How was your Christmas? Mine was very pleasant. I spent it with family and enjoyed a Hawaiian themed Christmas with a lot of food – pork, lamb, prawn, crayfish, veggies, potatoes, rolls, and, of course, Christmas pudding with cream, custard, and ice cream. The next day, Boxing Day, I called my parents and sister in the US before going shopping.
It’s hard to believe another year has passed already. I’ve been looking over my blog, which is a pretty good reflection of the year.
January was a rough month. There were some bright moments, but I struggled with homesickness as my paternal grandmother died and I had to say goodbye to my spiritual family. I also blogged about my struggles with becoming a homemaker. I’m proud to say that I’ve spent enough time working on my anal-retentive that I can leave a dish in the sink dirty overnight and my cooking has improved tremendously.
February was a good month full of fun events including the first White Night Melbourne. I’m looking forward to going again next year.
In March, I began exploring some hobbies in an effort to get out more and meet people. At the end of the month, I travelled to Miami for a visit.
April saw more homesickness.
May saw more homesickness. There was a lot of that this year.
In June, I began taking some formal steps towards residency. I underwent the visa medical assessment and met with a migration agent who shed some light on the tricky language of the visa process. I’m still working on this.
July was full of fun events including Comic-Con and Open House Melbourne.
August was especially rough with the homesickness. Everything sucked.
September was largely about politics with the anniversary of 9/11 and Tony Abbott becoming the new Prime Minister of Australia.
In October, I missed Halloween, but on the bright side, I won two tickets to go to the Melbourne Cup.
November was an awesome month. Theo and I went to the Melbourne Cup and I took up African drumming classes. For my birthday, I got myself a drum with the birthday money my father sent. In November, I also decided it was time to graduate this blog from high school and enter college and up my skills with self-hosting and PHP as well as give it a new look.
December has been good too. I got an awesome haircut. I went to a really good WordPress workshop with a bunch of Girl Geeks. And I went shopping a lot, which is a double-edge sword considering how much I spent. Plus there was Theo’s birthday, Christmas, and, soon, New Year’s.
The year was good in other ways too. I feel much better about being in Melbourne than I did this time last year. I’m more comfortable going out on my own. I know the roads a little bit better. I’m making friends. I have things to do that get me out of the house. I’m definitely out of that “everything sucks” phase.
How has your year been?
