12 Stunden in München.

How do you measure a year?

2012 has come and gone.  The end of the year always brings time to reflect back on what was and hope for what is to come (and since I was busy spending my last days with my family before I went back to Georgia when the new year began, here it is).  This year has been big for me, in both good and hard ways.  I've been in five countries, three of which were new to me. I've called four places home in three different countries.  I lived out the last five months of the beautiful period that was my time at Rhodes and in Memphis.  I laughed and (eventually) cried with five girls who became my family in a little house halfway between play-world and reality.  I spent hours lying on my kitchen floor contemplating the future.  I pushed myself physically farther than I ever have before running 26.2 miles in the Nashville marathon.  I became a college graduate and stepped out into the real world attempting to make my education mean something.  I saw my little brother graduate high school and start his college years that I know too well will make him a smarter, stronger, wiser person.  I was reunited with my beloved Rossiya and unexpectedly left a not so little piece of my heart in Kazan.  I set out for my summer adventure intending to not make any real friends and focus on Russian only, and I left richer in both language and priceless friendships.  I spent some sweet time with my family in Starkville.  I moved on a whim to a little village on the side of a mountain on the Black Sea in Georgia to teach English to schoolchildren.  I found a strong community of neighbors, students, and friends, and made myself a little 10 month "home" in Zeda Tkhilnari.  I decided to go to graduate school to continue the study that is also my fatal attraction and began the (sometimes) painful process to make that a reality.  In short, a lot of life happened to me in 2012.

This year was good, and even though I probably shed more tears in this one summer than I have in the last five years of my life combined (says the girl who never cries), I am thankful for it all because I struggled through a lot of uncertainty only to come out somewhere much more peaceful.  Stepping into 2013, I don't feel quite so lost anymore.  I am happy with where I am and have faith in where I am going, and even though I still sometimes long for what was and very much miss the people who are no longer a part of my daily life, I know that I have sweet memories and the blessing of their friendship forever.   

So what do I hope for in this new year?  To be kind to others.  To follow my passions wherever they lead me.  To continue to wander around the world.  To love without hesitation.  To live every day to the fullest without worry about tomorrow.  To be a good and responsible citizen of the world.  To open myself to new things and people.  But most importantly to just be and be happy.  

I'll be (I WAS) home for Christmas.

I went home for Christmas, and if I didn't have the pictures to prove it, I'm not sure that I'd believe that I did.  And in the weeks (and then days) leading up to my anticipated departure, I wasn't sure that it would happen at all (this is what happens when you work for a developing, post-Soviet government who sends you vacation tickets five days before you're supposed to leave, but I digress...).  However, I did go home, and it was wonderful.  Looking back I can now even forget the 100+ hours of transit I endured to get there and back, the fact that I was sick the majority of the time, and the misery that was grad school applications.  What I remember is that I was with the people I love and who know me and love me back.  Even though Georgia has become like a "home" for now, it will never be Starkville and it will never be Memphis, and I am grateful for that. And as much as I enjoy being Liza/Lizi, it was so nice to just be Elizabeth (or Lib/ET) for a little while.

The Cruise Fam.

The Extended Fam.

My sweet Memphis roomies.

The annual Christmas Day festivities with the Hayes.

Ralph. Fred. Walter.

Besties from birth.

♥My fam.

Be kind and rewind.

Since I have been traveling for the last six weeks, I will now proceed to post all that I have written and snapped during this time.  Consider yourself forewarned.  

“As we all know, time sometimes flies like a bird, and sometimes
crawls like a worm, but people may be unusually happy when they do not
even notice whether time has passed quickly or slowly” 

-Ivan Turgenev, Fathers and Sons 
(because, let's be honest, it always comes back to me quoting the Russians)