13- Education is not a building

1- These past 4 days were hectic. 3 days ago I solidified the understanding that education is not a building. With a Cultural studies scholar, a friend I met here couple of months ago, we had a deep conversation about the current state of the world. She was asking me questions about the country I...

12- Militant optimism, curiosity and poetry

1- I talked to my friend who traveled across Europe for several months. She told me everyone seems depressed, confused, in identity crisis and on anti-depressants. Someone said Finish children are suicidal; Cambodians seem to be quite positive. When one does not have a choice, one does it, I guess the sensation of happiness can...

11- The Societal pharmacy: Trauma and Entertainment

1- We talked about the entertainment today, and about its dullness in terms of value in places where people gave up on dealing with the collective trauma; and instead of shedding a light on it and trying to find informed approaches to dealing with it, people feel so doomed and deeply suppress it, pushing ignorance...

10- Who branded God?

1- Today I learnt that the comparative study of the visual languages of different religions must be a very interesting field. I consciously entered in multiple of pagodas for the first time- consciously, with the feelings and all, I was actually expecting to enter in a sacred place, rather than framing the place as art...

9- Love and other passions

1- 2 days ago I learned or I was reminded about love.  There are 2 girls who have their own bar here, and they look full of understanding when they talk to each other. I asked them if they are together, and one of them said that they are together for 7 years now. They...

8- You rise with rice

1- The name of my sink is lovely. Today I consumed a lot of information, but the wisdom I came across to was that networking does not matter as much as the quality of whatever you are doing. Publishing the fruits of your passion is easy. The process is like cleaning rice though. 2- I...

7 – Noticing

1 - Today I learned a lot. Noticing is one of the most important things. I was on a filmmaking event and they asked us to stare at the eyes of an unknown person next to us, and this person looks back, for 3 minutes. It was such a bonding activity. After this the conversation...

6 – Privileged

1- Coming from a developing country, I rarely feel privileged, instead, having adopted the dominant narrative I often feel as a helpless victim, and tend to apply this narrative to my private life reflections by inertia which is a type of resistance to being productive. Here, there are cleaning ladies, who keep my apartment clean...

5- Map orientation is a learned skill

1- This is something I have learned before yesterday, living here, reading a map is a skill that one learns. I also did not use maps in my life previously, as I did not have the need to, but it seems that it was easier for me to acquire this than some of the tuk-tuk...

4- Nosebleed, sexual arousal, finger cut and nice people

1- Today, on set I learned that in Japan nosebleed is a sign of sexual arousal (when a guy sees a sexually appealing girl his nose would bleed). One of the directors mentioned that they might be using this element in the commercial. In the morning I had a chat with 2 Indonesian friends, discussing...