Thoughts in Latin-America

I found these notes in my Evernote on my phone that I'd forgotten about. It's just some random thoughts I had when traveling in Argentina and Brazil last November 2011:


The locals in Brazil have been really surprised about me taking the bus everywhere. "Why don't you fly? The plane is the same price as the bus, and faster." A Brazilian lady on the bus, with German roots, told me that it is a Latin-American mindset. But she agreed that you see so much more when traveling by bus! And the airports are always far away from the city, to the bus station you get much more easily and faster. So for traveling not so long distances, the bus might even be quicker, from one city center to another.

The buses here really are extremely good! Especially the ones in Argentina. The seats are much better than on planes, because you have more room! Why don't buses (nor planes) in Europe have the same kind of footrest?

Why do the rest of South America think that Argentinians are rude? And why do you get warned about the unpleasant machismo culture? I think the people where really helpful, and didn't mind that you couldn't speak Spanish. And the macho culture was much more positive, and with no "hidden agendas", as in for example Italy! "Wow, you just made my day by being so beautiful!" Who wouldn't want to hear that? I've never felt so beautiful in my life!

Surprisingly I found Brazilians more rude, than Argentinians. They clearly don't like the fact that you don't speak their language. Even though Portuguese is a much harder language than Spanish! I'm super flattered every time someone tries to speak Finnish, since I know it's so hard! Ok, I guess the thing with Brazilians are that they live in a huge country and they really don't need any other languages, like we Finns do, who live on the edge of the world in a tiny country...

I also liked the mentality in Argentina that it's not cool to show of your richness. It's kinda like at home. In Brazil it's the opposite. But I guess that has to do with the economic history of the countries, so I'm not going to say more about that.

But can this be because I had so high expectations of Brazil and none of Argentina? And because someone always spoke Spanish in the group while in Argentina, but I had no one to help me in Brazil?

Anywayz, I had a fabulous time traveling, with no homesickness in sight, and I hope to be back on that continent sooner than later!

Just breathe through it

Last week I happened to have a discussion and read a blog post about the same subject: fear and anxiety and how to handle it. The blog post was written by a life coach, who got the question when she had last time experienced fear. Although she teaches people how to handle it, she couldn't say when she experienced it herself.

I have the same feeling. As a skiing instructor I help people overcome themselves and their fears. Through small steps they soon notice to have skied down a huge mountain, without dying. The expression on their face is the biggest thanks I can get for my job, and the reason to that I love it so much.

At the same time I can't be faced with fear myself and divide it up into small pieces. This has been, and is, the biggest problem with my thesis, I've realized. I can't stop staring at it like it's a huge mountain, instead of focusing on one step at a time.

But overcoming fear and doing something you didn't think you where capable off is the best feeling!
I think that's one of the reasons to why I love traveling so much. When traveling, you are put into situations that you just have to handle all the time, even though you sometimes doubt yourself. And you do get through, over and over again. Oh the excitement and thrill of it!

So why can't I apply this to my everyday life? Next time when I notice myself giving up because of fear and anxiety, I will remind myself to just breath through it. Like when I learned snowboarding - one breath and turn at a time.