Month in Review: March 2023

“In March, winter is holding back and spring is pulling forward. Something holds and something pulls inside of us too.” ― Jean Hersey

I was trying to think of something to say to sum up how I felt March 2023 went but I think this quote does the trick (though in a more literary and poignant way than I ever could). This was a month of fun celebrations and mundane weekends of chores, the first sunglasses-wearing of the year and also Vancouver’s signature spring rain, of excitement for adventures ahead and buckling down to do the work of right now.

Highlights

March started off with a lovely mother-daughter date at the art gallery. While my mom and I got together to mark a sad occasion, we had a great time treating ourselves to high tea and an afternoon of admiring art.

The biggest highlight of March was Colin’s 30th birthday; my husband has turned the big 3-0! And while it was like pulling teeth trying to get him to decide what he wanted to do to celebrate, a low-key day of retail therapy followed by family dinner at an Italian restaurant turned out to be the perfect thing. It was fun buying him little gifts, decorating our house and toasting to his big milestone birthday.

I also got to hang out with some friends this month, including a sunny park date with my friend Cassie and her little one. And I spent many hours this month putting the finishing touches on our New Zealand itinerary. I cannot wait for that trip next month!

Lowlights

Right after all of the celebrating for Colin’s birthday, we both had a bit of a rough week. I guess our 30 year old bodies can’t handle a weekend of cheesecake and rich pasta anymore. Suffice to say, there was a lot of crackers and gatorade happening at our place!

Best watch

Survivor AU continued strong into March! By the time you’re reading this the season will be over, but it’s worth going back to watch if you’re a Survivor fan. March also brought us season three of Ted Lasso, which we’ve been enjoying each week.

Having finally been kicked off of my parents’ Netflix account, Colin and I switched over to Prime to see if anything caught our eye. After turning down all of his suggestions, I joked that we should watch Downton Abbey, a series I’ve seen before but Colin had no interest in. Just to stop the endless browsing, Colin agreed. We’re now into the third season and Colin is hooked. No one spoil him on what happens!

Posts from this month

This month on Teaspoon of Adventure I published:

• Why I Keep Returning to London
• Travelling Alone for the First Time? 11 Solo Travel Tips

Check out any of the posts you’ve missed!

For my throwback post of the month, I’m going back to March 2022: 5 Reasons to Travel Domestically in Your Home Country. I recently asked a question on Twitter about where people would want to live for one week, one month, one year and ten years. While Spain and New Zealand seemed to come up the most often in people’s one year and ten year answers, Canada was a pretty popular response too! It’s made me think about all of the parts of my own country I still haven’t seen. For example: How have I lived here this long and never been to Banff?

What’s cooking?

It was a yummy month in Vancouver! Eating out I enjoyed high tea with my mom, dinner at Robba da Matti for Colin’s birthday, and take-out Korean fried chicken, sushi and Chinese food. At home we made pizza, chicken sliders and Colin’s famous lasagna (though all that cheese might have been a mistake for us).

Reads of the month

This month, I’ve finished reading:

She Said by Megan Twohey & Jodi Kantor
This book goes behind the scenes with the New York Times reporters who helped break the Harvey Weinstein story, as well as Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony. It was interesting to see what goes into reporting a story like this but it took a while for the tension to build. The second half focusing on Ford also felt quite disjointed from the first. I did like the ending though, when they brought together many of the women involved for a powerful discussion.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
It took me a second to get into this book but once it was all about Evelyn’s fascinating life, I was hooked! It’s been a while since I was excited to open up a book. I loved hearing about Hollywood in the 1950’s and Evelyn’s secret relationship. It’s got a bit of a twist ending too, which I enjoyed.

Craigslist Confessional by Helena Dea Bala
This is a short story collection comprised of tales real people told the author when she put out a post on Craigslist willing to listen to any stories. It felt like an honour to witness some of these stories but most were very traumatic and heartbreaking; I didn’t notice any trigger warnings on this book but it should be full of them. I’m not usually a fan of short story collections so this wasn’t my favourite read.

Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto
After a slow start, this mystery/romance picks up and is a fun ride! I loved the Indo-Chinese representation and thought the main romance was pretty cute. While it’s definitely written for a younger audience (meaning I had to skim through some cheesy dialogue), I still really enjoyed this one and am looking forward to reading the sequel.

You’ll Grow Out of It by Jessi Klein
This essay collection by comedian Jessi Klein was hit and miss for me. While some essays really resonated and made me chuckle, others felt really dated, didn’t feel very inclusive, and were a bit too complain-y. I think I was expecting more laughs from a comedian’s book, as I’ve read some great ones in the past.

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
My first fantasy read of the year (and only one of a handful in the last few years)! I loved that this book was more about friendship than anything else as an ex-killer orc decides to open a coffee shop. It was a cute read and definitely made me want to curl up with a drink and pastry at my local cafe.

Travels

Where I have travelled in March:

• March 2020: Our last trip before our year abroad in Prague was cut short was to Slovenia in early March 2020. It’s funny to look back on that trip now, not knowing what we were in for. But it was such an amazing last trip! Slovenia had been on my bucket list for a while and I was so excited to see picturesque Lake Bled, enjoy walks around Lake Bohinj, and fall for the charming capital, Ljubljana.
• March 2014: Back in 2014, I studied abroad in Amsterdam for a semester. But my main goal while there was to travel! So just in March I was able to fly to London to meet up with friends and volunteer at an event, visit Budapest with my new study abroad friends, and fly to Geneva with my roommates, which we soon ditched for prettier and cheaper Annecy.

Gratitude

In 2023, I decided to start casually pitching stories to travel publications. And this month, I found out that two of my pitches were accepted! They haven’t been published yet but I’m super excited to expand my travel writing and continue pitching (and hopefully landing assignments) as the year goes on. I’ll share the links here when they’re published! 

Coming up next

Next month is a trip I have been wanting to take for years: New Zealand! I can’t tell you how giddy I am for our three weeks across both islands. Stay tuned for all of the photos and travel stories!