Moving to England…
After 2 great years in Barcelona, my wife Andresa got tired of the somehow 19th-century schooling system and about 4 months ago she moved to the UK while I was going to Japan for 3 months. She moved to a boarding school and I’d not be able to live with her while she was working.
On my way back, about a month ago, I have been exploring the possibilities of work in a way that I could visit her from time to time. Besides Barcelona, I was looking at the collective work on product value chains the Dutch are developing and also the many corporate and city advances of collective planning in the UK.
During my time travelling I decided that, because of the new doors open, it would be unwise to stay in Spain. The light Spanish spirit brought wonderful moments and friends — personally it was absolutely fantastic to be in Barcelona, be able to interact with passionate people, to dance and to practice aikido, to read books in catalan and enjoy one of the best cuisines in Europe. Professionally, besides the challenges of the financial times that was a hit in the country, I’ve met great professionals and dedicated artists.
In general, although it was a great place to live, I could not find neither a regular space of collective learning and exploration nor a practice of good hosting or sustainability beyond basics. I had the impression that the old schooling system has thought people badly when it comes to learning: answers rather than questions, getting a certification diploma rather than learning.
On the other end my conversation with my Dutch and English friends were very nice (thank you for the emails, skypes and everything else!!) to define what is going on around those places and the possibilities of work and projects. Some ideas and possibilities came up, some very exciting, but they did not work out, meaning it was not the time for me or for the projects. For the future, who knows…
Sometime in the middle of my travels, however, a new possibility arose, something very unexpected to me, that converged quickly and now…