from 07 to 08

Every year at about this time, I like to plop myself at a cafe and reflect on the year that’s about to come to a close. This year is no different, as I’ve definitely gone through quite a bit in 2007. However, it’s a bit nerve-wrecking trying to plan for 2008, as I’m currently waiting for several key decisions that will determine pretty much everything I do in the coming year. So my 2008 plans will temporarily assume that everything happens according to plan :)

2007 in Retrospect: Last year, I have…

• Spent 7 months living and working in a developing country, learning more about myself than anything else.
• Gotten my Scuba diving Open Water certification.
• Traveled to Bangladesh, Nepal, and Thailand.
• Fully experienced the infamous South-Asian summer monsoons.
• Began to develop a more ‘international’ view of the world – specifically, I’ve started to see how much influence the US does not have over the rest of the world.
• Finally gotten to catch up with some old friends I haven’t seen in years.
• Watched my stocks roller-coaster and have temporarily lost faith/interest in the domestic financial markets.
• Forgotten how to drive.
• Completely lost my alcohol tolerance, but continue to love wine, passionately.
• Gotten my act together and taken the GMAT that I have been “getting ready to take” for the past 2 years.
• Decided last minute to throw together two grad school applications, both of which were submitted hours before final deadlines.

2008 in Anticipation: This year, I will…

• Take advantage of my next project with the Gates Foundation to learn even more about international development.
• Sneak in a quick tour of Africa while I’m on the project.
• [Hopefully] be making a huge, drawn-out decision between spending the next two years in New York or San Francisco.
• Begin applying for loans and preparing myself for years of debt.
• Relearn all the French that I’ve lost over the past few years.
• Pick up piano again.
• Build up a consistent running routine.
• Lose my chub of a stomach, once and for all!
• Quit my consulting job and do some more traveling.
• Go back to SE Asia for my Advanced OW diving certification.
• Convince myself to to save up some money amongst all of this.

If all goes well, 2008 should be an amazing year :)

so this is Christmas, what have you done?

…me? I’ve been relaxing at home and getting fat. Our family celebrated the holiday as we do every year. We have our big dinner during Christmas Eve, which is more or less my responsibility. Although I used to be semi-decent at cooking, after moving to the city my kitchen repertoire consisted of well-organized delivery menus and recipes that involve either a microwave or toaster oven. So then my repressed inner chef breaks out every year during the holidays, when I temporarily take over my parents’ full-sized suburban kitchen and cook up a storm.

This year was no different – in fact, after being out of the country for so long, I spent half a day walking up and down the aisles of Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, ogling at the perfectly shaped produce from every season, and at the endless varieties of every kind of food. After I thoroughly amused myself by looking at all 200 types of of snack bars that has surfaced since I last stepped foot inside an American supermarket, I managed to drag myself back home and put together a pleasantly delicious, mostly organic Christmas Eve Dinner menu:

• L’Antipasto
  • Tossed Mesclun Salad with Chili Italian Dressing
  • Baked Whole Wheat Rolls
• Il Primo
  • Green Apple and Blue/Cran-berry Stuffing
• Il Secondo
  • Herb-Encrusted Prime Rib Roast
  • Apple and Pecan stuffed Chicken Breast
• Il Contorno
  • Chili-Sauteed Broccoli
  • Oven-Roasted Baby Potatoes with Garlic and Herbs
  • Seafood Casserole
• Il Dolce
  • Almond Parfait with Peaches and Mixed Berries
  • Jamaican Rum with Berry Compote (after-dinner drink)

And on Christmas day, we followed our yearly family tradition by going out to watch a movie – Juno, which by the way, is an excellent film that had me laughing and tearing simultaneously without feeling odd since everyone in the theater was doing the exact same thing.

and now, another Christmas is about to be over. Soon it will be New Year’s Eve, during which I’m assuming I will spend several hours at some cafe, writing about this past year and thoughts for the next year, as I do every year. And pretty soon, even that will be over. Ever since I’ve come back home, time seems to be moving at an incredibly fast speed. It has been a good year. And if I can help it, next year will be a great one.

suburban mornings

I’m at home in the Maryland suburbs, visiting family for the holidays. Except I’m not – I’m actually sitting at a Starbucks, with my tall Americano and a “maple oat nut” scone, reading a sprinkling of news articles from the WSJ, Economist, and NYTimes.

Since I’ve come back, I’ve woken up every morning, gotten in the car, and driven 10 minutes down the road to this single Starbucks within pretty much a 15-20 mile radius to have a cup of coffee and read the morning news.

This drives my parents insane – but there’s coffee and internet connection at home! But it’s not that. And it’s not specifically Starbucks either, not really. Old habits die hard. I love/have to start my mornings at a cafe, and in New York, this would be nothing out of the ordinary. I guess it’s the smell of roasted beans, and the routine bustling amongst familiar strangers in the morning. On a good day, I’d hop out of bed and out for a short morning jog, then drop by the cafe next door for a morning fix. Or on a sluggish day, I’d roll out of bed, and drag myself down to the cafe – the best part of waking up. Everyone does this!

But as I sit here and watch the empty tree-lined streets, it is slowly occurring to me just how odd this habit would be if I actually lived here – to make an entire trip out of a simple morning routine (which makes me realize that the baristas here must wonder why I’m here so often!) Morning activity happens within the privacy of one’s own home, nothing is left out to the public until all is washed, polished, and ready to be presented. So suburban.

Man, I miss New York.

it’s that itch again…

As I approach my last few weeks on this project and begin making plans to return to the States, I find myself once again thinking about where I want to live. Specifically, for the past three to four years, I’ve thought about making a move to San Francisco. Each time I visited for work/pleasure, I found myself thoroughly enjoying the life there and not wanting to leave. I’ve always known that San Francisco would be the only other place I could see myself moving to if I ever left New York.

After daydreaming about this for the past few years, it’s a bit unnerving that I might actually do it, within the next few months. And my mind’s inevitably filled with endless questions and dilemmas…

- Am I ready to transition from the familiar straight-forward east coast attitude to the happy, ‘euphoric’ optimism of the west coast?

- If I end up not liking San Francisco, would I have wasted my time?

- But I’ll be close to the outdoorsy activities that I love. I’ll be one step closer to Tahoe, wine country, scuba diving, good weather

- But am I okay with leaving behind my friends and family?

- And can I live without the four seasons?

- Can I give up amazing pizza, bagels, and world-class cuisine? And I don’t like Mexican food!

- And most of all, can I really leave New York without missing it and feeling miserable?

Despite all the back and forth wavering, I’m self-aware enough to know that I will ultimately follow my gut-instinct, or at least drive myself crazy until I do. And my instinct now is telling me to take advantage of this open opportunity – in between projects, no lease in New York, fresh perspectives from having just lived abroad – to explore the city I’ve been curious about for so long and understand myself a little deeper in the process.  I’m at a point in my life where I can afford to try out another lifestyle. And plus, New York will always be there if I choose to go back. In some ways, knowing that I can always feel at home in New York gives me the confidence to explore elsewhere. And giving San Francisco a try is just something I know that I have to do. It’s as simple as that.

old habits die hard

They say that when you get close to someone, you begin growing similar – picking up each other’s habits, likes and dislikes, etc. I think that’s true, especially when it comes to those you’ve had a relationship with. Today, a friend joked about my germaphobe tendencies because I always carry Purell around. I had picked this up from someone I used to date, who washed his hands all the time. After a while, I broke up with him, but kept his habit with me. This got me thinking about what other aspects of myself are really just those carried over from previous relationships across the years. Here are a few other quirky ones I came up with:

• After morning jogs every Saturday, I park myself at a cafe and read my favorite newspapers and magazines for an extremely. long. time.
• I make a point to pick up every single piece of hair I shed.
• I will almost always resort to take-out when I’m eating alone, but love to get elaborate when cooking for someone else.
• I am extremely picky about the quality of my bed and the thread-count of my sheets. They must be perfect.

So if it’s true that couples tend to pick up each other’s habits, I wonder what of mine that others have adopted. My insatiable appetite? My sweet tooth? My knack at being extremely gullible? Hmm, maybe I got the better end of the deal.