Looking back at 2010

It seems like it was just yesterday that I was sitting on my bed in my parents' flat and writing my New Year's resolutions blog post. One more year has passed, in which so many things have happened, many things changed and many remained the same. And once again I am sitting here, in the same room on the same bed (covered with blanket, sipping a hot mint tea and watching the snowflakes dance around my window) and thinking about my plans for the following year. Of course I have some more resolutions, but first let's see how I kept the old ones from the last year.

Next New Year will be celebrated at a party, preferably one where you have to be dressed in funny clothes, not in a sit-at-home-and-watch-TV style.

• Done! I am still at my parents, but tonight I am leaving back to Prague to celebrate the new year with a couple of friends in a flat that we rent together. The fancy costumes have been rejected by most of people who agreed to come, but still - it's a great improvement compared to last year.

I will go to freediving trainings with a little bit less reluctance (even though it is cold outside and it takes me 50 minutes to get ther and then I return home at 10:30 with still wet hair and lots of wet stuff that needs to be hung somewhere, so I wake everyone up)

• Well, there were no trainings in summer and I was ill most of the winter time. I also paid for a few trainings that I wasn't able to get to in the end, because of lectures or general tiredness. After being at the uni for eleven hours, spending three more hours away from home because of training feels stupid and unbearable too. So for the next year - plan things better. Als the wet stuff problem has been sorted when I moved away from the dorms and rented an apartment with a proper bathroom or enough space on the floor to let things air-dry.

Similarly, will put more enthusiasm into studying, going to work and shopping for clothes.

• Partially done. Studying went fine after all, I finished a bachelor's degree and graduated this December. I also did quite a lot of work on my master's thesis already and am quite satisfied with myself. It could be better with work, money is always good. As for clothes, I can get myself everything except shoes and trousers, shopping for which I really hate - a thing that I might never overcome.

Will take up one of the following: swimming, yoga, aqua-aerobic, belly dancing.

• Did go swimming and did yoga a few times. A friend of mine who does belly dancing made me whirl my hips for about three minutes - does that count???

Will NOT cut my hair.

• I did, but only for maintenance. Still expecting it to grow into Indian princess/mermaid/forrest fairy length.

Will come to visit my parents and old friends more often.

• I spent an unusual lot of time here in summer, not so much in the fall and almost nothing except one week during Christmas in winter. But I feel that its been enough.

Will save some more money, but also let myself enjoy what I earn in a sensible way (such as traveling to visit my parents and old friends)

• I have not saved up much. At least nothing is left of what I had, but everything was spent on travelling during summer.(See my summer holidays post if you'd like to know more)

I will take greater care of my pets (snails, stick insects) and finally will take my tortoise to the vet after she wakes up in spring.

• I am sorry to announce that those particular stick insects are no longer among us. However, a friend forced me to take care of about hundred newborn ones, so there are still some sticks running around my place. The snails have got a new 130 litred big plastic tank in which they live and thrive and have laid approximately 400 eggs this year.
• Also the tortoise did not wake up in spring, I got to know just when I was getting everything ready to take her to Prague. She died after 20 years that we had her and she has a little grave in the garden at out cottage in eastern Slovakia. I was thinking about getting a new one immediately, but then changed my mind, because I know I wouldn't be able to take care of her with all the traveling that I am planning to do.

After all, the resolutions are more or less guidelines, not strict rules. They describe the things we wish we changed and writing them down gives us the opportunity to look back at what happened, what we have and haven't done and how our opinions have changed. I can see myself changing very fast and every year I learn something new about myself and the world that I live in and I believe it helps me lead a happier and more balanced life.