I moved a blog

Hello,
Since my UpWithPeople trip is over, I won't write here anymore.
I might write on my experiences in Israel here:
http://viewisrael.blogspot.com/

If you are subscribed to this blog, It should automatically subscribe you to the new blog.

video for the new cast

A video our cast made for the new one, which started few days ago.

Welcome cast b09 from Rafael Cardoso

I heard there are great people there, good-luck everyone!
:)

Readers from around the world!

It's really great to see I have readers from different countries. Would any of you like to introduce himself?

That's it for now

I'm back at home.

Once again I went to a family dinner.
Once again I can trust there to be toilet seats when I go to public restrooms, as well as toilet paper.
Once again I can trust my bed to always be there for me.
Once again I can spend a day resting without feeling bad for it.
Once again I went to my writing workshop.
Once again I can buy a ticket on the train knowing where my station is, and recognizing it by sight.
Once again I have a room waiting to be organized.
Once again I eat foods I've eaten for years and know what it will taste like.

I won't have to use english on a daily basis.
I won't get dozens of hugs every day.
I won't learn as much about different cultures.
I won't have a weekly schedule.
I won't have morning meetings, which before I never realized that I'm going to miss.
I won't be appreciated for the country I came from.
I won't meet new great people every week.
I won't participate in show productions, where I dance and sing for hundreds of people.
I won't be part of a group of 90 people whom I love without exceptions!

From now on I know I will have family wherever I go.
From now on I have someone to call to when I see an outraging international story in the news.
From now on a strange is a potential friend.
From now on I will demand appreciation for who I am.
From now on I will prove I deserve the appreciation I demand.
From now on I know I can make a difference.
From now on I will make a difference.

Everything is just the way I knew it, but nothing is the same.

In the spirit of Up With People

I randomly found a cool site called everything2, which have plenty of guides and other fun articles. (and of course it made me check what everything have to offer, but I believe that everything2 is more fun)

I'm going to share one random article, hopefully an inspiring one, but definitely not a representing one because they are so different from each other:

To all the crazy ideological teenagers who still think that clear, free, rational thinking can save the world: thank you. Please keep it up. Seriously. It's important.

Me, I'm no longer a teenager, and I'm afraid my wide-eyed idealism has been clouded by more and more realism and cynicism, but I'm still plenty crazy, and I still hope that clear, free, rational thinking can save the world, too.

The cynics and the old farts and the curmudgeons may not talk as loudly or as long about their once-fond ideological passions, but they still think, and some part of them still cares, and they still listen, and they salute (or at least, I do) the less-jaded, more-energetic souls who are still shouting about the things that desperately need shouting about.

The people who matter are listening. You may not be able to tell, because they'll probably never visibly react, let alone actually respond, but they're listening. The people who aren't listening, don't matter: they're already dead, but haven't realized it yet.

We must believe that clear, free, rational thinking can save the world, because clear, free, rational thinking is all we have. The alternatives to clear, free, rational thinking are muddled, constrained, irrational thinking, and raw emotion, and blind, inchoate instinct, and abject, chaotic randomness, and I'm sorry, but if those are what we're left with, we might as well quit the game and go home. Any animal can run its life by instinct and emotion (and generally do a much better job with those tools than we do, thank you very much), so if we want to believe that this whole "higher intelligence" schtick is actually good for something, we'd better use it to its fullest potential, to "make the world a better place", not just to wallow around inventing new ways to advertise hygeine products or new ways to kill each other.

Keep the faith. Hold your head high. May the Force be with you...

so I recommend to check this site, except for the bit annoying links, it's really nice!

The two different sides

Taiwan - last words