Auld Lang Syne

This final post of the year comes to you live from my favorite place: Lopez Island. Looking back, I can unhestitatingly say that this has been the most ambiguous year of my life. It would not be a huge stretch to say that the very best and the very worst moments of my life happened in the last twelve months. Since I have so few readers, I don't want to scare any away with excessive negativity, so I'll just focus on the positives. First of all, I spend most of the year in Britain, which for an anglophile such as myself is pretty sweet. I also love traveling, and I set a record for countries visited (7; 9 if you count Wales and Scotland as separate from England) that I doubt I'll ever break. Of course, it's not all about quantity, but let me assure you that these were quality trips as well: paleontology in Ottawa, art in Madrid, Easter in Germany, Viking ships in Denmark, finding the England that I thought existed only in fiction in Cambridge. Of course, best of all was my acceptance into Oregon: there's just nothing quite as wonderful as knowing that I'll get to spend the foreseeable future "at home" in the Northwest. For those of you who I've known for a long time, and for those that I've just gotten to know since last January, Happy New Year!