2008 was a great year... filled with tons of wonderful, fantastic sights, sounds & smells. (Ok, most of the smells weren't really fantastic...) But the most memorable moments were:

1. Dancing by myself with desert winds blowing my hair & scarf like a music video on top of a high mountain I'd climbed & below miles & miles of red sand dunes in Wadi Rum, Jordan. (Later it wasn't so great when I realized I might not be able to climb back down!)
2. Watching wild orangutans swing thru the jungle vines in Borneo, Indonesia.
3. Having the great archeological wonders of ancient Egypt come to life thanks to Egyptologists I befriended.
4. Playing like a little kid in pouring rain while wandering thru rice paddies in Bali, Indonesia.
5. Hitchhiking all the way from the Ethiopian border to Nairobi, Kenya by telling people I needed to go vote for Barack Obama.
6. Arriving in Yemen & immediately having the cabbie & a policeman pull out their 8" knives at each other while in an argument. (Sounds scary but it 2am & so surreal it was just mesmerizingly fun.)
7. Smoking water pipes (sheesa) in Jordan, Egypt & Yemen.
8. Having a swimming contest in the Dead Sea & laughing to death because it's impossible when you float on the surface & can't kick your legs.

Of course there were tons more great memories from this past year... these are just a few of the top ones.