What Were You Doing This Time Last Year?

I just got a message from one of my favorite writers/bloggers/travelers @umarket saying that the last year has felt like a decade. I completely agree! 

Perhaps that's the nature of travel. When you move around so much, each day feels like a week feels so very long.

Not in a bad way, it's just that travel forces you to be acutely aware of each moment. You have to think about where you will eat, where you will sleep and often even something as simple as buying a new pair of shoes takes time and thought in a way it simply doesn't when you're home.

The drastic change only adds to this time-lengthening effect.

Last year this time, we had just arrived in Buenos Aires and had the good luck to meet a family from New Jersey who were living the month in an apartment right down the street from us. They have twins, and Lila and their two girls played every day.

We spent New Year's eve with them and another friend Jo at an extremely touristy restaurant near the Recoleta cemetary. I thought the evening would be overpriced with mediocre food. Turns out, it was one of the more memorable New Year's of my life.

Don David wine flowed freely (was included in the 100 peso price per person of the meal). Our three children were not the only ones out for the evening either. All the other tourists -- from Brazil, England, Holland, Chile, France and more -- brought their little ones out for the evening, and they all danced happily until 3am.

Since then, we moved to Salta, and attended Burning Man. Lila turned five and started school. We started an education project. I became editor of Matador Life. Noah began designing an art exhibit for next year's Burning Man, We rented a house and began developing our new-expat life in Argentina. So many new things. It's no wonder last January 1 feels miles and miles away.

And now, right this very second, I'm in the process of packing to go to Israel. It'll be my first visit there in almost 20 years, since I lived there in high school. I was religious then and attended an all girls seminary in an extremely ultra-orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem. Should be interesting!

Now I want to know about you. I talk about myself all the time here. What about you?

What were you doing last year on this day? And what do you hope to be doing in a year from now?

Wishing you all a happy new year, filled with love, luck and promise. Thank you to family and friends for being such amazing support. Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to read this blog of mine. I've loved getting to know you through comments, Twitter and otherwise.

Happy 2010 to all from the whole Futureisred family!