I have a new apartment mate. Her name is Edita (nice name) and she, just like Marketa, is from Czech Republic. She studies molecular biology and came here because, she says, Aarhus University offers the best research in this field in Europe. I don’t want to be arrogant and/or ignorant so…I will just let myself discover her in time and not put a mark on her forehead before knowing what she’s all about. Playing smart-ass is not for me anymore.
Discovering the things she brought with her, in her bag, from home…made me think how responsible we, as travelers, are, and how our inner comes out in objects we choose to put in the never too big bag we take with us. I was very surprised when Marketa told me that Edita brought with her a pot from Prague. A pot made by Ikea, which is a multinational company and Scandinavian based. What is striking is how, even if the world gets smaller and smaller with all these globalization processes, we still tend to get stuff in our bags which could be bought wherever we would go, made by the same brand and most probably at the same price (especially in the EU).
Than I started to think about my bag…and Marketa’s bag…and other people’s bags…Me, for example, I only take clothes, cosmetics, medicine and a book or two (not to get bored). I never take survival stuff, not even towels…unless my mother would remind me. I don’t know why I do that. I always buy other clothes where I go and wear those, not the ones I take with me, and I always have problems packing. Another example is Marketa. When she came to Aarhus, she came with an empty big trolley. At the begging I didn’t get it, but than it all made sense. Because she didn’t want to have a heavy bag when arriving for the first time in a city she didn’t know anything about, she just took an empty one, which would be filled when she would return. Her parents sent her everything a few weeks later by post mail. On the other hand, Mara came with a bag bigger than mine, twice as big. But I never knew what she had in it. She didn’t have so many clothes, no food, no books…it’s a mistery. The second time we came here doesn’t count…it only counts what you get with you the first time you go to a place you’ve never been before.
I was thinking about making a survey just for my own personal amusement.
So what does your bag look like?!