new adventures & new goals

Last night I was talking to my friend Jenny as she was packing up her bags to study abroad for a semester near Perth, Australia. She is nervous, excited and anxious to get started with her adventure. In talking to her I was reminded of my own study abroad experience in Spain during college. I was so nervous to go out on my own on a trip with strangers to a foreign country with only a minimal ability to speak the language. Well, as you can tell, that trip was everything I wanted because my love to travel was only enhanced. Now I look to Jenny and I know she is going to have an absolutely fabulous experience. An experience that will probably change the way she looks at the world and the way the world looks at her. She is going to come back to Minnesota in six months a different girl, because experiences change you, they affect you, they challenge you, they make you redefine yourself - they alter you to the very core of your being.

I created this blog as a way to document my adventure of living in Cali, Colombia. When I set out to move to a foreign country six months ago, I sort of thought this would be my one "thing" I would do, my one "unusual", "out of the box", "risky" thing. After being here six months I have done so many amazing things, met some fabulous new friends and traveled to spectacular places.

Throughout these experiences, I have probably changed my mind about a million times about the direction my life will take tomorrow, next month, and next year.

I don't really have any answers yet, so don't look to this blog post if you are wondering what the hell I'm doing with my life...cause I have no idea either, sorry. What I have however decided, is that this adventure I have taken myself on is in no way my only, my first, or my last. Life is full of things to do, people to meet and things to be experienced and I plan to do as many of them as possible. I figure I can continue to live by the motto "You can sleep when you're dead" well into my sixties. ;) That being said I have decided to, under the inspiration of other bloggers and friends, create my very own Life List. Also known as a list of things I plan to accomplish in this lifetime. I cannot show you that list today because it is in now way complete or finished or anything, but soon. Sometime soon.
Here are a few things I know will for sure end up on the final draft:

• See a game at all 30 Major League Ballparks.
• Run in the Twin Cities 10 mile.
• Visit wine country in Argentina.3
• Learn to drive stick shift.
• Print and scrapbook the pictures from my study abroad trip to Spain.
• Meet Joe Mauer and take a picture with him.
• Give up pasta for one month.
• Take the SATC tour in NYC.
• Live in Uptown, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
• Live on Grand Ave, St. Paul, Minnesota.
• Kiss in the rain.
• Take a web site design class.

Anyone have other suggestions for me??? :)
Happy Monday!