18 October 2004 ---JOURNAL ENTRY THIRTY-SOMETHING PLUS ONE---
Where do I start? Omar's gone, we have a new roommate named Johanna but I like to call her Jo-Jo. Assiyeah and I went to Portugal and Spain for 12 days, visited Caro in Salamanca, saw the birthplace of Portugal even. Zach came to visit a couple of weeks ago just after we got back, we went to Oktoberfest one night with Maya from Norway and that was quite a trip!
The semester has officially started for me. That, and the travelling and friends visiting have prevented me from giving you an update lately, sorry about that. Speaking of Norwegian, I've just started learning some for shits and giggles because of Maya. I was going to take a French class this fall but it didn't fit into my schedule and with Maya being from Norway I could have some private lessons --- you didn't notice but Assiyeah's mom just called and I just spoke German for 5 minutes. I also will be meeting a Spanish teacher on Wednesday and we plan to have some conversation. That really makes me happy because I really enjoyed speaking Spanish when I was in Spain and was pleasantly surprised that I could actually still speak it. I know, I know, Norwegian isn't exactly a world lesson but it is a language I could use in Iceland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden. I said don't laugh! These countries are pretty infamous for speaking good English and so it seems pointless to learn it but here is the point I wanted to make:
The point was so good I wanted a new paragraph. I seem to have enough time to cultivate myself on various levels while living here, improving on languages and even learning new ones, travelling, reading, meeting local people every single day. It really enhances my life. I have time to pick up Norwegian. Do you hear what I'm saying? There is only one guy I know (Chad Stielstra) who seems to take advantage of his life as much as I do but Chad's got an advantage over me because he's been to a few Tony Robbins' seminars. That was something that used to make me snicker but when I hear about Chad and his life I realize that they really do some good. So here's my advice for ya'll. Go to a Tony Robbins' seminar or come to Europe. Ironically they'll end up costing abou the same but...
2005 is shaping up to be a good year. I have already begun planning some of my travels and here they are: Feb 10-21 England (Assiyeah will have already been there for a week and I will come by, check out her town and hopefully we'll go on a long weekend somewhere, provided we can get a good deal, either Dublin or Edinburgh or something); March 18-30ish Marbella, Spain (Because of a timeshare my folks probably couldn't have used, they let me have it and you're damn right I'm going to take advantage of it) we will be at the Marriot Marbella Resort from March 20-27 and since it is Easter week (2 weeks actually) I though we could check out another town while there, either Seville or Granada or even Malaga but we'll see); May 15-25 England & Norway(???) Then there is Pfingsten with another two weeks with no classes more or less and so I will go visit Assiyeah again and go somewhere for 4 days, with a cheap Ryan Air flight or maybe to Norway to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Constitution on May 17, 2005. We'll have to see how that all works, because we could just as easy go to Galway, or south of France or London; Sep 13-30ish NYC, Boston, Portland and Toronto and Montreal. Looking for an open jaw flight flying into NYC and out of Toronto or something like it. Perhaps something like this: 4 days NYC, 4 days Boston, 3 days Portland, 3 days Montreal, 3 Toronto.
That's pretty amazing, ain't it? I've already planned about 45 days of holiday next year and it's only mid-October now! There might even be more I don't know about yet, maybe visiting Assiyeah in April and then home to CA for Xmas but we're getting ahead of ourselves...
Well, we've come to another end here. I know you haven't found out too much new information but you can see that my life here is continuing and that is pretty much the most important thing, right?
