Epicurean trip home
I had to go to Europe for couple of meetings and Anna just finished her 3rd term of Chinese, so we arranged to spend almost 3 weeks in Europe. Specially for Anna it was starting to be mandatory to have an Asian break after more than 9 months at Taiwan.
There is no better way to describe this trip as an Epicurean trip :)
Epicurus (341 BCE – 270 BCE), was an ancient Greek philosopher and founder of Epicureanism. Few of his texts have survived and his philosophy is widely misunderstood and often confused with sensuous and luxurious living (confusion promulgated by Christian polemicists). I am not going to bore you with the details but I have actually been reading quite a lot about Epicurus since late 2009 and I found it very inspiring and practical in various aspects of life.
One of the key elements of Epicurean philosophy is that friends (and family by extension) are a major source of happiness, but Epicurus believed you need to see your friends on a consistent basis. Not just casually, but as much as possible. In fact, he believed that you should live with or in close quarters to your friends. . Additionally, you should never eat alone and you should eat light and healthy meals to have the perfect combination.
So, as we are not doing very well on the front of living close to our friends, we followed his wise advices and spend as much time as possible eating/drinking (with moderation) together with friends and family. It was just great :) (sorry that we did not take pictures with everybody)
@ London Tube10-Oct-2010 13:26, Apple iPhone, 2.4, 3.85mm, 0.067 sec, ISO 320
At a Anna's friend of a friend party10-Oct-2010 00:08, Apple iPhone, 2.4, 3.85mm, 0.067 sec, ISO 1000
After brunch10-Oct-2010 13:13, Apple iPhone, 2.4, 3.85mm, 0.007 sec, ISO 80
Welcome diner. Yummy!11-Oct-2010 03:50, CASIO COMPUTER CO.,L EX-Z60 , 3.1, 6.3mm, 0.05 sec
Anna parents11-Oct-2010 03:52, CASIO COMPUTER CO.,L EX-Z60 , 3.1, 6.3mm, 0.067 sec
Anna grandma. 98 years and more to come12-Oct-2010 18:53, CASIO COMPUTER CO.,L EX-Z60 , 3.1, 6.3mm, 0.025 sec
Albert parents12-Oct-2010 20:09, CASIO COMPUTER CO.,L EX-Z60 , 3.1, 6.3mm, 0.05 sec
We were expecting to have to answer a lot of detailed questions about our life in Taipei and Asia but it has been actually the opposite case with mostly Anna and myself asking about changes on other people life’s.
Thank to this blog, Facebook updates and few video conferences a lot of the people said to us that it was like we had never gone (we still need to decide if this is a good or a bad statement :))
Barcelona with Asian eyes
Going back home with new Asian eyes gives you a very unique perspective and you start taking pictures like a regular tourist :)
Blue sky (unsual at Taipei)19-Oct-2010 19:13, CASIO COMPUTER CO.,L EX-Z60 , 4.4, 6.3mm, 0.001 sec
Tourists!16-Oct-2010 20:40, CASIO COMPUTER CO.,L EX-Z60 , 4.4, 6.3mm, 0.003 sec
Local beer16-Oct-2010 20:53, CASIO COMPUTER CO.,L EX-Z60 , 3.1, 6.3mm, 0.1 sec
We took pictures because of the emotion of being back home and because of the interest to show to our Taiwanese friends all that we like about home: weather, unique landscapes, food, etc… basically all these little things that we can not easily enjoy at Taiwan.
Although you know very well Barcelona, acting like a tourist, you go back to enjoy your own city in ways that you can not do when you actually live there. Barcelona surprised us for being extremely multicultural and also for the small amount of Chinese people :) (even people living at Barcelona say there are a lot!). We were disappointed to see a dirty city, the rudeness of the people in the public space and the lack of security (we witnessed two robberies in the metro). You get used to it when you live there… but it is actually very awkward felling when you just arrived from a very safe, clean and decently organized Asian country.
In Taipei we are not really influenced by the mainstream media and the advertising (as we can hardly understand anything and/or there is a cultural gap). Back at home we felt how one can be very easily influenced by the media/adverts without even being aware of it. Another interesting detail is to see how “local” (Catalan/Spanish) are the news and most of the issues being discussed. At Taipei (and Asia in general) the news are include local information too, but the regional and worldwide news are more relevant than in the Spanish mainstream media.
BTW, Western noses are huge! :) (that’s why Chines people call westerners BIG NOSES)
Meanwhile in Taiwan…
During our trip there was the most powerful typhoon of the season, Super Typhoon Megi. It started in the north of Philiphines and moved towards South of China affecting also Taiwan. In Taiwan Megi dumped a record 114 centimeters of rain in Ilan county over 48 hours, had winds of 145 kph and killed around 36 people (a bus with Chinese tourist was trapped in a mudslide)
M’agrada que conservis les arrels filosòfiques; sobretot si et porten cap a la família i els amics.
On son les fotos de la rebuda massiva a l’aeroport de Barcelona?
Per cert m’ha enganxat aixó de l’epicureisme pero no se per on començar
Molts records
Enric
Enric! Corregit! Ja surts al àlbum :)
A que es increible les ganes que t’entra de fer fotos a lo turista un cop ja no vius a casa? A mi em passa el mateix cada cop que hi he tornat de Pittsburgh.
M’encanta el vostre blog… I lo d’Epicurius, te tota la rao del mon. Xapo pel grec!