A wanderlust heart

Have you ever thought of travelling around the world without worrying about time or thinking about our duties and responsibilities? Wouldn't it be great living such an experience?

But I’m not making reference to a luxurious trip in which you stay at a five-star hotel, have dinner at the most expensive restaurants and go shopping every day. What I mean is “travelling light”, taking only what is really necessary for you (such as your ID and passport, a blanket, a pair of t-shirts, underwear, and other things like that).

Of course it’s not as easy as it sounds, but it’s not impossible. Felix Starck, a 24 year-old German did it, and shared his experience through a series of pictures and an excellent documentary on his trip.

He, together with a friend, decided to go on a year-long voyage around the world. Felix sold almost everything he had: a car, a flat and all his possessions; except his bicycle, on which he travelled during the whole trip. Isn't it amazing?

During his long journey, Felix did 18.000 kilometres in 365 days, and visited 22 countries. According to what Felix told Spiegel, a German online magazine, what made the greatest impact on him was crossing Asia. After having seen too much misery he learnt to appreciate little things in life, and now he considers himself a much happier person.

Even though travelling around the world is a wonderful experience in itself, I think that what Felix did is much more extraordinary. Why? Not only because he was in many countries and took great delight in the astonishing landscapes, but also because he met many different people who helped him grow and enrich himself from the adventurous experience.

In my opinion, this inspiring experience should lead us to think that there is nothing impossible to do if we desire it from the bottom of our heart, and work hard to achieve it. At the end, as Felix says, “The journey is the reward”.

In addition, Felix gives some advice to those who are interested in setting out on a journey:

1. Stop making excuses. (Such as “travelling is expensive”, “it takes a lot of time”, “nobody wants to come with me”)

2. Adjust your plans to your possibilities.

3. Pick the best destination for YOU.

4. Traveling alone is not as bad as it may seem.

5. Stay positive and you'll be rewarded.

6. Plan the next trip.

I know that most of us would like to visit England, but I’d like to know if there is any other not so well-known place that you would like to be in. In my case, I always imagine myself in a place like this:

Butterflies Valley, Turkey.

You know what they say, “If you’re going to dream, dream big” =)

You can find (and read) the article on Felix's journey in http://aplus.com/a/felix-starck-pedal-the-world-bicycle-journey

"Pedal the world" (video), retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qruBre--S-w

Image retrieved from: http://www.turkeytour.net/turkey-blue-cruise/butterfly-valley-lycia.html

The show must go on!

Last Wednesday in Language IV class, when we dealt with some expressions related to entertainment, the teacher mentioned the idiom “the show must go on”. Most of us already knew the phrase, perhaps because of the famous song by Queen, also named “The show must go on”.

"Live at Wembley '86"

Of course, I already knew the phrase and the song, as well. (Actually, Queen is one of my favourite rock bands). However, every time I listen to it I can’t help but get moved. Its lyric is so inspiring and touching, that one can clearly have a picture of the suffering Freddie Mercury had endured.

This post doesn't pretend to be a sort of biography of Freddie; in fact what I’m interested in is in making a kind of reflection about LIFE. After having heard the song in class I started thinking about the fact that, at some point, most of us have experienced a difficult situation in life. Sometimes we don’t know the reason, and the first questions that invade our minds are: Why me? Why does this happens to me? Do I deserve to suffer? Our anguish is so strong that we can’t figure out any answer for all these questions, maybe the same happened to Freddie. 

Too late, my time has come,

Sent shivers down my spine,

Body's aching all the time.

Goodbye, everybody, I've got to go,

Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth.

("Bohemian Rhapsody", Freddie Mercury)

It’s not that easy to face a reality that obliges us to live something which we are not prepared for; or at least, that’s what we think at first. But then, when time passes, we realise that we can get through it, that whenever we fall we can stand up again and keep on walking, that the pain isn’t endless and that eventually our wounds heal, making us much stronger. And, in my opinion, that’s what Freddie tried to tell us through his songs.

I consider “The show must go on” an anthem, not only for Freddie, but also for me and for many people who have learnt and grew after having gone through adverse circumstances. We should feel inspired by Freddie and his poetic compositions, and try to believe that “life never gives us more than we can handle”.

According to Freddie, despite everything, the show must go on…

The Show must go on!

The Show must go on! 

Inside my heart is breaking,

My make-up may be flaking,

But my smile, still, stays on!

("The show must go on", Freddie Mercury) 

I strongly recommend you to take some minutes to enjoy one of the best songs in the history of rock music. =D

- Image retrieved from: http://caprichosamelomana.blogspot.com.ar/2011/09/album-freddie-mercury.html

- "Bohemian Rhapsody" lyric retrieved from: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/queen/bohemianrhapsody.html

- "The show must go on" lyric retrieved from: http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/The-Show-Must-Go-On-lyrics-Queen/239672834B5B940448256894000845EB

Smart technology and... dumb people?

During the last decades, technology has rapidly improved having an impact not only in our lifestyles but also in our minds. Have you ever heard someone saying that we live in an “era of smart phones and dumb people”? I have, but I don’t totally agree with this thought.

Searching for some information on the web, I've come across an interesting piece of news which describes a project carried out by a team of entrepreneurs from Harvard Innovation Lab that aims at illustrating how technology has evolved the last 35 years. 

The project, called “Evolution of the Desk”, consists of a series of pictures which show how a cluttered desk (full of electronic devices) has recently changed into an empty one with only a laptop and a Smartphone. Although the information and the project are quite interesting, what actually called my attention was the last comment in the article made by one of the researchers. By citing Albert Einstein, the researcher says: "If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?” And, in my opinion this is one of the most controversial issues nowadays.

Of course, we cannot deny that the last improvements in technology have made our lives easier. But at the same time, these changes have affected our way of thinking in a considerable manner. Currently, most people don’t even take the time to do mental calculations… what for? We have calculators that simplify that sort of tasks for us. Memorizing phone numbers, addresses, important dates, appointments, among others examples, seem to be old-fashioned and useless tasks. Our cell-phones and laptops do all those kind of things and more.

Due to this reason, many people believe that we have become dumber throughout the last decades. However, from my point of view, being “dumber” is an inappropriate term. What I strongly believe is that technology has made us LAZIER. Why would we make our minds do a lot of effort to remember things if computers do it for us? Perhaps, the main point in this issue is that there’s some propaganda which tries to convince us that, in a way, we are lowering our intelligence capacity. Nevertheless, it seems that it’s easier to accept that idea than to consider ourselves lazy people; mainly because it’s simpler to blame technology for those changes than to make us responsible for the misuse we make of technological devices.

Do you agree with the idea that we live in the “era of smart technology and dumb people”? What I’m heartily convinced of is that we’re not becoming more stupid, but lazier. 

- You can find the article about the "Evolution of the Desk" following this link: http://aplus.com/a/evolution-of-the-desk-technology-impact 

Evolution?

I've found this picture in one of the many comments that some people made as a response to another picture that was uploaded on a Facebook page called "La Bioguía". Retrieved from: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152289860156994&set=p.10152289860156994&type=1&theater

I've always thought that the process of evolution implies the improvement of humankind in many aspects, not only from the biological point of view but also in relation to the way in which human beings behave. But apparently, I'm wrong. If we read a newspaper, watch the TV news or just pay attention to the climate changes, it can be clearly seen how bad our actions have affected our world, mainly in terms of ecology. 

It's common to hear people talking about "how crazy the climate conditions are", as if these were something independent from the actions of human beings. 

What is more, when severe natural disasters take place, blame for their causes are placed on International Industries and the Government, by most people. I'm not saying that those industries and governments have no responsibility as regards taking care of the environment, of course they do; but common people are also responsible for it. All of us, as citizens of the world, have the duty to take care of it; and it's not such a difficult task. 

It's incredible to see many people behaving as if we had another world to live in: regardless of the consequences, we just throw rubbish on the street and beaches, waste a lot of water in taking very long showers, and consume high amounts of energy even if we don't need to. 

In my opinion, we should be aware of the negative consequences our lifestyle has on the environment, so as to try to change something and contribute to protect it. As a simple example, instead of using the common light bulbs, we can change them for the energy-efficient light bulbs, which lower the levels of energy consumption. 

In relation to this, an important concept to take into account is the "RRR" (Reuse, Reduce, and Recycle). As regards "Reuse", we should think of those objects that can be used over and over again, such as glass bottles, and wood boxes. Besides, the consumption of certain products, for instance plastic bags, could be "Reduced" if we change them for bags made of fabric; at the same time, we would be reusing them many times. And other products, such as plastic bottles, can be reused or even "Recycled", if we change them into a new object. As I said before, although it requires some effort on our part, it's not something difficult to do and the benefits will be great for everybody.

In this sense, we'll be not only improving our natural world, but we'll be also EVOLVING into better human beings.