Bonjour 2013!

A NEW year is upon us! I'm never a big fan of the New Year's Eve celebrations (never as great as the hype - except for NYE in Brazil!) but I do like the feeling of something new. It's a new, fresh year.

YOU GET to evaluate and reflect on the previous year and get motivated for things you want to change or accomplish in the new year. I'm not one for New Year's Resolutions as they often don't last longer than the first two weeks of January but the resolutions below are definitely ones I could consider… Especially if there are cats involved.

DID YOU make any resolutions?

New Year, New Ways

HOW ON earth is it February 2012 already?!? The last months of 2011 moved by so quickly I barely had time to reflect. I started the year in Brazil and ended it in the Berg. I need to reflect...

AFTER MY Brazilian adventure, I returned to college. I interned very briefly at a magazine in Durban, helped out on the book Awesome South Africa: The Durban Edition, then moved to Cape Town to intern at a mag there. Upon my return, I began interning at an incredible company which was extended to a job. A real job. I am now officially a working adult with a salary. I pay rent. I come home at 5pm. I pay medical aid. I have a parking spot.

SO 2011 was quite a year. 2012 has quite a feat to accomplish. As do I. I need, repeat need, to get into shape. At 22, I need to be able to get up a flight of stairs whilst holding a conversation. And I really need to get over my irrational fear of elevators, back seats, and small spaces.

MY QUOTE for the year is:

I APOLOGIZE in advance if I scream like a little girl at those scary things. I'll try be brave.

Eat, Pray, Loving It

I WAS a little weary to read Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert when it first came out. I did want to but I was nervous I would want to ditch my man and go on a year-long adventure after doing so. I finally indulged myself.

I UNFORTUNATELY saw the movie before reading the book. It was a great movie but then I read the book and the movie had changed a few things and left out some parts I considered important. And your mind doesn't get to conjure up an image of what all the characters look like, you already know Elizabeth looks like Julia Robers. But I saw it on the flight to Brazil and it gave me this new outlook on traveling and I thought it was an appropriate movie to begin my trip with. Although my trip was only a month long and I wasn't struggling with my inner turmoil.

THE ITALY section did make me want to go study Italian and make my way over there ASAP! But I suppose the way Elizabeth writes so passionately about the place, who wouldn't want to go there? I even started warming up to meditation (not that I have actually tried it) but it's just so easy to feel her love for it. And of course there's Bali, a place that was always on my bucket list and now even more so.

JULIA ROBERTS was absolutely gorgeous in the movie and I think the role suited her perfectly! Julia even resembles Elizabeth, if only slightly. But Javier Bardem does not resemble Felipe at all! But I suppose they can't get it all perfect in the movie.

*real couple vs. movie couple*

UPON COMPLETING Eat, Pray, Love I have immediately begun on her follow-up book Committed. There is still so much to learn from Elizabeth Gilbert. Do yourself a favour and get these books now!