Lucky number dix

Me in the sphere

"The Sphere", the movie?

Today was my first breakthrough in terms of potential projects. First of all, I should mention that my cousin has been amazing at sending out emails to people he knows to set me up with contacts. Wonderful. I feel so fortunate to have such a great support system of such well-connected people. I realized a long time ago how important networking is in any field, and I feel like environment is especially so. I’ve already heard back from some really interesting sounding people in Barcelona, one of whom lives on a boat in the harbour! I sent an email to another person who is working on building a straw bale house in a community garden that has been saved from development. http://www.canmasdeu.net/?lang=en

When I get back, I’d love to check it out, it has a really interesting history. According to Wikipedia (yes, I’m citing wikipedia… all my academic training went out the window as soon as I graduated), the land was a leper colony that was abandoned for over 50 years. In 2002, there was a three-day stand off between some squatters and the evictors. Today, it is used as a community garden and learning centre based on permaculture and self-sufficiency. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Can_Masdeu).

So, that’s one possibility. 

I was also referred to another place in Andalusia that looks really cool. It seems like they need ppl who can disseminate info on their projects. 

I wanted to sit and think with this dude

I was also contacted by a contact of a contact to “volunteer” for a cool project through Oxford University. A, the friend/friend of the family/family/incredibly cool woman (called A) referred me to someone she knows who does a lot of work on traditional indigenous medicine/botany, mainly in Malaysia. Apparently, his team was just hired by some prince to do research on Middle Eastern medicines, in order to create spas that use local traditional techniques (http://giftsofhealth.org/). A suggested that I email this man (I will call him B) my CV, which I did earlier in December. He got back to me relatively rapidly and explained that the project has a VERY limited budget, but that he would keep me in mind and would send my CV around.

Fast forward to today. I received an email from a woman, E, who received my CV from this man, B. E will be researching North African “wellness traditions”, as she puts it. She mentioned that my language skills would be very useful.

Language skills? I never really considered the fact that I’m bilingual a skill, but the more I travel and the more I look into internships, projects and jobs, the more I realize that it kind of is… English, French and some Spanish (which will hopefully improve). Skills. Me. I have basic skills. This was news to me!

Back to E’s project. She basically asked me if I’d be willing to volunteer on this project over the next few months. Several hours per week unpaid… but any travel that may occur would be covered. Will there be any travel? To be determined. The interesting part of this is that I could do it from anywhere, as long as I have internet access. AND it is affiliated with Oxford University. AND B, who runs the umbrella organization, is a very well respected prof/researcher/may have future projects for me to work on.

Banksy related art all over Brizzle

I haven’t responded yet, but I can’t think of reasons not to take the position. Their funding is very minimal for any of this research, and any stipend I would get, would come out of their salary…so doubtful on that front.

Basically, this would be interesting to research, wouldn't take up much time and it would look good on a CV and give me some great references and MAY turn into something more? Downsides... not paid. Anything else? Comments?

Old caves in red cliffs by the water

Tomorrow, I head to Oxford to visit A for her bday and stay for a few days. It’ll allow J to have her place back and then I may come back for the weekend to see what the Brizzle nightlife is like… Purely for research purposes of course.

A will be able to give me some leads on where I might do a course that I’m very interested in, that she did a few years ago.

Bristol is a beautiful city, but I always find the cloudiness of this country somewhat depressing… I explore the harbour and associated sights today.

I plan on looking into some other courses... like TESL type things so that if I want to stay in YURP longer, I at least have a skill to fall back on. 

p.s. if anyone is actually reading this, I'd love some feedback.

Cheers!