There is only one word that can truly summarize this year: adventure. There has been more change in the last 365 days than any other point in my life and with change comes spectacular opportunities. The year was filled with family, culture, food, photography, travel, celebrations, and huge life changes. It has been a beautiful journey and I have loved sharing it with you. Here are 14 AMAZING things that made 2014 an epic year.

Not too far from my new home is a park where you can visit a variety of different animals. Halwga National Park is most well known for it monkey filled area where you can drive through and meet creatures along the way. We spent an afternoon feeding monkeys out the car window and getting to know the elephants that we were lucky enough to get a chance to ride on. 

I participated in two photography events this year. The first was FotoMarathon Yangon where we were challenged to go out in groups and take photos around town based on specific themes that were sent to us every two hours. You can read all about it here. Shortly after that I helped lead a group of students in creating a Help-Portrait event. This is a worldwide initiative that I also participated in when I was in Maine. The event involves taking photos for families who would not normally be able to afford professional photography, we invited the local staff and trishaw drivers from the school, dressed them up, did their makeup and hair, took their portraits, and printed out photographs for them to go home with that day. It was a beautiful experience that was not about taking photographs but about giving them. (Post coming soon)

As many of the best things do, my trip up to Tanuggi for the famous Fire Balloon Festival came very spontaneously as a weekend getaway with my friend Ashley. Thousands of people flock to the otherwise quiet town of Tanuggi each year to witness and participate in the traditional act of launching fire balloons. It was an experience like no other. Read about the whole festival here (videos included).

The hardest day of homesickness I have had was the day of Amanda and Josh's wedding. Luckily we have amazing technology now that allowed me to watch the entire event. I stayed up all night since there is a 12 hour time difference and was able to skype/facetime in for everything from getting ready, formal pictures, ceremony, reception, cake, toasts, dance party and everything in between. Although I wish I could have been by my little sister's side and joined in with my family I was certainly celebrating from afar. Photo credit to Pipyr Photo.

Myanmar was certainly not love at first taste, it has taken quite a while to find the true gems of the cuisine but now that we have there is no going back! Tofu Noway, Kay-O, Tomato Salad, Steamed Dumplings, Fried Tofu, Mohinga, and so much more. This year has truly been an adventure for my tastebuds alone now if only I could adjust to the spices.

No trip to Africa is complete without a Safari and I completely understand why. There is no experience like that of watching a baby zebra nuzzle it's mother or a herd of elephants protecting their young. Sure I've seen most of these animals in zoos before but being able to watch them in their environment, in their world can't compare. My favorite were the giraffes with their long legs and their even longer necks, seeing them galloping around on their stilt-like legs was quite the site.

Although we were crunched for time after our wedding with only two months before the big move we wanted to take a breather and enjoy married life. With our big adventure right around the corner we decided the perfect honeymoon would be relaxing on the beach with drinks in our hands so we headed to the best place for it, an all-inclusive resort in Cancun, Mexico. We spent five beautiful days with our feet in the sand, swimming in the spectacular pools, drinking all sorts of tasty beverages, indulging in choice restaurants, and enjoying our new time together as a married couple. Although it was hard to pull off (scheduling and other wise) this was the absolute best wedding choice we made and I will always look back on this time fondly. See the rest of the photos here.

Unforgettable experiences are around every corner of my new life in Myanmar, but certainly one of the most spectacular has been the trip we took in October to Inle Lake. We were very fortunate to visit at the time of the Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda Festival which is a celebration that involves ferrying around five giant golden buddha statues to each town in the lake. The lake is so big that it takes almost a month to complete the whole route. Not only did we get to watch the parade but we also got to experience the rest of the stunning Inle Lake including traditional leg-rowing fishermen, long-neck women weaving, traditional silversmiths, hand paper weavers, the floating gardens, and my favorite, the crumbling pagodas of Indein. (PS Blog post coming soon with sooooo many more photos)

Zane Andrew Simmons joined the world on March 8th. I can't believe this little peanut is over 9 months old now! He is such a sweet little boy who has brightened every life around him since he arrived most certainly the lives of his parents, my sister, Andrea, and my brother-in-law, Steve. I have missed him dearly since I have been away, luckily Andrea has been great at sharing about all the milestones - big and small - with pictures, stories, and videos. Can't wait until I get to snuggle this little guy again!

Capturing the moments of one of the most special days in a persons life is an honor and privilege, I know that sounds cheesy but it honestly is. The joy, celebration, and love that fills a wedding is unparalleled. Leaving behind Adorn photography was very difficult for me because I truly loved every minute of photographing wedding and portraits. Within the first few months of the year I was invited by five spectacular couples to photograph their wedding days and each one was so very special. I am certain about few things in my future but one of them is that I know I will return to photographing weddings at some point in my life. For now I will enjoy using my passion to capture the world around me through my travel photography.

Ask either of us just a few years ago if we thought we would be spending the holidays together on safari in Africa or on the beaches of Zanzibar and both Renee, my sister, and I would have simply laughed. Such an unlikely story for two small-town New Englanders. Yet, this is exactly where we found ourselves this holiday season, see just two weeks before my winter break from school Kim flew back to Maine to be with her ill father which left the perfect opportunity for me to hop the Indian Ocean to visit Renee. Renee has been living in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania for almost two years now where she freelances web design when she is not busy working on her passion of free diving and the resulting website www.seaunseen.com. We spent three amazing weeks celebrating the holidays, on safari, hanging out on the beach, diving, and having some much needed sister time.

It was actually December of 2012 that I started my health and fitness journey, dedicating most of 2013 to challenging myself physically and educating myself on proper health and nutrition. In January of this year I made the ultimate commitment to a 30 day juice fast and my life has not been the same since. Juicing allowed me to realign my expectations of food and reset my appetite. It not only gave me results in appearance but in self-confidence and strength of mind. With my juicing I finally felt in control of my body. I took the beginning of this year to fully commit to myself, focusing on goals like working out everyday and setting up a regular meditation schedule. It was an amazing time that I hope to revisit now that my life has settled down. 

Without a doubt, the craziest thing that happened this year was packing up our belongings and moving to -literally- the other side of the world. Following my dream to teach abroad, Kim and I picked up and left everything behind (that couldn't fit in our 6 suitcases) to explore the world. Three days and 8151 miles later we found ourselves in a land like nothing we ever knew before. Myanmar has been everything we never expected, our time filled with awe, frustrations, curiosity, and a whole lot of laughter. 

Without a doubt the most important day of 2014 was May 10th, the day that I married my love, Kimberly. As with any journey, who you travel with can be more important than any destination and nothing could have been half as wonderful this year without this amazing person by my side. Having someone to share in all of the adventures I have had this year and will continue to have into 2015 and beyond it the best thing I could ask for. 

(Read all about our full wedding day here. Photo credit to Justine Johnson Photography.)

It was Friday night and you know what that means . . . 19th street here we come!!!!! We grabbed a group of our friends and headed downtown to enjoy an evening of festivities which started with 80 cent mojitos and ended with Kim making a slew of new local friends. Another epic night on 19th street.

As is usual with our nightly wanderings, we had some unusual finds one of which was another Myanmar delicacy. My students called these tree warms. The are available fresh and deep fried. We were going to try some but they were surprisingly expensive - I think they gave us the foreigner price increase. 

On Saturday we went on a much-awaited adventure of going across the river to the neighboring town of Dala. We took the ferry over after managing to find the dock and got some traditional Myanmar lunch on the other side (yes, Kim ate on the street). The we each got a trishaw to take us around town to the different sites. This defiantly needed it’s own post so:

Look how crazy adorable this little guy was!!!!!

Back on our side of the bay we lead our couchsurfers through a little tour of downtown in search of Dim Sum. We had heard that Chinatown has the BEST Dim Sum in Yangon (makes sense). But unfortunately we didn't actually know where Chinatown was to be found. It did show the area on the map but it was stretched over about 6 blocks. At least the walk was interesting. 

Although we didn't find any Dim Sum we did find some tasty doughnuts off the street. Kim really enjoyed them. 

Sunday we continued our usual tradition of grocery shopping but instead of taking our usual route we decided to take the long way around and explore our neighborhood a little more. One thing I love about walking around is admiring all of the colors that were once brilliant and vibrant used on the houses, now crumbling, peeling, and fading away. After walking down a random road for a good 15-20 minutes we turned out to a road that we knew but the surprises didn’t end there, we found a genuine ramen noodle house down a random side ally. Although we had already had a meal we know we will be back to try it soon. 

The week held a run of work, me at school and Kim building her menu for the restaurant. We hosted a new couchsurfing couple from Spain in the middle of the week and had a blast with them sharing our love of homemade sangria and delicious food.

I'm not sure what to say after that so I will just leave it there. See you all next week!

Kim and I were itching to have a day in the kitchen so we invited a group of new friends over for a big family dinner. As Kim created magic in the kitchen I ran back and forth to the store across the street retrieving different ingredients that were forgotten about on our big shopping trip. Music blaring, water boiling, and broom sweeping, we danced the day away in the kitchen. The evening was spent with a large group of our new friends sitting around the table enjoying every bite of Kim’s delicious feast. For most of them this was the first time having any sort of actual American food (or food from home as we like to call it) since arriving and it was beyond appreciated. The buffet was set with slice roasted pork, French style red wine braised beef, garlic mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, honey glazed carrots, potato salad, and fresh garden salad. As Nora Jones sang out from the speakers and wine filling our glasses the night drifted along at an easy pace. But this was nothing compared to what was happening right before they arrived.

About an hour before everyone was set to arrive I pulled out our table to the middle of the room and expanded it to ready it for the large crowd we had coming. No more than a few seconds later, there was a big drip of water that splashed all over the table. Shortly after, another one followed on the other end of the table. See we have two consistent drips in our kitchen ceiling which have been mildly annoying up until this point but we had been told that there was no use fixing it in rainy season. But tonight this would just not do. So I sent Kim down to the office to see if someone could come up and put some more packing tape over it (I would have gladly just done this myself if we had packing tape and a latter but alas). Surprisingly Kim came back a short while later followed by three workers. I say surprisingly because things almost never happen immediately here, it is always “Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow” aka sometime in the distant future after you have asked at least three more times –or- “Please wait for me” aka I will come at the most inconvenient time you could possibly imagine most likely in another month or two.

In they came, the three workers, and Kim got back to cooking as I attempted to ask them to put more tape over the cracks that were leaking. I thought they understood when they left only to return with a latter and three more people. As one of them took to looking at the ceiling the rest stood or sat around watching. Apparently here repairs are a spectator sport. Since we had so many extra helpers I decided to tell them about the leak in the spare bathroom coming from the shower area. Silly me to think that one of the extra people would work on it, instead they called down the guy who was working on the ceiling, off the latter and into the bathroom. After some more scurrying around the one worker person was compounding the bathroom tile as his audience watched idling around him.

With the bathroom now covered in compound (because it wasn’t enough just to put it over the leaky area – it had to cover the entire floor and toilet too), the one worker guy got back on the latter to inspect the ceiling some more. No sooner had he gotten up there were bits of plaster falling all over. He decided that he needed to get a good look at the situation and to do so meant pulling down all of the plaster that was put in place to “fix” the leak long ago.  I hastily grabbed the dinnerware from the table as chunks began dropping from the ceiling. He apparently felt satisfied in what he was seeing because he came back off the latter and went with a few of the helpers to retrieve some more tools. When they returned I stepped out of the bedroom with hopes that they had found some tape but what I saw instead was a handsaw about to go through my ceiling. I frantically screamed at them to stop and with wild hand gestures and muddled English tried to explain to them that I was having a dinner party and the guests were set to arrive in 15 minutes. Somehow I managed to finally get through that all I wanted for “now” was it to be taped and they can cut “tomorrow.” Relief came when they finally sent someone who returned with tape and patched up the drips with a temporary fix.

Of course tomorrow came and of course the workers did not. We gave them until Tuesday when Kim went down to the office and demanded someone to come up again. “Yes, yes. Very soon.” After returning the office hours later Kim stayed until someone followed her up to the apartment. Making sure they were all set she left to run to the grocery store. Returning a few hours later she saw the horrid sight of two gapping holes in our ceiling, but what was even worse was Kim’s knife sitting on the table now covered with plaster dust and bent at the tip. Yes, they had used one of her brand new professional chef’s knifes to cut a hole in the ceiling. Needless to say Kim was furious and rightly so. On top of everything they hadn’t even fixed the leaks! We can handle quite a lot with a good amount of grace and patience but this was one epic fail Myanmar.

It’s cobra birthing season. Who would have known? Twice this week they have found snakes on campus, in my building! Apparently they were just little baby snakes that can’t even open their mouths large enough to bite anyone but try telling that to Kim. Knowing her fear of snakes I decided to keep this information to myself, however Sharon spilled the beans and I was met at the apartment door on Tuesday with a bug-eyed Kim holding a knife and insisting I check all of my bags for snakes before I enter the house. This greeting kept consistent for the next couple days. Apparently this is a common thing here, last year they had a huge issue and were finding snakes in lockers and backpacks. They ended up closing school for a day or so to have a specialist come in. Good thing I don’t mind the little slithery creatures.

Early in the week Kim had a small break out of eczema on her hand. For those of you who don’t know her, she has been fighting regular breakouts of sever hand eczema for over a dozen years not. During a break out her hands go through stages of itchy, uncomfortable, painful, dry, and much worse. I don’t want to be too graphic so I will leave it at that. Any who, although we have yet to find a cure or preventative for the eczema, sometimes if she gets to the doctors in time she can get medication to slow down the process. So on Wednesday afternoon we found ourselves headed down the road to Asia Pacific, the local clinic that was highly recommended to us by other ISM teachers. After waiting just under five minutes (as a walk in) we were escorted to the patient room where the doctor quickly arrived. As Kim explained the situation the doctor patiently listened and asked questions. After examining her hand the doctor brought back a few medications for her (anti-inflammatory, steroid cream, solution to sterilize the open wound, etc.) then insisted that we return in a few days if the hand wasn’t better.

The appointment took all of one hour including walking time. The total amount paid for the appointment was $15 usd and the medication was another $8. It was the easiest experience I have every had with a medical situation – no unnecessary tests or vitals, no irrelevant questions or fancy words, simply listening to the patient and providing the necessary care in a (much) timely fashion. We could get used to this. 

On Thursday Kim went to the Zoo with Sharon and the two kids, H & K. In Kim’s recount of it, the zoo was kind of depressing. The housing for the animals was very bleak with little vegetation. The animals themselves were few and not very exciting. The word is that when they moved the capital from Yangon to a no-ones town up north they took all the “good” and “interesting” animals with them to create a zoo up there. On the bright side it was a fun adventure especially for the little ones. I will have to go back with Kim sometime and have a look for myself. Kim only got a few pictures before the camera died unfortunately.

On Thursday evening I had an Open House at the High School. It was my first time interacting with any parents (aside from the lunch that the PTA held for us when we first arrived). The experience was kind of dull seeing as I only got 5 parent visitors in to see me, which is about average as the school tends to have very low turn outs at parent events like this. Although all of my students speak very good English from having been in this international school setting for so long, the majority of the parents do not speak any English. Luckily I had my assistant with me to translate but it was still a bit awkward to know what to talk about. Surprisingly most of the parents wanted to know about how to get their kids set up to take AP Art courses. More surprising is the fact that these kids are only in 9th grade right now. (Seniors, occasionally juniors, take AP courses as preparation for college) Students and parents at this school have somehow gotten the idea that the more AP classes the student takes, the better chance they have for getting into college. It is a crazy sort of epidemic that many of the teachers and administration here have a difficult time figuring out what to do with. 

Although I don't have any pictures from this night, here is a slideshow that I played for the parents throughout the evening of the students working so far this year: