I’ve always wanted to travel and decided a long time ago that I would at least move to another country. I’ve grown a very depressing opinion of Belgium : the weather is constantly cloudy and rainy, taxes are so high they prevent you from doing anything that’s even remotely entrepreneurial, like working freelance or investing in real estate. You can’t do anything here that’s out of the norm without providing explanations and paying more taxes. The only thing you’re allowed doing is working a salaried job like a slave only to see 50% of your income going to unemployed people who’ve decided it was not worth it (who could blame them). I’ve realised it’s simply a communist country in which I can’t seem to fit in. I’m a free soul. Therefore, before meeting Nathalie, I was planning to move to any country that had at least an halfway modern economy, like Luxembourg if I was going to stay in Europe, or -why not- the USA.

When we met, 15 months ago, I quickly understood it was possible to travel while still maintaining a decent comfort of living. What’s interesting is that she always travelled with minimal amounts of money, too. That really gave me a incentive to move out of here earlier than I thought. Anyway, right now we’re planning to go spend a year in Canada. We have chosen this country because it’s one of the few that offer working holidays visas. It means that for a period of a year, we can work there legitimately if we ever need to (you never know what can happen). Other countries offering that kind of possibility are New-Zealand and Australia.

What we’re planning to do is setting our “home base” in Canada, and travel the whole American continent while we’re there. No problem travelling through the wonderful landscapes of Canada and the USA, as we both speak french and english. However, we’ll have a problem going to latin America, the part of the continent that seems to appeal us the most… We don’t wanna go there as simple gringo tourists, so we’ll have to learn spanish first.

Our schedules are incompatible with the ones of the local spanish schools, so we naturally decided to go with a computer based method. We’ve had a hard time choosing one as there are plenty of them that you can buy on cd-rom or download. However, I must admit this one (it’s called Rocket Spanish) seem serious and efficient. It offers classic audio repeat after me programs in mp3 format so that you can listen to it in your car, on your ipod or burn it on standard audio cds if it’s more confortable for you than doing it in front of the computer. With that you of course receive text explanations of the audio lessons. It’s also loaded with grammar courses. But what I like the most about it is that it’s focused on teaching a street wise spanish that you can actually use everyday in every situation, not looking like a fool or a complete stranger in front of native spanish speakers. It also contains a program to help you recognize and distinguish easily the syllabs of spoken spanish (it’s such a fast paced language it may seem frightening at first). But you know the best part? It’s loaded with… games! That’s right, the program is loaded with small games that will make every lesson a lot more fun than strict scholar homework.

I am personally beginning the first lessons this week-end. I will make sure to keep you posted on my success (or unsuccess, who knows ).

Meanwhile, don’t hesitate to check it out here and tell me what you think.