ONE YEAR

The past year was something of a milestone for me. So many things have happened and so many people have come into my life to change it for the better. It was a year where I met people who would take me to Austria, Singapore, Malaysia, Bali, all over England, Germany and Scotland.

In order to meet all these people who would open up their lives and share them with me I travelled a lot:

In 2013 I finally moved to a foreign country, had to navigate in a snowstorm on top of a mountain, rode around a frozen lake in a horse-drawn sleigh, tried haggis for the first time, attended a mehndi party, realised what 90% humidity does to your fringe, was shown where to get the best satay in Singapore, couldn’t help but laugh when a group of French guys were forced to eat unspeakable things during a gatecrashing, watched the sun rise over a volcano, avoided being jumped on by wild monkeys, rode a bike through rice paddies, experienced the worst and the best long-haul flight of my life so far, attended two Chinese tea ceremonies in two foreign countries that are not China, learned more about cultures and traditions than I’ve learned in the past ten years, spent more time with my family than when I still lived 20 minutes away from them, made new friends to go to the pub with on a rainy Tuesday, saw friends and places that I hadn’t seen in 16 years, rode a train down and up the Pacific coast, witnessed ceremonies being held under a tree and in a synagogue, celebrated on the family farm and in the Royal Opera House, danced the Ceilidh and witnessed an elopement and most of all met a whole load of people who are happily in love and sweet and kind as can be. It’s thanks to all of these people that my 2013 was such an incredible experience.

So thank you! Let’s do it all again.

© Ann-Kathrin Koch 2013. Images look best without watermarks on them. Please don’t use the photos without asking me first.