This year has been quite significant for me mostly because it brought long list of major life changes to the table. I can definitely state that it was very intense period for me and my family, during which I believe, we grown up mostly emotionally.

As for myself, I feel I came to the point in which my ambitions taking over my spare time. You feel you capable more then your free time can allow. In such case it’s all about decision with no looking back, no regrets felt.

Just to sum up by categories:

Academic study:

Finally I have completed my Master degree ! Almost till the last moment, when my foot stepped into the plane (I will explain later about that). It was done in very short time frame, very dynamic and high pace. We required to finish all arrangements before move on, toward a new chapter of our life.

I definitely achieved my goal I have set for myself a couple of years ago.

Trips:

This year I had an unique opportunity to visit Shanghai, China. Apparently, Shanghai is the most populated Chinese city and the largest city proper by population in the world. 24 million people are currently living there. Chinese culture is so different of what I am familiar with, and all written below will be reflecting from my own experience.

• Friendly and calm people. First of all there are a lot of people everywhere, especially at the weekends. During my trip (about 10 days) I didn’t see any unfriendly people. People were looking very calm and relaxed. I was there with my younger sister, so when we walk at The Bund at evening, lot of people requested to take a photo with her because she is very beautiful and has a blond hair .
• Fashion. When you looking on the crowd you see very interesting picture: from one hand you can see groups of women with almost exactly same cloth (how it is even can be possible ?!), and from another you can see a lot of different styles and fashions. It looks that nobody cares about what you are wearing.
• Food. It’s very spicy. I mean VERY spicy! In addition to that, take in consideration that China is the place of strange (in a good way) tastes. For example you can easily find here cake with meat.
• English language. Almost nobody speaks or understands English. This is major disadvantage in China on my opinion. I think you have better chance to win a lottery rather then to find someone who can provide directions to an address you looking for, or to get answers for simple questions.

Personal project:

Although my spare time is limited, I have decided to run some project with tight deadline. Besides development, this project requires interaction with different people, solving problems and also find a compromise. Since the project was defined with specific time-frame, I had to learn to prioritize, choosing between efficiency and best implementation.

Among other points, this project tested my ability to stay in focus during all development period, balancing between family, friends and project. I hope you will hear about it at the beginning of the next year.

We moved to Canada:

It’s never easy to leave everything behind: friends, family, coo-workers and your comfortable lifestyle (for good or for bad). We experienced a lot of mixed feelings, but decided to move forward. At this point I want to say thank you to my friends and family for supporting us, even-though you felt contradict feelings regarding our move! You are the best !

I believe my family had sharpened skill to desire more that usual, doing more that accepted, moving out from “comfort zone” to unknown. But it’s not another unplanned, miscalculated risk, no. It’s done through carefully examination of our values , future goals and a lot  of other factors. For this reason I appreciate my family!

Rather than describing why we moved to Canada, I would like to focus on our experience so far. Short answer – we love it! 🙂 We are both working in same fields as in Israel. Our children are in the kindergarten (it is expensive a bit, but definitely worth it!) and they  keep developing.

We spend a lot of time with our kids, as a family. We are visiting many places, especially in summer since twilight starts around 10 pm.

There are a lot of magnificent places, to see here in Canada, and we didn’t even taste 0.1% of it. But we definitely will see more, plan more and have fun!