Thoughts

One Story for you

Before coming to Japan I moved to another apartment. When I was in the IFC changing one bag of books that I have left in the deposit…yes yes You know me I cannot Help it, I only bought 71 books!! I saw three gentlemen at the escalators. I was preparing to ship some books to home and to pick up the ones I want to take to the new flat…and one of the man asked me If I could give him directions to get Out of IFC.
Just one middle note: IFC is the Investments Financial Center of Hong Kong Building that has there a huge shipping mall, the luggage deposits for short and long stays for people that are traveling all the time can have their second bag kept in safety, the Subway, the express train to Airport, the walk bridge to the ferry to MACAU. For the newcomers it is not easy. It is a Hub of people, stairs and doors. But IFC have the most wonderful view of HK from the Red Bar on the roof of the Building.
Ok Again to Story! The older man immediate asked me you really look like Portuguese, do you speak Portuguese? He asked. You know me my friends I end up doing some guided tourism in the IFC… The man was the Mayor of MAPUTO, the Mozambique capital. The other two men were his advisers. After the story of Peter from F1, That man in Shanghai, Macau… these coincidences. They just do not exist. But the story was not only this… this was just a context for what I want to tell you today!
When we travel alone, and we work in an environment total different from our life before, when we look around the world with different eyes just because we are not walking along with our best friend, boyfriend, wife or friend. We observe more, we catch feelings, smells, and senses and even … We just feel more each second, each minute of our lives. I was always an observer by nature, but know, my friends, I am a sponge. It is like a knowledge trap. I have already 4 good friends in HK. But I have one for life. The friend that marks a period of your life, for the group of the ones that wherever you will be in the future you remember them every single minute. Like I remember Patricia Costinha, Silvia, Yola, Ana Miranda, Sandrinha, Pat, sofia, goncalinho … you know who you are. The ones that I celebrate my birthday last year and the ones I keep celebrating life every day. The ones that make me cry for joy and I know they are there if I need. My Asia sister is Janah, you can see some pictures of her. She’s a beautiful person. I just like you to know that.
When I travel alone, I do not feel lonely, and it is amazing. I always thought that for some hours or minutes I would feel alone. But never! Even when I visit the fairs, do some research I am alone 85% of the time and in fact I learned to look in another perspective just because I am know me better than before. I cannot ignore the companion ehehheehehehe. And this is a story I wanted to share. This perspective of observation, of understanding of different cultures, of compassion for people daily lives, of some silence. I noticed that in Europe we are always commenting the life of others, criticizing the clothes, the rings, messing up with gossips and “islands attitudes”. The Asians have their own gossiping of course. But when we travel alone we have more time in silence and we understand better ourselves. We do not need to be loved, we do not need the approval of others, and we do not need anything else besides of being in peace with the person you have to travel or work with. YOU. That open a new perspective of life if you have the guts or the patience to think about what I am writing. You love more others than before because actually you have the necessary silence to understand them. You have more clarity about things in life. Everyone have their fears, to get lost in translation, to arrive late hours in unknown places…but it is just it. People are people. They go to Cafes or bars after work, they have friends, they have children, they have jobs, they read or learn, the just have different habits or behaviors, etiquettes or manners… Sometimes friends ask me why I like so much protocol, and interior design and traveling, and music … so many things. The fact is that I am a people person; I like that psychological understanding of behavior. And also because only people can make us being better persons. I realize now the time people loose talking about the lives of others, to criticize, to give ideas about it, to try to make “perfect” the life that do not belong to them. If humans minded more about how they want to live their own lives they would be happier instead of trying to live the life of others. That’s a good thing of traveling alone. We watch and we digest. As you can imagine I receive a lot of information every minute. And is absurdly good!
So if… you have to travel alone just go…if you are scared do not think…just go, do not look back… and open your eyes to things. Do not go only for work, do not go only for tourism, go for yourselves it is patrimony and understanding of your life
SHEERS!