🌎 My 3 simple smart steps to explore the world: read, eat, write!
August 24, 2024 • 2 min read
When is the best time to start a new project—especially when you have so many other things to do? The answer is simple: right now!
One thing that’s always helped me grow is “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. I’ve embraced this mantra ever since I participated in the retreat in 2020.
I want to do so much: write a newsletter, create YouTube videos, complete unfinished courses, dive deeper into the culture of Barcelona, read more technical books, the list is long and never getting shorter. Probably I am not alone in wanting to do so much. But, right now I really want to expand my knowledge of other cultures. I’m happy to put aside the rest for a while.
Traveling and living abroad has shaped me into the person I am today and I want to experience more of it. There are so many places I haven’t been yet that I might not even make it to! So, what can I do about it?
Becoming more intentional with what I consume is a great start. Here’s the challenge:
Discover the World Challenge: A Journey Through Books and Bites
Here’s the backstory. I joined the dslx Writing Academy a few months ago. Unexpectedly, the storytelling course included homework. This reading material 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 the 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 Slack channel - a tech community from Cluj that hosts an online Book Club - to get to know the world by reading a book from each country.
Given reading will take a while I’ve come up with a delicious solution: experiencing 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?
So here is my challenge: to eat and read the world!
What I’ve found when researching is that it might not be easy to decide on what to read. However, I can start with the countries I have friends from. Plus, I have a list from Ann Morgan’s blog who started this reading idea a few years ago.
With all this on the table, I’d love to get some help from y’all. Please, please:
- Share book recommendations
I’d love to hear your favorites. Books can be novels, short stories, memoirs, or biographies - I like these a lot - or even poetry books. 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 it please let me know. I’ll 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 overthink it. Just make sure what you recommend is tasty! 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