Looking back at 2009

I wrote the following for AFWJ February 2010 Journal. It is a good summary of all what happened in 2009:

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It is probably an understatement to say that, for me, 2009 was a really very busy year, with many changes.

In fact, within a few months, our life changed upside-down: begin January, I was living alone during the week in Saitama, almost never cooking, working in Tokyo assisting foreigners with their new life in Japan; on week-ends, DH and I were enjoying Saitama and Tokyo bookstores, restaurants, etc. We had no car. I was mainly speaking English.

Fast forward end of December: DH and I are living together in Fukushima, sharing a 3-floor-house with DH's parents. I cook 3 times a day (very simple breakfast and lunch), make sure that my mother in law takes her medicine, teach at home during the week, do some proofreading and go grocery shopping with DH by car on week-ends. During the week, I walk to the nearby supermarket or order online. Books and special items are ordered online. Most of the time, I speak Japanese. I update my school's blog and Internet listings in Japanese. I knit some warm accessories (our house is NOT done for cold winters).

Very busy 2009 saw:

• 2 big moves within a few months (one planned within Saitama, one originally unplanned to Fukushima)
• 3 overseas trips and many trips between Saitama and Fukushima
• 2 long hospital stays for my mother-in-law (total: almost 6 months spent in hospital, with heavy family help, including at meals and during hospital transfers); many doctor's visits
• a lot of cooking (3 times a day) and grocery shopping
• a lot of cleaning, sorting out and throwing away literally tons of stuff in Saitama and Fukushima (including the entire 3rd floor of the Fukushima house)
• a lot of Japanese language study for me (formally with a nearby Kumon school and informally with hours of conversations that include hospital and medical matters)
• creating a classroom in our house and French, German and English lessons from scratch; advertising it heavily in Japanese on the Internet (annerose-no-heya.blogspot.com)
• restarting slowly my freelance activities as a French proofreader
• creating 6 AFWJ Journals and updating the association homepage
• sitting a few exams in Tokyo, London and Fukushima
• all kinds of reading, knitting, studying

We had a few sad losses: our 16-year-old cat Maxu (on January 1st, 2009), a Swiss uncle, Michael Jackson (I was a big fan). We also had to let go of our house and lifestyle in Saitama (including bookstores in Tokyo), not to mention my job, work colleagues and nearby friends.

We gained more time together, an unplanned opportunity to learn a lot, countryside lifestyle (no more stressful commuting to Tokyo), more space (our Fukushima house is pretty large, even for countryside standards).

Also, we learned that life really is unpredictable. We came to accept that not so perfect is OK too (sometimes). And that we do the best we can with what life throws at us.