2008

best film i saw in 2008.
el laberinto del fauno (in english i think its called the fawn's labyrinth) an amazing film mixing realism and sub-realism to portray what was happening after the civil war. a must before seeing it is having a quick read-up on the history.

best book i read in 2008.
difficult.
the Shaping of Things to Come. have identified with it and has probably shaped my thinking as much as cs Lewis' The great Divorce.
the kite Runner and Moon Palace were win the prize for novels.

best author discovered.
Paul Auster, easy. not everyone will like him but I love his ability to create characters that resonate. have yet to read him in English though and he's from NY. hmm.

best new food.
peruvian food. have tried countless foods made straight from the peruvian hands of the mother of a couple of my good friends here. mark it up, every Wednesday night, 10.15, a new way to prepare chicken and rice that makes it simply unbelievable.

best new drink.
have to go with tea. this year i have discovered teterías which are these Moroccan type tea houses. i guess straight green tea would have to win.

most impacting experience.
having my eyes zapped with a laser certainly was impacting. and considering it should affect me for the rest of my life it is the winner.

best new gadget.
my apple. most definately mac for life now.

funnest experience shared with around 45 million other people.
spain winning the european cup this past summer. it was crazy fun. in America we don't have anything that compares to it. michael phelps falls short.

best new music discovered.
stuff out of IHOP or similar sounds. like Merchant Band. Brian and Jenn Johnson. love this sound that isn't so mainstream.

most devastating experience.
realizing that my hair isn't as thick as it once was on the top of my head. and it really threw me for a loop. but no worries, i've got special shampoo for it now.

biggest accomplishment.
well i will know in february but it would be passing the DELE exam that I did in November. i suppose if i don't pass i could just class it as my biggest failure. haha

biggest change.
well a huge change has been my vision, but i already mentioned that one.
the decision to finish my degree. it meant a change in my thinking and will provoke one of the biggest changes in the last 4 years of my life.

dream birthed in 2008.
get a degree in writing and spanish. never really had the same desire before.

dream that died in 2008.
oof. going to morocco (okay to be honest it was birthed in november and died in december- not the end of the world, maybe 2009?) didn't know what else to put here.

biggest realization.
that i am getting older each day and that its possible to watch life float by and never do anything about it and one day get caught looking back and realize that time has gone.



that's all for now. maybe later I'll write some more 2008 stuff.