Disclaimer: This blog is being written primarily for school. I need to keep a journal to get credit for my classes and whatnot, but I've decided to make it an online journal 'cause I figure there are at least a few people who wanna keep track of my adventure. Because of the potentially wide audience, it's not gonna get too racy here, so if you're wanting for jucier detail, just drop me an email at the.defenestrator@gmail.com and i'll be sure to provide as much detail as I can clearly remember.
This is also my first attempt at ever writing a blog, so it'll probably take me a little while to get used to doing something like this.
Onward:
My trip comes at a time in my life when I definitely need some change and want to try to stir things up a little bit. I'm fast approaching the end of my higher education and want to get my life together (i.e. get at least a little more direction). After recovering from an unlucky "occurence" last December, I can assuredly move forward with this trip. I figure I oughta have some goals while out of the country so here they are as I have them figured out so far (I'll think of more while I'm waiting in the terminal at the airport):
- Learn Spanish fluently - This seems like a no brainer, but I'm told you don't NEED to know Spanish to get by in Alicante. I'm still going to make it a point to become as familiar with the language as humanly possible.
- Get humbled - I've lived in Massachusetts my whole life and haven't honestly been challenged with any real sort of change in my life, so I feel like being in a foreign land with a foreign language can give me a good smack in the face. Basically, I want to come back and be a better, more tolerant person.
- Meet assloads of people from all over the world - I want to broadly expand the list of countries I know people from as I think it's always good to have as many points of view influencing my life as possible. Plus, knowing more people internationally gives me more footholds if/when I eventually try to flee this great nation of ours (still very much a pipe dream at this point).
- Learn to dance - Good skill to have, as far as I can tell.
And some things I'm trying to avoid:
- Starting a smoking habit - I've heard everybody and their mother smokes in Europe, so I'm hoping it doesn't rub off as I've seen happen with other friends who've travelled abroad.
- Partying excessively - I've learned that after hitting a certain point of drunkeness, it doesn't really matter where you are or who you're with as your ability to focus on anything besides yourself becomes nearly impossible. Such things negate the point of leaving the U.S. in the first place, so I'm looking for a lot more out of this trip than just cheap booze and nice weather to enjoy it in.
That's what I got so far. Some other stuff to mention. No phone number yet, trying to iron those kinks out, but anybody who wants to send text messages should be able to do that for no extra cost once I get a phone (details to come...). If anybody needs my actual address for any reason, here it is:
Daniel Rosen - CIEE
C/o Francisco Diez
CIEE
Aulario II
Universidad de Alicante
San Vicente del Raspeig
03690 -
Out
