Traveling Abroad: January 2010

Every year when January arrives there are inevitably a few more things that somehow seem to sneak into the picture, no matter how hard I try and keep them away. Like the rude awakening of that first day back to work, somehow you are never quite ready after the break to start back up and begin a new year. There seems to be something daunting about it, knowing that you have 365 more days to get through before the next 2 weeks of bliss.

For us, this feeling wasn’t quite so bad as it could have been as teaching is going well and we are only working part time. But there always seems to be something else that we would rather be doing with out time, and work, always seems to be keeping us from these things.

Another thing that always seems to catch me off guard is the cold weather. Coming to Madrid I thought things like dessert climate, sun 200 days of the year, etc. But for some reason this January in Madrid has been a rough one, even by the locals standards. We haven’t gotten as much snow as I have been use to in the past, but the cold rain is almost just as bad, if not worse. Today is the first day in a long time that the sun has finally taken back control of the sky in what seems to be a constant battle between the clouds and sunshine. We can only hope that today marks a turning point in this little war that is being waged in the heavens.

The last area that always seems to sink into my subconscious, even when I purposefully try and keep it out, are plans of the future. For me (a planner) it is so hard to keep out the thoughts of what comes next or what we should be doing to get ourselves ready for the next transition. Instead, I would love to just sit back and enjoy where I am right now, instead of planning or strategizing for things to come. To be able to live in the moment, to breath and enjoy what you have around you. It can be very hard to do, but I guess it is something to strive for. A New Years resolution of sorts, but then again that is another thing (just like the cold) that I don’t really like about January.

Different trips we are trying to get ready for:

1. Avila

2. El Escorial

3. Valencia (that is for your Jonny)

** If any of you have any thoughts on things to see in these places, where to stay, or what order we should try and do these trips free to let us know.