Ich Bin Ein Berliner

The moment John F. Kennedy visited Berlin he said this words "Ich bin ein Berliner", which means "I'm a Berliner".

Last week I was in Berlin, I lived in a house with 32 teenagers, they all come from all around the World; Chile, Moldova, Colombia, Germany, Bulgaria, Swiss, Belgium, Estonia, Latvia, Ecuador, China, Japan and Thailand. We spent 7 days sharing experiences, making new ones. We became a family.

Why I went? Well it'a a program made for all the exchange students and their brothers and sisters in their new families. I had the option to choose between a couple of places, and I was never before in Berlin, so it was perfect.

There I went to know a little of the city, important places, the Palace of Sanssouci n Postdam, the wall of Berlin, Museums, The Door of Brandenburg,  and so on. Some evenings I got to go to the theater or to restaurants for dinner, I also got shopping time (which btw. I forgot one of the bags at the train on my way back).

The last night we got to do a party inside the house, we put music with the speakers and we danced, we had fun. The next morning it was sad to say goodbye to everybody because we probably won't see us again, and yes of course we got each others Facebook but it's not the same. Some cried some didn't, some went together to the train station, but it was a morning of hugs, of saying goodbye to 32 brothers and sisters. I want to go back to this little house in Charlottenburg. To see each one of these people one more time.

- Luisa Alcocer

A Short Thought :@

Put it like this: You get to learn how to live by yourself, how to understand the rest of the world, how to create your point of view and share it with others, how to manage things alone, how to live independently.

Then you return to your childhood, but you're still able to use this awesome abilities that you learned threw this tremendous and priceless adventure. Would you feel safe and extremely comfortable, in a way you can enjoy life more... or would you feel trapped, pointless, as if you were moving backwards not taking advantage of all this new tools because you came back to that place where you don't have enough space to keep playing.

But before taking the spaceship and fly to this old territory that belonged to you. Would you feel anxious and curious to see your old teddy, your old stories "written" in the wall and join them with new... Or would you feel disgusted by the dust and spider webs, scared of not coming out again.

I feel nothing, well yes happy of coming back, sad for leaving this place. I miss people, but I will miss some more. I'm really exited to go back, and mix both of my worlds, use what I've got, let out what I've been threw (experiences, stories, pictures, memories). Show the world I'm different, yes, I'm ready to do that.

But yes, yes I would be disappointed if people back in town see me as little Luisa, as this girl that left at 16 and not this girl that returned at 18. If they don't feel the "change" even if it's clear as a window in the White House, not because it's not easy but because they don't want to move on. Not only I've learned how to express myself even better than what I used to, but I think wider, and I do wider, and having a wall basically new would just cut my inspiration for life, my hunger for further, my desire to keep walking.

Plus, in this point of my life I cannot do more but to thank every single human being that have been in my life, they made my life happy as hell, without them I would be nothing.

Gracias ;)

-Luisa Alcocer

What I Call Home ^^

Mexico... you've probably heard of it: Speedy Gonzales, Tacos, Tequila, Cactus, Chili, Carlos Slim, Sombreros, Ponchos, Piñatas and much more. And probably you've also heard the "dark details": Drugs, Poverty, blah blah blah; which are actually not as important in my writing and in my way of looking at this relatively big country trapped between The States, The Latinos, the Pacific Ocean and Cuba.

I've met people from different places. Some have asked me if we speak Mexican, my answer to that NOO! We speak Spanish!. Some have told me that Mexico is a city in Spain, but sorry that's not correct, we are a country in America. I've also heard "Do you go by Donkey to school?", sorry that would be kind of cool, but no, I drive a car.

First, What I think, including a little context for those not familiarized with the topic. Mexico is not exactly a First World Country, but it's in a pretty god place in the list, and day by day it's getting better.

Our public education is not the best, and yes, not all of our children have the opportunity to learn how to read, and yes, not all of our teenagers have the time to go to high school because they need to get money for their homes. But we have young people that are able to look for solutions, even when the recourses are short, we have people that got the chance to attend to a private school and get a high level  education, and have started looking for solutions, helping others, developing incredible ideas.

The politics in Mexico is basically divided in three, the conservative, the liberals and the communists; but in the end everybody is controlled by the same people year after year. Will get over it.

Yeah, we have drug dealing, but if you don't mess with 'em they won't mess with you, so take a breath is not that scary as it sounds on BBC News. Just think of an American Movie,  the mexican mafia can't really do something without screwing it up.

Mexico is a country where the diversity of food is extremely big, it goes from a plate that's really spicy to the sweetest candy you can imagine, we have a magical history in our cities because we have old pyramids and classic spanish XVIII century buildings in the same Plaza, we receive information from the "Important Countries" and from the poor. We still have people in our towns, where they build everything by hand and where you see children smiling, because even if it's not the best quality of life, it's one of the happiest populations of our planet.

I was away from home for a year, now I'm back. I missed it, like hell. I can confess, before I left I thought it wasn't that cool, but now I can tell I love it, and I'm really thankful I'm from this land. I really had luck because where I live is a mix of the best of the 1st. World countries and the best of The Rest, and maybe a little taste of Mafia.

-Luisa Alcocer