So it's my birthday today. I think the biggest thing I've learned in the last little while is to take the chance, give yourself permission to try something that might fail. Failing the first time, is ok, unless you're skydiving.
One thing I'm happy about is there's a lot of things I've wanted to do for a long time that (if all goes well) I'll get to do this year:
- visit Paris again, see friends and some more offbeat Parisian sites
- walk the Camino to Santiago
- spend Bloomsday in Dublin
- visit Lake Baikal
- see the Hermitage Museum in Russia
So those are some concrete things I'm going to cross off the list for this year.
Other things I'd like to work on - focus on languages. I haven't studied languages in so long until recently that I forgot how much I enjoy it. I'd like to improve my French grammar (haven't studied it in 10 years since high school). I'm trying to write a bilingual book, so that should make me have to study my French a bit more. Ever since I was a kid French has kind of been the language of dreams to me.
I want to learn Spanish. I'd like to focus on that as a concrete third language and develop some solid fluency, spend a little time in Buenos Aires maybe getting up to snuff. I'd like to attend culinary school for a year, I may do that in Montreal, depending exactly on how certain things work out. I'd like to apply for the Foreign Service, but I'll need to take some more university classes to qualify, which I intend to do in the fall.
I'd also like to spend some time learning El Silbo Gomero, which is a kind of whistling language with a Spanish base unique to the Canary Islands that I think is really cool.
So many things to do in life. My list is far far longer even than what I've written here. Hopefully giving up the internet for the summer (due to travel and remote working situations in Russia) will allow me to focus more on some of these important things.
One thing I'm happy about is there's a lot of things I've wanted to do for a long time that (if all goes well) I'll get to do this year:
- visit Paris again, see friends and some more offbeat Parisian sites
- walk the Camino to Santiago
- spend Bloomsday in Dublin
- visit Lake Baikal
- see the Hermitage Museum in Russia
So those are some concrete things I'm going to cross off the list for this year.
Other things I'd like to work on - focus on languages. I haven't studied languages in so long until recently that I forgot how much I enjoy it. I'd like to improve my French grammar (haven't studied it in 10 years since high school). I'm trying to write a bilingual book, so that should make me have to study my French a bit more. Ever since I was a kid French has kind of been the language of dreams to me.
I want to learn Spanish. I'd like to focus on that as a concrete third language and develop some solid fluency, spend a little time in Buenos Aires maybe getting up to snuff. I'd like to attend culinary school for a year, I may do that in Montreal, depending exactly on how certain things work out. I'd like to apply for the Foreign Service, but I'll need to take some more university classes to qualify, which I intend to do in the fall.
I'd also like to spend some time learning El Silbo Gomero, which is a kind of whistling language with a Spanish base unique to the Canary Islands that I think is really cool.
So many things to do in life. My list is far far longer even than what I've written here. Hopefully giving up the internet for the summer (due to travel and remote working situations in Russia) will allow me to focus more on some of these important things.
VIEW 18 of 18 COMMENTS
good list.
Good luck with your language studies, too!
I want to put my tax refund toward something wonderful like a trip to Spain or Brazil to see family, but instead will probably be somewhat sensible and save it for a rainy day (those come often when you live in NY, where cost of living is high and pay is low). I'm sure some of it will go toward books because I won't be able to help myself.