Building my Confidence » travelling

Finished Pimsleur Level 2

totalwise — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:23:34 +0000

Hey Guys and Girls

Just finished pimsleur spanish level 2, my comprehension and vocabulary has improved a lot, going to start level 3 soon, I might go and recap some of level 2 or just go straight on to level 3 tomorrow.

Cuba or Chile?

totalwise — Tue, 05 May 2009 22:38:13 +0000

I’ve been to Spain a few times, I really want to go far afield now and experience genuine Latin American culture, the closest I got was when I visited Cancun, Mexico. Unfortunately for me, it wasn’t such a great experience, Cancun is really a little America, North America that is, and has the same sort of price bracket as U-S of A too. if you’re luckly enough to brave venturing out into the local areas then you could find yourself in heaven, amazing meals for around $2, great weather and very hospitable people. However it’s as if the whole place is built so that you do not venture over there, firstly there are no Road Signs, there are maps… BUT here is the big BUT, none of the locals know the street names. Because the local town outside of the resorts aren’t big most of the locals know the locations via familiarity, so they don’t need to know street names or road signs.. So if you get lost… Good luck finding your way around..

cancun Beach serial view

So aside from being lumbered in the tourist areas of Cancun, with a bunch of drunk Americans, I hadn’t reallybeen to Latin America.. Which is a shame because with my basic Spanish I think I’ll have a great time.

So I have one of 2 choices to do. Either visit Chile or Cuba.. here are my reasons why

Chile
Is a South American Country which speanks Spanish, albeit muy rapido. The country is a thin strip sandwiched from the rest of South America by the Andes mountains.. This is good because I always have the problem of not knowing where to visit, Chile is great because you can go other up or down, and if you start from the top you have no choice but to go down, vice versa. Secondly Chile is wealthier and more peaceful than other south American country like honduras, colombia, guatamala etc. So for a novice traveller who likes his creatre comforts such as ipod, digital camera, laptops, and designer gear, this could be a good place.

Andes Mountains in Chile

Cuba
Of all the people I’ve spoken to Cuba pretty much comes up on the top of the list of places to visit.. Amazing friendly people, cheap (if you can escape the tourist places), great music and dance atmosphere. However like always there are some downsides to every place.. what are they? Janteros (prostitutes) are rife, and prostitution carries a heavy penaulty. Chances are you’ll get blackmailed by the pimp to fess up a lot of money. Easy you say, just avoid all prostitutes. Not so, prostitution doesn’t take place in the convential form, they appear to be like the average bar girl, you think you’ve got lucky and last minute they lay down the proposal. So I’ve been told. Also most Cubans are poor, and you’ll get constant invitations to get ripped off. See people’s Cuba experience is very polarised, I guess some people want a stress free relaxing time and don’t want to be hasseled and constantly have to negotiate, barter and tell people “no me gusto” constantly, while other people enjoy this experience and find that this is really the charm of the place.. I guess it’s different, I mean I’ve walked along the streets of London, and have nobody talk to me at all.

Cuba Tours

I do sometimes feel very lonely in London which is home to 20 million people. Quite ironic actually, I feel that in London you really have to make an effort to keep friends and have good people around you. If you are too passive about it, it can be tough to be in contact with people.

Barcelona!

totalwise — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:27:10 +0000

I’ve been to barcelona all by myself and it felt GREAT! I’m so glad I went travelleling and I feel this is the first of MANY MORE adventures to come. I’m so happy and trilled with myself. I’ve finally did it! I’ve finally taken the plunge to face one of my biggest fears.

I have to say though, it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Here’s the deal. My first day – I felt sick to my stomach and I really felt like a fish out of water. People use that term very loosly for almost anything – but I really felt it throught the core of my being.

I remember feeling lost immediately after landing in Barcelona, walking out of the arrivals gates feeling completely alone in the world and nobody to hang on to, this was the first time I had left home and been exposed to the big wide world. After exiting the airport I found someone who spoke a little english to direct me to my hostel. I took the coach to the hostel and got off the last stop and rushed to my hostels. Not stopping to speak to anyone or have any conversation.

I found one spanish girl who spoke English, she was really cute and I approached her specially for that reason, I went straight in and asked for directions, she was really helpful and seemed open to some light banter, but because I was so nervous I said by and walked of in a rush.

I lost the whole essence of travelling, being calm, being open, being relaxed and allowing things to just happen rather than rushing around like a 9-5 workaholic. This is the first of many lessons I had learnt from my adventure.

After checking in to the hostel, getting my key and bedding, I walked to the common room, walking into a dead silent room, and feeling like “is this it?”. Ahh little naieve me, so impatient, so expectant and unwilling to take control of my life situation.

I walked up and met my room-mate, and slept in a really cold and quiet room, freezing to death. I didnt realsie the door was open and that I could easily turn up the thermostat

That was the first day, and fortunately the worst of the lot. I felt very homesick and lost in this alien environment,

The next day was infinately more better I went out with a group of 4 australian girls and met the girl that I had sex with for the first time, and it was amazing (although we didnt actually have sex on that day but rather 3 nights later).

A day later I met a bunch of american girls who I had the most fun in my life with.

And the weekend was just AMAZING, after that it went a bit quiet from there.

I spent the quiet nights talking to a really grounded and cool finnish chick, with the most unusal haircut I have ever seen. We enjoyed talking about love, life, the pains and the highs of life. This is what I always wanted to do and I felt like I had gone there.

it didnt seem like the happiness and bliss I thought I’d achieve. I guess I was seeking some sort of salvation from my pains from achieving these moments of joy. It just reminded me that I just need to be happy and content with where I am and what I have.

If I can’t feel that way I will never be happy, and will be constantly seeking something greater, and never being happy.

St John’s Wort seems to be working

totalwise — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 23:46:49 +0000

I’ve been on St John’s wort for 10 or so days now (I should really keep a record of when and how much I take this), I feel a lot more relaxed and happier, so it seems to be working. I haven’t had any breakthrough moments where I’m trying out things completely different in my life, just doing the same things as before but more chilled out, and more and peace with myself.

Time will tell if it’s had any real impact in my life, or if it’s just a placebo affect, I’ve booked an Essence-foundation.com course for the next weekend. A friend of mine suggested that I’d benifit from it, it’s like a group therapy course where people share expereicnes and feelings a bit like alcoholics anonymous and also has a seminar portion of it. It cost me £200 for the weekend (pretty cheap). I wanted to go on the course for months, but never had the money to do so. Recently I’ve made a small killing on my SEO work and have quite a ‘few bob’ to spend.

Even if I don’t get anything out of this, It’s still be worth it just to quench my curiosity of this course. My logic behind spending money on these sort of things is that If I’m ever going to regret something, I’d rather it be something I’ve done rather than something I haven’t done.

Right after this I’m going to throw myself in the deep end. I’m going travelling to Spain for a whole 10 days by myself, I’m anxious and excited at the same time. I’m anxious of being in a foreign non-english speaking country by myself, at the same time I know I’ll have lots of fun, and I’d never regret the experience I get from it.

Still just to be on the safe side, I guess it will motivate me to brush up on my spanish