Happy New Year from Moldova!

I know what you're thinking: You're a little late on this one, aren't you? Joke's on you, because we have two Christmases and two New Years here! I am right on time. Good thing we have two, because I hadn't thought of any resolutions for the January 1 New Year's. 

I wasn't going to post this until tomorrow, but I've just been told I have to stay up until midnight to drink champagne to ring in 2015. Never mind the fact that I did that two weeks ago and would rather just go to bed. We must celebrate! So I've got some time to kill and I might as well do something with it. 

Recap of 2014 first? Okay! We'll start with this video.

This isn't the most accurate "Year in Photos" exactly, but I'm pretty lazy and would never have made my own, so when Google emailed me and said, hey we did this for you! I just thought I'd go with it. 

In 2014, 

• I went to: 147 medical appointments (slight exaggeration?). I did all sorts of things in preparation for leaving for Moldova. But these were, of course, the most fun. 
• I spent: 5 months and as much time as possible with family and friends in America. We celebrated holidays, had fun on trips, went to concerts, played games, spent time at church, stayed at home and drank wine while we watched The Bachelor.. 
• I wrote: 48 blog posts here at Wining & Whining. Most popular was the first one, followed by the one about my Moldovan "boyfriend." Both unsurprising, as people want to know that I'm safe in country and people want to know about my love life. Still safe and still going strong on not having a love life, don't worry.
• I read: 30 books/9,359 pages. My favorite of the year was Divergent, with The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line (first in the Veronica Mars series) coming in at second.
• I traveled: 8,045 miles by plane (roughly). Including airports, I've been in 6 countries in 2014. Plus the whole, moving across the ocean thing.
• I filled: 1 journal (thanks for the gift, Tracy! I'm on #2 now) full of stories and drawings and thoughts and nonsense that my future grandchildren are going to get such a kick out of one day. 
• I turned: 24. 
• I created: paintings, a tea table, counted cross-stitch, birdhouses, palm crosses, t-shirts.
• I sent: as many cards and letters to as many people as I could. How hard is my life right now not working at Hallmark/having a Hallmark nearby so I can get the perfect card for every occasion? Very. 
• I made: countless new friends, and I know some of them will be the lifetime kind.
• I had: some of the craziest experiences ever on this Peace Corps journey that's really just begun. 

I don't have "resolutions" exactly, but I have been doing a lot of reflection lately. I found this list of 50 questions - 40 to look back over 2014 and 10 to look forward to 2015. So I have been working on those and finished them last weekend. It was a lot to think about, but I seem to be alone with my thoughts pretty often so I think it was a good exercise to focus those thoughts for a little bit instead of having them wander. Which leads me to the things I'm hoping for in 2015. 

In 2015, 

• My theme for the year is going to be optimism. I liked to think I was optimistic already, but then I joined the Peace Corps and started whining a lot. In my defense, we all tend to get whiny sometimes. But I think I would be a lot more pleasant and improve my life/others' lives by trying to be more positive and optimistic. Now, that could get obnoxious too, but I'd rather be obnoxious and optimistic than constantly negative. 
• I'm going to read the entire Bible, with the help of the She Reads Truth app. It tells me what to read every day to get through the whole thing in one year.
• I might try to learn Romanian.. Or study.. Or something. 
• I've got some other personal goals I won't mention, but the last thing I'll say here is that I hope to be a source of light and love for the people that need me to be. And I hope to have a good excellent 2015. 

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La mulți ani!