Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukah! And a Happy Festivus for the restofus!

Apologies for missing last week's entry of Weights and Whethers. I decided to embark on a 3-day trek through Colca Canyon and didn't return until Christmas Eve - and I certainly wasn't staying inside and writing a blog post on Christmas Eve! I decided to do a double entry this week instead. Because it's so long, I’ve broken it into pieces so that you can read what you're interested in.

Fundraiser update

We've successfully raised $503 through Gofundme + $205 in direct transfers. Adding in my $500 that gets us to $1208 so thank you so much for all your support! If you haven't yet shared with your networks I would really appreciate it! Even a simple Facebook post helps reach new donors. Link to fundraiser here.

Travel Update

The last two weeks have been split between Ica and Arequipa enjoying classic colonial architecture, natural wonders, and Holiday Spirit. Click here to read more about:

Sandboarding and Dunebuggying in Huacachina
Making Latkes with fellow Jews in Arequipa
A 3 day hike through a canyon TWICE AS DEEP as the Grand Canyon.

Spanish Update

I discovered the MIA approach to language learning 2 months ago and I've finally figured out a method and toolset that I like. I wrote a separate post describing my process. Now that I’ve figured out my toolset, I hope I can quickly pass through the plateau that Steve Kaufmann recently posted about.

New Section: Meditation

For many years I have “known” that meditation is good for me but I have always struggled to get started with it. As I’ve been working through the MIA content, the founder Matt often recommends meditation as a way to increase the effectiveness of language learning. I finally decided to dive in which lead me to a book called “The Mind Illuminated”. Written by a neuroscientist/guru, this book provides a map of how to progress through the stages of meditation towards enlightenment. Finally, I have a framework I can use to help me work through it. Click here to read more about my first week of meditation practice.

Politics

During my trek through Colca Canyon, I was accompanied by an Estonian couple and learned some very interesting things about their country. Estonia is incredibly tech-savvy. In their most recent election, 44% of the populace voted online. I support any effort to make voting easier but am all too familiar with the security problems that digital voting has had in the US. So I was surprised to learn that Estonia has been voting online since 2005! I’ve written more about Estonia in a separate post here.

That’s all she wrote folks! Happy New Years and see you next week!