Happy New year everyone, can't believe its 2012 already. I had a really busy month of December with Lucas visiting from the States, Christmas with the Robbins, and a trip to England for a week. I went over to Manchester and Blackpool to visit my cousins and also to do some sightseeing with Lucas. Manchester was absolutely amazing and a much needed trip. I realized that I got stuck in a rut over here in Dublin, I definitely expected things to be different this time around, what I didn't anticipate is how similar they would be to the first time I was here. My first 6 months in Ireland back in 2006 and 2007 was the hardest, and it appears this time its exactly the same. The trip over to England however put things back into perspective for me. I am exactly where I want to be, even if I'm not exactly doing what I want to be doing yet. Being able to take a 29 Euro flight over to visit family is one of the best parts of being back here in Europe.
I missed being with my parents and siblings this year for Christmas, but I definitely had the next best thing. The holiday season here is very festive, even if you aren't feeling very cheerful there seems to be endless things to get you in the holiday spirit. It was a lot different to the Decembers in California, where 70 degree weather was still the norm, and it never quite felt like Christmas was ever approaching.
When Max was visiting in November we talked about the possibility of going to the Euro 2012 Championships in Ukraine and Poland. When we eventually got around to looking at the ticket prices its appeared we would end up paying 1000 euro for two tickets and that was quite reasonable compared to some of the other prices. We decided that instead we could spend 1000 euro and end up going somewhere on holidays instead. Max told me that the decision was up to me, and he didn't realize letting me decide where to go on a trip was like giving me a loaded gun. Instantly my thought was we could go anywhere in the world for that price so what were a few places on the top of my list. Australia is really high on my list to visit, but I knew we wouldn't have a month to explore that continent so I crossed that off. Russia was next but since I do want to go with a native Russian speaker, I decided to delay that one. Then came Sweden, Germany, and Denmark however they are all within close proximity to where Max lives so I figured that wouldn't be much of a vacation for him. In the end I narrowed it down to Croatia, Morocco, and Lebanon, and it was really difficult to pick between those three. After nearly a month of going back and forth however, I finally settled on Beirut, Lebanon. So barring a complete disaster it looks like Max and I will venture off to the Middle East sometime in the early summer. I'm really excited for that trip, it will be the farthest east I have gone to date, and also I'm looking forward to something different from western cultures.  ¶ 11:23 AM