Two years ago today we wrote our first post on this blog, in an effort to begin documenting our experience of applying for, joining and serving in the Peace Corps.  Little did we know that this blog would turn out not just to be about our life in the Peace Corps, but about our life, period.

I’ve had several friends start blogs this year (yay!) and ask me about ours:  why we write, how we decide what is “post-worthy,” what our process is and so forth.  While we tend to shrug our shoulders at the last two questions, I can say why I write.  And it’s selfish, I suppose – I do it for myself.  Having a vehicle with which to document our experiences here, big and small, forces me to think and process.  I’m really glad we have a way to do that; it’s helped me put (and keep) everything in perspective.

(I should also mention that one of my favorite rainy-day activities is to read through what we were doing six months, a year or now two years ago.  It’s like having a scrapbook, without all the work.  I know we’re going to be glad we have this five or ten years from now.)

But saying that I don’t care about who reads the blog would be a lie, because I do.  Of course!  I love getting comments or knowing that a certain post better explained something about Georgian culture.  So thank you – for reading us in your email inbox, or your reader, or for clicking through to our site occasionally.

Last year on our blog’s anniversary (I cannot tell you how silly I feel celebrating this, but what can you do?), Sean put together a post of all the banner images we had at the top of our blog throughout the year.  (If you hadn’t noticed, we try to change it up every month or so to to keep things interesting.)  I really liked that post and decided a round two was in order.  So, without further ado, What We’ve Been Up To This Year, in banner images:

December 23: Our first Christmas away from home, our sweet host family let us put up their Christmas tree early, including this antique Soviet-era ornament.

January 12: This shot from Sean's old office included an EU flag and a balloon with Georgia's flag. Like many Georgians, Sean's co-workers would love for their country to someday be a part of the EU.

February 13: A picture of the inside of our clothespin bucket. I remember explaining to our tutor what a clothes dryer was, and her asking us why we would ever need to pay for a dryer when the air would do that for free. Good point.

February 15: Just two days later we posted this shot from beautiful Bazaleti, a remote area north of Tbilisi. We were there for a business and health training and, more importantly, were able to catch up with our other volunteer friends.

March 19: Two days after the Bazaleti photo, we returned home for what turned out to be 3.5 months. This is of Sean's mom's garage in Des Moines.

April 15: We were able to watch spring arrive from the deck of my parents' cabin outside of Iowa City, one of our favorite places. That, and enjoy some quality IPAs.

May 14: We hosted a Georgian-style supra for friends while in the States, including a watered-down pitcher of wine for toasting.

June 11: Wild and street dogs are the norm here, and we've been taught to fear them. This one, sleeping outside of a monastery, seems pretty harmless. This was taken and posted shortly after our return to Georgia.

June 19: We went on a two-week trip to Italy in June with my parents, and it was - as you'd expect - amazing. On our first Sunday there, we attended church at a monastery that's only open to the public for mass one hour a week.

July 23: We re-designed the blog after our Italy trip and chose this simple photo of the Colosseum as our first "new" header.

August 24: Our first trip of the year to the Black Sea coast (and its rocky beach) celebrated Sean's birthday...really, really early. More than anything, we wanted an excuse to relax on the beach for a weekend!

September 22: Sean had the difficult task of sifting through the literally thousands of photos from our anniversary trip to Istanbul. He settled on this one, from the famous Hagia Sophia.

October 21: During one of the last pleasant, autumn weekends, we hiked around Borjomi National Park. I took this picture of Sean in front of a wall of tiled art.

November 23: Finally, a shot of the striking Greater Caucasus outside of the tourist city of Sighnaghi.

Thanks for reading.  Really – we appreciate it.