Showing posts with label Global Niche. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Global Niche. Show all posts

Monday, September 3, 2012

Be Where You're At

Back in town and trying to gauge what has changed since I left four months ago.

Everything.

Nothing.

 It's almost as if I  astrotraveled through the night and remained in my Denver bed the whole time, arriving energized and ...

Be Where Ur At
happy to be here.

I left what had become almost unbearable and leaving brought me full circle... here.  On my return I am in a subtle but synchronistic mode. When I left, I was swimming against the current, like Fishies sometimes do and I knew from experience that traveling would balance things out. Indeed it made embracing the flow easier.

For those of us who classify ourselves nomads, Third Culture or Global Nicher's, traveling is not only an acquired taste. It is what has defined us likely since birth or childhood. Moving 'elsewhere' is our refuge when we need to sort things out. Everyone has their own bag of tricks, moving is part of our magic. My friends @DisplacedNation explain it well in their 'Constitution'.

Going back to Italy this time was good and bad, frustrating, serendipitous, frivolous, scary, disillusioning, grounding, eye opening and life confirming  - not to mention fun freeking fantastic. Bureaucratic misunderstandings made staying impossible for now, but what a wow experience on so many creative levels - human and spirit!

 I re learned once again picking up, leaving everything and diving head long into an adventure in a new country that 'tutto il mondo e paese', like the Italians are fond of saying. In some very trite and familiar sense it is what philosophers, writers and zen teachers everywhere shout out from their book covers. You don't really need to move to find out what it is that you already know, but it is a lot of fun.

I feel this with a longing and a recognition that is deep, deep in my traveling soul -like the taste of a childhood memory of luscious fruit. For now, the memory is strong and the longing not yet critical, which is the best place to be to experience the moment.





Thursday, March 29, 2012

Silvana Mondo

@aboutme.com

Silvana Mondo

Writer, Entrepreneur, Traveler, Oracle. Pomegranate eater

Silvana Mondo picture 
I curate stories about culture, food, politics, ideas & people that reveal what I believe is important.  A nomadic early life gave me a global education which was inspired by sojourns in Europe, Asia. America and a rather glamorous mother as a role model.  I absorbed all manner of lifestyles & perspectives which in turn influences what I write and spices up my blog & twitter posts. I have used my multi cultural experiences as a creative guideline in my life and business ventures, which have included a successful boutique & healing spa in Colorado, a true Italian bakery/cafe in Florida and numerous culture related installations including a gallery presentation of my photography, 'Beyond Sarajevo'. I am fluent in four languages and  have interpreted in various capacities my whole life, both  in the private as well as public sector. In more personal work I go back to my Slavic roots with recipes and herbal remedies handed down to me by my Bosnian grandmother to tell stories that piece together history, relevant anecdotes about current themes relating to regional cuisine, cultural anthropology, identity and place which are published in newspapers locally and international online forums like expat+Harem and Global Niche.


Working 15+ years alternately with refugees, elders, women, advocates &  pro-food initiatives in America and abroad I have brought my quest for authenticity to each endeavor without sacrificing a certain type of savvy, insight, style.

Plans for 2012 are:

A compilation of essays on the cuisine of my hybrid Balkan heritage,

Guide to small group immersion tours to Italy & SE Europe,

Launch of informative short videos that give relevant & unique cultural/culinary tips for travelers,

 "Travels with Anima", an interactive travel blog about life in Italy with my pre teen daughter, written in conjunction with a group of international women travelers.

MORE...

I independently support  and partner with women entrepreneurs working to sustain biodiversity in Central Bosnia. I adore documentaries, researching heritage plants & animals and am often found drinking Turkish coffee in good company. (100Fildzana.com).

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Food Communion at expat+Harem

My guest post featured today at the  expat+HAREM website. My heartfelt thank you to Anastasia Ashman for giving me the space and time to explore my thoughts and share them with an audience that I both relate to and admire.

 

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Women living the Global Life

I just spent a good piece of the late morning on a very cool website that I go to often. I start reading the expat + HAREM website totally intrigued and by the time I know it I am browsing amazing blogs written by the women that are featured there.

Anastasia Ashman, who is the creator, writes that her site is 'a neocultural hub for global citizens'. I will read a few of posts on the site, armchair travel through some personal blogs and pronto! I am swept away to different worlds.

The posts are populated with women from all walks of life, with 'hybrid identities' and as they relay their stories, communicating their love and at times, frustration with assimilation, expression and setbacks of living life in a country other than their own, I get a glimpse of something very personal and real.

Having traveled and lived abroad (meaning non USA) much of my life, I never really felt I belonged to any country with whole heart and soul. It is possible that is why I find the stories at expat intriguing, familiar and admittedly, I often succumb to a questionable form of travel envy!

I love that expat +HAREM is inventing new spaces to tap into for those of us that crave to be or who live in cultures that are different than our own.  The editors create interest by exploring the voices of the women who are building businesses, raising children and adapting to work conditions abroad. Everything on the site is easily accessible and engaging.  Anastasia writes about women finding a personal 'global niche', appropriate to the fast changing, social media infused lives we live now.

Next time you are in the mood to see what it is like to live and work in an 'exotic' country where 'challenging situations' are sometimes a matter of everyday life, check out the lives of 'global hybrids' and 'culturati' here.