Hi Deutschland!: 2013 in Review Part 2

So, I returned to SF in March.. And everything went to shit. I hadn't been motivated at work for a while and with all the changes at the office, it was time for a change. And then my relationship with B fell apart and I had to jump back on a plane to salvage it.

I fostered the world's best Boston, Bacon, for a week. And I quit my job on 1 April. It was scary to just quit without having a next step already in place, but it was a very freeing experience at the same time.

B came to stay with me for 3 months, the maximum duration for his tourist visa. We were in SF most of the time, but traveled a bit as well. We visited my cousin in Hawaii (which I would have said is one of the most beautiful places on earth if I hadn't just spent a week in Phuket), and went to Vegas and LA.

We decided that I would go back to France with him. I enrolled in a French university and started tying up my loose ends in SF. At the end of May, we packed up our things and turned the apartment over to its new tenant, then went from one coast to the other -- back to SC.

We had just over a week in SC, and there is never enough time to see everyone and do everything. We took a spontaneous road trip to Charleston and Savannah so he could see the South. I showed him my university and the town where I spent 6 years of my life. We spent lots of time with my dear grandmother.. And then before we knew it, time was up. We said goodbye and headed to NYC for one last trip...And then to France.

What I remember most about the summer in Lyon -- the oppressive heat that smothered everything, that forced you to close the shutters tight all day and turned you into a vampire, sitting in darkness until the sun finally set and you could venture out again. I remember lots of Italian cooking, family style dinners, visits to Parc Miribel, and the apartment hunt that never seemed to end.

And then summer was over and it was time to go back to the US to get my student visa.. Except plans changed, and suddenly I found myself single and unemployed in the US. After a month of moping around I started to cheer up a bit and decided to use my return ticket to France to have a crazy month of euro tripping before starting to look for work in the US.

Lyon, London, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Munich, Merano (Italy), Kitzbühel (Austria), Hamburg, Munich again..And finally Berlin. It was a wonderful two months and I got to reconnect with so many old friends I haven't seen in years!

I had pizza and beer for dinner in a rooftop jacuzzi surrounded by snow-covered mountains and a beautiful starry night sky. I did a bike day trip up a 6500ft high mountain. I cooked new things with old friends. I spent an afternoon lying in the grass under a warm sun next to a beautiful man. I went into a sauna -- naked! With strangers! I saw a peep show in Amsterdam's Red Light District. I drank wine wrapped up in a blanket on a fake beach watching huge ships move in and out of Hamburg's harbor. I rode a bicycle through the twisting, tree lined streets of France and had foie gras and wine for dinner next to the Rhone. I learned that a casual relationship is ok, and can be really fun. I found solace from my breakup with B (and resulting life-implosion) by wandering alone through new cities, and reminded myself that I am my best friend.

And all of that stuff I just mentioned in the previous paragraph? Yeah, it was only from 1 October to 15 November, not including my time in Berlin. It was an amazing year, filled with so many different events and emotions and languages... It's bittersweet because I feel the ending of the year is like the door closing on everything I had to say goodbye to this year. San Francisco, my life and my friends there.. My friends and family in SC, whom I only briefly had a chance to be with in September.. B's family in Lyon, who welcomed me into their family and homes with warmth and love, and B himself. At the same time, I am so excited to see where I will end up next.

Much love, 2013... It was the best of times, it was the worst of times!