Thursday, November 18, 2010

18 11 2010

Eighteenth of November
No sense of urgency,
Calm surrounds me.
A breezy serenity.
I just take it.

Linger.
Consumed by a quiet pleasure,
All good things.
Amongst the so called stress,
Hurry and consider,
I am defined by a mindful confidence.

In time, in time.
Faithful now, hopeful how,
Only letting sunrays affect me.
In a direction towards peace,
I march quietly,
So steady, so ready.
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This is to verbalize, a bit poetically, how humbled, thankful and conscious I am of having the opportunity to do the travels I am doing.

x. ac

Monday, November 8, 2010

8 November

I think I would be overwhelmingly stressed out if I were not just taken over by such excitement for life. I have about 5 research papers due before finals week and am taking the GRE the day before graduation, yet I can't stop dancing and smiling lately.

Oh, and NICE is in the cards now, as in Cote D'Azur. AH.


x. ac

Monday, November 1, 2010

Official

I have just booked my flight! I'm so excited right now, I can't stop smiling :)

The itinerary changed a little bit from before.
Now I am leaving for Cape Town, South Africa on January 13th, and leaving February 5th. Essentially three weeks rather than a full month there. While I'm there I will be volunteering with IVHQ, teaching children alongside their primary instructors. My lessons will focus on English. In the townships, where I will be teaching, many of the children come from families which speak native languages such as Zulu (and many more, South Africa has 11 official languages!), however, in order to get a job in the city, they need to be able to speak English, so that's why it is so important that they learn it.

After my volunteer work is complete, I will be flying to Rome, Italy for about 10 days, via Dubai, UAE. Originally, I was going to spend a few days in London, but the prices have increased incredibly since I last looked. Rome was a much more affordable destination, plus the land of (some of) my people. I have not looked to deep into excursions to be had from Rome, but definitely plan on taking advantage of the train system there and seeing some other destinations besides central Rome! I'll leave Italy the 16th of February.

For now, I must focus on completing my last college semester successfully, pushing myself (again) for all A's. Then right after finals I have the GRE to take, and then I will focus more on sorting out the details, such as where to stay in Rome and possible weekend side-trips from Cape Town.

So, so excited for this next chapter of my life, apres graduation from UCF.

I honestly think that each year of my life gets better, and I can only hope that it continues, push myself to achieve and strive for more with each day.

x. Alex