MY "YAYO"

   I just received one of the worst news that I could have. My grandfather died yesterday and I couldn´t say goodbye to him. That´s something that you know when you leave your home. You know that something can happen to the people you love, and now I feel that bad news are worse when you are far away.

   My grandfather had been at bed for one year. He stayed his last year of life without going out not even once, so I know that he was suffering and that this is the best for him. Anyway, I´ll miss him so much, and I´ll never forget him.  In his last year he couldn´t walk, go out or even talk, but he could love and make feel people important. Every day that I went to visit him, he just wanted me to lead him by the hand, and I could be like that for hours, just talking to him, although he couldn´t respond, because I knew he loved that, and he was happy when I talked to him. Sometimes he kissed my hand, and smiled to me.

   My grandfather had an interesting and amazing life. I think he was a lucky man, and although he has suffered so much, I hope he was happy with the life that yesterday ended. He lived a lot of experiences as a child and as a teenager. He had the opportunity to live in different countries and he learnt so much about other cultures and people.  As an adult, he was a respectable dentist, and an awesome father and husband.

   He lost his wife twenty years ago, when a cancer ended his life, and since that moment, I think he wasn´t the same person anymore. I don´t know where people are when they die, but I hope he´s finally with my grandmother.

   He was a good man, an awesome father and husband, and a lovely grandfather. My grandfather. And I´ll love and remember him forever, and I´ll be always proud of the last name he gave me. TE QUIERO, YAYO.

  I travelled a lot of times when I was a child. The problem is that I didn´t appreciate a lot of things in those moments, because I was too young. Now, I love travelling and I have enjoyed my last journeys so much. Here are my last trips around the world.

BARCELONA

  It is not necessary to go to other countries to enjoy your trip. I have been several times in Barcelona, even I lived there when I was a child. But every time I go there is as the first time. I love walking around “Las Ramblas” or “El Parc Güell”, and visiting places as “La Sagrada Familia” or “La Pedrera”. It is my favorite city in my country.

SAHARA

Sahara camps of refugees in Algeria is a place where you don´t have nothing to see. There aren´t monuments, famous places or colorful landscapes. But the people, the feeling of being useful, and the awesome image of the stars in the sky above you every night, were some of the reasons that made of it one of the best journeys of my life.

AMSTERDAM

  I went to Amsterdam past April with some friends. I think it is an amazing city, beautiful, clean and ecological, where the main transportation is the bike. It is cultural and impacting. You can find beautiful and interesting museums as the Van Gogh Museum, or Anna Frank´s house, and you can also find places as peculiar and shocking as the Red District or the Coffee Shops.

UNITED STATES

  This is my 5^th visit to the United States. I have been before in California, New York, and twice in Florida, and now I´m here, in Oklahoma. I don´t know if I could live here, because everything is too big and is too far for me. However, I love this country and its people, and I think that here, every state is a new world, and you always discover something different in each one.

WHAT YOU MISS WHEN YOU AREN´T AT HOME

  Sometimes you don´t know to appreciate what you have at home until you go to other place. I have been my whole life living in the same place, in Valencia (Spain), and I had never thought about the things I would miss if I had to go far. But even if you love travelling, and even if is something that you have always wanted to do, is impossible not to miss a lot of things from home.

                    My town, El Puig, a little village near Valencia

  I arrived to Oklahoma two months ago, and this time has been enough to miss a lot of things of Spain, and to appreciate that anything is as comfortable as home. I miss Valencia, its orange groves and its beaches. I miss too the sunny Sundays eating Paella with the family in the open air, or in a restaurant close to the beach. I miss to walk to everywhere, without using the car for everything, and a good Spanish dinner with “tapas”, “sangría”, and the best company: my friends.

                          

           Some of my friends              Part of my family

           in a fancy-dress party

  I miss also to walk around my town and to know everyone. To say “Hello” to every single person that you see in the street.  And of course, I miss all my people. My family and my friends, and all those people who make my life easier and happier.

  I have to say that I don´t change anything for the time I´m having here, but anyway, it´s impossible not to think sometimes in everything you miss from home.  The Spanish jam, potatoes omelet, the beach,  parties on the street, to play in the band of my town, my house, my family, my friends, and sometimes even my university! But, there is no doubt that everything can wait a couple of months more, because right now I´m so happy in Oklahoma and nobody can make me go back to Spain!

                     

BYE, BYE ERASMUS

   Erasmus is an Exchange program between European´s students.  This program has reached 25 years in 2012, an millions of students have enjoyed it. Most of them think that it has been one of the best experiences in their lives, and now, it is in serious danger.

   During an Erasmus, people start from the beginning in another country, with different people and with another culture to learn. Is a door to Europe, to know how people live in other places of the same continent. Is a big opportunity to open you to the world, to live alone by first time, to be an adult.

   But now, the big crisis in Europe is threatening this possibility. Brussels has declared that the program doesn´t have enough money to cover all their students. This means the end of the dream for millions and millions of Europeans, who are waiting from their first year as university student their Erasmus course.

   This is a sad new for me. I´d love to do Erasmus next year, because for me is always interesting and necessary to go to other countries, and to learn languages, cultures and people. I feel I´m so lucky because now, I´m having one of the opportunities of my life. To be in the United States for a year.  I don´t know if the Exchanges Programs with United States are in danger too, but now that I´m living here, I´m surer than ever that everyone should live this opportunity.  It doesn´t matter where. But in Europe, the most popular program is Erasmus, because is closer and cheaper than anyone else, and because it has a lot of places more than Exchange programs with other continents.

   So, if Erasmus program finishes, it will be the end of the dream for millions of students who don´t have the possibility to leave their country, and it is so sad. People need to open their mind; they need to live abroad because it is very important to understand the world. And now that I´m living this experience, I can say it will be a big mistake if these kinds of programs disappear. 

LAVUELTAALMUNDO.NET

   Sometimes you want to travel and you don´t know how to start. It´s difficult to choose the best places, prices, hotels…  So, you need some help to prepare your adventure.

It can be useful for you when that happens to look websites that talk about travelling. As far as I have seen, my favorite website of this kind is lavueltaalmundo.net (thetriparoundtheworld.net). Is the website of Xavier and Carme, a Spanish young couple. They have travelled very much around the world, and they have seen a lot of interesting things that they explain in their web.

   They have also some solidary projects around the world and they talk about them too. They have Spanish, English and Catalan version, so you can choose your language.  In this website you can find information about who they are, about their trips, about their projects, and also help for people who want to travel around the world. They give good tips because they have lived so many experiences during their trips.

   I have to say that the English version is simpler and doesn´t have a lot of information. Spanish version is much better, because there you can find all their trips explained in detail, a lot of tips, and really beautiful proverbs and citations about travelling that you can´t find in the English version.

   I like to look this site because you can discover new options of travelling, and you can learn a lot of things that wake up your interest in other places. You can find also a forum where you can ask and talk with other people about travelling, and you can share your experience with others.  So, I recommend this site to everyone who loves travelling, because it can be a kind of guide for you if you want to do a journey. But even if travelling is not in your plans, this is a good website to learn about other countries and cultures, so it is recommendable for you too.

THE DREAM WILL COME TRUE

  She told me before dying that I had to come true her dream.  She never had the opportunity to have desires or ambitions. Her job was to stay at home and work for her family. She had accepted that and she loved her life, and everyone loved her.

But what anyone knew, was that she had inside a lot of dreams, dreams that she never would come true. She had an adventurous spirit that never could show to anyone, but that I have always perceived when I saw her eyes.

  My grandmother had a difficult life, but she never complained about that. She was happy with what she had and she didn´t need anything else. But her biggest secret dream was the only thing that she couldn´t do in her life. She wanted to travel around the globe. She had been years planning that journey, although she knew that she couldn´t do it. Six months, twenty countries, five continents, and a lot of illusion.

  That day, she was lying in her bed as every day. When she called me, I thought that she wanted just a glass of water or something like that. But what she wanted was something much more important.

  When she told me about to cry that I had to make her dream true, I didn´t know what to say or what to do. I just smiled and I promised her that I would do it, although I didn´t know how or when I had to begin. It was a hard decision, but finally, I decided to do it, because I thought that she deserved it.

  So here I am, in this plane. The plane that finally is going to do possible mi grandmother´s dream, and as she told me, I will send her one postcard every week, because although I don´t know how or where, I´m sure she´ll see every one of them. 

FIVE PLACES THAT I WANT TO VISIT

There are the five countries on the top of my list of places where I want to go.

India

India is the first place in the world where I want to go. I think that its colors, contrasts, and variety make of this country a special place in the world.

People say that India is a country that doesn´t let anyone indifferent. Or you hate it, or you love it. And I already love it although I never have been there, but I will!

Taj Mahal in Agra (India)

Australia

Amazing beaches, incredible landscapes and a whole world to discover. This is what I expect of Australia. I have heard that people there is kind and generous, and that who visits Australia, immediately falls in love with the country and with its splendid views and places to go.

I don´t know when or how, but I´m sure that I will go there even earlier than expected!

                 Sidney (Australia)

Kenya

I´d love to do some solidarity work in a place as Kenia. It is a country where you can do such a nice gesture as help people and live a lot of experiences at the same time. You can enjoy the African savannah and I think that you can learn a lot of things from this place.

I would love also to know how people live in a country as different from what I´m used to see.

                 African savannah in Kenya

               

Chile

I don´t know a lot of things about this country, but what I know is enough to be sure that I want to go there.

It is a place where you can enjoy awesome landscapes and views: mountains, glaciers, fjords… But besides that, I have heard that food and people are wonderful too.

                 Santiago de Chile (Chile)

Greece

I think that what I could find in Greece can be summarized in amazing art and history, and beautiful beaches and cities.

I have always wanted to visit Greece, and I´m sure I will!

                 Mykonos (Greece)