The New Year and the Past Year

So, another new year has some and the old has past. I feel a bit like I've shed an old skin to become shiny and new again as I enter a dry January. Reflecting on the year I did a number of fun things and overall it was a pretty good year with mostly successes and forward movement, but most importantly joy in family and friends.

The year started off with Aya and her family in Japan, chilling with my niece and nephew and playing in the snow as well as drinking sake' with the uncles at night. A pretty good start. In the spring we travelled again, to Macau, to meet up with some old friends and revisit a city we had been to about a decade before. It was cool to be back again and regain some of those old memories as well as do some new exploring.
In the summer I was back to Wisconsin to see family, which is always great, but also got to meet up with all of my old gang from high school, which was very cool. It only took a few minutes of knocking back beers before we were laughing at each other just like old times. It was really great to see what has become of everyone and know that they are all doing well and happy. I really hope that happens again soon as it hadn't happened for all of us at one time since our early 20's.

It was also in the summer that I travelled to Puerto Rico to volunteer with All Hands and then on to Seattle to train with Global Online Academy. Puerto Rico was, in many ways, heartbreaking. It was hard to be working in places that people were really hurt by the storm and it was hard to see the suffering of some people in Puerto Rico while on the mainland people had mostly forgotten that there was anything happening there. Going to Seattle my heart was heavy, but was soon lifted by the spirits of about 75 teachers from around the US and the world meeting in the beautiful woods of Bainbridge island to discuss teaching strategies and build towards this year's classes. My heart was heavy again as I then flew back to Wisconsin, saying goodbye to my mother, and flew on to Beijing. I'm always happy to be "home" and get back to work, but Beijing in the summer is not my favorite place.
In the fall I added a new country to my list, Bhutan, and now I've travelled to 41! A far cry from the 193 recognized countries of the world, but eh, not bad I think. Bhutan has been on our list for a long time and this year we had the opportunity to join up with some friends to make the trip. It did not disappoint in terms of what I thought the country would be like. People were quite friendly, life was pretty chill.
At the end of the year we travelled to Chiang Mai and then Penang, the latter to see some old friends and return to our island home to visit some of our old haunts. It was nice for a few days, but we were quickly reminded of how much we didn't enjoy the heat or the inefficient institutions that seem to run Malaysia and were, once again, happy to be back home in Beijing after.

Work has also been good. I've continued working with ISB and GOA and have done part time work for the IB and SAT/ACT testing, so I've really been keeping busy. This next year we are looking forward to a change of pace as we have accepted a position in Warsaw. This means of course that ISB will end and unfortunately GOA will too as I can't continue with them at a non-member school (but hopefully I convince ASW to become a member school). The change in pace of life will be something we both will have to get used to, but we are looking forward to potentially taking more time outside and being more active as Warsaw seems less polluted, less crowded, and closer to a lot of places we'd like to see by car, bus, or train (or maybe even some short plane rides, like to see Hans and Kathy in Germany).
Socially, life has been good as we have a nice small group of friends here and I think we are both happy with the level of engagement we have, thought perhaps we would like to see family a bit more. Maybe my mom or dad will make the trip to Asia before we leave or, Poland. Poland is closer, mom, if you're reading this!
We are happy, and healthy, getting older, but keeping pace by continuing to stay active and, increasingly, being careful of our diets. With our family genes we should be good to go for some time. Aya has kept sharp by continuing to learn Chinese and now, Polish. I've kept sharp with work mostly, but did manage to get through about 40 books this year. I was thinking the other day of when I will hit a million pages, but I don't think I will get there until my 40's. Always good to have goals. :)

Happy, healthy, entertained and well employed. Here is to 2018 and a new year to come! Hopefully I will see some of you "out there".