I know a lot of people consider 2016 to be the worst year ever, so I guess we were a few of the lucky ones. Which is not to say that life didn’t present us a roller coaster of ups and downs. On the other side of friends passing away, a crazy election and major life decisions, there was snowboarding, family time, and exploring lots of new places. I keep waiting to have that ONE golden year where everything works out in my favor and everything goes as planned, but I’ve come to realize that will never be the case. Good and bad coexist on opposite ends of a scale and when the good outweighs the bad, I consider that a victory. For all its struggles and challenges, we still had our health, our kitties, and each other. We saw more of the world and crossed off so many things off our life list. Looking back at all that has happened over the course of the year gives new perspective. The scales thankfully tipped in our favor. 2016 was a win.

Here’s a look back at the year in photos:

JANUARY

We rang in the new year in downtown Daegu and then woke up the next morning to catch the sunrise at the top of Mt. Apsan. After spending hours searching for parking in the dark, we scrambled to the base of the cable car station, only to discover a line that snaked outside and around the building. We ended up watching the sunset in the nearby park, sitting on ice-covered benches, and sipping on hot tea we brought in our metal thermos. A few days after the new year, Sly flew back to California for a long work trip, while the kitties and I held down the fort. Karen, Rachel, and I started an online book club. We endured below freezing temperatures while visiting Seoul later in the month. Despite being covered in about a billion layers, my entire body went numb after walking just fifteen minutes outside. Needless to say we stuck to mostly indoor activities like eating Korean BBQ, visiting museums, drinking hot tea at a sheep cafe, and huddling around a grill to eat even more Korean food.  January also marked the one-year anniversary of us moving to Korea. Time has just flown right by.

FEBRUARY

February kicked off with an expat dinner party with new friends to celebrate Lunar New Year. Remind me to post about ‘expat parties’ one of these days, or at least that one in particular, because, yeah, always a mixed bag. For Valentine’s day, we finally made our way to the mountains for our first snowboarding trip in Korea! Even though it was a perfectly sunny day, I was close to the coldest I have ever been while snowboarding. In fact, winter 2016 will go down in my mind as one of the coldest winters I have ever experienced. We hibernated for the rest of winter days by eating Sly’s amazing blueberry scones, reading, and snuggling with the kitties.

MARCH

I spent nearly the entire month of March in Japan, checking off a life list item of seeing cherry blossoms in Japan. The first part of the trip was a sister’s trip. My sister and I explored – and ate our way around – the Kansai region, including Osaka, Himeji, Kyoto, and Nara. We also took a day trip to Hiroshima and Miyajima, two of our favorite places in Japan. We walked at least 10 miles a day sightseeing, catching trains, and finding restaurants, and good thing too because I cannot reiterate how much we ate. Our favorite thing to do was hit up 7-11 in the evening, fill our baskets with all kinds of amazing goodies, then go back to our Airbnb and watch wacky Japanese TV. A couple weeks in, Sly met up with us and we celebrated Sly and my sister’s birthday at an amazing Matsusaka beef restaurant. I still dream about that meal! After my sister returned to the States, Sly and I continued on to Wakayama, where we hiked parts of the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage trail, soaked in a historic onsen in a cabin over a river, and stayed in ryokans and machiyas along the way. I’m years behind on posting on this blog and still need to sort through the billions of photos that I took on this trip, among others. One day I’ll write about it. One day…

APRIL

I’ve never been a spring person but it is without doubt one of the best seasons in Asia. Everything seems to be bursting alive with energy:  the trees, the city, people, life. Sly and I took advantage of the wonderful spring weather with a date night at Suseong Lake, one of our favorite spots in the city. I spent as much free time as possible exploring the outdoors and hiked to the top of Apsan to revel in my “secret” patch of azaleas. I started on a new work project, and for the first time in my entire life, I planned some trips ahead of time, snagging some amazing deals in the process.

MAY

Buddha’s Birthday is one of my favorite times of the year in Korea. I love all the glowing lanterns, and of course, all the festival food! Every year a multi-day festival is held along the river near our apartment and we made sure to visit once again. We tried lots of new Thai and sushi restaurants and attended street festivals and tea expos. The first friends we made after moving to Korea returned to the US, but before leaving, they stayed with us with their two pups for about a week. The kitties were so curious about their new roommates, and waited outside their room day and night just to sneak a peek! As a parting gift, Max and Rufus were given huge two dog beds, which they loved.

Over Memorial Day weekend, we took an extended trip to Hong Kong, where we reunited with one of our good friends from SF. She took us to all the best spots to eat, and recommended a million more. All we did was eat! (And sweat – it was so f’in’ hot.) We also stranded ourselves on a deserted beach (by choice) and camped overnight with a bunch of dogs, a million ravenous mosquitoes, and one wild water buffalo. The next day, we baked under a worthless umbrella, in the apocalyptic-hot Asian sun while we waited for our boat to rescue us from the island.

JUNE

My friend, Karen, died of cancer and I more or less checked out the rest of the summer. Or at least that was the plan. I went from talking to Karen nearly every day, to nothing at all, and I immediately missed our daily check-ins, playing our stupid drawing games, and just overall having another kindred spirit to share life with. Even while Karen battled cancer, chemo, and many days of feeling like shit, she always managed to do the things she loved: crafting with her young son, hiking (often with a cane or in a wheelchair!), writing in her blog, starting an online shop to sell her drawings, planning cross country road trips, trying new recipes, and photographing everything along the way. She inspired me to get on, get outside, and live life as fully as possible. Karen once said that if she had to do it all over, she would stress less about the things that didn’t matter, and spend more time with family and friends. I think about her words often because they are so simple, but so true. I think of, and miss, Karen every day.

Determined not to let the summer go to waste, we escaped to Busan one weekend for much needed beach time. We toured the “Santorini of Korea,” stayed in a love motel, ate fresh seafood at the famous Jalgachi fish market, and visited a Buddhist temple perched on top of a sea cliff.

JULY

We originally planned on visiting a small island off the coast of Korea over 4th of July weekend, but because July is rainy season here, the stormy weather prevented our ferry from leaving. The night before we scrambled to make new plans, selecting the one place in Korea that wasn’t expected to be cloaked in rain: Seoraksan National Park. It ended up working out for the best as hiking Seoraksan has been on our Korea to do list for ages. Because Seoraksan is surrounded by ocean and mountains, we expected much cooler weather. People even told us to bring a jacket! TIP: Never trust an Asian person when they say it’s cold because in Korea people wear puffer jackets when its literally 80 degrees outside! We sweated our way along the Biryong Falls Trail, ate fresh seafood in Sokcho, tried mulhoe for the first time, and hiked the Ulsanbawi Trail and to Gwongeumseong Fortress back-to-back on the same day. Whew!  By the time we left, the storm had just started creeping into our neck of the woods. We drove home in pouring rain, but at least we enjoyed a sunny weekend.

This summer, the world’s most annoying ninja mosquitoes returned, but this time, we were ready for them. I took a day trip to the mountains and cooled off at a natural water slide to combat the unbearable heat. Later it was brought to my attention that swimming in mountain streams was not allowed, a rule that seemed to go largely ignored by locals. Oops. We filled out the rest of the month trying (trying being the operative word here) to escape from an escape room, chilling out at a hotel pool party, playing pirate roulette, and sliding down an adult-sized slip ‘n’ slide in the park. I’m by no means a summer person on a account that I hate being hot, but we made a concerted effort to cram in as much as possible in order to take advantage of the (suffocatingly hot) summer months.

AUGUST

Our summer fun continued with our first Korean baseball game at the new Samsung Lions Stadium. We tried several times to watch a game, only to discover that parking was an absolute nightmare. Eventually we wizened up, took public transportation, and arrived hours before game time. Attending a baseball game in Korea was another check in the box for us, and an experience I would highly recommend to anyone visiting Korea (or Japan). We had a lot of fun, even if it rained on us during most of the game.

I had the opportunity to try out some Eastern medicine treatments, and experienced my first acupuncture and cupping session. I loved it! I felt both relaxed and energized at the same time, and it was so much more affordable compared to the US.

We closed out summer with our first music festival in Korea – the Pentaport Rock Festival in Incheon. I’m not sure what we were thinking when we bought tickets to an outdoor event in August because it was so damn hot. Like worse than Texas hot, but that probably had a lot to do with the fact that the festival was held in an open field with zero shade.  Our clothes were drenched in sweat and I thought my head might explode, but by nightfall, the weather had cooled down considerably, and just in time to watch Weezer perform!

While my summer got off to a rocky start (to say the least), we made the best of it. It turned out to be asummer full of unforgettable memories after all. No regrets.

SEPTEMBER

Once September rolled around, so too did the cooler weather. Or so I led myself to believe.  On a rainy (humid) Labor Day weekend, we met up with some of our Korean friends at a pension in the countryside of Cheongdo. After coffee at a creepy cafe, we spent the day bbq-ing in an enclosed outdoor shed, and stuffing ourselves until we couldn’t eat another bite. We decided to walk off our huge meal with a hike in the nearby apple and persimmon orchards, followed by a visit to two of the regions most popular tourist sites: Photo land and the wine tunnel.

Right after we returned from Cheongdo, I was asked to be photographed for a travel feature for KTX Magazine. Not being much of an in-front-of-camera person, I initially said no. After much convincing by the hubs, I eventually agreed – on the condition that I wouldn’t be portrayed as the mom to a 20-something year old. It turned out that I had nothing to worry about – I not only had a great time, but I also made lots of new friends. It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience, and I’m thankful to have had the opportunity – and photos – to document the city where I live.

We spent the rest of the month in Hawaii, where I once again tagged along to Sly’s annual work conference in Oahu. After landing in Oahu, we headed straight away to our favorite spot on the North Shore, Malaekahana Beach, where we camped in a cabin for a few days and then stayed with an awesome family (+ dog + cat +chickens) at an airbnb rental.  We returned to Waikiki for a week for Sly’s work stuff and then afterward, we extended our trip by exploring Kauai.

About a month prior to leaving for Hawaii, I received quite a few emails from the airline I had used to book my flight to Hawaii, notifying me that my flight had changed. I noticed a time difference of like 15 minutes, but I didn’t think much of it until I started receiving texts and phone calls. When I finally logged online to check my reservation, it turned out that not only had the flight time been delayed, but the day of my flight had also been delayed by a full day. What the? I know there are way worse things in the world that could happen, I mean, boohoo an extra day in paradise, but I was not looking forward to spending a day alone in Oahu at the tail end of our trip. It turned out to be a great way to wind down and gather my thoughts after our amazing time in Hawaii, and reminded me so much of all the solo backpacking trips I took when I was younger. I stayed in a very basic, budget motel a few blocks from the beach, picked up food from the night market, and caught one last sunset on Waikiki Beach. Even though my motel was only a few blocks from the nicer hotel we had stayed at earlier in the week, it felt a million miles away.

OCTOBER

We took a quick trip to Seoul and stayed at a tiny apartment with an amazing city view. Our main goal that weekend was to try some new cafes that we had read about in an up-and-coming hipster neighborhood, and to visit IKEA. During our trip we unintentionally caught an international firework festival.  As planned, we cafe hopped in Mangwon, sampling green tea pound cake at hungo ringo and artisan coffee at cafe conhas. We tried hanwoo beef for the first time and ate at the best brunch spot we have thus far tried in Korea. And yes, we finally made it to IKEA, and finally purchased a coffee table and a computer desk for our apartment.

October always feels like a month of change, or at least that has always been the case in my life. We contemplated a life change early in the month that would have involved moving outside of Korea. After a lot of consideration, we decided to stay put…at least for the time being.

October also marked a decade since my dad died as well as our 6th anniversary, which we spent traipsing around Taiwan. It rained for most of our trip in Taiwan, which was made even more fun since we explored a good amount of the countryside on the back of a motor scooter, barely protected by our flimsy plastic ponchos. There were a couple of days when I don’t think we were ever dry, but of course that didn’t stop us from eating. In fact, ducking into a dumpling or soup shop was the perfect excuse to take shelter from the rain. Before we lived in Asia, I’m not sure I would have ever considered Taiwan as a must-see travel destination, but it was one of our favorite places we have visited in Asia. I don’t even know how to describe it – sort of Japanese-Chinese fusion with stunning mountains, hot springs, and beaches, and some of the best, distinctly Taiwanese, food we have ever eaten.

We returned from Taiwan just in time to celebrate Halloween, my favorite night of the year, with scary movie marathons and, of course, kitties in costumes.

NOVEMBER

The end of the year always feels as if it passes by at least three times faster than the start of the year, or at least November did. I stayed up all night watching the U.S. election results. (!@*!#$*#$!*) There were mass riots in Korea to impeach the corrupt Korean president. (She was eventually impeached in December). I got sick. Sly’s parents came to visit Korea. I tried out the Korean medical system for the first time. We took a day trip to Busan, hiked the cliffs of Taejongdae, and ate buckets of fresh seafood at Jalgachi. I was featured in a travel video for Daegu. We enjoyed the beauty of autumn in Korea.

While Sly’s parents met up with friends and family in other parts of Korea, we hopped on a plane to Cambodia and celebrated Thanksgiving on the remote (no electricity or running water) island of Koh Ta Kiev. We spent several days unwinding in an open-air tree house bungalow and did absolutely nothing but hike in the jungle, hang out on the beach, read, draw in my sketchbook, and swim at night in the glowing plankton waters. Our trip started off so wonderfully, and then the day we left the island, I got sick, and remained frustratingly sick for the remainder of our time in Cambodia.

Once back on the mainland, we booked a small shuttle bus (essentially a broke-down van) to our next destination, the small colonial town of Kampot, located a mere 40 miles away. It took us OVER THREE HOURS on the worst roads ever in a bus that was literally crammed floor to ceiling with people and luggage. I honestly didn’t know if I was going to last the entire trip, as I felt like puking every 15 minutes. Finally, the driver pulled over to a gas station to take a long 30 minute break. We consulted our phones and realized we were only 10 minutes away from town. WHY WERE WE STOPPING HERE WHEN WE WERE ONLY 10 MINUTES AWAY?!?! I know I’m complaining like a spoiled tourist as I realize that it could have worse – and I have in fact experienced WAY worse in my younger days – but at the time, it was demoralizing. At some point, all we could do was laugh, chalk it up to “this will make a good story someday,” and be so very thankful that a) we boarded early enough so that we didn’t have to cram with five other people on a seat that only fit three and b) the van was air conditioned. Finally, we made it to Kampot and checked into an awesome old colonial hotel with a super awesome hotel manager who took care of everything we needed during our stay.

I was still feeling pretty unwell, but at the same time I didn’t want to waste our time in Cambodia. Sly roamed around trying to find a pharmacy to get medicine to help me function (oh, the beauty of foreign pharmacies). We rented a motor scooter and explored the nearby mountains. Sly became BFFs with a Kampot pepper farmer (and we bought lots of pepper). We ate some of the best pepper crab I have ever had, even if I felt like I was going to puke it up the entire scooter ride back to the hotel. (What the hell was I thinking?) After a few days in Kampot, we took a taxi (no more shuttle buses for us) to Phnom Penh where we stayed a couple of nights somberly viewing prisoner camps and killing fields. From PP we took a night bus with sketchy bunk beds and ended up in Siem Reap just in time to celebrate my birthday.

DECEMBER

In Siem Reap, we splurged on a private pool villa at a “boutique resort” less than a mile from Angkor Wat. We aren’t resort people at all, but since the hotel was still very new, they had some amazing promotional deals. The thought of hanging out in our very own pool at the end of a long, hot, sweaty day of touring ruins, sounded like complete bliss. We didn’t regret it at all. Our hotel stay was probably our best memory of an otherwise frustrating stay in Siem Reap, and worth every single penny. We spent several days being badgered, swindled, yelled at, taken advantage of, hassled, and hounded, and while we couldn’t put fault on anyone for trying to make a buck, it really took its toll on us. By the end of our stay we were really over it. On top of that, I was still trying to shake off whatever I had caught on the island two weeks prior. After dealing with hoards of other tourists, the sweltering heat, and so many frickin’ dishonest tuk tuk drivers, it was such a relief to come back to the comfort of our secluded villa, order room service and eat chicken nuggets by the pool.

Once I started feeling better, then it was Sly’s turn to start feeling sick. Our trip to Cambodia ended on a sour note, but as my sister said, “You’ve had so many amazing trips, it’s only normal that one of those would be a dud.” In retrospect, when I think back to all we saw and did, despite feeling as if I was going to puke (for weeks!), it was an overall good experience that we chalked up as having an adventure. I don’t think we’ll be returning anytime soon, but we are always so thankful that we had the opportunity to travel and explore another part of the world together. Siem Reap = check. On to our next country!

On the plus side, we celebrated my birthday in Siem Reap with a cake made especially for me by the hotel. As we lingered in the dining room to enjoy my birthday cake, Sly and I found very reasonably priced tickets to back to DC for the holidays. We weren’t exactly planning on going back to the States for the holidays, but the moment we found those “unicorn tickets,” we knew that it was meant to be. In fifteen minutes, we had booked our flights back home, and immediately felt excited about reuniting with both sides of our family who were all in the same place for the first time since our wedding.

We had a week or so back in Korea before we left again for DC. Sly’s parents were still in town, so we cooked up a huge celebratory post-Thanksgiving meal, and binge-watched a lot of movies together. After the in-laws left, I found out another friend of mine unexpectedly passed away.

Being home for the holidays and spending time with the family was the best Christmas gift ever. I didn’t realize how much I had missed physically being with family until we returned home, and we vowed to not let so much time pass by before the next time we saw them. After saying tearful goodbyes to my family, who returned to Texas on New Year’s Eve, we said farewell to 2016 and rang in the New Year in DC with lots of laughing, lots of seafood, lots of (way too much) booze, and lots of hope.

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I’m looking forward to 2017 (even though it’s now already the middle of February). I hope we can explore more of this part of the world, I hope to see our families more frequently, and I hope to finally wrap my brain around speaking Korean.

And while I’m saying goodbyes, here are some over-used words & phrases I’d like to leave behind in 2016:

Hygge
Sparking joy
Adulting
Speaking my truth
Living intentionally
Literally
Post-truth
Yaaaas
Alt-right
All the feels (or any phrase containing “the feels”)
Yuge
I can’t even