Itchy Brain Syndrome
It’s good to have options, except for the times when choosing between them becomes difficult.
For the last few weeks, I’ve been intending to head south for a bit, traveling through Mauritania to visit Senegal and perhaps Mali. I even spent several days in Rabat and paid about $50 for a dual-entry transit visa for Mauritania.
For a number of reasons, I’ve decided to forgo this plan for now. Key among these reasons is that my brain has started feeling a bit itchy. I’ve had – and enjoyed! – lots of leisure time recently, but taking on a small personal programming project has made me realize that I’ve become too intellectually idle.
Brain wants more to do than read and drift? Okay, brain, time for a new plan.
As I’ve probably mentioned here before, I’ve felt linguistically illiterate since arriving in Europe, as I’ve met so many people who speak three, four, five languages (or more). In order to address this, I’m returning to Marrakech tomorrow, and intend to spend a month or so studying French. It’s a beautiful language, incredibly useful around the world, and something I’ve wanted to learn for a while. I took a week of lessons in Nice last fall, and have picked up a bit more during my six weeks in Morocco (it is the second language here).
I’m happy to have a plan in place beyond just going to the next place and seeing the next thing. Let’s see how long before the brain rebels again.
This entry was posted on Friday, January 20th, 2012 at 2:01 AM. It is filed under Itinerary, Planning, Words.
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Bonne chance, mec ! :)
Exciting! Have fun!
When in the Atlas mountains of Morocco I spent a few days with a Berber chief and his family. The chief spoke Arabic, Berber, and Parisian French. I spoke pidgin French with a strong Quebecois accent. The enforced immersion sharpened my French considerably. We had some lively conversations, including a mild social faux pas I had to back-pedal out of, and coordinating how I would slip him money surreptitiously at a train station for some goods I bought without getting him busted as a Faux Guide. Nothing like raising the stakes to facilitate learning.
Kevin