from the Adventure mailbag...

Dear Morgan,

I feel that you always write about negative things over there. It sounds like you're having a terrible time! Can you tell us about some good things that happen to you or is everything as bad as you make it out to be?

K. from Houston

Well, K., the critical approach does happen to be part of the style that I am writing in, but i do understand and respect my listeners' requests, so I will write a more generic entry focusing on the good things that have happened to me recently. If you are a fan of the more usual biting criticism of Europe and/or other funny stories, stay tuned for Monday's edition.

The course has been really good for me so far; I have found that I really love teaching. It is an incredibly enriching experience where I feel that the knowledge that you are changing lives is worth so much more than the Christmas bonus that so many of my friends will be receiving... Although it would be nice to have a little something on top of my €800 a month for changing lives...

I've also met some very interesting people, and have entirely platonic friendships with girls for the first time since high school (with one notable exception in college). It's really nice, and I spent the day at the beach with three girls. One girl, the European who I argued with so vehemently last weekend, has turned out to be a really good friend, and we've chatted about everything from speaking three languages in the home (she did it) to why the ocean turns green before a storm.

She also has potentially changed my outlook with regards to deadlines: she believes that she'll take however much time she has to do an assignment. So extensions on homework (which we received) just means she'll be up late on Sunday night instead of thursday night. So she's decided just to not worry about stuff until it's basically due. We agreed that if something's due on Monday and we know it will take about 6 hours to do it and we try to do it on Saturday, we'll stare at the computer like monkeys all day long and still do it on sunday. I don't think i've met someone who has the same outlook as me as per deadlines as I do, and it's rather liberating.

I've sent off four resumes so far to different schools, but I think I'll end up picking a city and moving there and looking for a job. I'm thinking about Sevilla or Valencia, so if you have opinions let me know. I'm not interested in touristy, but I am interested in slightly modern amenities. Madrid and Barcelona are both out b/c of price, location and/or language spoken there.

Other than that, I finish this Saturday and then start a young learner's course on the following Monday. The school year starts basically at the beginning of October, so it's a little tight for me as far as windows...

I've realized that by resorting to humorless writing, I've effectively failed my mission, since my playwriting teacher at Dartmouth told me humor should only be used to further the plot development. Since I have neglected to further my plot with humor and have been forced to resort to lame prose, I have failed as a writer. I will try again on monday.