Twenty Twelve

2012 was a pretty epic year!  I'm repeating the meme that I've used in 2009 and 2010. I guess I could find a new one, but it's kind of fun to look back on the same questions but for different years.

1. What did you do in 2012 that you'd never done before?
Many things- went on an RTW trip spanning 3 continents/17 countries/39 cities, moved to the Bay Area, and brought home our very first Shiba Inu puppy, Mochi!

2. Did you keep your New Year's Resolutions from last year and will you make any for 2013?
I don't think I made any resolutions for this past year. I've got 13 goals/resolutions for 2013 which I will post in the next few days!

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes! One of my dear gal pals had her daughter on 8/16, so now I have a birthday twin! And the cherry on top- their family just moved to the Bay Area so now I have more friends up here. 

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Luckily no one.

5. What countries did you visit?
We went to Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Japan, North Korea, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, India, Jordan, Spain, Germany, Czech Republic, France, the Netherlands, and England.

6. What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012?
Nesting galore! I missed cooking, baking, and decorating so much while traveling! And also plenty of family/friends time. I could never be an expat because I'd miss family/friends so much! 

7. What date from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory...and why?
July 18th, the day we came home from our travels!

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
We completed a successful around the world trip with pretty much zero mishaps (no lost/stolen money/passports/luggage, missed flights, etc). 

9. What was your biggest failure?
I really can't think of anything serious so here's a minor one. Operation Empanada in Argentina was a big fail! I had a list of pre-googled shops and when we got to Buenos Aires, apparently none of them existed anymore! We walked to every place on my list and finally I just gave up.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nope, whew!

11. Did you take any risks this year?
We quit our stable jobs, rented out our home, traveled for 5 months around the world, and moved to the Bay Area. I'd say it's pretty risky!

12. What was something that you celebrated in 2012?
We celebrated 5 years of being together! We actual forgot about it (Dec 9) and spent the day with our friends eating ramen, watching Skyfall, and then gorging on an 18' pizza. Wasn't until halfway through the day that we remembered.  

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
We really didn't like the way people acted in Beijing. They were so rude and uncouth!

14. Where did most of your money go?
Our around the world trip. Duh! 

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Every "new-to-us" thing that Mochi, our Shiba Inu puppy would do- from random antics in the backyard, to his napping positions throughout the house, and of course introducing him to all our friends and family!

16. What were some of the best things you ate in 2012?
Vending machine ice cream and Sushi Dai in the Tsukiji fish market, Tokyo. Peking duck at Da Dong in Beijing. Bun Bo Hue at the lunch lady in Saigon. Steak at Don Julio in Buenos Aires. Tapas at Bar Zeruko in San Sebastian. Mushrooms at Cal Pep in Barcelona. Jerry liked eating Kabobs every day in Jordan. And watermelon anywhere in Spain: the very best watermelons in the world! We had so many epic meals that I could go on and on about...

17. What fears did you conquer in 2012?
I swam (errr waded) in the open sea in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam! I was a little scared but thankfully the high salt content kept me floating. :)

18. In what way were you pleasantly surprised this year?
I was surprised by how much incredible fun we had with my family members in Vietnam and Germany! Of course I thought we'd have a good time and Jerry would get to know about family members he'd only heard of before, but I had no idea that we'd all bond on such a deep emotion level despite the language and cultural barrier! We really miss my Germany family so much and can't wait for them to visit! (the Vietnam family coincidentally came to America after receiving their immigration papers woohoo!)

19. What were your favorite new TV programs of 2012?
Homeland, Downton Abbey, and Sherlock (the BBC version).

20. What was the best book you read?
I really enjoyed Gone Girl.  It's the best book I've read this year! Started it at 12:30AM and finished it 3 hours later. Don't get me started on why I decided to start a book at midnight!

21. What did you want AND get?
I wanted a house with a yard and I got it!

22. What did you want and NOT get?
I originally wanted a female Shiba Inu (and that's what we thought we were getting all year long!), but we ended up with a male...and now I can't imagine anything else. :)

23. What was your favorite film of the year?
Hmm...nothing stands out to me as a clear favorite, but I did enjoy Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, The Vow, Crazy Stupid Love, Friends with Kids, We Bought a Zoo. I think I saw all of these movies while on our 26 flights during our trip!

24. What was the best thing you bought?
Mochi the Shiba Inu from our breeder! Worth every penny. :) And on a very shallow note, my first Chanel bag from none other than 31 Rue Cambon. 

25. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
Woke up in London yesterday
Found myself in the city near Piccadilly
Don't really know how I got here
I got some pictures on my phone
New names and numbers that I don't know
Address to places like Abbey Road
Day turns to night, night turns to whatever we want
We're young enough to say
Oh, this has gotta be the good life
This has gotta be the good life
This could really be a good life, good life

Movies Galore

Our friend recently asked if Jer and I wanted to buy into a 50 and/or 100 pack of AMC tickets with some other folks. I said yes even though...

My track record for movie theater watching is quite dismal. I can count on my hand the number of times that I've been in a movie theater in the last 5 years- Batman and Bond in 2008, 500 Days of Summer in 2009, and The Hunger Games and Perks of Being a Wallflower in 2012. Yep, that's a gap of 2 years and 8 months in between some of these flicks. We did go to the drive-in theater in 2011 though which was really fun! And we've watched a ton of movies as they come out on DVD so we're not totally out of the loop. I think it's just hard for us to take the initiative to watch a movie outside of our house unless it's with other folks. So now that we'll have a wad of AMC tix to use, here are some movies I'm looking forward to!

Skyfall- we're gonna watch this next weekend actually!

Silver Linings Playbook- I don't know much about this movie except that it's getting a lot of Oscar buzz

Les Miserables- love love the trailers. Extended. Regular.

Zero Dark Thirty- I really liked The Hurt Locker and I can't wait for this one to come out especially since Jessica Chastain is in it and I enjoyed watching her in The Debt, and you can't go wrong with Kyle Chandler aka Coach Taylor!

Ender's Game and The Great Gatsby- I loved both books!

Catching Fire- hopefully the new director won't have such a shaky hand!
Frozen- even though I'm not a huge fan of animated movies I am definitely looking forward to hearing Kristin Bell and Idina Menzel sing!

Whew that's a lot of movies! I'll probably be watching more movies in the upcoming months than in previous years combined!