There’s a joke about a man dropping his kid off at college.  He tells the boy, “Son, everyone lives a lie. Choose one you’ll enjoy.”  I guess you could call my prefered lie, my myth of choice, romantic consumerism.  I’m an addict.  I crave new experiences and am happy going to great lengths to do things which I’ve not yet done.  I’ve worked long hours in less-than-ideal circumstances in a country in perpetual war for years and for what?  Because I am mortally terrified of boredom.  I want to see, hear, touch, and really know the world as much as possible.  This isn’t a goal.  It’s not a desire which has a chance of satisfaction.  It is my way of life and only direction.

This blog is my public travel journal, language learning log, and platform for airing my thoughts in general.  All new posts will appear on the homepage but are also divided into these categories to make it easier to find posts of interest to you.  I have no political affiliation and am not trying to sell anyone anything.  I just like to write, tell stories, and share knowledge.  I’m also hoping that through this blog I’ll meet new people with interesting stories of their own or who can share things with me I don’t yet know about the world, travel, writing, or learning another language.

So far I’ve visited the Dominican Republic, the Philippines, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Germany, Australia and Peru.  I’m from the States but have also lived in South Korea and Iraq courtesy of my time in the US Army and now as a civilian military contractor.  My brother Daniel and I have a trip planned to Mexico and Cuba next year and I have become almost obsessive about gaining as much fluency as is Matthewly possible by the time we get there.  Our current plan is to visit the new Seven Wonders of the World.  We hit Machu Picchu this year (2016) and Chichen Itza is next on the list.

I only speak English fluently but am quickly remedying that.  I’m currently learning Spanish and have a portion of the blog dedicated to language learning in which I’ll chronicle my own progress and share resources beneficial to fellow learners.  You can expect to occasionally see posts from guest bloggers like Daniel, who as a fluent speaker of Arabic, will also likely appear in the language portion from time to time.  And please, if you have anything to share regarding your own language learning, tips or resources that others can use, then do so in the comments.  If there was ever a subject that takes a village to study, it would be language!

Blogs are to writing what karaoke is to singing.  I would like to think I do slightly better than simply following the bouncing ball, but I may be a bit biased.  Sometimes I like to give a subject other than travel or language learning a shot and those posts will have their own separate category.

As this site is a relaunch of a blog I created and later abandoned, there are a few older articles lingering about.  I’m a bit of a hoarder and couldn’t stand the thought of letting them go.

There you have it, the lowdown on my blog.  I hope you’ll enjoy it and that if you find something interesting you’ll share it with others.  Likewise, if you have something interesting for me please share that too.  Thanks!  ¡Cuidate y chau!