Flash Back

Tonight I had a flash one year back in time: I waited for my friend Jesus (a mexican descendent yet Californian) to finish working, then we got on his car and drove downtown San Francisco; there we picked up Vivian (a Chinese girl emigrated a few years ago to San Francisco) and headed for dinner to a korean restaurant. There we enjoyed all the delices we learnt how to love one year ago when we met in Seoul (South Korea) while being part of the ISS’07 at the University of Seoul. I hadn’t been in touch with korean culture (food is just a part of it) since I left the country, and of course I hadn’t met any of them till today, which made the experience much more real and beautiful. For a few hours, we talked about the experience and flashed back to it as if it had taken place yesterday, and remembered how happy that made us. Personally, it also feels good to see how frienships you thought you’d never meet again come back, yesterday in Asia, today in America and who knows where tomorrow…

Work in process finally finished

On sunday evening, I finally got to finish something I had been working on for a sort of long time but very by fits and starts: I finished working with the laptop on my pix from Asia I wanted to take for my heart, those specially relevant. From now on, I´ll use some of them to publish in my photolog and some fortunate ones will be able to enjoy them in a cosier way… No more clues

El domingo por la tarde finalmente pude terminar algo en lo que había estado trabajando durante más o menos bastante tiempo, pero solo en ratos sueltos: terminé de retocar en el portátil las fotos de Asia que me gustaría guardar un poquito más cerca del corazón, aquellas especialmente relevantes. Así que a partir de ahora, utilizaré alguna de ellas para publicar en mi fotolog y unos pocos afortunados podrán disfrutarlas de una forma algo más cercana… Ya vale de pistas

New Clip

Last two days I´ve been sick in bed, reaching temperatures of even 40º, so I haven´t been able to leave home (not even bed but for lunch). Today I´ve started feeling kind of better but not good enough so as to do serious things, so I´ve started playing on Movie Maker to develop and idea I had in mind since I went to Korea and somehow since I saw Lost in translation. Here you have the results, hope you like them.

Los últimos dos días he estado bastante enfermo, con fiebres de incluso 40º, lo que me ha obligado a estar en casa (y, más todavía, en la cama excepto para comer). Hoy he empezado a sentirme mejor, aunque no lo suficientemente bien como para hacer cosas serias, de forma que me he puesto a jugar un rato con el Movie Maker para sacar adelante una idea que tenía desde que fui a Corea y, de alguna forma, desde que vi Lost in translation. Aquí estan los resultados, espero que os gusten.

Kimchi, puzzles y peines [Spanish version of "Kimchi, jigsaws and combs"]

Finalmente he podido sacar unos minutillos para pasar al portátil el texto que tenía escrito en mi libreta de viajes desde el vuelo Seoul-Madrid y del que ya colgué la versión inglesa en su día. Para aquellos que leeis español, esta es la realmente original, lo que salio de muy adentro en aquel avión:

“Es increíble lo rápido que pasa el tiempo cuando uno es feliz. Recuerdo como si fuera ayer el día que aterricé en Korea: en mi diccionario particular no aparecía la entrada “Kimchi”, comer con palillos no era sino una experiencia cultural como lo puede ser visitar un museo y el coreanome recordaba más a mis clases de geometría en la escuela que a un lenguaje escrito. No tenía ni idea del lugar al que acababa de llegar. Pero tenía algo que, visto una vez todo se ha terminado, es mucho más valioso: tenía tiempo por delante para descubir y aprender.

Después, tuve la oportunidad de conocer gente maravillosa con la que, paso a paso y momento a momento, fuimos rellenando un puzzle que, el primer día, parecía irresoluble. Juntos, colocamos piezas hechas de barro, cerámica, o hielo picado con trozos de fruta esparcida; piezas con caracteres hangul, historia contemporánea o jarrones de la dinastía Joseon; también, como no, piezas de viernes noche que sonaban a hip-hop y sabían a sohu. Todo tenía su lugar, incluso se nos coló alguna “made in China”. Cantamos felices en karaokes, ajenos al hecho de que, con cada canción, la fiesta estaba un poco más cerca del final.

Esta mañana me he despedido de los últimos supervivientes que han arañado unas horas a su neuva rutina de vida para estar conmigo hasta el final. Nunca supe decir adios, y la palabra “gracias” es demasiado pequeña para contener todos los sentimientos y sonrisas que me gustaría meter entre la “g” y la “s”. Sólo me consuela saber que, si un tipo decide no dormir la noche anterior a su primer día de clase para estar conmigo, significa que, al menos un poquito, se lo ha pasado bien junto a mi.

Cuanto más viajo, más me convenzo de que uno sale realmente de su lugar de origen y se convierte en ciudadano del mundo cuando es capaz de ser feliz en un lugar lejano y con gente de cualquier rincón del planeta. Hablo por mi, aunque creo que hay un poquito de todos si digo que este mes que ahora termina nos ha hecho un poco más habitantes de esta gran aldea global que nos ha tocado vivir.

En España decimos que la experiencia es un peine que te da la vida una vez te has quedado calvo. Hoy, “Kimchi” llena unas cuantas líneas en el diccionario de mi vida; los palillos son como una prolongación de mi mano a la hora de comer; y el coreano es algo que, al menos, puedo leer cuando lo veo escrito. Pero ya no tengo tiempo, y en mi puzzle sólo queda un espacio por rellenar reservado para las lágrimas que me ha costado escribir estas líneas. Pero estoy contento porque sé que, cuando lo cuelgue en mi habitación de los recuerdos y lo mire podré pensar: sí, yo estuve allí y fui feliz.”

Pictures from Taiwan

 

Finally I managed to connect my laptop to internet at home and I got to upload my pictures from Taiwan. I have many travel notes on a paper, but i´m not sure i´ll be able to put them up here, so no promises, hehe. Enjoy the shots, it´s the best I could do!

Finalmente he conseguido conectar mi portátil a la red de casa y he podido subir las fotos de Taiwan. Tengo varias notas de viaje en mi libreta, pero no estoy seguro de que llegue a ponerlas aquí arriva, hehe. Disfrutas las imágenes, ¡es lo mejor que pude hacer!

Last production

Here is the clip I just made on my days in Seoul. It´s a pity image and sound quality is not the best at all, but anyway I hope you can get the essence of the thing. Turn loud the volume and enjoy it!

Aquí va el video que acabo de terminar sobre mis días en Seoul. Es una pena que ni el sonido ni la imagen sean las mejores pero, en cualquier caso, espero que podais coger la esencia y el cariño que hay puesto en él. Sube el volumen y disfrútalo!

Kimchi, jigsaws and combs

I wrote this text on my travel notebook during the flight back home from Seoul to Madrid and I translated it into english this morning on the bus to Zaragoza, my hometown. I didn´t make any correction before uploading it here, so they are just the raw words, exactly the same way they came from my pen. I hope you enjoy this at least as much as I did it while writing it.

“It´s amazing how fast time runs when one is happy. I remember the day I landed in Korea as if it was yesterday: in my personal dictionary one couldn´t find any entry for the word “kimchi”; eating with chopsticks was nothing for me but a cultural experience, just like visiting a museum or looking at a picture; and hangul resembled my geometry lessons back in the days of school rather than a real written language. I had no clue at all about the place where I had just arrived. But I did have something that, flashing back now everything is over, turned out much more valuable: I had got time, time to discover and to learn.

Afterwards, I had the chance to get to know great people with whom, step by step and moment by moment, I filled a jigsaw which seemed irresolvable by the first day. Thus, all together we placed pieces made of mud, pottery and minced ice mixed with sparse fruit; pieces written in hangul characters, telling Korean contemporary history or decorated with Joseon Dynasty´s draws; of course, also Friday-night pieces which sounded like hip-hop and tasted like sohu and even some “made in China” ones seeped. We went to karaokes and sang luckily, alien to the fact that every song which finished took us closer and closer to the end of the party.

This morning, I´ve left those survivors who have been able to scratch a few hours from their new life routines just to stay with me till very the end. I guess I never really knew how to say goodbye, and the word “thanks” is too short to fit all the feelings and smiles I wish I could put between the “t” and the “s”. I only find consolation by thinking if a guy decides not to sleep the night before class starts just to share it with me, it means that, at least a bit, he has had a good time close to me.

The more I travel, the more I believe one finally leaves his hometown and becomes world citizen once he is able to be happy in any remote place and with people from every corner of this planet. I speak for me, but I think there´s a bit of everyone in it if I say that this now-ending month has made us slightly more habitants of this global hamlet we´ve been bound to live in than before.

In Spain, we usually say that experience is a comb life gives you once you´ve already become bald. Today, kimchi accounts for several lines in my own life dictionary; chopsticks are nothing but an extension of my hands when it´s time to eat; and hangul is something at least I can read if I see it written. But I don´t have time any more and in my jigsaw there´s only one empty space which is reserved for the tears these lines have taken me. Yet I´m glad because I know that once I hang it in my room of the memories I´ll be able to glance at it and think: yes, I did go there and I was happy.”

Sweet and bitter end

Yesterday I was all the day long travelling by bus and plane, I have barely slept a few hours, I couldn’t take a shower and I guess I’m still sort of drunk because I’m not feeling hung over yet. Definitely, it’s not the best way to welcome a 12-hours flight to take me back home.

And, with no doubt at all, I couldn’t have imagined myself a better last night in Korea. Sweet because it happened, bitter because it’s over. And I cannot help remembering once again that sentence of the song:

…I mean I love to travel, I hate to fly

I want to go, but hate goodbyes…

Next time, at home already.

Toma 8: 100% Taiwan

It’s already been almost one week in the island and time keeps on running like hell. On sunday, we left Taipei and went down to Taijung, my friends’s hometown. All along these days, I’ve visited many temples (taoist most of them, thought I’ve also seen confucianist and Buddhist), eaten like I never expected and taken some glimpses of taiwanese nature. It seems I’m sort of lucky because as soon as I left Taipei, it started raining up there and now they are flooding (hope there’s no problem with my flight on sunday), and here there’s no trace of the typhoon.

I’d write many things about Taiwan and its people, but I prefer taking it easy, writing them down on my notebook (i’m already doing so) and once I get back home, uploading them here with a bit more of “style”. By now, I’ll just say it’s really worth coming to the island.

I still have two days left here and on sunday i’ll catch a plane to Seoul, where i’ll be for a night and I hope i’ll meet all my Korean friends for the last time in a while. On monday after-noon, i’ll cath the plane back home and i’ll land in Madrid at 21:30 local time. I don’t know whether i’ll go back home directly or i’ll spend one night in Madrid and take the bus to Zaragoza next morning yet. The adventure is coming to end…

Sepat leaving + Leaving Taipei

Yesterday, we couldn’t do that much because of the typhoon: authorities had allowed people not to go working so most of the stores were closed, and most of people stayed at home too (even though it wasn’t as hard as one could expect when hearing the word “typhoon”). The only thing we could do then was eating, eating and, when there was nothing left to do, we ate a bit more. Katie is totally introducing me into taiwanese cuisine and even into chinese language (you should have heard me asking for Chua Bin…).

Today we are leaving Taipei on the way to Taijung, Katie’s hometown. We don’t know yet where we’ll be able to go because, since though the typhoon is gone, it might have left behind some traces. I don’t know whether i’ll have internet access in the next days either, so don’t be afraid if you don’t see any update here. Mom, Dad, I’ll be safe