Happy Thanksgiving!
I am a bit excited because I got up at six this morning and went to the Ridgewood Shopping Center Turkey Trot, and participated in the one-mile fun run. It was for extra credit for PE, but it was a fun thing to do. The $20 entry fee went to MS research.
I read a very good blog post from Timothy Ferris, and wanted to share it. Link
Basically he recommends listing five things that you are grateful for each day for a week, starting today. I'm going to try to list mine here.
1. The ability to run, because it feels good and there are people that can't.
2. My two dogs. They are one of the greatest joys in my life and Missy ran with me today.
3. Air conditioning. It's Thanksgiving day, and mine is on.
4. Manual transmission. It's more fun and easier to maneuver in tight spots.
5. Hand sanitizer. I have become a bit of germ freak, and having a bottle of this stuff in my bag helps me cope.
2007/11/22
2007/11/13
Lisbon and Europe
I am writing this from a hotel lobby in Lisbon. Hotel Mundial. It has been a great experience, although nowhere near as life changing as my first trip to Europe. Towards the end of my sophomore year in high school we took about a week in northern and western France, and I saw myself and the world around me in a totally different way.
This trip has been fun, but it has allowed me to rehash some of the thoughts of the prior trip. Relearn some of the lessons, and even question some of the things I thought I learned when I was in France. Since going to France I have been to St. Louis, San Fransisco and the Napa Valley, Deleware, and a lot of the midwest (on the way to Iowa.) I still think that Americans are too serious. We don't appreciate living life as much, and we appreciate money more. I learned that before, and it has been confirmed. We also are absolutely too fat. And I think this is a phenomenon that has gotten significantly worse in the short span of time since I was here before.
I don't think that the US is as devoid of culture as I thought before. Raleigh is, but San Fransisco was incredible. The city differences aren't as big as I thought before. When I came to France I had really never left the southeast. I never crossed the Mason Dixon or the Mississippi. Those are huge boarders, and it took a few trips out to realize that. Today the rest of my group (my wife and her parents) went to a meeting for the company that we are on the trip with, and I went out to walk for a little while. I realized that I probably don't want to live here. I still think I could live in Normandy, or maybe England, but I don't quite feel right here. However it was a great experience, and I want to visit more. I walked out with no camera, no note book, just the clothes on my back. I can't blend in because I look so physically different from the natives with my almost red hair and freckles, but I tried to dress and walk like they do. I tried to breath the city and the country. There is a lot here, a lot more than I expected. I had this dumb American view that Portugal was this weird subset of Spain, which it is not at all. Portugal is certainly a place of it's own. No more Spanish than Italian.
This trip has been fun, but it has allowed me to rehash some of the thoughts of the prior trip. Relearn some of the lessons, and even question some of the things I thought I learned when I was in France. Since going to France I have been to St. Louis, San Fransisco and the Napa Valley, Deleware, and a lot of the midwest (on the way to Iowa.) I still think that Americans are too serious. We don't appreciate living life as much, and we appreciate money more. I learned that before, and it has been confirmed. We also are absolutely too fat. And I think this is a phenomenon that has gotten significantly worse in the short span of time since I was here before.
I don't think that the US is as devoid of culture as I thought before. Raleigh is, but San Fransisco was incredible. The city differences aren't as big as I thought before. When I came to France I had really never left the southeast. I never crossed the Mason Dixon or the Mississippi. Those are huge boarders, and it took a few trips out to realize that. Today the rest of my group (my wife and her parents) went to a meeting for the company that we are on the trip with, and I went out to walk for a little while. I realized that I probably don't want to live here. I still think I could live in Normandy, or maybe England, but I don't quite feel right here. However it was a great experience, and I want to visit more. I walked out with no camera, no note book, just the clothes on my back. I can't blend in because I look so physically different from the natives with my almost red hair and freckles, but I tried to dress and walk like they do. I tried to breath the city and the country. There is a lot here, a lot more than I expected. I had this dumb American view that Portugal was this weird subset of Spain, which it is not at all. Portugal is certainly a place of it's own. No more Spanish than Italian.
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