The List

Andromeda posted a list a few weeks ago on the things she'd like to do before turning 30 and that's when it hit me: I'm turning 30 in less than 10 weeks from now!!!

So where's my list? What were the goals I wanted to achieve before reaching this emblematic age?

Funny enough, you would think I'd made up a list when I turned 20 about the things I wanted to have done by the time I turned 30... but actually I never did.

Looking back I realize this is because I wanted my life to turn out as unpredictable as possible and I guess having a "to do list" kindda takes away a little of the unpredictable part. There has always been things that I've wanted to do in my life before I kick the bucket and for the most part that includes places I want to travel to or things I want to see with my own eyes, but I'm not sure I ever consciously put a deadline on by when I should have achieved these things.

For the most part, I'm pretty happy about how these (almost) 30 years have turned out so far. I guess there is still stuff I would have liked to have done much sooner (or at all for that matter) but on the whole, I'm pretty satisfied.

So how about this? here's my List "of things I didn't set out to do, but did, before I turned 30":

- Move to another country
- Learn a new language
- Have a weird roommate
- Visit the Eiffel Tower
- Visit the Vatican and see the Sistine Chapel
- Go to Japan
- Visit the Alhambra
- Travel to South America
- Get married in a Castle in France
- Have a "business meeting" with Tequila Exporters
- Visit the Leaning Tower of Pisa
- Visit Guanajuato
- Introduce my french finacé to my mexican / american family
- See the Mona Lisa
- Get my thesis finished and forget to pick up my degree (which must be rotting in the basement of a SEP building somewhere in Mexico)
- Visit Istanbul, the Blue mosque and the Sainte Sophia
- Drink Guinness pints like there is no tomorrow in a pub in Glasgow
- Live in a co-ed, international dorm and hang out with people from all four corners of the planet.
- Stand atop the Parthenon in Athens on a hot summer day
- Sleep in a nun's convent-turned hostel in Florence
- Camp under the stars in the basque country
- Discover I have long lost family living in Spain and France
- Meet members of the EZLN at a friend's house in Palenque, Chiapas
- Walk in a century old Jewish cemetery in Prague
- Walk in millennial Jerusalem city
- Stand inside the Nobel Prize Awards' ballroom in Stockholm
- Eat Pastel de Choclo
- Watch the sun go down over the Danube river in Budapest
- Eat a "special brownie" and then have to find my way back to the hotel in the middle of a Rave/Gay Parade under the rain in Amsterdam
- Touch the Wailing Wall
- Touch the Saint Sepulcher
- Touch the Dome of the Rock
- Touch the Largest Buddha in Japan's foot in Nara
- Become a vegetarian for a couple of years and realize it's not for me
- Become the owner of an apartment in Paris, France
- Work for a company with questionable ethics
- Work for a guy who made a living out of scamming people
- Work for a bank
- Drive on the right side of a car and on the right side of the road in Ireland
- Hear the Big Ben chime noon
- Swim in the Dead Sea
- Kayak down a river and ride a horse up a mountain in Argentina
- Become a Blogger

As I write this list I realize there are still hundreds of things that I want to do. I'm guessing I wont be checking them off my list before I turn 30 so they're now officially marked in the "to be completed at some point" list.

- Visit the Egyptian pyramids
- Go back to Japan (better yet, move there)
- Visit more of Asia (Thailand, Singapore, Bali, Malaysia, New Zeland, Australia...)
- Go to Cuba
- Learn a new language
- Go to Morocco, Alger and Tunisia
- Visit Portugal
- Stand in the middle of the Red Square in Russia
- Take a sabbatical from work and go teach english in Japan
- See the Machu Pichu
- Ride horses (this can be sort of a recurrent thing)
- At least once, stay in one of those paradisiac hotels in the Maldives where the cabins are built over the water.
- Go to Oktoberfest
- Visit Prince Edward island and reminiscence over one of my favorite books of all times: Anne of Green Gables
- Go to Ispahan in Iran and Petra in Jordan
- Get back in shape and learn how to stay there
- Rent a boat and sail around the Mallorca Islands
- Go to Corcega
- See the Taj Mahal
- Get over my fear of spiders so that I can go to places like the Amazon forest
- Ski in the Alps
- Drive across America (preferably in a convertible)
urgh! this list can go on and on and on and on..... not to mention all of side things you get to see and visit while doing all of the above!

Btw, I just realized almost all of these goals have absolutely nothing to do with either professional or personal achievements... Hmm, I guess at (almost) 30 my priorities are totally whacked.

Fned.