2020: A Year in Review

I am both so excited and so dreading writing this post all about 2020. Because it sure has been A YEAR!

But these end of year reviews are actually some of my favourite posts to write. I like this time of reflection and remembering, and I like the opportunity to look ahead and make some predictions for the next year. And I really love looking back on the previous year to see what predictions I got right and which I got wrong.

Spoilers: I got a lot of the 2020 predictions I made in 2019 wrong. If you had “global pandemic” on your 2020 bingo card, you are a genius.

In years past, I’ve gone through the year month by month, and then shared my travel stats. However, I’m thinking it might be a little depressing to calculate my travel stats for 2020, so instead I’m just going to list the highlights of the year!

Highlights of 2020

If I did a post on the lowlights of 2020, I could go on for a long time. I’m sure you don’t need me to remind you that this was the year of a global pandemic, a reckoning of anti-Black racism, wildfires, major deaths (RBG, Chadwick Boseman, Kobe Bryant and Alex Trebek, to name a few) and a moth infestation in Vancouver – not to mention personal lowlights like having to leave Prague early, a huge increase in house insurance costs, a horrible sunburn and my grandfather passing away.

Whoops, I said I wasn’t going to get into the lowlights!

Okay, back to the highlights:

House Hunters International

It feels like it happened another lifetime ago, but 2020 was in fact the year we were on House Hunters International! I used to joke that it was my life goal to get on this show. So when the opportunity came up for us to be on the show in Prague, of course we had to go for it. And it was a total blast! It was super fun to film, we got to enjoy some experiences we never would have otherwise, we made some new friends, we ate great meals, and Ellie got a new sweater and bed! Plus, we now have this cool memory of our time abroad.

We have yet to see our episode live on Canadian HGTV, but we live in fear of the day we’re channel surfing and our own faces pop up!

Spain with Jade and Lee

In February, we visited Barcelona, Madrid and Seville with my siblings, Jade and Lee. They flew out from Toronto to meet us on their very first trip to Europe. It was amazing to not only get to travel through Spain but to do it with my siblings and introduce them to Europe. Living in Vancouver (and then Prague!), I don’t get to see my family in Toronto too often. So this was so special to be able to make these memories together. And as a bonus, I was introduced to Seville which is now one of my favourite places!

Morocco

We also got to cross Morocco off of our bucket list in 2020. In late February we visited Chefchaouen, Fes, Marrakech and the Agafay Desert. This was Colin’s first trip to Africa and both of our first times in Morocco. And it was incredible! This trip was so different from the travels we had been doing in Europe for most of 2019/2020. I’m so glad Colin and I got to experience 10 days in Morocco together – definitely one of our coolest travel memories!

Slovenia

I can’t even believe in the year that was 2020, I have yet another travel-related highlight. I am so incredibly grateful for the trips we went on in the first few months of the year. And one trip I was so eagre to cross off my bucket list was Slovenia. When we first decided to move to Prague, Colin and I both came up with a list of places in Europe we wanted to visit. And Slovenia was at the top of my list! While our larger road trip was cut short, we did get to spend some amazing days in Lake Bohinj, Lake Bled and Ljubljana.

Baking

During our 9-ish months in Prague, I only baked once. And even then I’m not sure we used the right flour or sugar, and we didn’t have a big enough loaf pan so ended up improvising. So as soon as we got back to Vancouver, I began baking up a storm. This was an awesome hobby to pick up during the early days of the pandemic when my brain was fried and all I wanted was more chocolate chip cookies. The spring saw me baking cookies, banana bread, cupcakes, lemon bars, lemon blueberry cake, brownies and cinnamon buns! We’ve now inherited an old stand mixer and I’m excited to keep baking!

Lots of reading, writing & book blogging

As you may have noticed, I’ve started book blogging! Teaspoon of Adventure is no longer just a travel blog – it’s a book blog too. I got back into reading in 2019 and kept it up through 2020. And since I didn’t travel as much in 2020, it made perfect sense to start sharing my other passion, reading, here on the blog. In some of the darker times of 2020, it was so nice to be able to escape into books and share my favourite reads here. Thank you to everyone who has supported my foray into book blogging!

I also gave myself a challenge to write a book in 2020 and I completed in. Back in the early months of the pandemic, I decided I would write a book all about our year abroad – from how we decided to uproot our lives and move to a country we had never been to, all the way to our sudden departure during covid. Having a project like that kept me really motivated and I managed to finish the book – all 100,000 words of it! I don’t know if that book will ever see the light of day but it felt good to get it all out and actually complete something.

PS: Check out my picks for best books of 2020!

Changes at work

One of the highlights of 2020 has been a changing work life for both Colin and me. Once we got back to Vancouver, Colin was able to work at the hospital again as an x-ray tech (the job he left when we went to Prague). Colin loves his job and I know it was hard for him to leave it behind when we moved to Europe. He was so happy to be back at work and to be able to help out in a direct way during this pandemic.

Of course, it’s been scary knowing Colin is heading off to the hospital every day and working with covid patients, but I know he’s being safe and doing so much good. He’s also working evening shifts and on a different schedule this year, which has been a nice change for us.

For me, a lot of my work slowed down when the pandemic first hit, as my main clients were in the travel and wedding industries. Luckily, this was just when Colin was going back to work and our expenses were low, seeing as we weren’t travelling. And it was exactly when I was deep in my pandemic brain fog, and in no mood to work anyway, so the timing was perfect. Later in the summer, some of my client work picked back up and I started working for a new client. So I’ve been very lucky with my work this year.

Living in Vancouver

While our return to Vancouver was a few months earlier than expected, we did manage to have quite a soft landing. Within the first few weeks Colin was back at his job, we were in a new apartment in our desired neighbourhood, and I had fulfilled all of my Asian food cravings. I love our new apartment – it’s about a 10 minute walk from the beach, from my mom’s apartment and from Colin’s work. It’s so nice being right in Vancouver and just a few streets away from lots of restaurants and shops. Being back in Vancouver has also meant being reunited with all of my old favourites: sushi, Shanghai noodles, Chinese greens, poke bowls, shrimp biryani, dim sum, Vietnamese bun and Malaysian satay!

My birthday at Shuswap Lake

This year I turned 28 at Shuswap Lake, a lake in the interior of BC about five hours from Vancouver. While the trip had a few hiccups, it was still so nice to get away from the city, see some family and enjoy life on the lake for a few days. I did lots of reading, enjoyed beautiful sunsets and roasted all the marshmallows!

Getting engaged in Penticton, BC

Of course, one of my big highlights of 2020 has to be getting engaged! I loved our amazing weekend in Penticton, complete with craft beer, wineries, street art, beaches and sushi. And the cherry on top of all of it was getting engaged to my incredible partner, Colin! Now trying to plan a wedding during a global pandemic? Not quite a highlight!

Media moments

Something about being stuck at home meant a lot of great media moments in 2020! On the TV front, Colin and I got back into Schitt’s Creek, finished it and LOVED it. Seriously, I cannot wait for us to rewatch it. We also loved following along with Masterchef Australia (both Back to Win and Juniors), the new season of Amazing Race and, of course, seeing Hamilton on our screens. We are lucky enough to have cable in our new place, so have enjoyed catching up on Jeopardy, 90 Day Fiance and all of our HGTV shows.

In other media news, I got to be on a few podcasts this year! I was a guest on a few 90 Day Fiance recap episodes on Rob Has a Podcast, as well as a few other podcast projects that aren’t out in the world yet.

And one more collective highlight: I hope we can all agree that Biden/Harris winning the election was a big win of 2020!

How did I do on my predictions from 2019?

All right, let’s go back and look at the predictions I made for 2020 at the end of 2019 and see how wrong I was!

So my predictions for the first few months were correct: we did film House Hunters International (our “secret project”), go to Spain and go to Morocco, since all of those things were already booked in 2019. Unfortunately, I predicted we’d also go to Poland and Amsterdam before leaving Prague, but we didn’t make it to those spots.

And, surprising no one, the rest of my travel predictions were wrong too! We didn’t go to Colin’s brother’s wedding in June (postponed to 2021), we didn’t go on our annual family trip to Pender Harbour (cancelled), I didn’t go on my work trip to Vegas (definitely cancelled), and Colin and I never made it to Japan or South Korea in the fall (maybe next year?).

Unfortunately I only made travel predictions for 2020, so it’s just a lot of disappointment!

Looking ahead to 2021

So now it’s time to look ahead to 2021. At the time of writing, vaccine news is very promising so I think we’re all planning on 2021 being a much better year than 2020.

I’m hesitant to make any big predictions for 2021 (because of how well that worked out for 2020!) but I’ll go ahead and put some thoughts out there. I think the first few months of the year will be pretty status quo. I have some mini goals I’d like to work on, like stretching daily and getting into a writing routine. I hope that Colin gets the vaccine (as a healthcare worker he’d be closer to the front of the line) and I hope I can get it a few months later. I would love to see covid case numbers fall and the world just look brighter and happier by spring time. Being able to hug my mom without worry would be awesome!

In the summer, I’d like to optimistically think some travel will be open to us again (at the time of writing, we’re not supposed to leave our local region unless for essential reasons). I’d love to be able to explore more of BC, maybe go back to Toronto to visit family, or take advantage of a flight deal and head off somewhere international, if it’s safe to do so. Colin’s vacation days are mostly spoken for, so I may have to travel solo or grab a friend instead.

In the fall, I hope the world is at a safe enough point that Colin and I can get married. We’ve always wanted a small wedding, but we do want to be able to hug our loved ones. My dream for fall 2021 would be a wedding and an epic honeymoon (New Zealand? Japan? Anywhere at this point!).

And then in the winter, we’re planning to head to Toronto for Christmas. I’m hoping we can work it out so both my mom and Colin’s mom can come back with us, and then we’ll have everyone together for the holidays. After having such separated holidays this year, that would be an awesome way to celebrate in 2021!

Outside of travel, I’d like to keep up my client work and working from home (which I’ve been doing since 2016). I’d love to get in a better position with my work, whether that be new clients, different projects and/or higher rates. I’d like to create a better work/life balance and have more separation away from my job. It’s so easy to always be working when you work from your laptop and your cellphone. But 2020 has taught me how important it is to carve out breaks.

On the blogging front, I want to continue sharing my books, my travels and the travels/books of other bloggers out there! I’d also like to get around to redesigning my blog and finally setting up Google Analytics. And, if I’m being really optimistic, maybe I’ll even go back and update old blog posts? We’ll see how the year goes!

Other things I’d love to do in 2021:

• Keep up baking and do more cooking (though Colin loves to cook, which works well for us)
• Continue reading and surpass my reading goals
• Take advantage of living so close to the beach and spend more time outdoors
• Try more of our local restaurants instead of always ordering from the same few places
• Prioritize joyful movement
• Have some no-screen date nights with Colin
• Find some non-screen hobbies (crochet, perhaps?)
• Write a book (I technically wrote one this year but may want to start a new project)
• Take advantage of having benefits and actually go to the dentist/optometrist/etc.,
• Spend time with friends and family (hopefully in person!)
• And maybe even figure out some kind of skincare routine

All right, that seems ambitious enough! I’m working through a goals planner right now and have decided my word for 2021 will be PURPOSE. I want to find and live my purpose, and also spend my time purposefully.

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Thanks for checking out my end of year review. How was 2020 for you? What’s coming up for you in 2021?