When I started adapting to life in Germany I found it striking how different people and places can be. I still will be walking down a street in my neighbourhood and feel completely out of place, interestingly enough I feel the same going back to my home in Mexico. I think this is something universal of expats. Belonging to both but none fully. This feeling sparked a drive to see what is out there in the word. Maybe not consciously, but I wanted to figure out the different ways people live their lives, how they interact with each other, how do they think and act. Travelling is a good way of exploring these questions, but it just provides but a glimpse. So, decided to live in places that would challenge me and my perceptions. I did my ERASMUS semester in Denmark, which doesn’t sound too exotic. However, from the European countries Scandinavia might be the further away from my experience growing up in Mexico. Not only the weather, but the people are quite colder. People are polite enough, but making friends is a tall order if you are only staying for couple of moths. I was used to making friends within the first interactions. Danes are different that way. However, this experience made me aware that I thrive in new environments where I need to create a community around myself. I like being the new guy that brings people together from very diverse backgrounds and interests. 

The same motivation got me the opportunity to do research in Saudi Arabia. It was never in my plans to visit, forget about living there, but an opportunity showed up and I took it. The idea was to go there after my undergraduate degree and explore the possibility of staying and studying in KAUST. Global impediments prevented this from happening. Nevertheless, the university was still interested in having me as a PhD candidate and I was willing to experience what that would be like. So, the week I handed in my Master thesis I packed my bags and ventured to one of the most culturally significant places in the world. I grew with catholic influences in my family and islamic religion was such a foreign concept for me. I wanted to grasp it and understand this countries people and their culture. After my stay in Saudi Arabia, I was reminded that we all live through a human experience. We all want to follow our dreams, be respected, love and be loved. We might all be as unique as snowflakes, but snowflakes are all made of water. We have more in common. We should appreciate and focus on that.