Animula blandula vagula, little wandering soul, as Hadrian the Roman Emporor called himself. Captivating! Me wandering around and wondering about what the 'lugar' of the world, Spanish for place, spot or free space, alluding to it's realm, it's reality. Finding answers by living in unfamilar locations, at the mercy of my five senses beyond conditioning, known sets of values, and usual toolkits.
Amsterdam University and Sorbonne IV in Paris taught me about the ivory tower of intellectualism. Working in hospitality as a restaurant, café and catering company owner taught me about serving while being free to come and go as I please. Living in South Africa thought me about the cruelty of politics and the beauty of nature. Living in the Philippines taught me about happiness as a function of material poverty. Living in Barcelona taught me about the mysticism of cobbles treaded by men for thousands of years. Living in the Languedoc taught me about traditional cultural values related to family life, food and communal festivities. Having had Amsterdam as my ultimate resort time and again taught me about individualism versus social dependency. And now I am in down under Australia, learning about words as a tool to communicate and the efficiency of the tool. A staggering 7% is in the meaning of the words, the remaining 93% of communicated content is in intonation, matter of speech and other factors that determine language as a tool for communication. It leaves an enormous job for the translator. I am fascinated by it.