Some times life is just slow...

Damn,

Alright, here's the scenario. It's friday afternoon, I'm listening to some GREAT music, and I am completely broke. It's like set up for party mood. However, I am NOT longing for a party. Oh, no, if I was, I'd just borrow some dough from my parents. Nah, I'm in a real deep shithole, because, I'm bored, and longing for adventure. Right now, I wish I had already gotten into the archaeology high school program that I want to get into. At least then, I'd have a chance to see some new horizons, and not just this cheap shot sad excuse for a village that I live in.

But so far, they haven't told anybody who's in and who's out. Lazy bastards. So I won't know until this summer or so, if I got in. Even more problems ahead as I have to find some kind of work to get some dough in the summer, and again, no luck yet.

But those are the regular troubles of youth, and things I can deal with. But I can't really deal with my thirst for adventure, not this weekend. I'll probably spend it doing homework, while wanting to see the world and go to Australia to do some diving. Another boring weekend, in other words. How do other people manage to live this kind of life? Really? I would have grown bored out of my mind if I had to live a life working in a factory, or at a desk job. I'd probably get depressed and go get drunk. And I can't even deal with a boring weekend.

Sheesh.
I can't wait for the summer.

So, anyways, other adventurous news... That's right, nothing new on any front. Still no summer around here, so still no chance for me to go out camping over a weekend. I'll have to be patient. And I still haven't been abducted by UFOs either. Maybe one day they'll gather their balls up and try abducting me. At least, it'd put a little spice on my weekend if I had to spend it fighting aliens. As it stands, I'll probably spend my weekend watching some Black Lagoon (anime), drinking tequila.

Another piece in my future plan has appeared, though.
It turns out the university I want to apply for (Gotlands Högskola), is allowing for archaeology students to do the exchange student thingie to a few parts of the world. Right now, I've got my eyes on one of the positions for Australia (Sydney university), or maybe Samoa. But Zanzibar and Madagascar doesn't sound all too wrong, either. Portugal? Nah, thanks, but not my thing (I signed up to get OUT of Europe, ya see). And no bloody Eastern bloc states either, nor the last remaining Soviet country, Belarus. I can't believe we're sending exchange students there.

But Australia, I'd jump on every day. It's even worth the near-death experience of flying there. (Yeah, I HATE flying!). And then I'll probably spend my free time diving or hiking in the wild over there, because, seriously, those dudes have ONE HELL of a country, with lots of wilderness for the sighting. Just the way I like my vacations.

Bah. Enough ramblings from this adventurous spirit, at least for this weekend. Hope your weekend will be more fun than mine. Take care now, bye bye, then.

//Henrik

Can you say "adventure"?

Diving...
We love it, we who call ourselves adventurers. I must admit, I have not yet tried it myself. But I love it. Why? Because diving means getting a chance to see a world few others have seen. Also it means a chance to dive for pirate ship wrecks, but that's another story. But I don't want to dive in tourist havens like Thailand - I'm sick and friggin' tired of hearing of Thailand and Bali, and yada yada. It will be a cold day in Hell before I ever set my foot in that tourist nest. So, where else can a man dive?

Africa, of course!
Mozambique, from where my step-mother comes, have great beaches, great tourist resorts, and great diving. It's relatively untouched as well, and has beautiful underwater life, as you can plainly see in the video. (Just ignore the ecstacy-infused music). And of course, many a pirate found the east coast of Africa a good home and hideout in the 17h and 18th Century - Madagascar was a home to many a pirate captain. So, in Africa, we have great diving, a history of piracy, and relative untouch by tourists.

So, I don't know how you feel, but one day, I'm going to set my foot in Mozambique for a loooong while of R&R with diving and respite from the hectic life of modern "civilization". Because, let's face it - even if you go to Thailand these days, that's no guarantee you'll escape the hectic life you live normally - nowadays, tourism is just as hectic as ordinary life.

Take it easy//
Henrik

Can one truly enjoy life without testing it's limits?

Sure you can. You see people do that all the time - despite what our mainstream media might tell us, there are people out there who live happy lives, and I dare say they are in a majority. But I've begin to realize lately that I do not belong in that majority.

At first, I thought this sense of lacking something, wanting something more in my life, was nothing but my wish to get out and party with my friends and pick up some hot chicks. But even when I was out partying with friends for two days in a row, this feeling of want did not ease. But it helped, because it made me realize that to ease this feeling, I have to carve out my own life - cut free from the home I've lived in for my entire twenty-one years in life - and carve out my own life somewhere else.

Furthermore, it's not just about carving out a life for myself. Sure, getting away from this back-drop village is a start. But studying to become an archaeologist in a city way away from my home town probably won't be enough. And this feeling of want, of course, compels me to search for a way to ease it. I think that to ease this feeling, I will have to live life the EXACT way I want to live it; as an adventurer - travelling the world, experiencing it to the fullest, meet incredible people that I will be friends with forever - and even then, I'm not sure it's enough.

We've all seen movies with these types of scenes, where the protagonist walks through the night with a pretty girl to some beautiful music, or when the hero of the police show is on his way to meet the badguys in what he knows will end in a shootout, to the tunes of "In the air tonight" by Phil Collins (That's a reference to Miami Vice for you Vice lovers) - these are life-changing moments in the lives of the protagonists of respective film or series. And I realized that what I'm thirsting so for isn't partying, having sex with a pretty girl when I'm feeling lonely, or getting drunk with my friends. That's all fine and dandy, but...

What I'm thirsting for is beyond that. It's a life changing moment. I'm not foolish enough to think that those come very often. And I'm not a madman who want to drive to a meeting with a bunch of criminals knowing it'll end in a bloodbath, either. But I know that this is the emptiness that I feel inside me, that I'm seeking to fill. I've never experienced such an event in my life, and that's the one thing I would sacrifice everything I have to experience.

Why? Because I've realized that you can not claim to have "a life" until you've experienced such a moment with it. This is all my thoughts and suspicions of course - but I suspect they are true just the same.

And perhaps, in some way, a moment that will change my life will truly change me as well, for the better. It might be the final push I need to dare to fully live my life as I want to. Or it might be the moment where I meet a friend who I will live the rest of my life travelling on adventures with - or the woman who I will spend the rest of my life loving. Nobody can tell until they've experenced such a moment. And I least of all, since I have never truly experienced it, and don't even know if such moments are possible, though I suspect they are.

Bah...

I guess I'm earning the nickname "Rambling Spirit" today, but this is important to me. My life has been decent so far, but until I've experienced this feeling, until I've sated this thirst for such a life experience, that lives within me, I suspect my life will never be more than "decent". And as I'm sure you all know, I don't want to live a "decent" life - I want to live a life where I can do what I want, where I am truly free - and "decent" doesn't even begin to describe what such a life would be.

Thank you, and take care, dear readers

Henrik