This Bucket List Kicks Back

Hey, folks. Today’s Daily Prompt is all about bucket lists. You know, the list of stuff you want to do before you die? I don’t know about you, but mine seems to get longer every time I think about it. Here’s a (work in progress) list:

• Earn my master’s degree, and least a few more bachelor’s degrees.
• Learn many languages, most likely Mandarin, Arabic, Russian, and French for starters.
• Learn how to drive. (I really don’t want to, but I’m going to have to.)
• Learn a martial art. (My college freshman jiu-jitsu course was a long time ago.)
• Learn coding, either in terms of sites or apps.
• Learn how to create digital art.
• Learn how to read music.
• Learn how to horseback ride.
• Relearn Calculus and continue beyond it. (MIT has courses for independent study)
• Read at least one novel a week. (I usually have a couple on hand.)
• Write and publish a novel. (Hopefully winning a Nobel Prize for Literature?)
• Review 1,000 games. (I’m at 702 now.)
• Visit all seven continents. (I’ve only got South America, Australia, and Antarctica left!)
• See at least one new country a year. (I’ve managed this three years in a row, Italy is coming up in a few months.)
• Visit an active volcano. (Visited Kilauea in December 2014)
• See snow fall.
• Celebrate Holi.
• Participate in La Tomatina.
• Participate in the Taiwan Lantern Festival.
• Visit the Pyramids at Giza.
• Visit Hagia Sophia.
• Visit Easter Island.
• Visit Stonehenge, preferably during an equinox.
• Visit the Burj Khalifa.
• Visit the Taj Mahal.
• Visit Petra.
• Visit Angkor Wat.
• Visit Santorini.
• Visit Vatican City. (This might be happening soon.)
• Meet the Dalai Lama.
• Ride the Trans-Siberian Railway.
• Stay in Finland’s Kakslauttanen igloo hotel and see the aurora borealis.
• Stay in the Rangali underwater hotel in the Maldives.
• Return to Paris and explore the Catacombs.
• See Japan’s Nabana No Sato, Shibuya, Mt. Fuji, and all of its castles.
• See Machu Picchu. (This one almost happened this year!)
• See Iguazu Falls. (See above.)
• See Victoria Falls.
• See the Hunan province.
• See Holland’s flower fields.
• See the Amazon and Sahara.
• See Uluru.
• See the DMZ.
• See the polar ice caps.
• Participate in a research expedition. Classifying new species in the Mariana Trench, archeological digs in Europe or Asia, etc.
• Visit ALMA.
• Visit CERN.
• Visit Pic du Midi.
• Watch all of Hayao Miyazaki’s films.
• Go skydiving.
• Earn a pilot’s license.
• Ride a hot air balloon.
• Walk the Great Wall of China.
• Climb all the major mountains of the world. If I can only choose one, then:
• Climb Mt. Everest. If I can’t make it to the top, then I want to see the mountain at the very least.
• Learn how to play an instrument, preferably the guitar.
• Get a tattoo.
• Watch a space shuttle launch. (Or to go space myself!)
• Experience zero gravity.
• Finish a marathon. (Bay To Breakers is probably the closest I’ll get.)
• Donate to or create a charity.
• Do volunteer work abroad.
• Attend Comic Con, E3, and compete in EVO.
• Start a gaming/review channel on YouTube.
• Do voice acting for a video game or anime.
• Invent/discover something that would be beneficial for society.
• Have an astronomical object or theory named after me.
• Restore the old family house.
• Further expand my personal library.
• Find a house big enough to store my personal library.
• Retire in Cinque Terre. (Open to other suggestions, though!)

It seems like a lot, I know. Kind of far-fetched, too. But looking through some other people’s bucket lists, I’ve now realized that I’ve already done a ton of weird and awesome stuff. I’ve seen most of the major landmarks and buildings here in the States, been to a dozen countries, visited a Buddhist temple in Thailand, fought a fire, lived in two countries, went to the Eiffel Tower and Versailles, was a pallbearer, camped out in the Sierras the old-fashioned way, gone on a cruise, went to Chichen Itza, ate durian, bought goods in a kasbah, spent a weekend on Alcatraz, grew a garden and trees, lead a wedding procession twice, graduated from college without loans…the list keeps going and going. Judging by everything else I’ve thought up, I’m nowhere near finished.

What’s on your bucket list?

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Daily Prompt: Simply Irresistible, Or: Spicy Around The World

Hey, folks. Today’s Daily Prompt is all about temptation. No, not the trashy novel kind. This is about the food that you just can’t turn down, regardless of better judgment and/or guilt tripping. I’m not a big eater by any means – people marvel at the carefully portioned, home-made lunches I bring every day – but I’m a sucker for a few things. My sweet-tooth yearns for Cookies and Cream in any style; I even got some cupcake ones for my last birthday! The best part of the holidays is my family’s awesome homemade spumoni. In terms of regular meals, however, I’ve got to go with chicken and fish. Salmon with freshly-squeezed lemon? Yes, please. Chicken marsala? I will hunger.

Here’s the thing about chicken and fish. They’re fine on their own, but they’re even better when they’re spicy. I’ve always loved spicy food, even as a child. Lemon and herb, cayenne pepper, rosemary, jalepeños, garlic, onions, basil…There’s so much potential. Sure, my breath may cause an environmental disaster afterwards, but I don’t care. You think that stuff stinks? Try eating a durian. There’s a very good reason why some countries ban it from public places. Oh, and if you want a place that has a huge variety of spices and really good food in general, I highly recommend the casbah in Tangier, Morocco. You will never find another place with such a ridiculously huge amount of fresh products. Moroccan saffron (no, not the Pokemon city) is almost criminally delicious.

After traveling and tasting all of that, I didn’t think I could be surprised anymore. Especially not in Aruba, where I was visiting just this past April. That island is an incredibly popular tourist spot for a reason: it’s quite possibly the most hassle-free place you can find. Aruba is all about tourism, for the better and worse. The staffs are really accommodating and speak English well. Multilingualism is a huge part of their education system. But it doesn’t feel like a foreign country; it has all of those tried and true fast food places and services you’d see back home. There’s no thrill, just the ever-present trade winds and utterly stunning beaches. I never thought I’d find great Caribbean food in this hive of sand and tourism…until I went to downtown Oranjestad and came across this:

Iguana Joe’s Jamaican Jerk Chicken Sandwich

Take a good look. Jamaican Jerk-seasoned chicken breast with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and a chunk of fried pineapple. This ensemble was further enriched with Iguana Joe’s legendary Caribbean spice hot sauces. I’m not kidding. That stuff is so good that the restaurant sells and ships it worldwide. I don’t remember all the ingredients, but scotch bonnet was definitely part of it. The resulting wonderful, tongue-blisteringly spicy dish was the best thing I ate the entire time. After I returned home, I stocked up on Caribbean spices and had chicken sandwiches every day for a week.

…Yeah, I’m going to make some more of that tomorrow.