Just before the end of 2015, I used the website 2015 Best Nine to compile my 9 'most liked' Instagram photos of the year. I thought it was a fun way to remember what I had been up to in the year and it reminded me of a lot of places I visited and experiences I had last year.
To recap these photographs from top left to bottom right:
The top left photograph is of the Grove on the University of Mississippi campus. I think it dates back to early last Spring when I was in my final few months of living in the US. I left work one evening and there was a low lying mist across the Grove and hazy red sunset in the foreground. The University is so fortunate to have such a beautiful green space in the heart of the campus and I was even more fortunate to work in a building that looked out across it.
The photo in top centre is of the delcicious ramen I devoured at Mokofuku Noodle Bar in New York in June when myself and Jake visited for a few days. We are massive David Chang fans, mainly from watching him on Mind of a Chef and me personally falling in love with him and Jake with his food. We really wanted to eat here and went on a wet June night. We waited close to an hour but it was well worth the wait and a great atmosphere in the restaurant. The ramen was fantastic and we also ordered the shrimp buns to share and they were delicious too. Definitely worth a visit to if you're in New York.
Moving on to the top right photo, this is of the reflection of clouds across a waterway on Mersea Island in Essex. I visited Mersea this September with Jake, my cousin and her boyfriend. My cousin's boyfriend, James, is from Essex and so was making the trip home to see friends and they invited Jake and I to join for the day. I'd never been out to the East Coast of the UK and it was really beautiful. We managed to go on a really nice day and enjoyed walking along the beach, eating fish and chips, and for Jake, eating oysters, which are famous along that coastline.
The far left photo on the middle row is of the Oxford Courthouse which sits right in the middle of the Square. I posted this image as a farewell to the town when I left at the end of May. This was one of the first photos I took when I arrived as an exchange student in August 2010, five years before. This isn't the best image but it had a lot of sentimental value and felt an appropriate way to say goodbye for now to a town that will always play an important part in my life.
The middle image on the second row is of Elvis Presley's birthplace in Tupelo, MS. I have visited Graceland, Elvis' famous home in Memphis, TN five times before, although not toured every time. I used to go on trips with international students when I worked in the International Outreach office at the University of Mississippi, which is why I've been five times altogether. It was long overdue that I visit the King's birth place, especially since it was only an hour down the road from me and in a town that I visited quite often. The house is pretty small as you can see from the image but there is a centre there that you can visit and learn more about Elvis' time growing up in Tupelo. We dropped in and wandered around but decided not to pay to go into the centre as we were heading to the mall afterwards.
On the far right in the middle row is a photograph of Wormsloe Plantation in Savannah, GA. I visited in November 2015 with my sister while on vacation in the Carolinas and Georgia. The main purpose of our trip was to attend the wedding of a good friend of mine from graduate school. She is also a Brit who made the move to the US and met her wonderful husband while studying abroad. The wedding was so beautiful and great fun and it's a weekend that I won't forget. I feel so fortunate to have been able to attend. We visited Savannah for two nights, two and a half days and stopped off at Wormsloe when we first arrived in the city. The oak lined drive is 1.5 miles and is really spectacular. We drove down to the visitors centre and watched the video, looked at some of the artefacts of the old house and walked around the site a little. It was quite wet on the day we visited but really muggy and humid (trust the South to be in November!) and we arrived around 3 PM so by the time we were walking around it was starting to get pretty dark. It felt like everything I imagine when I think of Southern gothic novels. It was so eery, I don't know if it was the spanish moss beginning to form dark shadows or the fact that no one else was walking around at one stage, either way, it creeped me out a little but is well worth a visit if you find yourself visiting Savannah.
The bottom left image is of the amazing brunch Jake and I enjoyed at Jack's Wife Frieda in the Lower East Side while visiting New York. I'd looked up the place online when looking up brunch ideas and it was awesome. This is of the duck proscuitto madame. The restaurant also had a great atmosphere. It isn't very big so when you get in they pull the tables out for you to sit on the back benches as they're so crammed in that you're sitting right beside everyone. I thought this was kind of fun and the servers did it with such style. They weren't phased at all by squeezing through the small spaces, past pushchairs and patrons. Another NY spot I'd definitely recommend.
The middle bottom image is another from my trip in late October/November to the Carolinas and Georgia. This photograph is of Lake Lure in North Carolina. On the morning that we left the wedding, we headed to Chimney Rock State Park as we wanted to see a little more of the mountains. Unfortunately the weather wasn't fantastic and the fog was pretty low so we decided not to head into the State Park for fear that we wouldn't get to see much. Our main aim was to walk up to Chimney Rock which is a beautiful viewing point across the Smokies. I still want to get back to do this as on a nicer day I imagine it is breathtaking. Even on the wet and foggy morning, the drive to the mountains and walk by the lake was beautiful. Lake Lure is the lake filmed in Dirty Dancing so we thought we had to go and see it. This image is another of my favourites with the layer of fog lining some of the mountain tops and the slight reflection across the lake.
The final photograph in the bottom right corner is of the Christmas dinner table all set on Christmas morning at home. I decided not to come home for Christmas 2014 as it was quite expensive and I knew I would be coming back for good in a few months time afterwards. Hence, I was really excited for Christmas at home this year. A few things had changed, such as my grandfather being unable to come to our house since he had a stroke in June of 2015. We visited him at the care home he lives at now on the morning and opened presents with him there and picked up my grandmother for her to come and have lunch with us. Otherwise, things were the same. I always love how my mum sets the table at Christmas. She gets out all the Christmas items she has and the fancy crockery and glassware. We ate far too much food but it was delicious. Although I loved experiencing Christmas in the US last year, I have to admit I am traditional in terms of the food and all I want is a roast dinner on Christmas day with all the trimmings. I think Americans go all out on food at Thanksgiving so Christmas is a little more low key.
As I mentioned above, it was fun to recap the year through this website and looking back at some of my Instagram photographs. I used to post more photos from my camera on Facebook but I tend to use Instagram mainly now. I like that I get one or two snaps of the experience to remember it by and sometimes get my better camera out to take additional ones for myself.
I do hope I will start posting some of the photos I take on my main camera this year on the blog as it used to get me to take more photos, knowing that the blog was an outlet for them. Hopefully I'll get a chance to edit some from the Carolinas trip to post of here soon.
