2014 in review

January

January started off lovely and beachy.

February

For being such a short month, February was sure packed! I didn’t even realize how much stuff happened last February until I went back to look.

There was singing and dancing by Russians.

Hiking in the snow:

A terrible volleyball tournament. I only played in the volleyball tournaments so I could be 100% sure of getting out of the softball tournaments.

The Japan Cup:

Getting influenza…boy, was that ever boring!

Going south to Yokohama for the After-JET Conference.

Buried picnic tables in Horonobe:

And just lots of good old fashioned snow fun!

Yes, February was a pretty good month.

March

But March was also a fantastic month! Full of festive winter exercise!

Also had a soba making party at someone’s house. This is quite a knife, isn’t it?

We learned to curl…sort of.

We tried snow rafting and lots more cross-country skiing! I love cross-country skiing!

I took about a bazillion pictures of snowy Mt. Rishiri, but I really tried to restrain myself from picking too many pictures after the February heap. We still have a bunch more months to go!

Just…one…more…March…pic…

April

April. Ah, April in Wakkanai, what can be said about thee. Gusty winds, sometimes snow, sometimes rain. Goodbyes to old friends, hellos to new ones. Let’s see what happened in April 2014.

Wow, April 2nd!

Never mind. Also April 2nd.

April 5th. We seemed to be going the wrong way.

But by the end of April, things looked like this:

May

May started off with Golden Week! Hurray (it was also at the end of April, but that does not fit my purpose today…lol). I loved seeing Sendai, Yamagata, and Iwate.

I’m not sure what I named the rest of my May pictures, but they are somewhere. I changed my filing system after Golden Week!

June

When I select pictures, I have the choice of putting them into the post one by one, or adding them as an album. Well, I hit the wrong button here. June was a lovely month of flowers and celebrating my birthday out east with my friends!

		June 2014 –oops… VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

July

Oh, July. The final month of school visits. The month of tears. I have many sad selfies. These will not be shared tonight! And I must be getting tired, because I just hit the album button AGAIN!

		Why, July? VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

August

Final farewells and re-entry to Mississippi!

Bye…

My friend came to Tokyo to say goodbye!

Well, this isn’t so bad!

Family!

Wildlife!

September

September was more family…and more wildlife.

Yay, family!

Yikes, wildlife.

Double yikes!

We traveled to the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

More wildlife.

September was also moving to Nagoya and acclimating to city life

October

October in one shot (because I’m getting tired!)

November

Fall in Nagoya is so gorgeous!

 

December

Well, I’m out of time! How shall I sum up December?

Snow in Nagoya. Final classes. Returning to Wakkanai! Flying home! December has also been packed. But I will leave you with this picture of the Reservoir today, and the promise of a story for later.

Happy New Year’s Eve and wishing you the best 2015 you’ve ever had!