Jordi's diary.

Joined: 21 Jun 2004 Posts: 17

Hello everybody,

I am sort of a " lurker ", I heard of this site after seeing Sebastian's signature in another forum, and I decided to see what was Flast.org about.

I am not a foreign language student, my especiality is history, Ancient to Renaissance, And if I stop procastinating, this Fall I should get started in my doctorate. Embarassed

Althought I have lived most of my life in Spain, I consider the idea of moving to a foreign country in some future time. I guess I like too much the nomadic lifestyle, I can't explain it, I just love travelling meeting new people, seeing new things ... I love learning.

So I guess that's the reason why I am writing in here, to learn new things and to meet new people. However I only know english ( apart from Spanish and Catalan, which aren't amongst this forum's languages ). My knowledge of German is really limited and I am clueless about Japanese and Magyar; despite that, I hope having a great time with all of you Very Happy

, and I wish learning new things as well.

Site Admin Joined: 04 Dec 2003 Posts: 747

It's good to see you here. Very Happy

I saw some pictures from where you live and I must admit, it's a beautiful place. I also like the idea of traveling around, I think it's especially important for young people. Where are you planning to go? Have you thought of a scholarship in one of the EU countries? It shouldn't be too difficult. Of course it wouldn't be a nomadic lifestyle but maybe worth the trouble.

Joined: 21 Jun 2004 Posts: 17

I have already finished my university studies, I have only the Phd left to do. And that's a thing I can do in any place as long as i find a way to send my Thesis to Barcelona.

Next travels include a two week trip to Cuba, which will be part holidays part work. I do photography works as a hobby, and I shall make a small report in a local newspaper about my trip.

Next extended travels will be U.S.A. and Canada, and then I'd like to visit Asia and Oceania, this way I would have been once in all the non-frozen continents.

Still, this is all pretty much on the works, apart from the idea I need the money to get this projects to work Very Happy

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http://www.terra.es/personal6/santantonidemar/fot.htm

This is where I live.

Joined: 21 Jun 2004 Posts: 17

After four days of deserved holidays, I have returned to the routine I fell into about to weeks ago. The high school where I work as a history teacher is preparing next year's classes, and my role as " chief " of the History and Arts department is to attend every meeting and get into arguments over why buying 20 soccer balls is not as necessary as getting more books for the library Sad

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I am looking forward the end of this madness Crying or Very sad

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Site Admin Joined: 04 Dec 2003 Posts: 747

Jordi, before your post I searched with Google and found exactly tha same page you posted. The pictures tell a lot. It's beautiful.

So you are a history teacher and want to travel around the world? How do you manage?

Joined: 21 Jun 2004 Posts: 17

Sebastian wrote:

Jordi, before your post I searched with Google and found exactly tha same page you posted. The pictures tell a lot. It's beautiful.

So you are a history teacher and want to travel around the world? How do you manage?

I work as a substitute teacher, I do random photography works, as well as I have worked as a sort of financial advisor for some local companies. That would pretty much summarize my actual working quota.

I do also grow part of my own food, such as a few vegetables and fruits. I don't own a house, I am not married or engaged in a relationship, and I don't own most of the things that suck up money like crazy, as a celullar phone, a VCR or a DVD player.

I also walk, skateboard, or else ride my bike to any place that's relatively near, so I don't spend much money in parking tickets or fuel ( I drive a diesel =P ).

When I go on holidays, I may use cheap transportation such as train, car ( van ), or even walking and hitchhiking. I also avoid staying in expensive hotels as much as possible.

As I don't think I'll be living in Spain much longer, I don't need to spend money in things that would assure me a good/excellent life when it comes to material wealth, so I spend it in things that make me.... uh....eh..mmm.... sort of "wiser", and travelling falls into that category. Wink

Hey, you are a teacher and managed to go to Japan, didn't you Mr. Green

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Joined: 21 Jun 2004 Posts: 17

It seems my job in the High school will last another month because the school council couldn't reach an agreement about next year's funding, so we will need another month to decide what shall we do with the money we have assigned.

The good part is that I won't need to return to my previous job as an accountant/advisor, but this means that I will have less time to dedicate to photography Sad

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I already have had to cancel two projects I had appointed for July, that's a pity, but I guess that this way I'll have more free time in August to do what I want Cool

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Joined: 27 Dec 2003 Posts: 423

I feel wonder Confused

I left my message yesterday but I can't find it now. Why???
I guess I did something wrong. hehehe. Laughing

It's not uncommon for me.
Jordi. I just wanted to say you are so great because you are history teacher, photographer, financial pplanner and farmer. Smile

Joined: 21 Jun 2004 Posts: 17

Uck...

Apart from being busy with work, I have had to deal with a trojan that was screwing my computer. I wish that none of you have ever to deal with Backdoor.Sdbot ; seriously, it took me four days to have my computer fully operational again.

Now, thankfully, I am back online again Very Happy

. I have also taken some time to learn new things, my "arch-nemesis" and me will have our annual skate game competition on september, and I have to get ready, so I finally break the tie.

The score is 1-1, we have had 5 consecutive ties because we haven't been able to end the competition since 5 years ago, mainly because we both get hurt or else we break our boards etc...

Those rules are pretty similar to the ones we use ^_^ :

http://www.esfootwear.com/gameofskate/

Lily wrote:

Jordi. I just wanted to say you are so great because you are history teacher, photographer, financial pplanner and farmer.

Thanks, Lily Embarassed

However, all this can be easily explained. Teaching and accounting have been two necessary things to do in order to keep my belly fed. I would have taken any other jobs if necessary, but fate offered me the chance to take those two.

Photography is more like a hobby that has started to earn me money, most of the photographers around here work in the BBC ( Bodas, Bautizos y Comuniones ) Wink

; and I am one of the few that do outdoor photography, which allows me to take jobs that other photgraphers wouldn't accept.

About the farming, my grandfathers and my dad have always worked the land one way or another, so we always had grown part of our food. I just follow that tradition, plus food grown without pesticides and other chemicals tastes way better than the one you can buy in the market. It also makes it easier for me to save money for other things like travelling or photography.

Thanks a lot for your compliments, I really appreciate them. I also hope to have clarified any doubts you may have about the things I do ^_^.

Feel free to ask me more questions if you wish, I'll try to reply them as clear as possible.

Joined: 21 Jun 2004 Posts: 17

I went to the hospital to get the vaccines recommended when travelling to Cuba, it seems that the Tetanus (lockjaw) vaccine is over-reacting and I am suffering from a persistantly annoying pain on my left arm ;__;.

Thankfully, I won't need another until I turn 34, which is great because I hate needles; especially when I am their target .

Site Admin Joined: 04 Dec 2003 Posts: 747

I hope you'll feel better soon, Jordi. Are you planning to go to Cuba any time soon?

It's wonderful that you can grow your own food. I've always thought that's the best way if you want to live a "natural" life. I know it's much harder than buying it at the supermarket but if you make it, you know exactly what you have used on the fields. Keep it up, no doubt it's worth the trouble.

Joined: 21 Jun 2004 Posts: 17

Sebastian wrote:

I hope you'll feel better soon, Jordi. Are you planning to go to Cuba any time soon?

It's wonderful that you can grow your own food. I've always thought that's the best way if you want to live a "natural" life. I know it's much harder than buying it at the supermarket but if you make it, you know exactly what you have used on the fields. Keep it up, no doubt it's worth the trouble.

I am leaving on september the 1st, and I will return on the 15th ^_^.

The advantage of growing your own food, leaving aside the money, is the health benefits you receive in exchange of the little effort that growing food to sustain one person requires. I don't use pesticides or any other chemicals other than what's required to boost the fertility of the land; nature is perfectly able to take care of herself.

Actually, having a small plantation of let's say, tomatoes, peppers, and carrots big enough to feed three persons requires little land and little care. The toughest part is preparing the land in order to plant the crops in it. Then you just have to worry about keeping it clean and watered.

Cleaning my tiny plantation takes me about 4 hours every week, and I have build a system of channels and water dosification that spares me from watering the plants by hand, I just need to turn the water on for about an hour every day while I am doing any other stuff.

It's a matter of organization, I guess. I have learned all this from my dad and my grandad; I am pretty much a disaster for most of the other things I do Mr. Green

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Joined: 27 Dec 2003 Posts: 423

Hi! Jordi
You'll departure in a week, right?
How is a pain on my left arm? Long, long ago I was vaccinated. I remember that I suffered itch Confused

after annoying pain.

Did you ask someone to take care of your plantation? Surprised

Joined: 21 Jun 2004 Posts: 17

I shall leave in approximately 12 hours ^_^ ( it's 4:41 pm ), hopefully I won't get sweeped away by a hurricane during my holidays =P. My arm is fully recovered; heh, I just realised it has been a long time since I last posted in here. this last month has been quite a hassle because I needed to finished a big ammount of pending work, as well as I had to prepare things for this little travel ^^ .

I have just finished packing things so all I have to do is just wait until 5 am, that's when I shall drive to the airport, then I'll take a flight from Barcelona to Madrid, then I'll catch another plane that will take me to Cuba. There, the family of a friend will pick me up from the airport and will take me to the city, and finally, to the hotel O__o . Ouch.

About the (small) plantation ; I won't plant anything else since I will probably leave this house during the winter. Seems the landlord is considering selling it, so I'll most likely end up living again at my parent's house ( which is at a ten minute walk from where I am living at the moment ^^ ).

Well, I think I am now going to take some time to take a peek at the rest of diaries just to see what have you all been up to during the last weeks, I am so nosey =P.

Joined: 21 Jun 2004 Posts: 17

As an appendix to the previous post, I have had time to get my hands onto Trillian basic and Firefox. The first one is an instant messenger program that manages accounts of msn, AIM, ICQ, IRC and Yahoo messengers.

It's sort of a 5 on one program that helped a lot when trying to have my desktop clean of icons. It also hass less negative features than the other messengers and it uses less comp resources, I do recommend it if you happen to have friends that are too stubborn to actually use a single messenger service =P.

I can be downloaded here :

http://www.trillian.cc/downloads/

Firefox is quite a famous net browser, which is much more secure than Internet explorer and incredibly easier to use. It also has neat features like the tab function, which make navigating in the internet quicker and more practical.

It can be downloaded here :

http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

Make sure you read the information about those two programs before installing them in case you are not familiar with them. Exclamation

Joined: 21 Jun 2004 Posts: 17

I am back to work Sad

.

I am also back, from my holidays in Cuba. I had to return early because of Hurricane Ivan (I took a flight back on september 11th), however, I still had a wonderful time in there. I stayed mostly in La Habana, although I took some days off and stayed in other places as well, such as Cienfuegos, Trinidad, etc...

Backpacking is definetly the best way of travelling Smile

This are some of the pics I took :

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v90/Kurd_Jam/021_18A.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v90/Kurd_Jam/Seafire.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v90/Kurd_Jam/Cienfuegos.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v90/Kurd_Jam/sunset_Frances.jpg

Joined: 27 Dec 2003 Posts: 423

Hi! Jordi.
I'm very happy I could hear from you.
It was very good for you. Hurricane Ivan didn't blow you off.

And thanks for your beautiful pictures. Shocked

You are a great camera man.
If you have a chance to come to Kyoto Japane. why don't you check in here and there? Wink

http://pws.prserv.net/waruida/tojian/tojian_top_e.htm
http://www.j-hoppers.com/index.htm

Joined: 21 Jun 2004 Posts: 17

Back from a really extended hiatus.

Quite a lot of things have happened to me in the last months, to make a long story short :

I am no longer a teacher but the responsible for the formation of new employees for one of the main hospitals in my province, at least until I take and pass my exams for working in a public office (hopefully, in February 2006).

I have a girlfriend and we're planning on moving on together for a few months next summer to see how well things go. Then we need to choose a continent to move into XD

I won a big prize in a photography contest I entered and won a digital camera valued at 350 euros, and I am currently working on another contest entry.

That pretty much covers it. I hope the rest of you have had also interesting experiences that can now be shared Wink

Site Admin Joined: 04 Dec 2003 Posts: 747

It's good to hear from you again.

Congratulations! Will you tell us which picture won the prize?

About your girlfriend, is the moving going to be a trial before marriage?