Weekly Photo Challenge: 2012 in Pictures

We started in May 2011, and in October 2012 we completed a roadtripping circle! My husband is the best driver and I finally learned how to set that damn tent.

January set off in Vancouver with 3 weeks of rain at a time. Daily entertainment featured construction work across the street, Punjabi music and our landlords getting drunk in the hot tub. We returned to sanity over a weekend trip to Dallas to attend a Texan wedding and welcome Joe to the family.

February marked frequent drives across Canada/US border to get cheap gas and breath boho-grunge.

In March I cried over a scholarship I got to do an Indonesian language course in Wisconsin. April was spent packing and anticipating.

May. Rained followed us across America but who cares about the rain when you’re in Yellowstone. Better risk your life by a) getting hit by a bison, b) falling over to a geyser, or c) loosing your sight in a snow blizzard, than leaving Yellowstone without good pictures. True story.

Want to take a picture of Mount Rushmore? Well, you can’t unless you pay us $10 for parking. We ended up in the beautiful Black Hills forest but I pulled off a Polish and found my way to steal a pic anyway.

Farmers, farmers everywhere. No one seem to bring tents to camping sites anymore, RVs is where it’s at.

In June we made it to the dairy land and saw a wonderful friend of ours.  I did plenty of yoga and conversed in Indonesian.

August-September. I ate fried food, I ate fatty food, I ate sugary food. No regrets.

We toured the most haunted town in Texas.

October. Nathan lands a job in Nashville. November. We still don’t have furniture (the glory of the inflatable bed). December. Post-grad angst while editing my resume for the millionth time.

We’re Married!

“I believe that love that is true and real, creates a respite from death. All cowardice comes from not loving or not loving well, which is the same thing. And then the man who is brave and true looks death squarely in the face. It is because they love with sufficient passion, to push death out of their minds.”

                                                                                       – Hemingway, Midnight in Par

                 

For majority of us wedding ceremony marks a beginning of a new stage in life and we’re acculturated to celebrating it with all the pomp and glitz one can afford. For us all that ever mattered was making it possible to live in one country. The urgency of legalizing our relationship took precedence over putting time and effort into organizing a proper wedding. We regretted to not have been able to share that moment with all the people who would like to be there, but with our friends and families spread thousands of kilometers apart the idea of getting everyone together in one place seemed just beyond our means. I bought my cocktail dress the morning before the wedding, the first dress I tried on. Getting married on the anniversary of our engagement in Ethiopia was the most beautiful, heartfelt moment.

Longview, East Texas

It was the time to weave goodbye to my beloved Europe and return back to the strikingly different American reality. We were headed for Longview, Gregg County, East Texas spend quality time with Nathan’s family.

Time in East Texas run slow and lazy, putting us in sort of a comma as we were counting down  to hit the road again. Texas has everything America is known for but little of what outsiders make of it. Confused? I am too. Highways run smooth, people love their big trucks, drive-thru’s, bbq pork and rootbeer floats.  You will find all sorts of people religiously wearing cowboy hats and boots, but you will be surprised to find that Dallas is actually thriving mosaic of cultures, with Asian supermarkets and authentic African food joints.

This was my first visit to Texas in the summer, and I was not at all prepared for the weather, 90% humidity coupled with outrageous temperatures – 90-110F (up to 45C).  A  daunting and pretty much agonizing combination for someone with poor blood circulation. Stepping into stemming hot outdoors from a chilly, air-conditioned indoors felt like entering the oven. Most attempts at getting fresh air lasted not longer than 15 minutes, marked by streams of sweat I didn’t think my body could produce.  The planning of our stay in British Columbia has been going on for months now was a time to give it a final kick, but the energy just wasn’t there. My sinus headaches lasted 2 weeks.

Gregg County Historical Museum