Back in Germany – Shopping sucks

Germany, I am back in my home country. For a few weeks now I have spent my time back in Germany visiting friends and organizing my reentry in my everyday life. I am not jocking when I say that during my trip my only problems were my luggage and figuring out what my plans would be for the next day. After a few weeks back in Germany, my agenda is already full with dates and a big „to do“ list. I am stressed again. Even if it is true that I am on holidays and my work has not started yet, I feel that I have already lost some of the good resolutions I made during the trip.

"I should be happy to live in a clean and safe place but..."

Of course, Germany is a good country; we have beautiful forests and lakes, old castles, clean toilets and a good healthcare system. After my trip, I know that there are many other poor places and that I should be happy to live in a clean and safe place, like my chinese friend said back in Bejing. But still, I also feel bored in my home country, I miss the exotic and the feeling of living. During my days I am looking at a lot of serious faces...not many lovely smiles like in Asia. I miss the adventure, sitting on a motorcycle on a dirty road. Now, I am back to driving my car on the highways with no speed limits with all the images from the trip in my mind, like short flashlights.

One of the first things I did back in Germany was visit my sister in the beautiful city of Weimar. I had a nice and long talk with her roommate, who asked me some deeper questions than the usual „how was it?“. There is one thing in my good democratic country which I see now as more and more critical. The rules of our community. In many countries I missed some rules but, back in Germany, I have the feeling of having to obey too many rules and it also seems that everybody follows the norm without using his own mind. We lost our autonomy of selfthinking in that we trust every system. The same old problem since the Enlightment. Moreover, work seems sensless for many people.

I know that I did something very unusual, although it seems now for me as nothing out of the ordinary. I travelled around the world like many others did before, even if there are a lot of people who never got that chance. I am lucky to have seen all those places on my trip and I have tried to share my experiences through my pictures. I hope that I will never loose my new motivation to change people’s views and some other things in my life. I am also proud to be more patient and that I am trying not to fall back in this unnecessary thoughts we develop nowadays in our modern lives.

During my visit of the art show documenta 13 in Kassel, I had the feeling that all this conceptual art is a attempt to show people in museums what life can be! I was sad that people only seem to realize what life is when they see things in an artificial place... Also, for some reasons that I do not understand, a lot of people need very complicated words and texts to understand the simplest things of life, or even to understand an artwork.

I am back in Germany, but already saving money for my next trip...discovering the world in one easy step: Go outdoors and take a look!