The more I travel, the more of you I see in me.

It is Friday night in Seoul. Nine thirty-eight, to be precise. We could be out enjoying the night life of which there is plenty here, but we are both tired, and we have enjoyed the day enough already. Instead, we are back in our hotel room. I write. Luis rests.

In a way, I am forcing myself to write. It is one of the goals I set for my ten-week mini sabbatical (I am having a hard time believing that this is the end of the second one already!). I said I’d journal every Friday, and having missed the first Friday leaves me with a chance to meet the remaining 90% of my objective, so let’s do this. The value of forcing myself to write, is the same as forcing myself to reflect on the happenings of this ongoing period. It is my way of appreciating it, and of putting to practice a life by design, and not by default.

Coming to Seoul practically at the beginning of my break has had the effect that I imagined it would on my work and daily routine thoughts: they have gone to a lounge room, where they are taking a break, becoming almost completely absent in the main hall of my mind.

Interestingly, though, there has been another effect of coming to this city that I did not anticipate, which is silly of me, given it is megalopolis after all. And I truly mean MEGA. You see, by taking a trip to a place in my bucket list, I thought I would be in a blissful state and would be having a lot of tea time, reflection, slow walking and I imagined I would experience the emotions provoked by the sounds in the Spotify list playing in my ears. By contrast, I have had a bit of a drug-like reaction to the place. Euphoria would be the right word to describe it. It is not bad, but too much of it can probably kill you or at the very least cause a seizure. There are so many things stimulating my brain that days pass as if I was mentally hijacked. There are neon signs of all sizes and colours, I am constantly surrounded by tall buildings and impressive skyscrapers, going from one spot to another means getting into subways which are full of people. There are endless choices to pick from if we want to eat, have a coffee, go to a museum or take a walk in a park. Considering we don’t speak the language the stimuli are limited as we can at least ignore the majority of the information we are exposed to. Nevertheless, it can be exhausting. Unless I decide to go on a meditation retreat to one of the many temples in the city, I will be back from this trip tired af.

Now, there is one more thing that I have unexpectedly felt in the course of this trip. During our second night here we went to a Couchsurfing gathering. I am glad Luis dragged me there, because I was so jet lagged I would have chosen sleeping instead. But I made it, and three wonderful things happened during that night: one was being invited to have a few Soju shots (traditional alcoholic drink), the second was going to the Karaoke with the same group, and the third and most important to me, was that we got to talk to a few wonderful Koreans and learned a few things from them.

During those conversations I realized that when we look really closely, no matter where we go in the world, we humans are all the same. I mean this not in a simplistic way, but in a deeply beautiful and meaningful way. When we talk to each other about our dreams, fears, experiences, emotions, and ideas, we are all very similar. These similitudes allow us to connect to one another, and it is through these that we can also become understanding, respectful and even curious of our differences.  It is only when we look superficially that we see the differences under a dark light. But when we find elements of connection, we can then understand why there is a difference, and why it is so special that these differences exist, making the world so colourful and fascinating.

The conversations I refer to mainly point to the way that Cesar and David spoke of their exciting experiences traveling the world. Cesar has been to Belarus, Iran, Pakistan, Armenia, and many more places. The way he spoke about his trips was with excitement and admiration of the people he met. David even spoke nicely of incidents that others might have just cursed against. And he has been encouraging his mates in the army to travel so they can feel what he feels, and so far seven have listened to him, and have thanked him for motivating them to see the world.

Both David and Cesar are Korean (I feel embarrassed now for not knowing their Korean names but that is how they introduced themselves :)), yet I feel them more like citizens of the world than Seoulites. That identity of citizen of the world is what I started to develop with AIESEC, and it has become stronger the more different people I interact with, the more cultures I get to know, and the more places I visit.

It is one of the reasons why I like to learn languages (even if slowly). The few words I learned in Korean before coming here have already shown me so much of who these kind people are. I could not feel more pleased with having taken the time to learn about this place.

Thank you Luis for taking me there, and Cesar and David for sharing your experiences. Also, thanks to John for bringing the fun spirit to the table.

There are plenty of other things I have experienced during these eight days. This realization has been the most profound yet.

If you’d like to see some of the other things I have seen and tasted and drank, follow my Instagram stories and posts. There’s a highlight in my profile titled “Seúl 2019” with posts from day one and until today.

Happy Friday,
🌺Maria🌺