Well, here it is: 2019. Another year past and another year
on the brink of something great. 2018
was filled with great adventures, places I have never seen before and new
friends. Starting in Rota, Spain, I welcomed the New Year pretty much like I
always do: staying up until I feel like going to bed. But the Spain adventure
continued with reacquainting myself with old friends, brushing up on my Spanish
and visiting places like Cadiz, Seville, Granada and Ronda. It also gave me the
cool opportunity to visit Morocco for a long weekend (first time on the African
continent!)I gathered a few souvenirs, saw some fantastic sights, and almost
got stranded as the ferries to Spain were mostly canceled due to bad weather. Fortunately,
I got onto an overcrowded boat and made the choppy sojourn back to the other
side (I blocked out the stories of what can happen in overcrowded boats during
a storm.) From Spain, I went back to the
Sates for a few weeks and managed to squeeze in a little time for family
visiting before heading out for Bahrain (see map).
Bahrain was hot, and dusty,
and hot! It had its frustrations, but
also some great opportunities like meeting some new friends and also running
into old ones. Ramadan was an interesting time in Bahrain. I listened to local radio and gained an
appreciation for some kinds of Arabic style music. I was a little surprised (probably shouldn’t
have been) that there is a huge variety of Ramadan songs, many of which are
catchy and sing-a-long-ish, although my Arabic is limited to a few words. Anyway, I also visited Egypt during Ramadan
and stood on and climbed into the Great Pyramid and visited the Cairo
Museum. Wow…just WOW. I also had the thrill
of having my flight cancelled and contracting food poisoning, the former being
a blessing in disguise as I could not possibly have flown that day because of
the latter. I will not go into detail.
For my birthday, I went to Dubai for a long weekend, rode a camel into
the desert where I sand-surfed, played with falcons, smoked a little shisha and
enjoyed a great dinner and the company of a very cool new friend. Following
Bahrain, I returned to the US and spent a couple of months with friends and
family, saw months of planning for a family reunion come to fruition, and began
work in earnest on a children’s book with my sister in law. For the second year
in a row I got to spend Thanksgiving, Hanukkah and Christmas at home. And now
here I sit in Wiesbaden, Germany thinking about 2019 and what it will hold;
what decisions I have to make. Where and how will I be next year at this time?
I have big plans but I won’t commit to them in public. I do understand the
importance of goals and planning, so yes I have a plan, yes it is in writing
and no I don’t want to share it.
Bahrain was hot, and dusty,
and hot! It had its frustrations, but
also some great opportunities like meeting some new friends and also running
into old ones. Ramadan was an interesting time in Bahrain. I listened to local radio and gained an
appreciation for some kinds of Arabic style music. I was a little surprised (probably shouldn’t
have been) that there is a huge variety of Ramadan songs, many of which are
catchy and sing-a-long-ish, although my Arabic is limited to a few words. Anyway, I also visited Egypt during Ramadan
and stood on and climbed into the Great Pyramid and visited the Cairo
Museum. Wow…just WOW. I also had the thrill
of having my flight cancelled and contracting food poisoning, the former being
a blessing in disguise as I could not possibly have flown that day because of
the latter. I will not go into detail.
For my birthday, I went to Dubai for a long weekend, rode a camel into
the desert where I sand-surfed, played with falcons, smoked a little shisha and
enjoyed a great dinner and the company of a very cool new friend. Following
Bahrain, I returned to the US and spent a couple of months with friends and
family, saw months of planning for a family reunion come to fruition, and began
work in earnest on a children’s book with my sister in law. For the second year
in a row I got to spend Thanksgiving, Hanukkah and Christmas at home. And now
here I sit in Wiesbaden, Germany thinking about 2019 and what it will hold;
what decisions I have to make. Where and how will I be next year at this time?
I have big plans but I won’t commit to them in public. I do understand the
importance of goals and planning, so yes I have a plan, yes it is in writing
and no I don’t want to share it.
Oh…and: Happy New Year!
Instead of a bunch of pictures, I uploaded a video to youtube that can be seen here: https://youtu.be/8NQ5I9gM4Rw
