Before I Turn 30

                                                                      Photo taken from here

It's summertime! And I'm soaking in the precious moments... of 8 or 9 hour workdays (as opposed to the usual 12) and REAL weekends with actual leisure time. I'm devouring all the books I can lay my hands on, and I've been spending more time online as well.

In one of my online click-a-thons, I came across this lovely blog and got inspired to make my own list of sorts. It's similar to a bucket list, only with a very specific deadline: December 26, 2016. Yes, in a few short years, I'll be 30 (!!???!!!!).

So here's my "30 Before 30" List:

1. Read Tolstoy's WAR AND PEACE

2. Read NOLI and FILI... in Filipino

3. Read Marcel Proust's IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME

4. Eat a full course French style dinner (which might take 4-5 hours!)

5. Sip cafe creme while people watching in a Parisian cafe

6. Eat authentic Italian pizza

7. Read all of Plato's works

8. Have all my books bound in plastic

9. Attend a fiesta in Cebu

10. Soak in the beauty of Palawan

11. Get back to my college weight (I did it once.... I can do it again!)

12. Meet my English pen pal in real life (we've been pen pals since I was in 3rd grade!)

13. Watch an opera in La Scala

14. Watch a Broadway musical in Broadway

15. Run a marathon! (Even just the kiddie 3k one...)

16. Learn how to cook

17. Learn Krav Maga

18. Go pescetarian for a month

19. Go on a pilgrimage to Kecskemet, the hometown of Zoltan Kodaly

20. Go on a pilgrimage to Rome!! (and hopefully catch a glimpse of Pope Francis!)

21. Go inside a monastery or convent

22. Learn all of Schubert's and Schumann's art songs

23. Take ballet lessons

24. Go to Taal's crater

25. Visit the Scottish Highlands (and taste haggis)

26. Have proper English high tea in an English tea salon

27. Visit Oxford and Cambridge

28. Have a wee pint in an Irish pub and sing along in a ceilidh

29. Be able to transcribe a three-part Bach invention (musical dictation)

30. Be able to hit the high F in the Queen of the Night arias of Mozart

I don't know if I'll be able to do all of the above by the deadline... but hey! It's worth a shot! And it would be interesting to see how my priorities may change over the next few years... I might change some of the above, or completely delete them!

I'd LOVE to know what YOU have in your own 30 before 30 list!