The Year in Review - 2010

You thought I couldn't make it, right?  365 posts in one year.  365 days with no real income.  100 showers.  EW!  You know it.

But here I am.  One year ago today, I quit my job and spent the following month selling everything I owned to prepare for a monumental trip around the world.  It was really hard because I liked my stuff.  I had good stuff.  The kind of stuff it takes years to accumulate.  Like my wine rack.  It took me forever to find a perfect wine rack that fit perfectly in the corner of my dining room.  Most wine racks only hold like 6 bottles of wine.  Or they're ugly.  But patience paid off and I found one on Craigslist.  And my dining room table.  I got it at a World Market that was about to close.  I found a couple of vintage blue bucket chairs that framed my fireplace perfectly from Vintage Modern Living out of Minneapolis.  All of my artwork - collected from local artists and friends...well, those I kept.  You can pry them from my cold, dead fingers.  Or the cold, dead fingers of the five or six friends who are graciously storing them for me at the moment.  And the clothes.  The clothes!  Since I've been wearing the same four outfits for about a year, I think back to my cram-packed walk-in closet with definite longing...

But really, I'm not feeling too too extra nostaligic at the moment.  Because even though I gave it all up, I got so much more in return.  For your viewing pleasure, some of the highlights of my 2010:

I got to hold a koala in Australia!

...hiked on a glacier in New Zealand

...experienced amazing hospitality, the world over.  (Samoan man sharing coconut from his yard.)

...saw Angkor Thom in Cambodia

...learned to surf

...went horseback riding in Guatemala

...swung from a rope into crystal clear waters in Laos

...watched a boat go through the locks at the Panama canal

...faced some very real fears.

...saw these buildings in Kuala Lumpur I've been dreaming about for years

...fed an elephant

...rode a motorscooter around Thailand

...learned to SCUBA

...Zip Lined in Nicaragua

...quality-timed it with my mom and dad

...and got to spend all summer with my favorite little boy in the whole world

What was your favorite blog post from 2010?  Comment me, I'm totally curious!  Here's mine.  Drum roll please.  Here, for your re-viewing pleasure:

Click here for my favorite blog post of 2010.

It's not over yet folks.  I'm not planning to go home anytime soon, so stay tuned for more zany adventures, fear-facing, and of course, more poop stories.  I haven't even begun to tell all of those.