🌎 3 Simple Steps to Explore the World: Read, Eat, Discover!
August 24, 2024 • 2 min read
What is the best time to start a new project, especially when you have many other things you want to do? The answer is simple: right now!
One thing that helped me grow in such different ways was “to learn based on my curiosity and joy, rather than external pressures and fears”. This sentence comes from one of the three self-directives from the Recurse Center, a retreat for programmers - Build your volitional muscles. Ever since I attended the retreat in 2020 I’ve embraced this mantra.
Although I want to do many things, like write a newsletter, create YouTube videos, complete unfinished courses, read more about Barcelona, read more technical books, etc., right now I really want to expand my knowledge of other cultures and put aside the rest.
Traveling and living abroad has shaped me into the person I am today and I want to experience more of it. There are lots places I haven’t yet been to that I might not even make it to. So what can I do about it? Becoming more intentional with what I consume could be a great start toward this challenge I want to embark on:
The World Challenge: A Journey Through Books and Bites
I’ve signed up for the DSLX Writing Academy a few months ago. Unexpectedly the storytelling course included reading homework which made me move away from growth-related books to novels and stories. On the list, there were two books from Afghanistan. I read both and this helped me get a different perspective on this country I’ve only known about from the news. It was quite a journey and I wanted to continue on it.
This reminded me of an idea I heard some time ago in the Women In Tech Cluj Book Club - to get to know the world by reading a book from each country. Given reading will take a while. There are though other ways to experience other cultures, through the belly. Traveling to a place might be ideal but not always that easy. So why not, speed up things by trying different cuisines when eating out? Barcelona is filled with international restaurants to pick from as in other places in Europe.
So here is my new challenge: Eat and Read the World!
What I’ve found when doing a bit of research is that it might not be easy to find specific books or decide on what to read. Luckily I can start with the countries I have friends from. Plus I got some inspiration from Ann Morgan’s blog who actually started this idea of reading the world a few years ago.
With all this though I’d love to get some help from y’all as well. Please please:
- Share book recommendations
It would be cool if these would be some of your favorites. Books can be novels, short stories, memoirs, or biographies - I like these a lot - or even poetry books. Make sure they are good though! What I feel is important is that these books have some claim to be considered part of the literature of a country somewhere in the world - as Ann Morgan put it. If you don’t know of such books but you’ve read a story set in a country and you loved or liked it please add it. I will check it out!
- Share food recommendations as well as restaurants (ideally in Barcelona)
I’m aware some traditional food is shared across countries. Don’t think too much if something is specific to a place only. Just make sure what you recommend is delicious and as a bonus, if you have a favorite restaurant even if outside of Barcelona please send it over. You never know where my next vacation might be!
If you want to check my progress and get some inspiration here are lists for both reading and eating.
That’s all! I’ll keep y’all updated on this adventure. Who knows maybe you’ll join me!
Keep exploring!
Read More:
Stefi Rosca
👩💻 Frontend Developer, 🌍 traveler and⛷️ Skier
Recurse Center Alumn