Can I live this year again, please? Seriously, I don’t know how I got to be so lucky.<\/p>\n
1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?<\/i>
\nMany things, but the big one: Lived abroad, both by myself and in a flatshare.<\/p>\n
2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?<\/i>
\nI don’t usually do resolutions.<\/p>\n
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?<\/i>
\nMy kiwi friend Rachel.<\/p>\n
4. Did anyone close to you die?<\/i>
\nLuckily not.<\/p>\n
5. What countries did you visit?<\/i>
\nNew Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Germany.<\/p>\n
6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?<\/i>
\nA regular income. (But I would never swap that for this year’s experiences!)<\/p>\n
7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?<\/i>
\nFebruary 2nd – moving in with the best flatmates ever. July 25th – leaving New Zealand. September 6th – returning to Switzerland.<\/p>\n
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?<\/i>
\nGetting my Human Resources diploma.<\/p>\n
9. What was your biggest failure?<\/i>
\nSeriously? It’s been pretty much all good.<\/p>\n
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?<\/i>
\nNothing major. Sprained my ankle in Australia.<\/p>\n
11. What was the best thing you bought?<\/i>
\nHm. My ticket to see Fall Out Boy, maybe.<\/p>\n
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?<\/i>
\nMy little brother, for growing up and making some big decisions.<\/p>\n
13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?<\/i>
\nEmotionally ending my oldest friendship – I had to realize that it’s really over when I had to hear about his baby and wedding from my mom.<\/p>\n
14. Where did most of your money go?<\/i>
\nTraveling of course. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?<\/i>
\nNew Zealand. God, I love it so much! Also, bandom and Fall Out Boy, obviously. *g*<\/p>\n
16. What song will always remind you of 2008?<\/i>
\nProbably ‘The Call’ by Regina Spektor – it’s my “goodbye New Zealand” song. And “Saturday” by Fall Out Boy.<\/p>\n
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:<\/i>
\na) happier or sadder? <\/i> happier – this was the best year of my LIFE!
\nb) thinner or fatter? <\/i> fatter, but I don’t care.
\nc) richer or poorer? <\/i> poorer, so much poorer, but again – best year of my LIFE, so I don’t care.<\/p>\n
18. What do you wish you’d done more of?<\/i>
\nSpent time with my New Zealand friends.<\/p>\n
19. What do you wish you’d done less of?<\/i>
\nProcrastinated over my inbox. (This Christmas break, I promise – hey, that could be my new year’s resolution!)<\/p>\n
20. How will you be spending Christmas?<\/i>
\nWith my family again. *happy*<\/p>\n
21. Did you fall in love in 2008?<\/i>
\nNo, just a crush or two. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
22. What was your favourite TV program?<\/i>
\nToo many. Torchwood, maybe, because series 2 was awesome!<\/p>\n
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?<\/i>
\nI don’t usually hate people. But I very much dislike Mr. Interfering Bossguy.<\/p>\n
24. What was the best book you read?<\/i>
\nI read quite a lot while traveling. Probably the ‘Temeraire’ series by Naomi Novik, to which Bronwyn introduced me last year.<\/p>\n
25. What was your greatest musical discovery?<\/i>
\nBandom bands, especially Fall Out Boy, HELLO? *g*<\/p>\n
26. What did you want and get?<\/i>
\nAmazing experiences down under. Proof that I can live away from friends, but not as far away as New Zealand because of my parents.<\/p>\n
27. What did you want and not get?<\/i>
\nA job that actually interests me, in the UK or Ireland. But that’s just postponed.<\/p>\n
28. What was your favourite film of this year?<\/i>
\nHmm. Possibly ‘Juno’. Or ‘Once’. But I didn’t see a lot of movies.<\/p>\n
29. What did you do on your birthday?<\/i>
\nWent out for dinner and drinks with a few friends in Wellington. Not a lot of people, as I didn’t really know anyone yet.<\/p>\n
30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?<\/i>
\nIf I didn’t have to leave New Zealand (or knew that I could go back very, very soon).<\/p>\n
31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?<\/i>
\nA bit more sporty (jeans, chucks, t-shirts) with a dash of emo. \ud83d\ude42 One of my favorite things about Wellington: No one gives a shit what you wear.<\/p>\n
32. What kept you sane?<\/i>
\nThe daily realization that I was in the country of my dreams. The kiwi motto of “no worries”. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
33. Which celebrity\/public figure did you fancy the most?<\/i>
\nHey there, Patrick Stump! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
34. What political issue stirred you the most?<\/i>
\nSwitzerland’s parliament not re-electing Blocher and the ensuing SVP bruhaha. The American elections.<\/p>\n
35. Who did you miss?<\/i>
\nMy family. My friends in Switzerland.<\/p>\n
36. Who was the best new person you met?<\/i>
\nOnly one? My South African friend Celia.<\/p>\n
37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008:<\/i>
\nNew Zealand is the home of my heart, Switzerland is the home of my soul. I am definitely one of the most blessed people alive.<\/p>\n
38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:<\/i>
\nDrum tauch i i und gumpe dri, au wenn i nit gnau weiss, wie’s wird si – es bruucht kai Zit, nur e chli Muet. Es chunnt scho guet. (Michael von der Heide – Ruggewind)
\n“Therefore I dive in and jump, although I don’t know exactly how it’ll be – it doesn’t need time, just a bit of courage. It’ll be okay.”<\/p>\n
Or maybe, to be pathetic (in the sense of meaning “full of pathos”): Ka mate! ka mate! Ka ora! ka ora! […] H\u00c5\u00abpane! H\u00c5\u00abpane! H\u00c5\u00abpane! Kaupane! Whiti te r\u00c4\u0081! (Haka by Te Rauparaha – the All Blacks haka<\/a>) Can I live this year again, please? Seriously, I don’t know how I got to be so lucky. 1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before? Many things, but the big one: Lived abroad, both by myself and in a flatshare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-memes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/multifaceted-abnormal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/multifaceted-abnormal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/multifaceted-abnormal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/multifaceted-abnormal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/multifaceted-abnormal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/multifaceted-abnormal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":665,"href":"http:\/\/multifaceted-abnormal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663\/revisions\/665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/multifaceted-abnormal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/multifaceted-abnormal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/multifaceted-abnormal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n“‘Tis death! ’tis death! ‘Tis life! ’tis life! […] One upward step! A step upward, another step upward! A step upward, another… the Sun shines!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"