deartraveller

Dear Sara,

Gabriel told me everything about your time in Dubai, I can’t believe you got sick, bad luck! I hope you are all better now, it would be a shame to stop this journey due to a nasty cold!

Funny you mentioned the Chinese New Year because, guess where I am? China! I came here exactly because of the festivities of the New Year, but, as I got here, I remembered that they only celebrate New Year in February this year! I guess bad luck as pointed both of us as targets. However, this was no reason to stop us from enjoying this fabulous country.

China is the most populated and fast developing country in the world, it’s unbelievable how crammed with people the major cities are! Actually that confusion was the only thing I disliked about this week, especially because we don’t know a thing about the Chinese language (it is so difficult asking for directions!); but as soon as me and Robert got out of the city, we got a whole new perspective!

China hosts eight monuments which are included on the UNESCO World Heritage List and many national parks. We started by visiting the one that separates the country from the rest of the world: the Great Wall of China! Did you know that it is the only monument in the world that can be seen from space? It was built to protect the northern borders of the country against invaders. At this point, Robert challenged me to a race across the entire wall, which I obviously gave up after an hour…

We also visited the biggest museum of Chinese tea, in Hangzhou, the Yonghe Temple, the Temple of Heaven, in Beijing, the Saint Sophia Cathedral, in Harbin and the Forbidden City, which was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. The Terracotta Army is one of the most interesting things to learn about: it is a group of warriors and horses sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Empeor of China. They were built and buried with the emperor to protect him in the afterlife.

China is also famous for the Buddhist religion and there is this giant sculpture called the Leshan Giant Buddha, which is incredible! We spent a day at a Buddhist temple too, where monks live. We took some yoga lessons and I almost achieved nirvana!

I won’t even tell you about the Chinese food! If you think China Town in New York was a nightmare regarding culinary, can you image the real deal? I know Gabriel and Robert say we are too picky, but c’mon… Everyone would be if they were used to Portuguese food, right? Nevertheless, I survived…

Today, our last day, we visited a natural park that shelters pandas due to the risk of extinction. They are such cute animals (giant… but adorable)!

What an excellant idea you had! Robert and I will be thrilled to meet you for Christmas, just name when and where!

I miss you so much!

Lots of love,

Érica

Dear Érica,

Today it's me, Gabriel, who's writing to you.

Sarah is, has you may have already noticed, recovering from a bitter-sweet week.

I thought that you probably would get worried for not receiving the 'weekly' e-mail, so I decided to sum up our last seven days to you. 

As we arrived to our hotel Burj Al Arab (yes the seven stars one, I'll explain it in a minute) Sarah got a constipation due to a horrible air conditioner provided by our plain and the (incredibly hot) heat of our destination, Dubai.

I signed up on a contest that had as main prize an amazing one week stay at Burj Al Arab (with full board basis) and, against all odds, I won it! So after receiving the amazing news and, since after New York's craziness I needed a calm, and mostly silent, place to rest my ears, I invited Sarah to come with me.

The first place that we visited, before she even noticed she was almost burning with fever, was the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world! The Burj has an outdoor observation deck, named At the Top on the 124th floor and allowed us to immediately surrender to the beauty of Dubai's long and white beaches. In fact we found ourselves so surrendered that we could not resist to think that 9 o'clock was not a late hour to take a swim and thanks to the warm water her temperature dropped down a bit, enough for us to enjoy a 2 hours swim, and then head back to the hotel to have a dinner cooked by angel-like hands, 200 meters above the sea level.

By night I 'forced' her to finnaly use the thermometer, you know how she is: 'I'm fine', shivering and more red than those boots you girls bought, ten minutes before, and three blocks away from the Chicago musical, and that was when she realized that it would be better for her to enjoy the luxuries of the hotel during the next couple of days.

During that time I could not let her miss some of Dubais's most astonishing places to visit, so I spent those days with a camera on my hand and the sunscreen on the other. For three days, every night I turned the camera to the television to see my amateur short films with her as she took massive doses of chicken soup. If you someday get sick, I can send you the videos that feature:

- The Dubai Fountains, in which I took a kind of semi illegal dive;

- The sky, I went skydiving and it was a life time experience!;

- The Dolphin Bay (that she loved, but a place in which I've entered by accident, so we can keep this part on a 'need to know' basis)

- The Dubai's Desert Conservation Reserve, that I had to face alone, because Sarah's health only allowed her to go until the Assawan Spa that day.

After three days of walking around like a mad turist, recording every detail, Sarah finnaly decided that she was ready to the Wild Wadi Water Park, and what a bless that park was, on the hottest day of the year, all that water practically saved us from a severe case of dehydration (well not Sarah, she was more than filled with chicken soup), but I think you'll agree that with 23 water rides and a fake thunderstorm we could not die that day!!

At last, but not least, we visited the The Lost Chambers Aquarium, in Atlantis, in which we saw underwater mazes and tunnels of the atlantean civilization while encountering sharks, eels, seahorses, and piranhas. There were more than 15 marine life exhibits but we only went to the touch tank and the interactive Aquatheatre show.

By night we went to the Arabian souk (market) and Sarah bought you a souvenir that she says that you will love, although she was laughing a lot. I didn´t got the chance to see it, but I got the pleasant chance of being informed that your friend Robert will spend some time with us. My father as just reached the necessary miles (on air, flying on a plain) to be offered a trip at his choice and he offered it to me. So, why don't you both come to Dubai ? Or what about Lapland ? It's almost Christmas.

Sarah sends you a lot of kisses and says that she's dying to know more about Robert ... you girls ... I just don't get it ...

Well, hope to hear from you soon!

Gabriel

P.S.: The hotel was rehearsing the chinese New Year, it's the year of the Dragon!

P.P.S.: P.S. added by Sarah, but if she read the rest of the e-mail, it was very nice to meet you Érica.

Dear Sara,

I couldn’t have loved our week in New York anymore! The art, the fashion, the yellow cabs… It was all so exciting! It’s the city that never sleeps and we sure didn’t!

Remember all the giant buildings? How we felt so small next to them? I still can’t breathe when I think of the amazing view from the top of the Empire State Building: that shimmering skyline just blew my mind! I would have stayed a lot longer up there if you were not afraid of heights or that the King Kong showed up to kidnap you and take you to the top.

And what of our walks down the Central Park with coffee in our right hand and Vogue on the other? That’s how I describe a perfect morning! Everything in that city is just amazing: we started the day by visiting one of the museums – The Metropolitan, MoMa or the Natural History museum – drank coffee on the Met steps, went up one of the buildings like the Rockefeller Center, had lunch on Times Square and rushed to get the next cab down to Soho where we “shop ‘till we drop”!

There is so much to see! One could stay there for a whole year and still don’t know everything about the Big Apple! The Statue of Liberty is overwhelming! Did you know it was a gift to the United States from the people of France? The female figure represents Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom. It was a welcoming signal to immigrants that arrived to Ellis Island in the past.

The funniest thing is that we recognized all the places from movies and series! Wall Street? Remember the bull statue? I still can’t believe we took a picture holding its “intimate” parts! Well, as they say, it gives good luck with money and business! And it better give, I think I have a huge financial problem now that I blew my month’s allowance shopping on the Fifth Avenue! Although the even more serious problem is that, as soon as we get home, I’ll have to build a bigger closet! One like Carrie’s in Sex and the City would do just fine (of course in order for that to happen my sister’s room would have to be kind of destroyed, but I have no doubt she will agree after I give her the Louboutin shoes I bought her!).

Despite all this, I still think the best was the end of the day, after dinner, on Broadway! Every night a different musical… that’s how my life should be all year long! Spider Man, Mamma Mia, Chicago… We were driving Gabriel mad with all the singing!

Speaking of other things, you won’t believe what happened earlier! Remember Robert, that British guy we met at the Carolina Herrera fashion show? Today, I saw him again; we split a taxi to the airport and discovered we were going on the same flight, which was late, so we went to Harlem for a last tour. Turns out he had been studying for two years in New York, and just finished his degree in economics. I told him about my “journey with no destination” and guess what? I have a new travel buddy!

I wish you had come to Harlem with us! We went to a church with the most amazing gospel group ever! You would have loved it!

I’ll meet you soon somewhere on this big world! Miss you already!

With love,

Érica.

(Here is Robert in our next destination, I'll tell all about it soon!)

Dear Erica,

Speaking of chocolate cake ... I just got out of Broadway's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde : The Musical, WHAT a coincidence I know, (maybe that friend that asked you about the ups and downs of travelling got curious and asked the same to me ... juust maybe, so I went out searching for the new yorker way of watching it) I found it, watched it, loved it and then I, kind of, rationalize it.

I honestly believe each one of us has a inner Hyde, or Jekyll, (according to each personality) and I think you will agree with me when I say that travelling brings out some sides that we used to hide or didn´t knew we had, at all.

In a more intense way if you travell alone and only in those who are at ease with themselves, psychologically speaking, the shot of freedom given by entering on a plain and leaving every single person that you know behind is stronger than a pound of ice cooling you in a very hot day (a Jekyll feeling) or a bucket of chocolate ice cream crashing against the tv on a very very bad and heartbreaking day (a Hyde's moment of fury).

It's also very very similar to the drug that is used by Dr. Jekyll. He turned into a beast-like men and we turn into godlike-adventurers, believing that we are capable of turning into someone else when away from the daily routine that we where used to, whenever we want.

This shot of freedom that I'm talking about sets in motion a lot of thoughts in your head: ' Will I survive alone ? Can I make the most of this trip ? ' etc, but what some people actually look for is a fresh start or a time when ' I'll do everything I wouldn't do with my parents (or with an acquainted of any kind) '.

And that is when a Dr. Jekyll or a nasty Mr. Hyde appear and everything starts to crumble, like that superb apple crumble your mother makes that has two layers: the first being harsh and almost crispy and the second, the soft and sweet one.

Again just like a double faced men, coin or cupon for make-up stores. Yes, those who allow you to buy things with 50 percent of discount but that have those small letters saying that the new and semi-new collections are not included in it. Wonderful don't you think? I would turn into Hyde too!

But, as you said, what's wrong with that ? I actually find very relaxing to reliese my 'Hyde' sometimes, my karate classes become much more interesting, and when it comes to help out a Unicef's volunteer rescuing an incredible amount of kids from an almost certain death when in Africa just by buying some bottles of water, me version of Dr. Jekyll is always present.

If we do not get angry in the right moments it will start pilling up inside of us and when it comes to reliese that anger, Mr. Hyde will appear as our worst nightmare, don't you think? ( Some memories of our night beating up pillows and couches are flashing right now ... can´t stop laughing, despite not remembering the reason why we were so mad, was it about boys ?)

Well, this is my point of view my dear friend, I will now join my other dear friend for breakfast, who today looks like Hyde because he lost his bagage in the airport (so, probably, his bags are in Taiti or something like that) and the only store open was an oversize clothe one. You can imagine the amount of tears I cried of laughing so much.

Love you a lot,

Sara.

P.S: Please, please, please come to New York, ' concreet jungle where dreams are made of, there's nothing you can't do ... ' a bit of Alicia Keys for your entertainment (New York could very well be Hyde's lair !!), and we'll shop like crazy just like a few months ago. Yesss, I'm so homesick that I even miss that, and if you don't come I'll have to go with Gabriel so please!

The musical                                            The only shirt left 

Dear Sara,

Risking you thinking that my letters have turned into literature lessons by correspondence, I’m going to tell you about another book I’m reading: The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Well, in the book, Dr. Jekyll, a polite gentleman, a role model of the upper class, had a secret alter-ego, Mr. Hyde who incarnated everything he couldn’t be when he was Jekyll. They were two completely different personalities inside a single person: the bright and the dark side of someone. When I finished the book, a friend of mine asked me what I think the ups and downs of travelling are, because just like Jekyll, “it can’t all be butterflies”.

My mind quickly pointed me to the ups of travelling: “It’s the most wonderful experience you will ever live. Travelling all around the world, knowing different people, different cultures even if just by some days it’s so rewarding. The skills you acquire: you learn how to live on your own, to get around in cities you don’t know. Every single step of the way comes with a new life lesson. And the most obvious reason: you have so much fun!”

When it came to the downs of travelling, it was more complicated to answer: “The mosquito bites in Africa, the fear of being robbed, kidnapped or attacked by a serial killer (felt by the ones who watch too many episodes of Criminal Minds…. Guilty!), the poisonous animals in Australia, how tired you feel after walking through the cities all day, the difficulty of understanding the London subway, homesickness… However the worst thing about travelling around is that it has to end! To know that the wonderful time you are having in India, or Budapest or Brazil just lasts for some days, and that soon you have to return to your real life... If it was up to me, I would travel all my life!”.

Just like the drug Jekyll uses in the book to escape his reality, travelling can also be a way to escape our lives nowadays and, honestly: what’s wrong with that?

I miss you so much (and that delicious chocolate cake we had in Virginia too)!

With love,

Érica.

Dear Erica,

So good to know you're reading Shakespeare! It appers to me that all that talk I gave you about reading all the best authors while you can is finally paying off!

I presented you with that title because you made me think a lot about your methaporic interpretation of Shakespeare's excerpt ( which I, by the way and in case you had doubts (just kidding), do know ) and lead me to create my own.

As we started this journey we had as maing goals to discover what we wanted to do with our lives, professionally and personally. You've already found out what you want to do with the professional side and I'm on the verge to discover if my personal side of life is about to take a spin. With this said I present you my interpretation of the different stages of life that William Shakespeare set about 400 years ago.

All the world is a journey. All the men and women move in different ways, have ( as Shakespeare said ) «their exits and entrances» and «one man in his time» uses a large variety of means of transportation. I think you can see where this is going.

The first stage is when we are newborns. We are not able of locomote on our own so we have the baby stroller that allow us to move from the cradle to the baby care seat and to perform the two main functions of that time: eat and sleep. (God knows how I miss those days).

On the second stage we already know how to walk, we are children, with all the love and also terror that the word carries, but since our legs are still kid size our parents will introduce us to the trycicle and bycicle's world. We learn how to ride them and from that time on we no longer need help to go wherever we want, inside the limits of neighbourhood. We are starting to make it on our own.

Third stage and teenagers, both start with the same letter and with this letter also begins the word 'three' which represents the three means of transportation more often used by them : bus, subway and the more or less common scooter. With the 'teen' age comes the wanting of freedom and by riding alone from one place to another (school-home, home-school), using their own money (actually given by their parents disguised as allowance) they feel grown enough to also take the bus to hang out with friends on places more and more far from home, starting then to taste freedom.

But they eventually reach the age of the car and the so wanted independence. You can go wherever you want, do as many journeys as you want and the sky is the limit. You only depend on the gas money, which is finally provided by your first or second job.

Reaching the fourth stage, the after-college one, ( our brilliant and inspiring stage ) we get aware of the environmental problems of the planet and after contributing with our fair share of corbon dioxide with the car we realize it's time to take a plain and get a more up-to-date notion of the world, rediscovering ourselves and the world, or try to actually find ourselves.

The fifth stage, after seeing the world, is when we realize that we still have a lot of years left to work in a cubicle and, as you said it my dear friend, get surrounded by tons of paperwork, since the 30's till the 50's/55's. The sad part is that we actually do it! What a bummer, I know!! The late night hours will necessarily and without any escape drag us to the taxi option and no perfect parking spot will change our minds when it comes to change the discomfort of getting behind the wheel to face a crazy 7:00 am traffic for the oportunity of being able to put on some mascara, read one more time an important presentation or have a complete and calm breakfest as heading to work. But we can still look with hope to retirement...

Or not... we will be welcomed to the sixth stage with a short retirement and most likely (considering the quality of the air, the stressful lifestyle and the not so healthy eating habits) with the return of help to locomote. A wheelchair or a cane will now be our new best-friends, right after our husbands of course (I think Gabriel is trying to run for the title), imposing barriers to the hardly conquered freedom and the visits to far monuments and trips with no more than a map and a bagpack will no longer suit us and our mean of transport.

Which leads us to the seventh and last stage : When we become to old to appreciate all the things that happen faster then a walk in the park and to old to ride in anything else than an ambulance. Accidents happen more often and despite we keep saying 'I'm fine on my own' our loved and younger ones will start earing 'I can't do it on my own, please help me'.

I'm not saying that this will happen to us and I actually really really hope not! As you said, I'll also try by any means to avoid this ending, but you know how life is... unexpected and full of surprises!

Anyway what really matters is getting to spend it with the ones that matter the most, so I'm on my way to meet my mother in London, if you want to I can ask her to come with your mother also and we could all go watch Shakespeare's 'As You Like It'. Let me know how far you are and maybe we can meet again.

Love,

Sara.

Dear Sara,

As I’m sitting here on this bench waiting for the train I’m suppose to catch, I decided to write you about this book I’m reading to speed up time: “As you like it”, from the one and only William Shakespeare.

There was a particular passage that got my attention, the one that starts with that famous sentence “All the world's a stage”, you know it right? Well, as I read it I couldn’t help to compare what he wrote to what I’m experiencing right now.

All the world’s a train station, and man and women are merely travelers. Just like a moving train, they have their stays and their stops throughout their lives, and one man in his time travels all around.

We can describe our life journey in seven stops: at first the eager child, eager to leave his mom’s nap and discover the world for the first time. Then, the trapped teenager, with his loud music and alternative looks, who believes to be hold back by his over protective family and doesn’t have enough freedom. And then the early 20’s, the age to look incredibly stunning, go out, laugh out loud, love for the first time, commit every mistake and start discovering all the world’s incredible things. The late 20’s bring us the fresh worker, excited at first with the new office and tasks but without time to fit trips in his new schedule. With the 30’s comes the mature worker, seeking for recognition, with his everyday routine and who takes about two/three weeks a year to see a different country. It is the age of learning the lessons from the mistakes of the 20’s. And then the 40’s and followers, the age to pay for the drinks! It’s when you realize you’re not getting any younger and think: “I still have so much to see!” and go on a spree trying to make up for the working years and start paying attention to every little thing in life. Later on, the elderly traveler, tired and (I hope) full of life experiences to remember. It’s when the back ache kicks in, so the proper age to take a break from travelling, sit back and tell our story to our grandchildren: tell them about what we saw, how happy it made us. Hopefully it will inspire them to follow our footsteps and go discover the world for themselves someday too.

Actually, I never want to stop travelling the world, but I know it will come the day when I will be in an office surrounded by paperwork instead of road maps, but I‘m telling you, when that day comes, I will turn my back on it, go to the nearest train station and catch the first train. Then I will travel until my feet can no longer bear it. And I truly hope to have you always by my side in this, the most important journey of all: our own lives.

My train just got here. I’ll write you later telling you everything about the place I’m headed. I’m missing you a lot.

Love,

Érica.

My dear Erica,

What an amazing week we had! Thank you so much for coming to Virginia and for bringing along your new friends, they were all so amanzingly nice and had so much to tell and to teach us about this adventure we entered on.

I noticed you loved the beach and it was really hard for me to say goodbye to you, but the journey has to continue and I noticed I wasn't leaving you in bad company. ( Yes, I noticed that special friend of yours ).

On my way back from Virginia Beach, wich I'll deeply miss, I saw a French movie with Gabriel that he named as one of the most amazing movies of his life. I got so curious ( OK, I'll admit it, at first it was just because I wanted to know him better ), that before we choose where to go next we went to the movies to see it and The Intouchables automaticly became the movie of my life!

The film relates the development of the unlikely friendship between Philippe, a wealthy quadriplegic, and Driss, a young black and poor man from the ghettos. Philippe, who owns a luxurious Parisian mansion, and his assistant Magalie, are interviewing candidates to be his live-in carer. Driss, who lives in a bleak Parisian suburb, a candidate, has no ambitions to get hired. He is just there to get a signature showing he was interviewed and rejected in order to continue to receive his welfare benefits. 

The next day, Driss returns to Philippe's mansion and learns, to his surprise, that he is on a trial period for the live-in carer job. He learns the extent of Philippe's disability and then accompanies Philippe in every moment of his life, discovering with astonishment a completely different lifestyle. A friend of Philippe's reveals Driss's criminal record which includes six months in jail for robbery. Philippe states he does not care about Driss's past as long as he does his current job properly. Over time, Driss and Philippe become closer and gradually, Philippe is led by Driss to put some order in his private life, including being more strict with his adopted daughter Elisa, since his wife died without giving him any children, who behaves like a spoiled child with the staff. Driss discovers modern art, opera, art, and even learns how to paint.

I think you see how this goes from now on. Despite being so close, Philippe understands that Driss has to take care of his cousins and dismisses him, although his moral is very low on the following times has he's not abble of finding a suitable replacer. Driss becomes aware of this and takes Philippe to a small trip. They arrive at a restaurant with a great view of the ocean, but Driss suddenly leaves the table and says good luck to Philippe for his lunch date. Philippe does not understand, but a few seconds later Eleonore, a woman with whom he had established an epistolary relationship, just talking on the phone and by letter, arrives. Philippe looks outside and sees Driss through the window, smiling at him.

I was in need of a good laugh provided by good company and the movie was a relaxing breth of fresh air. The night I saw this story happening, became exactly what I needed!

At a certain point in our lives we think we are unbeatable, certain values fade away and the notion of having our feet well placed on earth slightly vanishes. The notion that some people have their feet way to buried on earth and others are floating through the clouds was given to me by this movie in a light, comic, and most of all, real way. It was an eye opening film, as it taught me how to rely on the most unexpected people and that sometimes help, love and friendship can come as a result of the most unexpected situations. 

Two worlds, two men and two tottaly different ways of facing life became one and then .. became untouchables.

What is your 'movie of a lifetime' ?

As I'm almost weping I'll say goodbye now. ( Gabriel is getting worried, he thinks I spend too much time on the computer ... how sweet!! ) Please write to me soon and tell me where are you heading next!

Missing you like crazy,

Sara.

Dear Sara,

I had so much fun this week we spent together! Virginia is such a great place to go on vacation: the ocean, the heat, the soft sand… I will certainly recommend it to my parents for a second honeymoon! You won’t believe how many pictures we took: eight hundred! At least fifty of those are of that night when Gabriel fell asleep earlier and we spent the entire time putting toothpaste in his hair (I can’t stop laughing just remembering his face in the morning). I miss you both already! By the way, you will be glad to know that I thought Gabriel was a really nice guy, he’s is approved by me!

Well, after such an exhausting week of endless fun with you, the plans for this night were a bit calmer: some popcorn, Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and one of my favorite films “A Time to kill” from 1996 based on John Grisham’s best-selling novel. I don’t know if you ever saw it, but if you never did you won’t believe what you’re missing! What a cinema masterpiece!

Summing up the plot, the movie portrays the story of Carl Lee Hailey (Samuel L. Jackson), a Mississippi blue-collar worker, who has his world turned up-side-down when two men brutally assaulted his ten-year-old daughter. In the deep South, at the time, black men were strongly discriminated against, so, fearing the men will not receive justice, Carl Lee takes the law into his own hands and murderers them. He then turns to an eager and idealistic young laywer, Jake Brigance (Matthew McConaughey, I know you love his work!) for his defense and an energetic law student (Ellen Roark, played by Sandra Bullock) volunteers to help him in the case.

I just fell in love with this movie! It was one of the things that made up my mind about going to law school so I can definitely say that it changed my life. The passion with which Jake defends Carl Lee in court it’s just overwhelming. They are so different from each other and yet Jake looks past trough the stereotypes and helps him anyway, despite the constant threats he receives. Almost in the end of the film, when he thought all hope of saving Carl Lee was lost, he made a speech that I will never forget (I know it’s long but it’s worth reading):

“I want to tell you a story. I'm going to ask you all to close your eyes while I tell you the story. I want you to listen to me. I want you to listen to yourselves. (…) This is a story about a little girl walking home from the grocery store one sunny afternoon. I want you to picture this little girl. Suddenly a truck races up. Two men jump out and grab her. They drag her into a nearby field and they tie her up and they rip her clothes from her body. Now they climb on. First one, then the other, raping her, shattering everything innocent and pure with a vicious thrust in a fog of drunken breath and sweat. And when they're done, after they've killed her tiny womb, murdered any chance for her to have children, to have life beyond her own, they decide to use her for target practice. They start throwing full beer cans at her. They throw them so hard that it tears the flesh all the way to her bones. Then they urinate on her. Now comes the hanging. They have a rope. They tie a noose. Imagine the noose going tight around her neck and with a sudden blinding jerk she's pulled into the air and her feet and legs go kicking. They don't find the ground. The hanging branch isn't strong enough. It snaps and she falls back to the earth. So they pick her up, throw her in the back of the truck and drive out to Foggy Creek Bridge. Pitch her over the edge. And she drops some thirty feet down to the creek bottom below. Can you see her? Her raped, beaten, broken body soaked in their urine, soaked in their semen, soaked in her blood, left to die. Can you see her? I want you to picture that little girl. Now imagine she's white.”

That is what I want to do for my life! I want to help those who need me, I want to stand up in front of a jury and fight for what I believe in. Give a speech just as heartwarming as this, so that people would listen closely to every word of it. This movie has taught me that despite any difference human beings may have, we are all equal in the eyes of justice, and that justice leads us to a better world, and a better world is a cause worth fighting for! It showed me that trough commitment, determination and hard work, a fair trial can be heard, regardless of race, even in a country drowned in racial prejudice.

The truth is that this night may have been one of the most important of my journey through the world. I mean, deciding what I want to do was one of the reasons why I came in the first place. I may have discovered my future… Can you imagine me as a lawyer? Well, I can.

I hope you will find what you’re looking for too. I’ll meet you again soon!

Love,

Érica.

My dearest Sara,

First of all, I can’t believe how cute your friend is! I’m so jealous! You have to invite him to visit our town so I can meet him too and please if you are truly my best friend… MARRY HIM! Just kidding (but seriously, he looks like he was photoshoped!).

Well, speaking of other matters, what you said about Queen Elizabeth left me very curious too. I rented the movie and there was a particular speech of Walter Raleigh telling of his adventures that got my attention:

“Can you imagine - can you feel - what it is to cross an ocean? For weeks you see nothing but the horizon. All round you. Perfect, and empty. Your ship is small - tiny - a speck in such immensity.    

You live with fear, in the grip of fear - fear of storms, fear of sickness on board, fear of the immensity. What if you never escape? How can you escape? There's nowhere to go. So you must drive your fear down, deep into your belly, and study your charts, and watch your compass, and pray for a fair wind - and hope. Pure naked fragile hope, when all pure senses scream at you, Lost! Lost! Imagine it. Day after day, staring west, the rising sun on your back, the setting sun in your eyes, hoping, hoping.

At first it's no more than a haze on the horizon, the ghost of a haze, the pure line corrupted. But clouds do that, and storms. So you watch, you watch. Then it's a smudge, a shadow on the far water. For a day, for another day, the stain slowly spreads along the horizon, and takes form - until on the third day you let yourself believe. You dare to whisper the word - land!

Land. Life. Resurrection. The true adventure. Coming out of the vast unknown, out of the immensity, into safe harbor at last. That - that - is the New World.”

Isn’t it incredible? This description simply took my breath away. I was enraptured with such deep and meaningful words. Suddenly I wasn’t here in 2012, I went back in time and found myself on a ship, heading to the unknown. I consider myself an explorer since I’m travelling around the world with nothing but a bag pack and a map, but can you image how it would be to go on a journey like this? The feeling of adventure, not knowing what you are going to find, how many days left to find it. The fear of end up not finding anything at all or the excitement of finding a bit of paradise here on Earth. The unavoidable doubt: how is it like? Is it even real? Or just a product of a mad man’s imagination? Is it an inhabited place or just desert land waiting for us to discover it?

I can’t help thinking that travelling is not so exciting now, I mean, it really is wonderful visiting other countries, meeting new people, experiencing new things, but the boring part is that we already know where we are going to. The possibility of just getting on board of a ship and set sail to the horizon with no direction and hope to find something never seen before is nothing but a dream now. Everything has been discovered already and that leaves me thinking that the world has become a smaller place. Or if not smaller, more empty. Don’t you agree?

I was really surprised to find out that Virginia was named after the “Virgin Queen”, it’s funny, in its way. I searched for pictures of “Virginia beach” online and it really is beautiful there. Besides, you know I can’t resist a nice beach like that! So don’t leave just yet, I’m going to meet you! I already bought the plane tickets! I guess I won’t have to wait for you to bring Gabriel to our town after all! Some of the friends I made here in India agreed to go with me so I won’t be going alone!

I hope I find a cute friend like yours during the flight! I miss you a lot and can’t wait to see you!

Love,

Érica.

Dear Erica,

 As I was leaving Africa, my dad sent me an email. He was so impressed with my new tan that he wrote and I quote « you passed from Queen Elizabeth ( that queen we studied on the 12th grade which was very very pail ) « to Naomi Campbell! » ( the supermodel of Afro-jamaican descent).

As you can imagine this sentence made my day, but it also made me curious, so I stopped in the airport and before I decided where to go next I watched the movie ' Elizabeth : The Golden Age '. I hardly knew that inside this movie was my next destination!

 There's a character that personifies the real finder of Virginia, named Walter Raleigh (1584), that explores the so called 'New World' and he is the one that baptized Virginia.

On behalf of the Queen, he explored the american coast and claimed the region from South Caroline untill Maine to the United Kingdom and named this immense area 'Virginia', because of the Queens's epithet 'The Virgin Queen'. It was expected that she would marry and produce an heir so as to continue the Tudor line, but she never did and as she grew older, she actually became famous for her virginity. (Weird ...)

Well after all this new discovers I think you can guess where I'm heading ... Virginia Beach! There was a boy seated right next to me and after a short chat I realized he is also going to Virginia Beach so I learned all of this : every year the city hosts the East Coast Surfing Championships as well as the North American Sand Soccer Championship and it is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as having the longest pleasure beach in the world!

So please try to visit me there, you know how much you love sun and sand girl!

Missing you a lot and with a very nasty backache due to the hours I've spent seated watching the movie, answering to you and to my dad and talking with Gabriel, I'll be waiting for your answer and hopefully your visit.

Love, Sara

P.S: I know you got curious about Gabriel so guess what ? ... He's just like Brenton Thwaites!!

The Virgin Queen

First place I want to visit.

Gabriel saying 'Hi' to you!

My dear Érica,

What wondrous two weeks you had! It's astounding to realize how much you have learned in such a short period of time with people that have such striking differences from us but that actually helped us out throug History. And did you knew that the different colours that the Taj Mahal gains through out the day represent the different moods of women? I really must go there soon.

But speaking about colour ... do you remember all the times you mocked at me because of whiteness ? Well ... you can't mocke me anymore, because here in AFRICA the heat, despite killing me slowly, is giving me a tan almost as dusky as the owners of some of the most beautiful smiles I've ever seen.

That's right, Africa! It's only the second most populous continent, right behind Asia, with a thousand millions of people, but as you can imagine a very crowded and unexpected one. When I first arrive to Tanzania ( Suaíli speaking ), through lake Tanganica, because I have Uganda and Quenia up north and Mozambique down at south, I thought I would stop my journey right here.

I didn´t had the smallest idea but the word "vudu" was brought by our nation from here! And also words like "zombie", so guess where did I entered as soon as I set foot here ? In a vudu ceremony where everybody was dressed looking a lot like zombies of course. I'm sending you some of the pictures, don't worry. I think you would have liked it, it was a lot more real then the ones we saw on that tv serie about some different cults.

I also found out that Tanzania is home for some of the most ancient human settlements, like fossils from the first human beings, found closed to the "Throat of Olduvai", up north, a place also known as the Cradle of Humankind. I visited and I absolutely loved it!

 Last but not least, the Kilimanjaro is one of the most breathtaking natural monuments I've ever seen. I can now agree with the "Lion King" is version of it. On my way to see it more closely I noticed that here food has had many influences, mainly from Europe, but natural products, vegetables and tropical fruit, that we both love, are the most found.

Missing you a lot, dancing around a fire and learning more about this amazing country that has conquered me ( and has left new varities of English to develop all over the globe. I guess both languages had influenced each other mutually too ... funny right ? ), I'll be here for one more week, waiting to read more about your next adventure.

Love,

Sara

 P.S.: I hope you bought a sari, they have the most amazing colours!  

Dear Sara,

                I’ve only been travelling for two weeks now and I couldn’t be enjoying it more! I’m so thrilled! I’ve met wonderful people and learned so much already. Yesterday I arrived to a new country. It’s in South Asia, it’s the seventh largest country by area, the second most populous country with over 1.2 billion people and the most populous democracy in the world. Can you guess it? I’m in India!

                There are so many interesting places to visit here! This is such a beautiful country! Besides, the Indian culture it’s so different than ours that it makes it even more captivating. I’ve visited several monuments already and I was truly fascinated. The monuments of India are a living testimony which pulls us back to the particular era in which they were built, so they are considered a real treasure and are preserved with great importance. The one I liked the most was definitely the Taj Mahal in Agra, a palace that is just breathtaking! Set against the blue skyline, it looks like a mirage in a desert. How I wish you were here to see it! It was built by the emperor Shah Jahan as a tribute to his wife so it is considered one of the most beautiful love gestures in the whole world.

                Today I came with some friends to explore the interior of the country, and right in the middle of the jungle there was a tribe that actually lives here! They are so friendly. Only a few of them speak English but they invited us to have dinner with them, because it is their tradition to share a meal with the visitors. While we were having dinner, I asked if they could teach me some of their words and what they mean. My accent was not perfect so I caused a few laughs. Then, the chief told us some things none of us knew: he said that several words we use everyday come from their language. Words like yoga and bungalow. I had no idea! When the English started expanding their territory, in order to build their empire, they came to India for the spices, the natural resources and to expand Christianity, but they ended up taking more than they expected: new words. With the English settlement and the creation of the Eastern Indian Company, the inhabitants needed to learn the language if they wanted to participate in trade and political affairs, so English became the second language of the country and both languages influenced each other mutually.

                Do you know where the word “khaki” (meaning dust-colored in Indian) comes from? The British Army used to wear bright maroon-colored jackets which made them standout targets in battle. Then an Indian soldier suggested “Why don’t you wear khaki?” The British tried the suggestion and discovered that the casualty rate did go down because khaki blended with the landscape, making them no longer visible targets. The British adopted the suggestion for worldwide forces and the word joined the English language in 1837. I also learned that the word cashmere was named after the Indian State of Kashmir. Isn’t it wonderful how the Indian culture influenced ours this much?

                Well, I hope you’re loving your journey as much as I am! I miss you like crazy!

                Love,

                Érica.

                Dear Sara,

                Guess what I’m going to do the next two years! I’m going to travel all around the world! It’s sort of a gap year. I believe I need to take some time to myself, a break from the real world. Since next year I was supposed to go to college and, as you know, I’m a bit confused about what area to choose, I think these next years are going to work wonders for me and my future. I’m going to find myself and learn more about the world in order to discover what I really love to do! I’m really going to miss you but I will write you whenever I can, telling you where I’m at.

                With love, 

                Érica.

                Dear Érica,

                No way! I couldn´t believe it when I read your letter! I’m also going to take a year off from college. My bags are already at the front door and my mother has already given me a huge bag with all sorts of pills and lotions to protect me from mosquito bites.

I hope to meet you somewhere around the world, hopefully in some warm and sunny place. I’ll write you too, whenever I have news.

P.S.: I’m so excited!

               Love,

               Sara.