Happy New Year!

Most people I have talked to do not make new year’s resolutions but I tend to do this. I make resolutions all year long but also at the start of the New Year. One of my resolutions this year is to be more open and honest in this blog in the sense that I tend to write about only positive things here…I try not to dwell on the trying experiences or my own reactions to learning to adapt to a new country because I worry about things like the security of my job if I start to talk about some of my frustrations. So, while I am going to continue to be vague about where I work, I am also going to try and open up more about how I see things here in Ankara.

Our new year is off to a good start. We had dinner with some friends yesterday and went to the local bistro to ring in the new year while practicing darts. Hopefully my darts performance last night will not be indicative of my playing for the rest of the year though because it was the pits!

The night before we went out with colleagues of Peter’s and some friends and ended up partying and dancing until 4am! I am not even sure I was ever out that late in college! At one point in the evening, I was dancing to Madonna’s “La Isla Bonita” remixed and had one of those “Wow this is my life” moments as I remembered singing this song on the playground in elementary school and dancing to it in college and never once thinking I might one day listen to a remixed version of it in a bar in Ankara.

Christmas was nice – we had an xmas lunch that featured smoked Canadian duck, celery root soup (served in celery root tureens!), mashed turnips, turkey, mulled wine and not one but two desserts! Yummy! Then we attended a potluck dinner where the turkey was fabulous, the stuffing marvelous and the wassail the best I have ever had (ok, that was the first time I had had wassail but it was great!).

It feels nice to be on winter break (I am a writing instructor at a university) and all of the good food and cards and treats being sent from North America have made life wonderful. Shipments of peanut butter, salami and chocolate have made the new year bright!

May you all have a healthy and happy New Year!