2008 Vagabonding Resolutions

Yes, I make resolutions; yes, it’s a cliché post I had no intentions of avoiding 🙂

When you are on the road, or living abroad, with the intention of staying that way in the foreseeable future, resolutions can be quite a blur. I suppose it’s because the decision to live this kind of life is a big resolution in itself.

Having said that, come the new year and it still seems like you have to make resolutions in order to make your next year on the road even better than this one; so here are mine:

• Visit a place I never imagined visiting, once at least every 3-months: This year I traveled a lot, but more to see people than to visit places. The only random new places I went to this year were Malmo, in Sweden and Copenhagen. I’d like to resume my fondness for hiking this year too. I only went on two treks this year, I want to plan more.
• Order something I have never tried, every time I eat out: I used to be queen of this. And although I always landed up getting food I didn’t like, I was proud of being adventurous with my palette. I’ve stopped doing this, but I’m going to start again.
• Run 3-times a week: It’s easy to get lazy when your life has no routine. Exercise can take a huge step back, often leaving you to not doing any anymore. I walk a lot and run at least once a week, but it’s not enough.
• Improve my Spanish: I’ve been in Spain almost a year-and-a-half now. My Spanish took a huge leap the first year, but now I seem to have stagnated. When you learn a new language and there comes a point where you have no problem communicating in it, but you still communicate with errors, those errors remain errors — unlikely to be sorted unless you put in some effort to fix them.
• Get involved in some small, local program that will make a difference: Something I’ve always wanted to do, but never got round to it. I wrote to a girl yesterday who works with street people and illegal immigrants in Madrid. She seems to be part of an English-speaking team of people, so perhaps my chances of helping out are greater.

And that’s about it. If there are any vagabonding resolutions you’d like to share, comments are open!

I wish you a rocking 2008 and may all your vagabonding dreams come true!