Just jump. Oh, and hang on.: 365 Days Above Zero

March 22, 2014

While it's probably not surprising to anyone reading this that we have now officially been in South Africa for a full year, allow me to be a bit nostalgic as I reflect on our first year in SA. I promise I won't get too mushy. Well, I actually shouldn't promise that...but read on all the same. You know you're gonna anyway...

At the start of all of this we set out some goals for ourselves and we also jotted down a few things about what we thought this experience might be like for us. I thought about going through our lists and seeing how things size up so far, but in the end it really doesn't matter. We knew we could never truly predict our new reality, nor the impact the experience would have on us.

What I can say is this: we are living in the moment, and doing our best to make the most of every opportunity to see and do as much as we can in this part of the world. We have a deep appreciation for the incredible climate and the sunny and bright people we've met here, both of which have far surpassed our expectations.

While we do miss home and the things that come with it, we have fallen in love with so much about this country. We know we will forever live between different worlds, and we are okay with never quite having everything in one place at one time. We might one day go home to Starbucks and hockey, but we'll be leaving behind cheap incredible wine and year-round outdoor soccer.

Some of the things we were most scared about (okay, I was most scared about) turned out to be not so scary at all. The driving is more bad-ass than frightening, and while we've become well acquainted with the concept of "load-shedding" here, this hasn't stopped us from "virtually" being a part of many major moments in their lives of our family and friends back home. Also, we have the added bonus of looking forward to hosting several close family and friends here in South Africa this coming year- a great side effect of us living here!

In honour of our first twelve months here, I've put together a few photos in an attempt to capture the essence of our experience so far in southern Africa. Thanks for an incredible intro, SA!