Word of the week: Planning

Planning for my next lesson.
Planning for my next job.
Planning for my next trip.

I'm constantly thinking about the future. It's job search season, and I spent all day Saturday researching international teaching jobs online. The rest of my weekend I spent researching traveling to Ireland with my family in April and buying my tickets to GREECE (!!!!!!!!!!) for the week before my parents arrive. I'm excited for all of these things, and even more so now that more and more tickets are being purchased. But I have to constantly remind myself to bring myself back to the present, to think about what I'm doing now, because it's when I'm thinking too much of the future that the present goes by all too quickly, and I am perfectly content making this Belgian experience last as long as possible. I'm comfortable, I'm getting more confident, and all too soon I will be saying "Au revoir" to one of the best experienes of my life. So I'll continue to plan ahead with that next lesson (I'm teaching an English class to English as a second language students every day now), plan the day trips for when I'm in Ireland and Greece, and plan for which country I'll end up living in next. But every once in a while, when I remember, I'll stop, have some coffee and maybe a bite of chocolate, and let myself realize how lucky I am to be where I am right now.

Oh, Des Moines...

And you're probably thinking, "What? Des Moines? What's that got to do with EUROPE?!" Well, believe it or not, the name "Des Moines" is becoming more and more popular all over this great continent thanks to the author Bill Bryson, writer of travel memoirs and former resident of the great Iowan capital. There have been three different instances since I've been here in which I said where I was from and the European I was speaking to said "Oh, isn't that where Bill Bryson is from?" He's a great writer. And he's an Iowan! It really doesn't get much better. Oh, except he's also lived in Europe and has pretty much led my dream life of traveling around the world and getting to write about it. *Sigh.
Anyway, I just finished reading one of his latest memoirs called The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid which describes his experiences of growing up in Des Moines in the 1950's. It was hilarious, of course, and especially meaningful since I recognized some of the locations he refers to (Ashworth Pool, Grand Avenue, Iowa State Fair, Governor's Mansion, Roosevelt High School). And though most of the book either had me laughing or reminiscing, the end of the book left an enormous ache in my heart. The last chapter listed all of the locations referred to in his book and what has become of them since he left Des Moines. And the overwhelming outcome for almost every single location: renovation. or complete destruction. I was left feeling bitter that I would never be able to see the diners or parks or the theaters or some of the stores in which Bryson spent much of his childhood. He referred to the Younkers located downtown that only just closed the summer of 2005, which I remember happening, but only felt the impact of it just by reading Bryson's account of his time spent there. I know renovation has to happen to public places, but why does that often mean replacing character and originality with dull architecture or corporately owned identical chains? We are comforted by being able to go to another state and know we will find the same restaurants and stores. And I'm not saying that I didn't get excited when I found out that there was a Subway in Brussels, but what I am saying is that we become so reliant on these chains that the locally owned mom-and-pop shop that sold our grandparents candy for a penny a piece will go out of business and slowly all cities start to look identical as far as goods that are offered. And maybe this doesn't bother some people. But I want to be able to go to a city or town and have someone say to me "Oh, for the best apple pie in town you best be going to Mabel's around the corner" or "Need to get rid of those split ends? Lola owns her own beauty parlor and can get rid of those in a jiffy!" Not "Oh, try the Applebee's across the road" or "Yeah, there's a Cost Cutters right next to the Kum and Go." Maybe that's why I'm so taken with Brussels. The whole chain mentality still hasn't caught on yet (or at least to the extent that it has in America). I love that there isn't a Starbuck's here. I love that I could never dream of sampling all of the cafes or restaurants or pubs even just in my commune because there are so many and none of them are the same.
And maybe someday far off in the future once every store and every restaurant and every gas station is owned by Walmart or Donald Trump or some other corporate tycoon, someone will perk up and say, "I wonder what would happen if I opened up my own (fill in the blank)." And it will be a novel idea, that little (fill in the blank) down the street that no one has heard of yet because there isn't another one with the same name. As Bryson describes it:

Imagine those palatial downtown movie theaters with their vast screens and Egyptian decor...Imagine having all of public life - offices, stores, restaurants, entertainments - conveniently clustered in the heart of the city and experiencing fresh air and daylight each time you moved from one to another...Imagine having a city full of things that no other city had. What a wonderful world that would be. What a wonderful world it was [the 1950's]. We won't see its ilke again, I'm afraid.

And I would say, "Oh, but you were wrong, Bill. I knew somebody would catch on."

February won't come soon enough!!!

So the girls and I just booked our package deal to go to the Canary Islands in February for our midterm break. And here's what I feel like doing:
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!
I imagine that I'll be doing that probably every day until we leave. We found an all-inclusive package so that means we've already paid for the flight, 7 nights in a RESORT, and all we can eat food and drinks (soft, hot, and alcoholic as they describe it). We'll be staying near the Maspalamos beach of the Gran Canaria Island (which is off the coast of Africa). I don't actually know a lot about the island yet, but I am thrilled to do some research. I wanted to go somewhere that has a big celebration for Carnival (which coincides with Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday) and my roommate wanted to go somewhere tropical, and this island apparently fulfills both wishes. Hooray!!

It's amazing what a photo can do

In my last blog about Barcelona, I left out a tiny bit of what happened on my trip. Unfortunately, I had my purse stolen on my last night there, which included, most tragically, my camera. I didn't include that bit in my last blog, as I didn't want my trip to Barcelona to sound tainted. But for those of you who know me well, you know how much I love (to the point of maybe obsession) taking photos. So the loss of my camera was especially devastating. However, by the act of a brilliant tool called Facebook, I was able to see pictures of me in Barcelona, taken by some wonderful people I met at my hostel. One of the guys I met has as his profile picture (on Facebook) a picture of a group of us on our last night. Just seeing that one picture brought almost this wave of relief, like I had proof that I was, in fact, in Barcelona. It was so incredibly heartwarming to be reminded of that trip. One girl was so generous that she sent me a CD of her pictures from the trip that I now get to keep for myself.

If I learned anything from my purse theft (besides to not sit on a bench in Barcelona without my purse not attached to my body) it's that I need to be less dependent on pictures. As one of my hostel friends pointed out, I was there. Let the experience itself sink in, and not be so reliable on the "proof." I will always remember how the sun felt on my face as I layed down in Park de la Ciudadella and how my breath was taken away at the site of the palm tree-lined pathway that led toward the Arc de Triumf and the drop in temperature as I made my way to the top of Mount Tibidabo because of its high elevation and the sound of the Flamenco dancers' shoes on the wooden dance floor. Yes, there are some things that I've lost that I can't replace, but what I have to remember is that those especially fantastic memories can't be taken from me. And those are all I need.

Christmas holiday update

After a month away from blogging, you can imagine how much catching up I must do! I just got back from my Christmas vacation which was filled with reunions and laughter (from getting to go home for a week), tube-riding and massive crowds (from visiting London for New Year's), and sun, sangria, and tapas (all three of which I had every day during my visit to Barcelona). I will do my best to sum up the adventures from my fabulous winter holiday.

My week at home was spent relaxing with my family, eating lots of yummy holiday feasts, and getting to see many of my wonderful friends who came to visit while I was back in the states. After four months away, I thought for sure I would forget how to go places or drive a car or maybe not recognize my 14 year old cousin who had his braces removed while I was away. But honestly, it was like I hadn't been gone at all. It was quite surreal, actually. It was like I was coming home from college after just a few weeks away. Completely natural and mostly very relaxing. At the end of the week I was excited for my travels to come, but a little disappointed I didn't give myself more time to just be at home. Apparently one week was just not enough!

After giving myself a day to recover in Brussels once I arrived back from the states, I departed for London the following morning without, for maybe the first time ever, any travelling drama. Hooray! I spent my time in London hanging out with a few friends from high school (also visiting London) , seeing some sights I hadn't seen yet, visiting the Tate Modern Art Museum (which was FABULOUS...my favorite display was called Video Quartet. The display was set up with four video screens each playing scenes from movies in which an actor was playing an instrument, like piano, trumpet or percussion, etc...but there were literally hundreds of clips, and each screen was playing different scenes simultaneously. It was so cool!), seeing the musical Avenue Q (which was hilarious), and standing in a mass of thousands of people in Trafalger Square for the New Year's celebration. By far it was my favorite trip to London.

I left London early Wednesday morning and arrived in Barcelona around mid-afternoon. And as I sit here trying to formulate a summary of this trip, I am left stuck, because nothing I could write could do justice to my time spent in Barcelona. Never have I been in a city that left gave so many opportunities of things to experience for so many different types of people. For those who paint or just appreciate painters, one could visit the museums of Salvador Dali or Pablo Picasso. A linguist may come to study Catalan, a language that combines Spanish, Italian, and French and is the official language of Barcelona. An architect may come just to visit many of Antonio Gaudi's unique buildings or the Park Guell which was also designed by him (and one of my favorite spots in Barcelona) or take a walk through Barcelona's narrow, Gothically structured, streets. A dancer could watch a Flamenco dancing show and be blown away by the dancers' passion and the wonderful music that accompanies such music, normally Spanish guitar. Hikers and walkers can enjoy Barcelona's many parks or take a hike up to the top of Mount Tibidabo, the highest point in Barcelona. A beach bum can lay out in the sand and dip their feet in the Mediterranean Sea. A food lover can sample the many different varieties of tapas, normally vegetables or seafood, accompanied by a pitcher of Sangria (chilled red wine with filled with fruit). A shopper can visit upscale stores like Dior or Versace but then cross the street to visit the markets of Las Ramblas. The amazing thing is, I got to do all of those in just the short time I was here. Whether it was the palm trees, the gorgeous weather, the sights, the food, the ease of being able to walk almost everywhere, I'm not sure. But one or all of them made Barcelona my favorite city I've visited since I've arrived in Europe. I can't wait to go back.