exercised again, became fit again and the whole cycle continued and I’m back to the “gained weight” phase. I however, really appreciated the fact that I didn’t feel as bad as I had felt a year ago when I went hiking. For mental growth, I wanted to read at least one book a week-which became quite difficult once I left the States but I read quite a bit, reading mainly Russian Literature from the 17th & 18th century and Chuck Palaniuk. I also started to study for GMAT/GRE, and plan on taking the exam when I go back to the States for 2 weeks in March. Language-wise, I started to study French, which was confusing, then Russian out of necessity, which was plain devastating. Georgian just wasn’t happening.

The year’s final night ended in visiting a neighbor’s house, which perfectly demonstrates my cultural experience of this secular/agnostic Islamic country. Three girls danced scandalously in the brightly lit living room and invited me to join them so I showed my best uber-confused spasmodic moves. For some reason, we had paused for a bit and I asked the origin of their glorious camel sculpture. They proceeded to show me everything in the showcase and presented me with Koran in a decorative box. I thanked them and the hips continued to move in rather scandalous ways. It's raining now in Baku and I'm told it almost never rains this time of the year. I'm pretty sure my moves were blasphemous to some rain gods somewhere.Yep.

So there it is, my 2010 in review. Doing and experiencing many things for the first time. It was not exactly what I had planned-actually, it was nothing like what I had imagined, but it was what it was and I’m absolutely grateful for everything that’s happened.

The New Year’s Resolution for Year 2011 is “Assertiveness.” Seriously, I’ve been working on it for years now but I’m hoping that I can finally master the art of saying “no” this year. Also, I’ve been cheating on my “quit” policy and I’m hoping that from this year I won’t break it any more…autumn can be a tricky season-November was particularly brutal on my craving. Besides those two, the rest will be the same-read voraciously (17th and 18th Century Russian Literature, Edgar Allen Poe, Haruki Murakami, Herman Hesse, Kurt Vonnegut, Marquis de Sade, and Saki being on the list); study French and Russian, master Japanese, maintain Spanish; exercise regularly + eat healthy-I always found it challenging to stay fit while traveling, but I really have to work on it this year since I’ll be on the road for at least eight months.

Travel-wise, my luggage will see more mileage this year than ever and I’m both excited and vexed about it at the same time. I’m just hoping it will go well. If anything, I’ll be catching up with old friends as well as seeing relatively new ones around the world, so I’m quite looking forward to it. I’m also hoping to “settle down” by September for at least a year, mainly because I can use some stability at this point of my life (read: This is not a personal ad; I just want a home where I can store all my belongings haha)

For now, my schedule is somewhat set until August-traveling Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Nagorno Karabakh and Turkey until February 28th + another long layover in Munchen. I’ll have approximately two weeks until mid-March in the States during which time I have to fulfill my academic, filial, professional and social duties before taking off for another six months for work. That’s the tentative plan for this year, but who knows how it’ll turn out. Here’s to another great year-Happy New Year everyone!