15 Things I've Done the Past Three Months

1) Started attending a playreading group with friends.  Did dramatic readings of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "Act Without Words I."

2) Absorbed more art around Madrid: Museo Sorolla, El Hermitage en el Prado, "The Garden of Earthly Delights."  

3) Won a trip to Berlin in March to attend a weeklong European conference.  Am forever grateful to the Fulbright Commission.  

4) Went to a few meetings of the Auxilares Artists Group, played board games, saw "Attack the Block," went to Zombie Bar.

5) Did Thanksgiving activities at school.  Two students drew Mike Young turkeys.  Celebrated my first Thanksgiving away from home at a potluck dinner with a group of extranjeros (foreigners).

6) Attended a "Country Night" at a bar, in which I danced wearing a cowboy hat on a straw-covered floor and rode my first mechanical bull.

7) Went to Expocomic 2011.  It was comforting to know that comics conventions are just as nerdy here in Madrid as they are in the States.

8) Took a weekend trip to Cordoba.  Ate bull's tail, saw flamenco, and juggled oranges that I picked off the trees.

9)  Attended the Peace Corps 50th Anniversary Ceremony at the Ambassador's House.  Heard a lot of inspiring stories.  Made me think that the Peace Corps would be worth doing someday.

10)  Found the one New York-style pizzeria in Madrid.  Savored the flavor I miss most.

11) Picked up Brian Kateman at the airport dressed in a Santa costume, then proceeded to come back to the house where the family played a game of "amigo invisible" Secret Santa unlike anything we've ever seen.  Definitely the rowdiest Christmas of my life.

12) Went to Lisbon, Portugal.  Saw the westernmost part of Europe.  Came back to Madrid and ate 12 grapes at Puerta del Sol.

13) Took a solo trip to Amsterdam and Paris.  Wore three pairs of socks and underwear to bear the cold, but saw the Anne Frank House, the Van Gogh Museum, the Eiffel Tower, and the Louvre.  Looked into Mona Lisa's eyes and am forever a changed man.

14)  Picked up new private lessons.  It appears that English is in demand here.

15) Started an introductory German class.  Proactively answering the question of whether I could ever learn a third language.

New Year, New Blogging

Welcome back to the blog!  We left off somewhere midway through last fall, when I let the blog slip away, and so begins my after-a-long-absence meditation on blogging.   Throughout the past months I've taken a lot of satisfaction in maintaining correspondence with close friends, as their robust responses are my biggest reward.  I also enjoy the form of self-disclosure and revelation that a one-on-one meeting with a friend provides, so I have chosen to divide my blogging time between e-mail and meetings.  However, the trade-off is while I am forging good relationships, I also miss out on the opportunity to share my experiences and impressions with the wider community, anyone who might potentially have an interest in reading them or could benefit in any way.

When I was in Florence, I wrote a blog entry just about every day.  The composition of my peer group was a bit different back then, as there weren't specific individuals to whom I wrote frequently, and since it was my first time traveling abroad by myself I wanted to make sure I kept every detail for posterity.  Sometimes, when my roommates went out for a night on the town, I politely declined so that I could craft my blog entry.  I traded potentially fun social experiences for nights of introspection.  In some ways, I am happy I did as I have a very thorough record of my times I can easily read through and share with someone who might be interested in Italy.  

During my trip to Tokyo one year later, I kept a blog for a week but I had two other things pulling at my time and attention: the pen-and-paper journal I was required to keep for the class, which proved to be a good personal outlet, and a few correspondences with people abroad I had an interest in keeping.  My professor, Sensei Morgan, was against online blogging and felt it detracted from contact with the culture and more personal forms of writing, and said that "you can watch videos of Tokyo on YouTube from your computer at home."  So, I adopted this philosophy and stopped the blog after my orientation in Chiba and upon my arrival in Tokyo.  

When I taught in Guatemala, much of my energies were put towards fostering ties with the children and other people there, so I continued the trend of pen-and-paper writing when I most needed an outlet and wrote e-mails.  I started a blog, but never updated.  It was one of the best summers of my life, and I'm glad I became completely immersed.  

So, here in Madrid I decided since this was a big undertaking to once again rekindle the blogging spirit.  Since I've once again found an outlet in other places, I've been less hard on myself and instead followed my courses of inspiration.  If responding to a message or meeting a friend for coffee is more compelling, I will do that.  Though, I do want to still keep the blog going from time to time.  One of my goals for the New Year 2012 is to improve my concentration, an area I did not previously realize needed work but now would like to make better.  I also found a new way to express my art and writing in the form of ¡Extran Hero!, a comic travel journal that I'm looking to update this spring.  

Which do you prefer: writing to loved ones, seeing people in person, keeping a blog, or turning experiences into art?  Or, do each have their separate or linked value?  Are they all worth doing?