2015 Year in Review

Wow, what a year 2015 has been.  From ringing in the New Year in Spain, to life in England, and then a bold move to Thailand, this year has been everything I could never have imagined.  As 2016 rolls in, Zack and I thought it would be nice to take some time and reflect.  Through all the adventures, the challenges we've faced both personally and professionally, we are reminded just how lucky we are.  My mom always tells me that we must have some "golden horshshoes" following us around because somehow through all the situations we find ourselves in, it always works out in the end.  Well mom, I think you're on to something there.  We definitely are most defintely being taken care of by the big guy upstairs, because honestly Zack and I sometimes feel completely lost.  But somehow we find our way and we've come to learn that you don't know unless you try.  So with that said, here's 2015 in review:

To be honest, I think January was one of the harder months for us.  After ringing in the new year in Palma, Spain with my parents (which was awesome), we found ourselves back in England later that day on January 1st thinking, "what now"?  For me, goodbyes aren't the hardest part- it's after the goodbyes have come and gone that's the hard part.  The excitement of living somewhere new was wearing off, and I found myself longing for a room full of family and friends.... for familiar faces and familiar feelings.  Those feelings were overcome however, and though January in England seemed to really drag (cloudy days and dark nights aren't my favourite), it wasn't all that bad.  Here are some highlights of the month:

- NYE in Spain, we did as the local Spanish do: shoved 12 grapes in our mouths during the count down until midnight.  The year began with tears of laughter and we are seriously considering making this into our own little family tradition :)

-Zacks 26th birthday involved of a homemade breakfast, "hiking" the English countryside, and enjoying some good beer at one of the many local pubs.  

-I decided to enroll in a beginners photograpy class.  Though the course itself overall wasn't ground breaking for me (there were a lot of things covered that I had already known) it gave me a boost of confidence.  I connected with other people who also had an interest in photography and realized I wasn't all that bad after all!

After what felt like an extremely long January, we were excited to move on and welcome the month of February with open arms.  The month seemed to fly by.  We looked forward to a week in Ireland at the end of the month (we joked how despite being sick of gloomy England we chose to visit IRELAND of all places.... probably the wettest and foggiest place I've ever visited).  I found my groove in my photography class and was inspired to start more of my own personal creative endeavours.  I committed to a daily creative act, which brought me to take on knitting things for friends, buying a sketchbook and actually getting into the habit of sketching, and finding creative ways to photograph the beautiful city we lived in.  Oh, and I can't forget our Valentines Dinner where we decided to make a "Guinness Glaze" to put over some pork chops in honour of our Ireland trip.  Though we enjoyed our dinner, we learned we would both rather enjoy drinking a guinness than creating a concoction with it to spread over meat (we both thought it was pretty "meh").  Here are some of the main highlights of our month (Ireland being the top highlight):

-Renting a car in Ireland.  This gave us so much freedom to explore places we otherwise would not be able to get to and led us to renting cars in future travels (Norway, to Paris, and to Belgium).

-Hiking in Killarny National Park in the hail (we were literally the only ones out there)

-Walking through the "Gap of Dunloe".  I felt like I was in a fairy tale.

-Dingle!  This place felt like a dream.  I remember walking to a pub in the rain (of course), and when we arrived, feeling right at home.  I can hear the owner saying in her thick Irish accent, "Come in out the rain! Sit yerselves beside the fire".  And that we did.

-We also felt like we were on the edge of the world in Dingle.  The fog and haze made it feel even more surreal.

March was a beautiful month in Cambridge.  Contrary to the usual "is winter ever going to end" month that usually occurs in Canada, we found that Spring was making itself known already with flowers beginning to bloom and the parks in Cambridge beckoning us in for a picnic.  We stuck around home for the month, and now looking back, I realize just how much we enjoyed living in Cambridge.  I also see that all of my blog posts had to do with my own creative pursuit.  Though I know these posts aren't as popular as say "A Weekend in Paris" or "What happend in Norway", I feel it was during this time that I really began to stretch myself creatively.  My Etsy shop idea had already been brewing at this point and as I wrapped up my photography class, I made plans on ways I could put my talents to use. It is also at this time that we began seriously considering moving to Chiang Mai.  Though we loved Cambridge, we couldn't help but spend time dreaming of what a life in Thailand could look like...

April was probably one of the best months of 2015.  We fell in love with a dog named Susie who lives on Corfu Island in Greece.  A local lady we met in Corfu lent us her car for Easter weekend and we we basically fell in love with the country: the scenery, the people, the food.  Greece is one of our favourite spots we've visited.

Along with adventures in Greece, we took a bus all the way from London to Amsterdam.  We took a beautiful country bike ride out to a nearby town, and we made our own Dutch pancakes inside a revamped bus.  We came back to more sunny weather in England just in time to celebrate our anniversary.  We found a last minute deal and stayed at a hotel/spa where we wore robes all day and had the most amazing breakfast we've ever had.  We decided to balance out all this "splurging" with a take out meal instead of a sit down dinner for our anniversary.  This lead us to purchasing the spiciest Indian curry I've ever had (spicier even than anything I've tried here in Thailand!).  So, instead of wine on our anniversary night, we were forced to chug milk.

We continued to explore more of England in the month of May.  We discovered pockets of London that intrigued us including Camdentown and Little Venice.  We enjoyed the Sunday market on Brick Lane and loved all the International food at the food markets.  We ate fish and chips at a seaside town and toured one of Englands magnificent castles.  I also launched Sarah Reimer Designs at the beginning of May which was a huge accomplishment for me.  Watch my launch video here (Zack and I had fun filming this while in Cambridge and Amsterdam last month):

I know the above photo doesn't look like typical June, but this is how our month of June started out.  We spent the first week in Norway, and though not all memories are good ones, this is a month that I'll never forget.  I had a rather traumatic experience fainting during one of our hikes on the fjords, we attempted wild camping and failed miserably, and yet if someone asked me if I'd go back, I would say absolutley.  (I would just be better prepared the next time around!)

Returning back to England after Norway proved to be even more difficult.  I found myself sitting in the doctors office because the feeling in my fingers had not quite yet returned.  I felt emotionally tired and work was draining me.  Hours were increasing because of tourist season in Cambridge, and I was working hard at building up my Etsy shop on the side.  Even the weather back in England didn't seem as sunny as the past couple of months... funny how that was.  However, life went on and I knew summer was just around the corner.  We made it official that we'd be moving to Thailand for the next two years which was altogether exciting, nerve racking and exhilerating.  I still remember the morning Zack woke me up to tell me he had been offered a job.  I knew from that moment on that our lives would be anything but normal...

July! Oh what a breath of fresh air this month was!  With just a few more weeks left of work in England, this chapter of our lives really started wrapping up at this time.  And I'd have to say, it really ended with a bang.  With a weekend trip to Paris with some good friends, and a road trip out to Belgium with another good friend who visited us from home, we had so much to be thankful for that month.  Full feeling back in my fingers (woo!), and a last taste of England with a trip out to the seaside towns of Cornwall.  We said our goodbyes to our housemates in Cambridge (who definitely made a positive impact on our time there.  Sunday night dinners being a highlight in our Cambridge flat), and left England on the last day of July.  We definitely left a part of our heart there in England (and a bunch of our belongings).  We packed all of our stuff into four suitcases and off we went.

We began the month of August reuniting with Zack's parents.  But the coolest part of this was- we reunited in GREECE!  This trip had been in the works since Christmas time and it was so fun to share this time with them.  Santorini, Naxus, and then on to Turkey.  Beautiful beaches, awesome food, and good company.  The trip seems almost like a dream, or a whirlwind beacuse(of course) we jam packed probably 1 month of activities and sights into just two weeks.  Highlights of this time was the amazing sunsets of Santorini, ATVing all over Naxus (and almost running out of gas over on the "less inhabited" side of the island), and the grand suprise from Roxy (Zack's mom) being a hot air balloon over the amazing landscape of the Cappodocia region in Turkey.  Other memories that come to mind are not being able to communicate to our taxi driver who was clearly lost and hoping that we would eventually get to our hotel (which we did! Hooray!) and taking in the culture of Istanbul.  

Zack and I then parted ways as I was heading home to Canada to visit family and he was on to Thailand to jump straight into life over there.  This all seemed surreal as well... me being back in the familiar, trying to embrace my time there before leaving for the next couple of years.  And Zack, accross the world, already working his fully time teaching job.  Though it is still 2015, I feel as though this is when we jumped into a new year. 

September is a month in 2015 that I hold very closely to my heart.  Coming back home after travelling and living overseas almost had me viewing this place in a totally new perspective.  I stayed with my parents in Jordan and absolutely loved going for hikes on the Bruce Trail and taking my mom's bike out for evening rides on the country roads.  I realized (not that I didn't know this before, it just seemed more clear to me now) that I grew up in an extremely beautiful area of the world.  It's clean, and the vast seasons are spectacular.  I was able to see the leaves changing colour just before leaving.  

I also was able to cuddle my niece Kendal and play airplanes and "hide and seek" with my niece Brooke (though we rarely had anyone actually finding us... we would just hide).  Brooke and I would pick tomatoes from my parents garden and I loved hearing her call me "Auntie Sarah".  I was able to watch her play soccer and I met up with good friends that I hadn't seen in over a year.  I savoured this time.

I also hosted a Sarah Reimer Designs Open House, which was the perfect way for me to share what I had been working on with friends and family back home.  Though uless people had showed up than I had anticipated, I couldn't believe the support I received from those that came.  I had a lot of fun creating this event and am thankful that my family (especially my parents!) were there to help me make this happen.

October was the beginning of a very new chapter.  Adapting to life in Chiang Mai wasn't always easy but I do believe it's where we're meant to be at this time.  The positives definitely outweighed the negatives.  Leaving the comforts of home vs. discovering this beautiful culture abundant with friendly people and spicy street food? I'll take it.  The smells of the city aren't always the nicest and I've seen more creepy crawlies within the last couple months than I'm used to but living here has opened up opportunites for me to substitute teach and has given me the time and financial freedom to put more time into my Etsy shop.  Living costs here about so much lower than in England.  My shop has flourished into something I am really proud of and Zack loves the school he's teaching at.  October still had it's ups and downs as I got sick the first week and then my stomach seemed to fight any food I put in my body (I was told that's normal), but it never escalated to anything serious.  We found an apartment in Chiang Mai at the beginning of October and it has been a great place to live so far.  October seemed to be a month of a lot of changes for me, but definitely positive ones!

By November, Chiang Mai started feeling a bit more like home.  I was able to find my way around, became to love certain places to eat and began getting more shifts at the school as a substitute teacher.  We often would take off on weekends on our motorbike, outside of the city to places like the lake or Doi Suthep mountain.  A highlight of November was visiting Elephant Nature Park, just north of Chiang Mai.

December has been a good month to finish off 2015.  Looking back, we feel extremely lucky to have had the experiences we did.  The first few weeks of December, we enjoyed the cool nights in Chiang Mai (though it still got up to 30 degrees during the day), and occasionally forgot that it was actually December.  We bought a tropical tree for our balcony as our "Christmas tree", though were off to the islands before we gave ourselves time to actually decorate it.  We spent two weeks on the beaches of Thailand and spent Christmas Eve enjoying some wine on the beach as the sun set.  We missed our family back home but were able to skype (thank goodness for technology!).  We are now in Krabi, Thailand and are ready to ring in the New Year!! Bring on 2016!

We hope that you can find joy in the coming year ahead, whatever your adventure may be.  We all feel a bit lost at times, but remember that that is okay.  Take the time to reflect on how far you've come.  Sometimes it isn't until you look at the bigger picture that you realize that your life really is an awesome adventure.