Reading and traveling (a cure to intolerance)

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For the past few years i have been experiencing a continuos reorganization of my ideas. A continuous change in the way i approach life and the contact with all the other human beings around me. A process of constant evolution, a result of internal growth over the years. I believe this evolution has been greatly sped up since i started to live abroad.

It is Sunday evening and I am watching a live football match from the Czech 1^st division (Gambrinus liga). I am watching it surrounded by hundreds of Czechs shouting, cheering and clapping, drinking beer and eating sausages. I am sharing this moment with a French, a British, and an Indian. I don't care at all about the result or football in general, but i think it is a magical moment. An experience which, like many others, I will never forget because it describes well my life over the past years. A cultural exchange of which i am extremely proud.

It has been 4 years since i first left home to live somewhere else, far from my family and my country. I went to London with my cousin. I was studying at Uni at the time but i really felt i needed a break. Some time to put my thoughts in order, to clear my mind, to experience something new, to get a new perspective, to learn more about life and people, to learn English...when i think that 4 years ago i could hardly speak any word in English...So I did it. I left for London with my cousin, both os us were very enthusiastic and had incredible dreams of how that time would be. Of course it didn't happen the way I thought.

It was quite tough. My time there taught me a few important things: the world is not fair, things are not easy at all, you have to fight yourself if you want something to happen, it will not fall from the tree if you wait. I realized that i was still a child and as such, i still needed to learn a lot and get a lot of confidence in myself. I got quite disappointed with myself because i saw a person capable of giving up quite easily at the time. However, a experience that brings up your weaknesses is a wonderful experience. It gives you the opportunity to find a problem and then, you can start thinking about how to solve it.

I met incredibly horrible people in London. I couldn't believe there could be such assholes in the world. London also taught me that. London didn't work out very well for me regarding work. I went with the idea to work there. I thought i would make quite a lot of money, i would meet incredible people etc etc. The first part did not work well. I hardly worked and when i found someone who would give an opportunity i was humiliated, abused, insulted. I assume my guilt regarding finding a job. I can imagine all the effort i could put now in searching for a job and i know i gave up too easily. I was defeated almost before i started. I was a child, who just left home thinking life is easy.

Despite all that, i actually realized when i left London that the experience had fulfilled my expectations by far better than what i expected. I did meet incredible people, both bad and good. I am glad i met those assholes. You cannot have a good understanding of life by looking just at one side. Life is not that simple. But I also met beeeeeeeeeautiful people. Those who help you see the beauty of life, who make you love life more and more every second you spend with them. People like Marco, my good Italian friend who i call my “soul mate” and with whom i keep in touch although we haven't seen each other in almost four years. People like Franceso and Melanie, my “English family”, with whom i share some incredibly beautiful memories that will always be kept in my mind as real treasures. I met amazing people, it gave me an incredible lesson, i learnt about myself and life, and i learnt a lot of English. Most importantly, London opened the door. It was the starting gun, the journey had began.

I remember my first time in New Zealand. One step further in the journey. My real contact with nature. The rivers, the sea, the forest, the sky...it was a really new experience that opened my heart and mind to the unknown. I remember sharing all those beautiful moments with Marta, an incredible person to whom i owe some of those major changes in my heart and my mind. I remember meeting Tom for the first time, thanks to whom i love the Kiwis with all my heart. I remember camping, swimming, hiking, diving...and i remember struggling to understand the Kiwi accent! The Kiwis, the maories, their attitude towards life...the parties, including an amazing festival in the middle of nowhere on a beautiful tiny beach with the most wonderful people, including two crazy French guys i will never forget.

I remember my year in Denmark and the rich exchange between students. The contact with a very different country and its people. I found Denmark to be very different and although I believe it is not a country for me, i loved every single day of my stay there. The contact with a new Uni, the lab, the Danish culture, their horrible weather...beautiful. I remember the initial Danish coldness but also how charming they are once you get to know them better. Their honesty, their sincerity, their satisfaction for their country and their way of life, their innocence...I remember the common dinners and the long, endless talks about languages, history and politics , our countries, lifes, dreams...all the activities we did together that made me feel i was creating a new family which is spread all over the world. A family composed of many different flags, the Danish, the French, the Romanian, the Italian, the Greek, the Austrian, the British...they know who i am talking about but if i had to write all their names it would become endless. This is the memory i have from Denmark, in no place before and after i have created a family of friends like this one. I will not forget the exchange that made me meet people from all continents and all different backgrounds.

Then back to New Zealand for a whole year. What can i say about this? A year which provided me with the best insights about myself. The student life in Dunedin, the moments of reflection while hiking, the nights under the stars, the bonfires at Long Beach, the endless walks along the coast, sleeping in the middle of the forest...but the most amazing thing was to see that after so long i can still be marveled at people's kindness. I remember my trip hitchhiking through the North Island and through Australia and i remember that i have too much kindness to give back in my life. All the rides and the stories from those who stopped for me. Their invitations, those who put me up, those who invited me for dinner or for some beers, those who showed me around and for a few hours or days, shared their lives, their thoughts and their dreams with me. This was inspiring, and the teaching was invaluable.

And of course i also keep amazing friends from this time, friends like Nick, Carl, Adam...it makes no sense to continue, i wouldn't finish. New Zealand brought insights about myself, filled my life with experiences and people and gave me my princess, with whom i shared most of the experiences i am talking about. I never thought a country could give so much.

And now here i am, more than a year living in Czech Republic and what else can i say that i haven't said yet? This is just the continuation to a journey that lasts for 4 years. Living in a country that has given me the chance to finally become a real scientist, sharing my life with my princess, visiting beautiful cities and towns and trying to get immersed into the Czech culture. I am lucky and since i share my life with a Czech, this has become very easy. I know things would have been very different if i had come here by myself. Thanks to her, I have got into a Czech family and i have met many Czechs. I have participated in their meals, their parties, their family gatherings, their traditions, i have been told about their history...this is a real treasure, to be accepted and absorbed into their lives in such a way, providing me with an insight that would have been impossible to achieve on my own. I could tell lots of stories but this is becoming way longer that what i expected. I just want to say that i am still fascinated with this country and i feel i still have lots of things to find out about it. Besides, i still need to continue fighting with their language. This is giving me a hard time. The number of times that i feel disappointed with myself, when i feel lazy or an idiot for being learning so slowly. My frustration when i cannot understand or i don't know how to say something. But this is part of the beauty of the slow process of learning a language, which also includes funny situations when you say something and you expect it to have a complete different meaning from what you actually said! A hard language which is giving me a very hard time but which i am actually growing very fond of.

In summary, after this endless stuff. I look at myself 4 years ago and i compare it to the guy who is writing this and i realize how much we have to learn. This is just the beginning. There is almost no place for fixed and immovable ideas. Most of them are just waiting to be beaten by a new experience which gives you a new insight, a new different perspective. I realize how much we have to evolve and grow. Intolerance, bigotry, racism...they are things which are no restricted to a particular nationality, or religion or whatever. They are restricted to ignorants, people who have not read or traveled enough. Intolerance is a result of ignorance, the most dangerous thing of all. I am very glad i have shared my table with white, black and yellow people. I am very glad i have shared my table with Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and atheists and that we have done it in harmony, respecting each other and finding extremely valuable the exchange between all of us.

As i said, i think there is almost no place for fixed and immovable ideas. But there are a few which to me are unbreakable. We are all human beings, equal beings and have a lot to learn from one another. Tolerance is essential and fixed ideas should not lead to the submission or the exclusion of some. I am still fascinated with the human being and i hope my life continues flourishing as much as it has done in the past years. To me traveling has had the major impact on this but this could not have been possible without an initial preparation and this is where my parents come into play. They provided me the ground for this understanding. They made me love reading and traveling. They taught me tolerance and the desire to know. And besides, they have always been there to support me on anything, both my success and failure. They were there to encourage me to take some steps and they were there to help me when i needed it like in London.

The bigots, nationalists, religious fanatics, fascists, racists have something in common. They are simply ignorants, but ignorance has a cure. I finish this post quoting one of our best intellectuals, Miguel the Unamuno:

“El fascismo se cura leyendo, y el racismo viajando” (Fascism is cured reading, and racism traveling)

“El nacionalismo es la chifladura de exaltados echados a perder por indigestiones de mala historia” (Nationalism is the craziness of the exalted spoiled by bad history indigestions)

                                          http://www.redessociales.es/tag/union-contra-el-racismo/