Transitions

How easy it is to forget lessons we have already learnt!

A while back, I wrote about transition. To me that post is evidence that I had a deep understanding of what exists in between as is and to be.

Transition sweetly focuses on the overlap that exists between the present situation and what we think of as the next. Transition sounds like we are going through the process mindfully, deliberately.

My own words, written some time in 2015, during the long stretch of time it took me to make the move to Croatia permanent, which I did about a year ago with very happy results.

Six or seven months back, I deliberately went into a transition period. A shift in my career. A big leap of faith, hard (and out-of-the-comfort-zone) work and double doses of anxiety.

I must confess that at times between then and now, I have often forgotten that during the transition itself, there is more faith that there are results.

Today I feel I'm back on track, and I feel like transmuting judgement to acceptance and giving myself a light pat on the shoulder.

We'll see about tomorrow :)

The morning-after, del día después, za dan poslje: Same shit, different languages.

It's got the same name in every language. The pill you need the morning after. I will not even get into the details of why or who I am buying this pill for. I get to the pharmacy and immediately learn that being almost 42 does not prevent you from feeling quite self conscious when asking for the morning-after pill. Even the detachment of saying it in Croatian (using impeccable accusative case, mind you!) doesn't help. Let alone at the judgmental stare that the chemist offers me. She says they don't have it. I ask if I can order it. She says I should try another pharmacy. It is raining and quite cold for October. This woman, I know it in my bones, is refusing to sell me the pill. My awesome wing-woman almost gets me killed by jaywalking to cross to another ljekarna. But we get there in one piece, and I ask for the pill again. I am told that I can buy it, but I need to answer a few questions in a form first. More than 10, including my year of birth. Only one is related to health issues such as allergies. When the form is done, and handed in, I am asked for my name and surname, and that of my gynecologist. I lie not. The pill is 190 kuna. 25.5 euro. In Zagreb, a qualified intern works 10.5 hours to make this amount. A mid-range meal for two is 190 kuna. Three bottles of good wine in the market. The monthly pass for the tram when you're a student. With 190 kunas, you can treat 5 people to McDonald's and get some change. So I got to thinking about what I've always thought to be the average woman in need of this "emergency contraceptive", as the box describes it in Croatian. Hitna kontracepcija. My guess is that in average she is young and really wants to avoid both a pregnancy and an abortion. Her condom may have broken. She may have had unprotected sex. She could have been raped. She may be regretting a sexual encounter. She wants and needs that pill, and all she gets is judgement, obstacles and a freaking high price tag.
I cannot think of a more fucked-up way of designing a system in order to to tell someone "I told you so", while waving a nagging finger at them, rejoicing that you have not helped avoid what I can only think of as disaster.

Q is for Questions

Questions such as "what was I thinking when I committed to 26 blog posts during the month of April?"

I am really busy with other questions at the moment. Like...

- What strategies can I come up with that will be easy to implement by parents and teachers (all adults, in fact) to help develop their kids' character strengths?
- Has anyone ever classified folktales according to character strengths they portray or teach?
- What three collaborative creation activities am I going to do with the Grade 8 class I was invited to teach next Wednesday?

Just a few examples.

And then the question everybody is asking me these days: after your conference in the US in July...are you going back to Buenos Aires or to Zagreb?

I am ever so glad that at a given point in the past decade I became comfortable with replying "I don't know". The complete answer to all of these, now that I have been studying Growth Mindset and such marvels, is "I don't know YET!"

P is for Pana Wakke

www.panawakke.com

Founding a start-up and then making it work, and later grow is a constant learning experience. What you want to do professionally and who you are as an individual blend completely. For good and for bad.

Eventually, you realise that the company has become a living organism, and as such, it morphs and adapts. Hopefully, it will never lose its essence. And ideally, I will manage to pour into Pana Wakke my best traits, and in avoiding to pass on my worst, both the company and myself will become better.

Our name, Pana Wakke, is inspired in the words Sister Brother in Quechua, an aboriginal language from South America.

In its most literal interpretation, Pana Wakke describes our corporate structure, as my brother Marko and his wife Belén are co-founders and business partners. Pana Wakke would not exist without them.

When we join forces with storytellers, project leaders, sales reps and such, we aim to build life-long relationships, and for that, we source people who want to know about the soul of what we do before the practical aspects. And they become part of the family as well.

In a more subtle way, though, our name describes our mission. We believe in the "brotherhood of man". Brazenly.

We hope that we are making a contribution to make the world a bit kinder, a bit more inclusive and a bit more humane. As I wrote in an abstract not long ago: "It is to be hoped that as they recognize its  invaluable benefits, schools and parents will engage more in storytelling and reclaim the essence of human relationships."

I never meant to start my own company. As so many of the crucial things that happen in life, it was a series of seemingly random events that led to it. And thus, the amount of people and forces of nature I am grateful to today is colossal.

There is no doubt I am a lucky girl. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks.

O is for OMG!

OMG! What is this in my hotel room? How do I read the instructions?

OMG! Who thought of this snack?

OMG! The sense of fashion!

OMG! Perplexity inspiring design

OMG! The signs

OMG! Powerful magnets

OMG! Really? 

 OMG! Let's celebrate spring!

N is for Noise

http://static.dnaindia.com/sites/default/files/2016/01/05/411253-noise.jpg

I have a few ideas of where my intolerance for noise comes from. I won't bore you with those theories. Suffice it to say that noise bothers me immensely.

I cannot shut out background noise, which becomes as prominent to me as the ongoing conversation I am having. They call this attention deficit. I call it unavoidable attention. If I had a choice, I wouldn't hear background noise.

China is definitely the wrong geography for  someone who cannot stand noise. Noise thrives in Chinese cities.

The language is tonal and loud.
Ringtones are intense and the shriller the better, it seems.
Headphones...not required to play media in public transport. No one frowns upon anyone for playing videos on a train. Unless I happen to be there, of course.
Radio on taxis is played loud.
Honking while driving is mandatory.
The cacophony of music playing form two or three sources at the same time doesn't seem to bother anyone but me.
Kids are encouraged to be seen and heard.
The cleaning staff of a hotel will stand at your door and scream at one another at 5.30 am, and be genuinely surprised when you open your door to ask them to be quiet. The quiet doesn't ever last long.
There seems to be no place or time when being noisy is discouraged, I believe.

I used to think of those bulky headphones as a fashion item that I would never have any use for. Until recently, when while bored at an airport, I discovered they have noise-cancellation devices. One of my best purchases ever. A dream come true. Headphones with a little switch that muff unwanted noise out. If I play quiet music, the noise disappears completely.

Who said that happiness cannot be purchased?

--
Dying to read what Robin has to say about Noise and China! http://startingfromzed.blogspot.com

M is for Mandarin

Hello

I hate it when people assume I can speak Chinese. I can't. I have lots of non-Chinese friends who speak it well. And read it too! So saying that I speak Mandarin would be a lie and quite unfair to those who have studied it seriously.

What I can do in Mandarin is get by. And get the stuff I need. I call it "functional" Chinese, and although I am occasionally embarrassed that I am not a bit more proficient, I confess that I know almost all the Mandarin I want to know.