... and here we are again, counting the last hours of another year and trying to remember all the good (or less preferable) things that we experienced during these past twelve months. I am no different, so I tried to make this recap of all the highlights of my 2018. One, two, three, here we go!
All in all, 2018 was pretty nice! Although, like last year I had some issues with my health, I tried my best to cope with everything and don't be too negative. Problems come and go and it's up to us if we want to remember them or not. I chose the latter.
This year I had no major trips (like France, Poland, Croatia or any other journey from previous years) since me and my husband basically had no vacation. There are two reasons why we abandoned our plans on going somewhere: my PhD thesis and... we bought a house!
Our house is a project that we've been thinking about for a long time, and last year we finally found one! We got our keys this year in spring and all work of turning this tiny house into our home has begun. If you follow me on Instagram, you probably saw me posing with peonies, strawberries, or just chilling with a magazine or a book in my lap. So yeah, I've been doing this in my very own garden! There's lots of work that is left BTS of Instagram (from garden works like pruning, mowing the lawn, watering plants, to full-scale renovation that our house is undergoing right now, like changing the roof, knocking down some walls, or adding additional rows of bricks), but I hope very (VERY) much, that next year we'll meet 2020 in our new home!
One of the things that I'm proud of this year, is that I completed my PhD studies and submitted fully written thesis (hence the lack of activity in my blog - I wrote half the posts that I produced in 2017). I am currently editing it according to all the commentaries that I got from my supervisor and internal reviewers, before resubmitting to final defense. Fingers crossed, next year I'll get my degree!
Even thought I said that we had no proper vacation, we did travel a bit. My year begun with our trip to Italy, Rome. In May I went to Estonia for a short scholarly visit in University of Tartu. On my way back, I got a chance to stop by in Pärnu and dip my toes in Baltic Sea. In September, I attended a conference in Latvia, so it was a great opportunity to explore the streets of my beloved Riga once again. Last, but far from the least, was a short trip to Sweden, Göteborg to visit my little sis who now lives and works there.
Since I was constantly writing and working even during the summer, balancing this and rest was essential. On weekends I explored Lithuania together with my husband and our loyal companion Frėja, or our dear friends. Starting with centenary, when we visited Kaunas (this city, BTW, was one of my favorite destinations this year!), our roads took us to Biržai (quite a fiew times actually, since they have an impressive flea market), Kernavė (two times!), Rumšiškės, Šventoji, Molavėnai, Užutrakis, Pakruojis.
Most of all I am grateful to all those amazing people that surround me! 2018 brought me lots and lots of fun, happy, and memorable moments with my family, colleagues, and friends, both old and new. I do wish that next year I'll be meeting all those awesome people even more often than I was this year!
I wish you all that 2019 would be the year when you fulfill your goals! Let it be the year that we all would remember for bright and happy moments (I'm still looking at you, 2016)!
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