Without Borders: Stories by the Inescapably Foreign.

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Within seconds of stepping out of the train in Hamburg, I saw bearded people in dresses, women in Abayas, hippies, and business professionals smoking weed, downing beers, making deals, laughing, and, best of all, mixing.

Hamburg was a refreshing breath of diversity after two months in Poland. The progressive air continued to breeze throughout my entire trip, thanks to my couch surfing host. We walked the streets where anarchists plotted their plans and vagrants pissed their pants, window-shopped the alternative fashion designers, and entered the second-hand shops where clothes became affordable. We sailed through the waters that bring fresh seafood to this otherwise sausage-ridden land, cruised bikes through the tree-shadowed paths where millionaires enjoy the coolness of lakes, and spoke of all the other ingredients that make Hamburg a home for people from all walks of life.

This guide isn’t for all walks of life, though. This is for those who want to save money while enjoying the sea, rivers, art, fashion, and gay-friendly football.

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Rivers & Sea

My first impression of Germany was Bavaria, the region where every town claims to have the best sausage. It also happens to be the most conservative region. Although I don’t know the exact correlation coefficient between sausage intake and political disposition, I believe the cause is being too far away from the sea or, better yet, ports.

Hamburg's port is the third-largest in Europe, following Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Antwerp in Belgium. Although stats and the current political climate show that these aren’t the most liberal cities, if you get your head out of the numbers and into the streets, you’ll notice these cities vibrate with diverse, artistic, and forward-thinking communities.

The same goes for other European cities with ports, such as Barcelona, Copenhagen, and Stockholm, although the latter two don’t feel nearly as diverse as Hamburg.

Obviously, not all port cities are liberal, but there’s no doubt that the variety of food, goods, people, and drugs that ships bring impact an open mind and progressive thinking. Plus, there’s no denying that eating fatty fish is healthier for your brain than fatty sausages.

Am I saying progressive thinking takes more brainpower than traditional and conservative thinking?

Of course. Progressive thinking often involves considering multiple perspectives, integrating new information, and adapting to changing environments. Higher openness is also linked to greater neural activity in areas of the brain involved in processing new information and making connections between disparate ideas.

Progressive thinking often involves more complex moral reasoning, which can involve balancing competing ethical principles, considering the welfare of diverse groups, and being open to changing one's views in light of new evidence.

But let’s get back to the travel writing conservatives can enjoy, too (and let’s remember we’re all conservative relative to what we like).

The sea might bring you the people that broaden your mind and the fish to keep it working, but it’s Hamburg’s lakes and canals that bring it peace. Thanks to Danish NGO GreenKayak, you can paddle them for free while collecting waste from the waste from the Alster—Hamburg's second most important river. The first is the Elbe River, which is known for its international importance as a tidal waterway and its susceptibility to flooding.

That’s why you have buildings like the Elbphilharmonie, the iconic concert hall that allows water to flow underneath the building through specially designed openings and channels, ensuring that the water does not flood the surrounding streets.

From here, you’re only a ten-minute bike ride (which is free with Stadtrad, Hamburg’s city bike-sharing system, since it takes under 30 minutes) from Hamburg’s most famous neighbourhood, St. Pauli.

Art & Fashion

My first stop in St. Pauli was the former Nazi bunker transformed into a hip green space for artists and musicians with panoramic views of the city.

A few minutes from here, you have the Repabahn, the street known as the "sinful mile.” As with all Red Light districts, we shouldn’t deny that they support sex traffickers and drug dealers, but from the people I interviewed, it seemed most were there by choice. One woman happened to be a kindergarten teacher saving up for a downpayment through horny dudes.

Not only does the street fulfil the salacious desires of cisgender fuckboys, LGBTQ+- activists, swinging couples, curious minds, and drunken souls, but it’s also a place the pious, bourgeoisie, and high-culture seekers can enjoy.

The Operettenhaus hosts high-quality productions, including popular musicals like Phantom of the Opera and Mamma Mia. The St. Pauli Theater is one of Germany's oldest theatres and offers a variety of performances, including plays, comedies, and concerts. The Schmidt Theater and Schmidts Tivoli are two venues offering a mix of cabaret, musicals, and comedies, often with a unique blend of humour and high-calibre performances. And for those who want to remain cultured while dipping their “toes” into their unconventional sexual side, there’s the Erotic Art Museum, which explores the history and cultural significance of erotic art.

For those interested in experiencing art outside of venues and museums, the Karolinenviertel neighbourhood is known for its bohemian vibe, street art, and independent shops, many of which belong to alternative fashion designers. It’s also known as one of the most left-leaning neighbourhoods along with Schanzenviertel, otherwise known as the “The Schanze,” where you can find the Rota Flora.

The Rota Flora is a former theatre that has become an autonomous cultural and political center since it was squatted in 1989. Although I didn’t hear the conversations happening inside, I did see the lack of conversations and movement happening outside. I’m not sure a collection of homeless people and white dudes with dreadlocks is the best visual rhetoric for anti-fascist movements, but I do believe that football is.

Gay-Friendly Soccer

Some people argue that football brings the world together. Sure, it’s a game people from any country and economic background can play, but it’s anything but uniting. It’s a sport filled with hypermasculinity and commercial pressures where gay people (and anyone with a progressive political stance) are told to shut up while the fans, players, and even officials shout out homophobic slurs without consequence. Meanwhile, “initiatives” like the Premier League’s "Rainbow Laces" campaign are nothing other than token gestures.

However, this isn’t the case with the St. Pauli football club.

Founded in 1910, St. Pauli has historically been a small club with limited success in top-tier football. However, during the 1980s, it began to transform into what it is today: a club known as much for its political stance as for its performance.

St. Pauli has launched campaigns like "Rainbow Day" to promote LGBTQ+ rights. The players and fans are vocal in opposing far-right ideologies, with slogans like "No football for fascists.” The club addresses and even bans fans who participate in racist, sexist, or other forms of discriminatory behaviour. Most importantly, they put their money where their mouth is by supporting charitable initiatives, including refugee rights and social justice campaigns.

St. Pauli, like Hamburg, has popular anti-fascist and anti-discrimination movements, but it’s far from anti-capitalist. After getting through the security lineup and the sensory-harassing perfume section of the duty-free shop, you arrive in “St.Pauli world.” Their skull and bone logos are found everywhere, from sweaters to keychains.

No matter the political stance we take, in our world, progress has a price. There’s no “-ist” or “anti-ist” that can’t be bought and sold. And Hamburg, being one of the richest cities in Germany, recognises that.

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Although I had planned to stay in Poland for a few weeks, I stayed for over two months. The contrast to Valencia, Spain, was just what I needed—

“Peace.”

Krakow’s parks create a green oasis in a city of over 700,000 people (1,000,000 if you include the student population). The people speak at a volume Valencias would consider a whisper and with an amount philosophers would be proud of.

Nature gave us one tongue and two ears so we could hear twice as much as we speak.

— Epictetus

However, if you read “A Local’s Guide to Poland,” you know my Polish host thinks most Pols are anything but wise or even tolerable.

His brutal directness and critical thinking about relationships, politics, and Poland gave me an insight most tourists wouldn’t experience. Thanks to my host’s unstinting generosity, I visited restaurants and museums without breaking the bank. More importantly, I had the time to walk, bike, and take in Krakow and Tricity at a slow and therapeutic pace.

Food & Poetry

Before I arrived in Poland, I imagined hunks of dough and chunks of meat slopped down on a plate with some sour cream and overused dill wolfed down my barbarians whose flat backs of skulls were used as dinner plates.

I wasn’t wrong, but there’s more to it than that.

The produce in Poland is some of the best I’ve had—probably because 40% of their population is rural, and almost all their poetry is about the land… or death.

"Życie na wsi" (Life in the Countryside) by Franciszek Karpiński (1741-1825)

Excerpt:

Tu wśród pól zielonych płynie życie moje,Wśród łąk i lasów spędzam chwile swoje.Rolę uprawiam, plon zbieram bogaty,Życie na wsi to spokój i dostatek.

Here among the green fields flows my life,Among meadows and forests, I spend my time.I till the soil, gather rich harvest,Life in the countryside is peace and abundance.

The pastoral veins, otherwise known as Vistula (Wisła), Oder (Odra), Warta, Bug, Narew, San, Noteć, and Pilica rivers, run through Poland’s fields, forests, towns, and cities. Even in urban areas, they’re never far away, and you feel their presence as you eat the cuisine, which is delicious to those of us who love the tangy sourness of fermented foods.

Żurek is Poland's most famous soup and my favourite. It’s made using fermented rye flour (what’s often used for sourdough), giving it a distinctive sour flavour. The ingredients usually include kiełbasa (Polish sausage), diced potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, carrots, leeks, onions, and spices like marjoram, bay leaves, garlic, and horseradish.

I can’t write an article about Poland without Pierogi. This is where you can taste the poetry as everything they grow on their fertile lands, whether it be strawberries, blueberries, cherries, or apples, are used in Pierogi. There’s also Pierogi z Kapustą i Grzybami (Pierogi with Sauerkraut and Mushrooms), Pierogi z Mięsem (Meat Pierogi), Pierogi Ruskie (Ruthenian Pierogi), and the broke ass Pierogi—Pierogi z Kaszą Gryczaną i Twarogiem (Buckwheat and Farmer’s Cheese Pierogi).

I also wrote about Kotlet Shabowy (similar to an Austrian Wiener Schnitzel) and Rosół soup (chicken soup with carrots, parsnips, celery root, leeks, and onions) in “A Kid's Guide to Krakow, Poland” if you’re interested in learning about what children value in Krakow.

Land & Poetry

These are the types of places you find in Krakow scattered throughout the city. If you bike and walk to different neighbourhoods, you rarely go on roads. Instead, you weave your way through parks. The people do not scream or gather in large groups. They keep to themselves, but is it out of respect or depression?

There’s a darkness to the stillness here that’s best captured by Adam Mickiewicz and Tadeusz Różewicz.

"Dziady" (Forefathers' Eve) by Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855)

Excerpt from Part II of "Dziady":

Ciemno wszędzie, głucho wszędzie,Co to będzie, co to będzie?Śród drzewa cienistych kęp,Śród mchów wilgotnych gąszczu,Drży leśny liść, drży wieczny pęd.

Dark everywhere, silent everywhere,What will happen, what will happen?Amidst shady clumps of trees,Amidst damp thickets of moss,The forest leaf trembles, the eternal sprout trembles.

"Ocalenie" (Rescue) by Tadeusz Różewicz 1921 to 2014

Mam dwadzieścia cztery lata ocalałem prowadzony na rzeź.

Oto są słowa puste: człowiek i zwierzę miłość i nienawiść wróg i przyjaciel ciemność i światło.

Człowieka zabijają jak zwierzęwidziałem: furgony porąbanych ludzi którzy nie zostaną ocaleni. Pojęcia są tylko wyrazami:

cnota i występekprawda i kłamstwopiękno i brzydotamęstwo i tchórzostwo.

I am twenty-four led to slaughter I survived.

The following are empty synonyms: man and beast love and hate friend and foe darkness and light.

Man is killed just like an animalI’ve seen: truckloads of chopped-up people who will not be saved.

Concepts are only words: virtue and crime truth and lies beauty and ugliness courage and cowardice.

There is no escaping war in Poland. People here don’t stop talking about war strategies and weapons while suppressing their scars behind vodka and the so-called tough-dude patriarchy.

I thought there might be a break in the mentality in the Tricity (Gdansk, Gdynia, and Sopot) since the forests and people inhale the sea air. Then again, that air belongs to the Baltic—a dying sea with low salinity due to limited exchange with the North Sea and substantial freshwater inflows. Eutrophication from nutrient runoff, pollution from industrial activities, overfishing, and climate change have led to declining water quality, dead zones, and reduced biodiversity. Worst of all, it looks like slimy diarrhea due to the algae and nutrient pollution.

However, staying out of the water has its benefits.

Since I was alone on the Hel Peninsula—a narrow strip of land stretching about 35 kilometres into the Baltic Sea—I experienced it without my host’s history/war lessons. I took advantage of the stretches only 100 meters wide, running from what felt like one sunset to another. I ate fresh Halibut, watched kiteboarders, illegally slept on the beach like the locals, and avoided the bunkers and other war attractions at all costs.

Yet, even here, where surfers, partiers, fishermen, and holiday-goers overtook the land, there is an aura of sadness. Is it generational trauma from war? The dark winters? The access to too much vodka? Whatever the combination is, people love to complain here. They’ll admit it’s a natural sport. Yet, it’s not the French complaining type where people get together to protest, create social change, or s**t in their beloved Seine. There’s a deep, internal pain and frustration here that no amount of wealth or increased GDP seems to change.

So, how exactly did Poland give me what I needed? If you’ve been following this season of Born Without Borders, you know that I planned to go to the North of Sweden.

That’s not happening anymore. I mentioned my goal was to explore slow travel's therapeutic effects and return home, wherever that is.

Something in me told me to go to the North of Sweden. That something was trying to prove to others what I didn’t need to prove to myself. I didn’t need to show off how far I could travel with trains, buses, and bikes—I needed to feel homesick.

Which didn’t turn out to be my birthplace (Chile), the land of my heritage (Belgium), or the country I grew up in (Canada). It was Spain. I started to crave Comunidad Valencia's ambiance. I missed stepping outside in the morning and hearing groups of people talking over each other and disregarding what Northerners call personal space. I missed the sassy abuelas, the morning-drinking abuelos, and most of all, I missed seeing people from all walks of life enjoying life to the fullest.

Yet, I’ve spent enough time in Poland for the country to shape my behaviour and thoughts. For one, I’ll complain more about Spain’s tax system for autonomous (self-employed people). By the way, next week, you can learn about Poland’s tax system, which keeps my friend (who’s originally from Belarus but embodies a true global citizen) in Poland despite all the racism she faces here.

Most of all, I won’t shy away from humanity’s darkness or deny that our world is shaped by violence. Fortunately, you can create beauty within the doors of chaos like the space within atoms. These are the waves on which the human spirit rides.

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Where to next?

Hamburg, Germany. Then maybe Belgium and eventually back to Spain. However, I can’t return to my apartment. That’s an Airbnb story for a later time.

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The best part of Paris is America.

Bear with me.

Of every major European city I’ve visited, Paris is the only one I can’t spend over a week in. Yet, I keep returning to this concrete jungle.

Although I’ve been taking trains, buses, bikes, and carpooling to explore the therapeutic effects of slow travel, the opportunist is much stronger than the environmentalist in me—I couldn’t say no when my host invited my partner and me to Paris by flight.

The focus was on educating his two kids on the high culture of Paris. I’m not indifferent to culture and literature—nothing else occupies my mind and soul more. Yet, I don’t care for a tour guide listing off facts I can read in a book. Not that I could understand our tour guide anyway—she was Polish.

We visited places that show what the human spirit is capable of—Notre Dame, Pont Neuf, the Sainte-Chapelle, Louvre, Tuileries Gardens, Champs-Élysées, Charles de Gaulle Monument, Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, the Palace of Versailles, Place de l'Opéra, Montmartre, and finally, Disneyland—the only place with even more expensive souvenir shops than Paris itself.

If you’re looking for a travel guide about these marvels, you can follow the thousands of guides dedicated to writing about places where people take pictures of their faces.

This is not a guide to the high culture of Paris. Instead, I chose two experiences I’ll remember longer than what the tourists come here for.

Find a Parisian Restaurant with Hamburgers.

My criteria was a patio filled with French people and a menu I struggled to read. My Polish host’s criteria was a relaxed environment where his children could choose a burger or pizza. My partner’s criteria was “Anything’s fine,” which, according to gender stereotypes, means “Nothing’s fine.”

Luckily, we found a restaurant that seemed to suit all our wants—Aux Dés Calés 17 - Legendre. A restaurant in the 17th arrondissement, a district that blends cosmopolitan energy and residential calm, making it attractive to families, young professionals, and the occasional sex worker.

Aux Dés Calés 17 - Legendre is quintessential to this diversity by offering a place where you can sip Petit Chablis as you select your next move in Catan, enjoy regional vegetarian food while playing Monopoly, or ignore the board games altogether and sit on the terrace as you soak up the sun and cigarette smoke from the Parisians.

As usual, the oldest ordered a burger. To my surprise, the father did as well, and my partner followed suit, to my disappointment. Fortunately, the six-year-old ordered Ravioles du dauphiné with gorgonzola sauce and was happy to try the appetizer I ordered—Rillettes de Sardines, a spread made from sardines mixed with butter, cream cheese, or crème fraîche, and seasoned with various herbs and spices accompanied by a squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkle of chives.

Then came the main courses. The burgers that made my mouth water… and my plate.

I order what I don’t understand whenever I can. I had no idea what an Andouillette AAAAA was. Yet, à la fraise de veau Origin France, de chez Bobosse, sauce vin rouge & frites Maison, I understood. Veal with strawberries, red wine sauce, and homemade fries. Yes, please!

As I cut into the burrito-shaped mystery, a tangy smell wafted into my nose, immediately taking away the hunger the sight of burgers had produced. As I continued cutting, I realized I had ordered intestines wrapped in intestines, but I transferred my disappointment to the ketchup bottle my partner requested. The kids then asked for mayonnaise and mustard, and soon enough, the French table looked like an American picnic bench.

Everyone squirted their sauces, bit into their juicy two-handed burgers, and moaned with pleasure as I straightened my back, pointed my index fingers down the cutlery and lifted small pieces of intestine into my quivering mouth.

I do believe in acquired tastes. I didn’t give up on Whisky, Gin, Absinthe, and Oysters, although I wasn’t a fan of any when I first tried them. Now, I love them all—sometimes too much. Yet, the taste wasn’t acquiring. I wondered if it was just me, so I gave my partner a bite.

“Why would you let me try that!” she said, making a gagging face I hoped the server didn’t see.

“Try everything once.”

“But not that, that’s disgusting.”

“It’s probably really good, but we’re not used to the tastes.”

“No, it’s bad. Why do you keep eating it?”

“I can detect something new in here. I’m curious,” I said, but I took too big of a bite at that moment, and my eyes watered as it slid down my throat.

“Babe, you don’t need to prove anything,” she said, offering me half her burger, which did not smell of fermented farm animals.

Then, the server approached. She was French in every way, elegant and confident in her own skin, with a subtle trace of makeup around the eyes that looked straight into mine. Can any other nationality of women pull off such a mixture of finesse, softness, and directness?

“Are you enjoying the food,” she asked, her voice free of the sharpness and nasality Hollywood has inflicted on so many.

“I am, but what did my boyfriend order?” my partner asked with a fierceness and volume that immediately gave away her nationality.

“Andouillette.”

“And what part of the animal is it?”

“Intestines,” said the waitress and I simultaneously.

“And you like it?”

“Yes,” said the server. “But where are you from? Spain? Because Spanish people don’t often like it.”

“Well, he’s from Canada, and he hates it.”

I almost choked on the intestines. C’est un régal, I wanted to mutter, but showing off one of the few French phrases I learned couldn’t leave my mouth, as it was not un régal.

All I could stutter was, “No, no, no.” Yet the server stayed calm, not just with the patience of someone who had experienced Spaniards many times before but also with a certain respect that assertive women have for each other.

“I understand,” she said, walking off to serve the following table.

“Never put words in my mouth like that again, please.”

“Okay, okay. I’m sorry,” she said.

Breaking the tension, my host stepped in.

“That was amazing. Really. Amazing. I mean, ‘he hates it.’ Not just, ‘he hates it,’ but he hates it. Really, you don’t hold back. That moment. The energy—”

“It was rude,” I said.

“It was rude, but it was also—look. You, the polite Canadian, the educated Belgian, or whatever you are. And then her, the Spaniard, I mean, this is why I love Europe.”

“Nolan, please. I’ve never seen you so embarrassed.”

“Nolan’s reaction, your reaction, the waitress’s reaction,” my host continued. “A strong Spanish woman looking at a strong French woman straight in the eyes and saying he hates it, I mean… you can’t make this up.”

“You can be direct and honest while still being polite,” I said.

“But that wouldn’t be as honest, Nolan,” he said, “But yes, you’re right. Of course, you’re right. However, everything’s okay.”

And, of course, everything was okay. I always say, “salir de las fronteras que impone tu mente.” I try to break free from societal conventions, but sometimes, I fail, especially when it comes to what I consider classy at a restaurant.

Our Breathing Home in the Concrete Jungle

“The best part of Paris is America” was a bit hyperbolic. I’d rather live in Europe than America any day—just not Paris.

I agree with Chris Arnade when he explains why Europe is Healthier than the US, just like I agree with his statement that “the nice part of Paris is probably one of the worst places to see the European community.”

Touristy city centres in Europe have become a homogenized and corporatized extension of American imperialism—McDonald’s owns the prime real estate next to a monument or cathedral surrounded by kiosks selling you s**t made in China you’ll forget about as quickly as your Instagram-dictated experience. There’s likely a Decathlon, Kebab shop, and ALE-HOP around the corner as well.

If you want to experience the richness and diversity of European cultures, visit the towns or neighbourhoods where people might not speak English.

Yet, I didn’t want to experience Europe's richness and diversity that day. I just wanted to breathe. To escape the claustrophobic neighbourhoods, I had to go to the most American one of all—the Clichy-Batignolles area.

After a week of staring up at the romantic Juliet balconies that give Parisians the false sense of having a balcony and watching people soak in the city’s “culture” through their tiny screens, my partner and I could finally inhale some fresh air.

Sure, the neighbourhood lacks ambiance. There’s no music, and the people are too spread out and rich to give a sense of community. And instead of tourists, you hear Asian and white business people talking about real estate and stocks.

“This is exactly like—”

“Yaletown, Vancouver,” I cut in.

“I wish we—”

“Were there.”

We continued walking through Parc Clichy-Batignolles Martin Luther-King Park, past the glass high rises with coffee chains and Asian restaurants below. It was our favourite neighbourhood because it gave us the space to reminisce about the time we shared in Vancouver, but in reality, the area is another example of how American culture/greed is slowly ruining (or influencing, if you prefer) European cities.

As we headed towards the Seine (apparently, Parisians were going to s**t in their beloved river once Macron announced he’d swim in it) and passed the Tribunal de Paris, the life and sights turned back into the effortlessly chic style that couldn’t have the same authenticity anywhere else on Earth. The people and stores were absolutely unique in the most subtle of ways, and that’s when we both understood why people—even philistines—love Paris.

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"God created war so that Americans would learn geography.”

Mark Twain

In Krakow, Poland, there’s no escaping the presence of war, both historically and currently. Since I’m a masochist tucked inside a pacifist, I’ve never been too interested in warfare. That’s my sad-ass excuse when I struggle to remember historic battles that shaped the freedoms I enjoy today.

Fortunately, my knowledge of history has quadrupled since meeting my Polish host, who has taken me into his homefor an unforeseen amount of time. In Poland, people talk about war the way North Americans talk about real estate—they don’t stop. They know the names of weapons, battle techniques, generals, and everything else I’m trying and failing to find interest in. What’s most important is that I’ve learned Poland doesn’t hide behind its history.

Yet, it’s thanks to my host’s boys that I’ve learned more about geography. Utter a sound in your language or show the colours of your flag, and those two boys will know where you're from, the capital of your country, the population, and above all, anything plane-related.

They also gave me insight into what children love about Krakow, Poland.

The following questions are the same ones I asked my CouchSurfing host, Andrea Baggio, to give you a local insight into Turin, Italy. I’m asking locals the same questions throughout European towns and cities as I continue my quest to the North of Sweden, exploring the therapeutic effects of slow travel. I see no reason to change the questions for kids.

The following answers are paraphrased because my students currently have a beginner-intermediate level in English. I added details and links to give you more insight into the city and make planning your trip easier.

Born Without Borders is a reader-supported guide to cultural psychology, travel writing and how to salir de las fronteras que impone tu mente. Both free and paid subscriptions are available. If you want to support my work and help me upgrade to more than one cabin bag, the best way is to take out a paid subscription.

What makes Krakow stand apart from the rest of Poland?

Nolan, this is a really hard question. Krakow is such an important part of Poland’s history, so I don’t think of it as standing apart. It was the capital from 1038 until the 16th century, and then the king of Poland, Sigismund III Vasa, moved it to Warsaw, a bigger city with more skyscrapers—the climate’s milder here, though. And there’s lots of smog in the Winter because many people still use wood fires in Krakow.

What are your 3 favourite things to do in Krakow?

Bike trips! Henryk Jordan Park is my favourite place to bike to. That’s where we went yesterday.

I also like Bielańsko-Tyniecki Landscape Park, where we visited Piłsudski's Mound.

Aside from biking, I also really like EnergyLandia, the biggest amusement park in Poland, which is just an hour outside Krakow.

And my third favourite place is Balice Airport because I can spot all sorts of airplanes. There are narrow-body jets like the Airbus A320 family and Boeing 737. Wide-body jets like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the Airbus A330. And even some military jets from the Polish Air Force like the C-130 Hercules.

What are your favourite meals or restaurants from Krakow?

My favourite meal is the Kotlet Shabowy, similar to an Austrian Wiener Schnitzel. Here, it’s popular to eat with potatoes and sour cream.

I also like Pierogi Ruskie, which is filled with potatoes and cheese, usually twaróg—a Polish farmer’s cheese. You can also use cottage cheese.

And out of all our famous soups, Rosół soup is the best, in my opinion. It’s a chicken soup with carrots, parsnips, celery root, leeks, and onions.

Okay, so if you want to try these meals and eat some of the best Polish food in Krakow, you should go to Pod Wawelem Kompania Kuflowa, which is in the park that wraps around the city centre. However, my favourite restaurant is Trattoria Sotto il Forte, the Italian restaurant in our neighbourhood. The food is delicious, and only parks and houses surround it, so it’s quiet and relaxing. It’s kind of like sitting on the terrace of someone’s home in the neighbourhood.

What's the greatest challenge of living in Krakow?

Bad drivers and traffic jams.

How much money does one need to live comfortably?

I have no idea. I’m eleven.

What are your favourite pieces of history?

When Kazimierz Odnowiciel took the capital from Gnienzo to Kracow in 1038—he was also known as Casimir I the Restorer. Kraków remained Poland's capital until 1596. A lot of culture and education started here. And we still have really awesome schools here. There are twelve universities in Poland! Over 200,000 students come to study here every year.

But I’m in Elementary school, so I don’t know where I’ll study yet.

Is there any stereotype or misconception you wish to break about Krakow?

Although we can be little smart-asses, that’s not always true.

What parts of you feel like a person from Krakow?

I am proud to belong to the second-biggest city in Poland. I love Polish food, but I also love Italian and Georgian food, but you can find lots of Italian food and some Georgian food in Krakow.

What parts of you don't feel like a person from Krakow?

I like to follow the rules.

What would change about your city or culture if you were mayor, and/or what do you hope will never change?

I would build even more bike tracks. I would make the big tracks more like in Gdynia.

Do you feel European?

Yes, because we are in the European Union. It also looks like Europe.

If war shows us anything, it’s that the people in power will sacrifice future generations for their bloody chess games. Let’s do the opposite of politicians. Let’s think about the future and create an online community for global citizens, the most important of whom are snot-nosed kids.

Your support gives me the time to research and write my best work on a platform not controlled by ads. You can also support me through Buy Me a Coffee.

At the end of every journey, I write a book. My first one, Living with the In-Laws, is available on Amazon. Paid subscribers get a free Kindle or PDF edition, and founding members get a signed paperback.

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Picture thousand-dollar fines or imprisonment for taking your kids on a trip during a school week. You don’t need to stretch your imagination if you live in Europe—that’s the reality.

Of course, the regulations vary greatly depending on which country in Europe, but “Why I Probably Wouldn’t Raise My Kids in Many European Countries” doesn’t have the same ring to it.

You should also know I don’t have kids, but eight months ago, I met a woman who made every fibre in my body yearn for children for the first time in my life. The biological and spiritual pull was strong enough that I asked her to marry me after three weeks. Questioning my sanity is fair, but I’ve put my parents’ love story on a pedestal my entire life, and they got married after six dates.

Unfortunately, my love story didn’t produce what my parents’ story did—one stable, independent son who soothes everyone with his presence… and me.

At least my love story was filled with lessons. You can’t expect loyalty from people who betray themselves, and you won’t get peace from people who are at war internally. You are not in a relationship with someone’s potential but with the person in front of you. And finally, a soulmate is not always the person you’ll spend your life with, but a mirror that helps you discover something new in yourself. As painful as cutting that cosmic thread is, part of maturing is recognising when a chapter has reached its end.

But let’s get back to kids.

A broken heart triggered my quest to the north of Sweden to explore the therapeutic effects of slow travel. A large part of this quest has been figuring out where the hell my home is or if I’ll ever find one. Because I thought I’d found ‘the one,’ home was wherever she was, but it brought up questions about where to raise kids, and since we wanted to raise kids as nomads, Europe no longer seemed like the best option.

Why?

Compulsory Education Laws.

In France, parents who fail to provide a valid reason for their child’s absence or resort to lying about it can face a fine of €135. If the absences significantly impact the child’s education, the penalties escalate to two years imprisonment and a fine of up to €30,000.

In Germany, fines vary by state, ranging from €35 per day in Bremen up to a possible €2,500 in Berlin.

In the Netherlands, school absenteeism can result in a fine of €100 per day up to a maximum of €600 per family for one week and €900 for two weeks.

In Spain, fines are usually capped at €1,500 in serious cases, but in Madrid, they can be as high as €30,000. Fines are usually pursued if a child misses more than 20 percent of classes a month.

Sure, you can argue that these laws and regulations enforce social cohesion and equality, integration and socialization, and parental responsibility, but countries (even if they’re social democracies) can pull all that off without this semi-authoritarian b**t. Systems should encourage people who struggle to get their kids to school with rewards, not punish families who want to further a child’s education through travel.

When I learned about these fines, I immediately called my parents to say, “Of course you left Belgium and raised me in Canada!”

Every year, my parents took me out of school to visit a new country for one to two months. All they had to do was inform the teachers. They’d prepare me a homework package, we’d make a travel video, and I’d return, usually two to three units ahead of all the other children.

Privileged, for sure, but my case is becoming less unique as digital nomads and remote workers decide to have families or accidentally get pregnant during their ‘spiritual enlightenment’ in Bali.

Yet, unlike my parents, , an artist raising nomadic third-culture kids, decided to make Belgium her home base.

In Sweden, where I'm from, homeschooling is completely illegal. There's no "compulsory education"; there's "compulsory school," and the socialists are currently pushing for compulsory kindergarten starting already at 3. Freedom of education is the main reason we went to Belgium, more specifically, Wallonia, the French-speaking part, where you have the constitutional right to home-educate your children. It seems to be a relatively straightforward process with an easy paper signature at five. Starting at six, you'll submit a "schedule/curriculum" along with your application (it's different in the Flemish part of Belgium).

After my research, Luxembourg seems the friendliest country for homeschoolers looking more at the travelling side… even potentially world schooling as you can legally "unschool," meaning that you can homeschool with a strict curriculum.

We first considered other countries like Spain and Portugal, but it felt important from a long-term perspective to choose a country where the legislation is clear and set to avoid potential problems down the road. For example, in Spain, it's not recognized, which means your child won't be able to re-integrate later on should your family situation/desire change. I've also spoken to many expats in Portugal who've had problems getting their applications approved as it has to pass through local schools (who aren't very supportive). All in all, it's a tricky question, generally with a lot of urgency attached, as it tends not to become a problem until the children are here and you discover entirely new levels of how countries operate.

From what I’ve heard from my family in Flanders, Belgium, it hasn’t always been as easy as signing a paper, and it depends a bit on the school. Regarding flexibility within the public school system, Canada has undoubtedly been much more forgiving with me than my cousins in Belgium.

Also, from a Canadian perspective, most public schools I’ve seen in Europe look like prisons. And even if they lack the physical appearance of a prison—concrete football (soccer) fields, windows small enough to keep children from jumping out, and grey walls that lock you in—the imprisonment of spirit and mind is inevitable.

In Germany, you pop out of the womb already forced to decide your career path. In France, people define you based on your high school. And in Spain, those who go to semi-public Catholic schools think they’re better than everyone but leave the school with the same non-existent second language skills and entrepreneurial spirit as everyone else.

But there’s always homeschooling… kind of.

In Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Greece, homeschooling is illegal, with some rare exceptions, but those countries don’t represent all of Europe. According to Nomad Capitalist, the best countries for homeschooling (based on factors such as legal status, availability of resources, and cultural experience) are South Africa, Singapore, India, Austria, Belgium, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and the United States.

So, although saying “I won’t raise my kids in Europe” was simple when considering taking kids out of school for trips, homeschooling makes it a bit more complicated. In Spain, homeschooling is still a grey area (like everything else in Spain) with no specific legislation. So, do I want to stay a resident there? Do I want to create a home in a country that makes it difficult to take my kids out of school?

told me that you risk being alienated by society and certain friend groups if you choose to homeschool your kids. Unlike in North America, where people look at the individual standing before them, they look at the group they belong to.

I would say that’s true to my experience as an adult in Vancouver, Canada. But as a Belgian “foreign boy” who grew up in Vernon, Canada, I know small-town North Americans will exclude, torment, and bully anyone who doesn’t fit the mould. Fortunately, we outcasts in elementary school had the chance to flourish in high school. Woodworking, metalworking, sewing, football teams, ski teams, drama clubs, accounting & entrepreneurship electives, cooking classes, hotboxed vehicles, leadership groups—no matter where you excelled, you had the chance to find your direction in a Canadian public school.

Yet, school systems are at the whim of governments, the economy, and salaries that don’t devastate teachers' well-being. Ultimately, I think choosing the place you feel most at home is best. Regulations can always change, just like your income and the remote job that allows you to travel can. Hell, in my case, I don’t even have control over who I fall in love with and crave making babies with. On top of that, I still don’t know where home is.

Please let me know if you’d like to learn about online homeschooling options, and I’ll write a follow-up article.

For now, you can check out my interview with Chantal Patton from @GrowingUpWithoutBorders. Chantal reveals what it’s like to travel to every country in the world while homeschooling three kids!

Your support gives me the time to research and write my best work on a platform not controlled by ads. You can also support me through Buy Me a Coffee.

Who is Born Without Borders for?

Global citizens, therapists or business professionals looking to increase their cultural competence, those who need a push to step outside their comfort zone, and anyone who feels as inescapably foreign as I do.

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In the city destroyed by Mongols, plundered by Swedes, and oppressed by Austrians and later Soviets, I started to heal. In the land where over 65,000 Jews were brutally murdered and endless remnants of war remind you of humanity’s darkness, I felt my light.

If it weren't for my students inviting me, Krakow, Poland, wouldn’t have been on my “top 10” list. Now, I’d argue it’s one of the most liveable cities in Europe. With nearly one million people (the stats say 766,683, but that doesn’t take the 200 000 students into account), 24 institutions of higher education, world-class bars with beers under €2, restaurants and food trucks with cuisine from around the world, 7 UNESCO World Heritage sites, a well-connected public transit system, parks that make the entire city feel like a green oasis, and a flat 19% tax rate for individual entrepreneurs, Krakow rivals the European cities I can’t afford.

Usually, cities like Vienna, Copenhagen, and Zurich make it to the top of Europe’s most liveable cities. And sure, they’re liveable if you’re rich, but if you’re a digital nomad with remote healthcare like Safety Wing (Poland’s healthcare is mediocre), your quality of life can be much higher in Krakow.

However, I’m surprisingly more ambassadors-like than my student’s father, a Krakow local who’s lived here his entire life.

Before you take my opinion too seriously, you need to know I experienced Krakow in May and June, the best possible months. You should also be aware that I was at an all-time low before Krakow. I had just started my quest from Castellon, Spain, to the North of Sweden to explore the therapeutic effects of slow travel. Although I had an incredible time and learning experience in Turin, Italy, my stop in Zadar, Croatia, knocked me back down.

Luckily, I ended up at my student’s father’s home in Krakow, Poland. For those of you who follow me on Substack Notes, you know why ending up with a family who appreciates and feeds off my energy made me see my light.

For those who don’t use Substack notes, I’ll keep you updated with my newsletter, which is the heart of Born Without Borders. However, since part of my quest is to show people how to travel therapeutically, I highly recommend getting off of attention-stealing and depression-inducing platforms controlled by ads like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok.

We all have the need to share, communicate, and preserve the moments of our lives. Substack Notes doesn’t have ads, and the algorithm allows you to choose what you want to see. Most importantly, you put the app down, feeling like you haven’t wasted your time.

For creators, it means you have full control. You own your email list and content, allowing you to jump ship whenever you want, although I doubt you’ll find a reason why.

Next week, I’ll post detailed insight and a guide to Krakow from a local’s perspective. As a history buff, entrepreneur working internationally, and someone who has lived in Krakow his entire life, his recommendations, warnings, and opinions about Krakow will give you a more accurate idea of Krakow.

The article will be for paid subscribers as it’s the only way for this project to be sustainable.

What do you get for subscribing?

Thanks to travelling the world, interviewing people across cultures, doing deep dives and transparently providing links to thorough cultural psychology research, Born Without Borders is like your own cultural consultancy (but better because you can bring it with you in your back pocket for a fraction of the cost).

I don’t sell what you can find in a theory book. This is about talking to and about people from all walks of life, not just those in the corporate world.

Through my stories, articles, interviews, and community, I can help raise your understanding of the world, culture-bound mental illnesses and therapy, and how to step outside your comfort zone through the power of quests and stories.

Together, we can decrease polarization, help people look from the outside in and the inside out, and create a community for those whose sense of home isn’t tied down to geography.

So, if you want to raise your cultural competency and engage in first-hand stories, consider upgrading today… or I might just have to retire to regular cultural consulting at 150$/hour, which neither you nor I would want.

For $6/month or $50/year, you can help ensure that Born Without Borders stays afloat. Your support gives me the time to research and write my best work on a platform not controlled by ads. You can also support me through Buy Me a Coffee.

Do you want to travel without paying for acommodation? Try Home Exchange.

HomeExchange is an online platform that connects people from all over the world to exchange their homes without money (and taxes) changing hands. Plus, there’s a point system, so you don’t need to exchange homes at the same time.

If you want to use Home Exchange and support this journey simultaneously, you can use this link.

Learn more about Born Without Borders

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Everyone needs a therapist. At least, that’s the trending notion amongst modern WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) people.

As I mentioned in “Do I need Therapy?”, understanding yourself is like understanding a country—sometimes, you need to look from the outside in. We can do that through meditation, psychedelics, travel, social bonds (which we explored last week), and therapists.

Yet, many people aren’t convinced therapists are the best option because shrinks can be sales-driven, “usually need therapy themselves,” or create a dependency link. Of course, one could argue that therapists teach you techniques for being self-dependent. The problem is that the techniques that work in one culture can be detrimental in another.

In his book Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche, argues that applying Western mental health treatments globally has often led to less effective outcomes for mental illnesses in non-Western regions and may have unintentionally introduced conditions to areas where they were previously didn’t exist.

For example, anorexia did not manifest in the same way in Hong Kong until the concept was recently introduced, leading psychiatrists and clients to interpret certain symptoms through a possibly mistaken Western lens. Similarly, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was not prevalent in Sri Lanka after the 2004 tsunami until Western aid workers (with good intentions) convinced locals that they must be experiencing it.

As the social historian puts it:

Each culture provides a "symptom pool" of recognized and discussed symptoms that lead people to express their inner conflicts in a familiar language. Providing people with different conceptions of mental illness may lead them to express their own psychological difficulties in symptoms that are consistent with those conceptions.

That’s why it’s essential to understand how healing practices differ around the world before suggesting a therapy that has worked for you.

Western psychotherapy typically traces its origins to Western Europe, notably Sigmund Freud, who launched psychoanalysis in the late 19th century. Freud proposed that psychological difficulties often stem from unconscious conflicts and fears. He argued that these issues are best treated by exploring memories and traumatic experiences in depth during individual sessions, with the therapist helping to interpret them. And yes, Freud’s interpretations sometimes came down to a young boy's desire to eliminate his father and to have sex with his mother. So, let’s move on.

When psychoanalysis reached the United States in the 20th century, Carl Rogers modified it, emphasizing a client-centred approach where therapists aid in self-discovery. Since then, many psychotherapeutic approaches have emerged, the most common being cognitive behavioural therapy, which involves restructuring thoughts and alleviating adverse reactions through controlled exposures. Additionally, biological explanations and treatments for mental disorders have become more prevalent in psychiatry. Despite their diversity, these Western perspectives commonly rely on the client's ability to engage in a psychological discourse grounded in shared cultural meanings.

Yet, for similar reasons a Westerner hires a therapist, an Indigenous person might turn to a family member.

One study explored the indigenous healing practices commonly used in 16 societies in Africa, Asia, South America, the Middle East, and the Caribbean. The researchers found two indigenous models of healing common across these cultures.

First, the family plays the most crucial role in resolving mental health problems. Families share the individual's problems and are the key source of guidance, particularly from elderly members. They also often bear the stigma associated with mental illnesses. For example, in Saudi Arabia, the perceived stigma and shame attached to mental illnesses lead families to shelter a disturbed individual until the problem becomes unmanageable. At this point, they may seek help from extended family and the community.

Now, this might be the Westerner in me, but I agree with that we need to open up about mental illness and depression, which is precisely what I’m doing through travel therapy.

By opening up to Westerners who went to therapy, I started to feel like I have deep-rooted traumas, masochistic tendencies, and enmeshment problems. The language and labels helped me analyze and discover certain parts of my character. Yet, it’s opening up to people from cultures where the word “trauma” isn’t used daily that makes me feel human and healed.

Sometimes, all the mental health language makes me feel worse off than I actually am. It makes me believe I need a therapist when, really, I need to live healthy and share stories with people from different cultures to realize how human and “normal” my experiences are.

On the other hand, I’m very much a Westerner regarding my analytic style, and I’m not sure the second model in non-Western societies—spiritualism and religion—would work for me.

Mental illnesses are often perceived as being rooted in an underlying spiritual problem, and treatment is often left to traditional healers, such as shamans.

An example of this spiritual conception of mental illness can be seen in the Yoruba of West Africa. In Yoruba thought, the person is viewed as the union of the ara (body), emi (mind/soul), and ori ("inner head"), each of which comes into existence by specific gods. The emi, however, has no personal characteristics, and the individual's unique qualities come from the ori, which is viewed as a deity. When the Yoruba want to understand someone's mental afflictions, they use divination to understand what has gone wrong with the individual's relationships with the gods.

Such different kinds of attitudes toward mental health treatment are not just evident in traditional societies; differences also exist between Western and Japanese psychotherapies.

Two notable therapies from Japan, Morita and Naikan, contrast with Western approaches.

Morita therapy, aimed at treating anxiety and depressive symptoms, involves isolated bed rest, light manual activities like sweeping, heavy labour such as chopping wood, reading Moritist literature, life training, meditation, and therapist sessions. The goal of Morita therapy is not to change the client's symptoms but to change the person's perspective on the symptoms and to come to see them as a natural part of who they are. People are cured when they learn to live productively despite their symptoms.

In contrast, Naikan therapy aims to provide clients with insights into their past by encouraging them to appreciate the kindnesses of significant others. It is used to treat addiction, depression, and sociopathy, particularly in Japanese prisons. Through guided introspection, clients reflect on the kindnesses they received, especially from their mothers during childhood, and consider how little they have given in return. The goal is to help clients reinterpret their unchangeable past through gratitude and guilt, thereby providing new meaning to their lives.

Considering the cultural diversity in how mental illnesses are presented and understood, it seems logical that therapists would be most effective if matched with clients from similar cultural backgrounds. This allows clients to communicate in their own language, feel better understood, and be more likely to stick with their treatment.

However, the therapeutic benefits of this cultural matching of therapists and clients appear to be relatively modest and can serve to ghettoize therapists from different backgrounds. Plus, as a third-culture kid whose home isn’t rooted in geography, I’ve noticed my mental health improve through travel therapy and talking to people from different cultures than my own.

So, what should therapists do when they encounter a client from a different culture background?

They need to increase their cultural competence—precisely what I help people do here at Born Without Borders.

Therapists must first recognize their own cultural influences to consciously manage their defences, interpretations, and projections when interacting with clients from different cultural backgrounds.

Second, therapists should develop knowledge about their clients' cultural backgrounds and the expectations that they likely have for the counselling relationship so that they can interact with their clients most effectively.

Third, the therapist should develop the appropriate skills to intervene in the therapy sessions in a culturally sensitive and relevant way.

At the same time, therapists need to know when to generalize from the client's culture to the mainstream culture and when to focus on the client's individual needs. After all, each person is unique and cannot be defined solely by their culture, as everyone interacts with their culture differently. Plus, clients often experience multiple cultures, so therapists must consider how clients integrate these diverse cultural influences with their individual traits.

So, how does a therapist learn to do all this?

A cultural consultation service. This involves a team of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, psychiatric nurses, medical anthropologists, and trainees who regularly discuss cases referred by therapists needing expert advice on multicultural clients. The team includes interpreters, consultants, and culture brokers to address specific cases, providing insights on issues beyond many therapists' expertise, such as unique family systems, cultural identity issues, migration stresses, and the impact of torture or war.

As you can imagine, that’s for people who can wipe their asses with hundred-dollar bills. Luckily, you can access such information and people by subscribing to Born Without Borders.

For $6/month or $50/year, you can access my entire archive, community comments, and the books I write after each journey and character arc (I live my life the way I craft my stories—that’s my therapy).

Of course, culture is multi-faceted and continuously changing, so the best way to increase your cultural competency is to grow the Born Without Borders community. Sharing my work helps us to increase diversity, limit polarization, and create an online home for the inescapably foreign.

Your support gives me the time to research and write my best work on a platform not controlled by ads. You can also support me through Buy Me a Coffee.

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The mentally stable and alcoholics tell me I don’t need therapy. The traumatized and therapy-experienced tell me I do.

I realize understanding yourself is like understanding a country—sometimes, you need to look from the outside in. However, I can’t shake the school of thought that we have friends and strangers for that. As Tomas from Caffeine Enlightenment mentions:

Putting all of it on the shoulders of the therapist, you allow another person to tighten their grip on the wheel of your life. You assume that someone knows you way better than you. You create a dependency link.

Of course, this depends on how sales-driven and ethical your therapist is, but for the moment, let’s pretend (agree?) that you know yourself better than anyone else. Maybe you’ve managed to look from the outside in through meditation, psychedelics, or what I’m concentrating on for today’s article—social bonds.

Receiving sufficient social support has been shown to play a key role in coping with psychological distress and is associated with various physical health benefits both within and across cultures. The difference is that the type of social support can vary vastly depending on the culture.

For example, European-Americans are far more likely than East Asians or Asian-Americans to actively seek social support from others, such as telling a friend about their problems. At first, this may sound surprising, given that Asian cultures are much more interdependent. This means people view themselves as inherently connected with others and prioritize collective goals over personal ones. However, this cultural difference in social support seeking appears largely because East Asians are more concerned about how seeking social support will disrupt their relationships with others.

East Asians tend to seek social support from those close to them, but unlike Westerners, they are more inclined to use implicit social support—they find emotional solace by reflecting on their close relationships.

Research indicates that European Americans experience reduced physical stress responses when they can seek social support directly, like asking for advice or assistance. In contrast, Asian Americans exhibit a lower stress response when they contemplate their close relationships.

Similarly, European Americans show more noticeable health benefits when they perceive that they have much social support. In contrast, those same health benefits do not increase alongside perceived support for Asian Americans. Furthermore, Asian Americans experience greater stress relief from unsolicited social support compared to solicited support due to their worries about the social costs of seeking help. In contrast, European Americans find social support equally effective in reducing stress, whether they have requested it or not.

In addition, the kinds of explicit support people offer their friends vary across cultures. North Americans typically offer more emotion-focused support (such as encouraging or comforting words). If you hear the words “You go, girl/You’re amazing, man/Go get ‘em, tiger,” I’ll bet my savings it’s coming from an American or Canadian.

In contrast, East Asians, Russians, and, from my experience, Poles and Ukrainians tend to offer more problem-focused advice, which I jive with more. Why? Who the hell knows? As a Chilean-born Belgian raised in Canada, I’m a Westerner with a sprinkle of Latino. Yet, I’d rather have someone say, “Nolan, get your head out of your ass and go into the mountains for a day without a cell phone,” than “You’re awesome, don’t let anyone tell you differently, bud.”

Yet, I don’t have a culture-bound explanation as to why the mentally stable friends and alcoholic friends tell me I don’t need therapy and why the traumatized and therapy-experienced tell me I do. It comes down to the fact that we don’t see the world for what it is but as who we are.

My mentally stable friends reflect my strength and autonomy. They’re likely to take me into Mother Nature for a day of intensive sport before recommending a therapist. The alcoholics in my life are liable to lie to themselves by saying, “Alcohol makes a man honest—let’s drink and talk it out,” not realizing that a lack of inhibition is not synonymous with the truth. They don’t realize that initial thoughts are often wrong or, more often, incomplete.

Those with trauma and experience with therapy can often complete my thoughts with phrases that capture feelings I didn’t know how to express. Some of them speak my academic language with the rational compassion I seek. Others speak the language of how the moon and planets dictate our emotions—a language that my heart tries to appreciate as play and art, but my mind understands as harmful pseudoscience (probably because of my academic cultural conditioning).

Whether it’s as well-studied as cognitive behavioural therapy or as spiritual as Astrology, your cultural background affects the type of therapy that works for you.

Next week, I’ll release my research and experiences with culture-bound therapy. I’ll show you what kind of therapy works, depending on the culture.

For now, I’m happy to be in Poland with my students, who have treated me like a family member.

If you’re new to Born Without Borders, you might not know this season is about exploring slow travel's therapeutic effects as I quest to the North of Sweden.

I don’t sell what you can find in a theory book. This is about talking to and about people from all walks of life, not just those in the corporate world.

Together, we can decrease polarization, help people look from the outside in and the inside out, and create a community for those whose sense of home isn’t tied down to geography.

So, if you want to raise your cultural competency and engage in first-hand stories, consider upgrading TODAY. I’ve got a hard deadline in September to make this a profitable turnaround… Otherwise, I might just have to retire to regular cultural consulting at $150/hour, which neither you nor I would want.

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Gweilo, Gringo, Gaijin, Gora, Guiri—why do so many derogatory slurs towards white people start with G?

No, it’s definitely not because people think we’re Great. It’s purely coincidental. Gweilo, which is widely used in Hong Kong, means white ghost or white devil. Gringo is for those who want a wall but fly over it every winter to stuff their faces in all-you-can-eat resorts in Mexico. Gaijin is what the Japanese use for foreigners who don’t look Asian. Gora is a racial epithet for white people in India. And Guiri, well, that’s me.

The simple answer is that Guiri is slang for foreigners in Spain. However, it is usually only used for foreigners who arrive white and leave red. A more thorough definition comes from Errores de un guiri.

"¿Qué es “guiri?” Un guiri es un extranjero que vive en España. Alguien que pone ketchup en la tortilla, mezcla los verbos estar y ser, deja propinas, busca restaurantes abiertos entre las 15:00 y 20:00, sale al club a las diez, llora en el ayuntamiento, pide paella fuera de la comunidad Valencia, y comete otros errores graves." What is “guiri?” A guiri is a foreigner living in Spain. Someone who puts ketchup on the tortilla, mixes the verbs estar and ser, leaves tips, looks for restaurants open between 15:00-20:00, goes to the club at ten, cries at the town hall, asks for paella outside the Valencia community, and makes other serious mistakes.

The word Guiri isn’t necessarily racist. After all, Spanish people are white, too. They’re just more tanned, shorter, and less tolerant to temperature changes than those of us from up North.

Although Guiri isn’t always derogatory, it does affect how people see you. When I met El Espejo de mi Alma, it was love at first sight, but not first sound. She was attracted to me the second she saw me and turned off the second I said something in Spanish.

Why is it that when foreigners speak English, we find it sexy, but when anglophones speak a foreign language, people find it funny or borderline repugnant (especially in Paris)?

Woe is me! It’s so hard belonging to white, Northern, English-speaking hegemony. What have we ever done to be the enemy? All we ever wanted was a civilized world and to eat something other than potatoes.

Jokes aside, El Espejo de mi Alma noticed the difference in how she saw me in Spain vs. Canada. In Canada, she saw me as more powerful and astute, and in Spain, she saw me as a Guiri—someone transient—which subconsciously led to feelings of insecurity.

In other words, cultural context changes the weight of our words and how we think of others, even when it’s unconscious.

Historical context, power dynamics, social norms, and every art major’s favourite, intersectionality, affect the meaning of a word. A microaggression directed at a person of colour who is also a woman may have different implications compared to the same microaggression directed at a man of colour. Terms that were once commonly used without consequence may now be recognized as derogatory due to increased awareness of historical injustices. And a term that is considered a racial slur in one country might be used casually in another without the same level of offence.

However, most of the ink spilled on the subject comes from “culture writers” in America, where white people are the majority. But worldwide, white people are a minority. Yes, the world is shaped in our favour; we must check our privilege and be allies. That doesn’t mean we’re not subject to the power of words and, to a larger extent, labels.

Though labels can aid methodologies in social sciences and give us a categorical way to describe ourselves, they shouldn't keep us in boxes. One of the therapeutic effects of deep travel is understanding how malleable these labels are. We all need to leave the culture we grew up in to look from the outside in. That’s a start to seeing ourselves and others for who they really are.

If you want to learn more about the therapeutic effects of slow travel, how to stay fit on the road, and how to turn your journeys into stories, hit the subscribe button and follow my journey across Europe to the North of Sweden.

Learn more about the journey.

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Learn Spanish through humour.

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I also recommend checking out ’s !

Feel free to send me a direct message or email me if you want personalized acculturation advice in Spain.

On the road? I also coach people on how to stay fit while travelling. nolanyumawriter@gmail.com

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It all started, as it often does, in a bedroom. The moment I stepped foot on my CouchSurfing host’s sticky floor, he hurried me to his windowless bedroom.

I had just taken a 17-hour (€46.96) Blablabus from Barcelona to Montpellier to Turin and walked ninety minutes through San Salvarlo (the quintessential district of Turin's nightlife) to Lingotto (the old-Fiat-employee-now-broke-student neighbourhood) with three bags weighing twenty kilos.

Since my CouchSurfing host had warned me of his Chinese roommate’s social anxiety—the fact she was Chinese is an important fact I’ll reveal later—I walked into the first pastry shop I saw and bought a Torta Di Nocciole (a humble Piemontese hazelnut cake), thinking that sweets would ease my presence.

Apparently, she was unable to leave her room to accept the cake I bought her. It also became clear that she was incapable of doing dishes, clearing the table, or any cleaning-related matter.

Call me spoiled, but I didn’t want to stay much longer—not that I had a choice. Since I wasn’t allowed to be in the apartment without him, I had to get up at 4:00 AM as he went to work.

After killing time at a Calisthenics park, I made my way to my new CouchSurfing host’s part of town, Crocetta (one of the wealthiest parts of town full of refined Art Nouveau buildings, large pedestrian areas, and people dressed in ways that put my scummy-ass to shame).

That same Calisthenics Park is where my built-up rage and anxiety almost led to an Italian prison.

By the way, if you’re here for the travel writing, stay tuned; that will be unveiled next week in “Turin’s Cuisine, Parks, and Divinity: The External Journey.”

As I mentioned in “A Planster’s Healing Journey,” art and travel, like all good relationships, are a mirror into the soul. I hope my articles and stories provide that mirror on my quest to the North of Sweden as I explore the therapeutic effects of slow travel.

Alright, without further adieu…

ANXIETY!

Before we get into my personal mental health journey in Turin, let’s take a look at some culture-bound anxiety disorders.

Although the question of what conditions could be labelled as disorders is often challenging, the question becomes even more difficult when behaviours are considered problematic in one culture but not in another.

Dhat Syndrome is adisorder often observed in several South Asian cultures. It’s a belief among young men that they are leaking semen, which causes them to be morbidly anxious because semen is primarily viewed as a very precious commodity, and an excessive loss of it is feared to result in serious illness.

Without the set of culturally shared beliefs regarding semen, sexual activity, and health that are prevalent among South Asians, the entire category of Dhat Syndrome would likely be rather meaningless to most North Americans and to North American psychiatrists.

Koro is a clinical syndrome in various South and East Asian countries, particularly in southern China. It’s a morbid fear that one's penis is shrinking into one's body. Hence, why it’s called "head of a turtle” in the Malay language. It is far less common among women, in whom it tends to manifest as a similar fear that one's nipples are shrinking into one's body.

Koro meets the criteria for a culture-bound syndrome because of its symptomology, although it is unclear what cultural factors affect its prevalence. One interpretation is that it's grounded in a classical Chinese medicine account of how an imbalance of yin and yang can cause the genitals to retract. However, some American men stoned on weed have also reported their penises shrinking into their bodies.

It seems that components of koro may be universally accessible; however, they only seem to manifest as a clinical syndrome within certain cultures where people are aware of the disorder's existence.

Malgri is a syndrome of territorial anxiety identified among various Australian aboriginal groups. When afflicted individuals enter the sea or a new territory without engaging in the appropriate ceremonial procedures, they believe that they are invaded by a totemic spirit that makes them physically sick, tired, and drowsy.

Agonias is an anxiety disorder identified among Portuguese and Azoreans in which people report a wide array of different symptoms, including a burning sensation, a loss of breath, hysterical blindness, sleep, and eating disorders.

Kufungisisa, which translates as "thinking too much" in Shona, a language spoken in Zimbabwe, is another condition associated with anxiety. People believe that their minds have been damaged by excessive thinking, leading to panic attacks and irritability. Variants of this condition are found in several cultures in Africa, the Caribbean, and among Native Americans and East Asians.

Ataques de nervios is a condition most identified with Puerto Ricans, in which emotionally charged settings, such as funerals or family conflicts, lead to palpitations, numbness, and a sense of heat rising to the head.

And finally, let’s get back to the lady who didn’t accept my cake…

Social Anxiety Disorder

One of the most common anxiety disorders is social anxiety disorder (previously known as social phobia).

We all occasionally suffer social fears as we find ourselves in situations where we realize that we stand to look foolish. But for those with social anxiety disorder, these fears escalate, causing them to avoid such situations altogether, significantly impacting their lives. Yet, how social anxiety affects your life depends on culture.

For example, in East Asian cultures, where saving face and social harmony are highly valued, there are likely greater concerns and anxieties about potentially embarrassing situations than in North American cultures.

Some symptoms of social anxiety, such as being shy, are also perceived less negatively in Asian contexts than in Western ones, perhaps because they are culturally normative. For example, Chinese children who were evaluated as shy were viewed more positively by their peers and teachers, whereas Western children who were considered as shy were more likely to be rejected by their peers.

Additionally, research suggests that among both East Asians and Westerners, heightened social anxiety is linked to interdependence, while independence is correlated with lower levels of social anxiety.

The links between interdependence, independence, and social anxiety raise the possibility that people might view social anxiety disorder as less of a problem in Asia than they do in the West. Indeed, although East Asians tend to score higher than Westerners on measures of social anxiety, epidemiological surveys find far less evidence of people who meet the clinical criteria of social anxiety disorder in East Asia than in the West.

How can we resolve the paradox that Asian Americans report more evidence of social anxiety symptoms than European Americans but that East Asians are less likely to be diagnosed with a full-blown social anxiety disorder than Americans?

One possibility is that social behaviour norms differ between East Asia and the West. In general, Western social norms entail more direct communication, extraversion, and self-promotion than East Asian norms.

People who grow up learning East Asian social norms but later end up in a Western social context might feel more anxious because the norms they were raised with differ.

At the same time, when people's social anxieties do become problematic, there is evidence that the symptoms are presented differently across cultures.

There is a disorder that a Japanese psychiatrist identified in the early 20th century termed taijin kyoufushou (TKS). This term roughly translates as a phobia of confronting others. It is akin to social anxiety disorder, as both involve a fear of looking like a fool in front of others, and both respond well to the same antidepressants like Auvoxamine.

However, the symptoms of TKS are quite distinct from social anxiety disorder. People with social anxiety disorder tend to be preoccupied with anxieties about how they will look like fools in social situations and how everyone will publicly discover their faults. In contrast, TKS includes various physical symptoms, many psychosomatic, such as excessive blushing, increased body odour, sweating, and an intense gaze.

The major worry of people with the offensive type of TKS is how uncomfortable and tense others will feel around them because of the imagined repulsiveness of their physical faults. This focus on the discomfort of others has led TKS to be labelled as an "altruistic phobia.”

It is distinct enough from social anxiety disorder, and it is rare enough outside of East Asia (it has more recently been identified in Korea and mainland China) that it is regarded as a "culture-bound" syndrome, similar to conditions like dhat, koro, and amok.

In sum, social anxiety disorder is a universal syndrome. However, in East Asian contexts, many symptoms are so prevalent that they might be considered somewhat normal rather than abnormal conditions. And who’s to say what is right?

What’s definitely wrong is letting your anxiety turn into rage, which is what I did at the Callisthenics Park after RideMovi (a bike share platform) charged me an extra 10 euros for not taking a picture of where I parked the bike, which I couldn’t do because their app stopped working. I immediately reached out to their support team, but instead of waiting a few hours for a reply like the non-traumatized person I was a few months ago, I sent six more emails, left three scathing reviews, and made my IBS flare up.

Actually, my IBS has been acting up since trying to forgive infidelity, facing my masochistic tendencies, and, of course, dealing with bureaucrats. Endless paperwork has made it difficult to rent out my apartment on Airbnb and afford this trip, and so, here I am, spending hours a day researching the cheapest possible options to travel while working around my student’s schedules and writing this newsletter.

I have not found made time for somatic exercises, ice baths, nature walks, or my mental health in general, so something as small as a 10 euro charge is enough to make me explode—a side of myself I didn’t know was there.

Maybe slow-travel-related stress is needed to show me my dark side. After all, we need to see and confront our dark side to grow.

But what does my IBS induced by anger and anxiety have to do with Italian cops and prisons? Let’s just say one thing I hate about Europe is the lack of public washrooms. And yes, there are cafes, but when you suffer from IBS, you can’t always get to them in time. You can put two and two together.

Stick around.

What is the root of your anxiety?

Do you think culture has influenced your anxiety?

What are your relaxation techniques?

Tell me anything else.

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Comunidad Valencia was the first home I chose for myself, and so far, the only.

I arrived during COVID, which sucked me into a kafkaesque bureaucratic nightmare. Businesses were suffering, festivities were limited, demons/bureaucrats toiled with people’s hearts or slept on the job, and yet, I bought an apartment thinking, “Inflation and real estate are going to skyrocket, and if I’m already happy here during COVID, I’ll definitely be happy after COVID.”

I was right.

Restaurants and businesses opened up, every saint was once again an excuse to party, prices went up, and I discovered what makes Comunidad Valencia’s culture inseparable yet distinct from the rest of Spain.

Let’s start with the basics.

Paella

In that video, you’ll learn that authentic Valencian paella is anything from “Bomba Rice, a pinch of paprika, saffron, rabbit, chicken and, bajoqueta (a flat green bean), tomato and locust bean” to “It’s about getting drunk with your friends.”

Alcohol & Parties

“It’s about getting drunk with your friends” is the most honest and consistent answer behind traditions and festivals in Valencia. Some might have you believe they’re about commemorating saints, the birthplace of a town, independence, and so on, but that’s just for trivial pursuits.

Valencians truly gained their reputation as fiesteros (party animals) in the 1980s and 90s when La Ruta del Bakalao—otherwise known as Destroy Route—really took off. It was the largest clubbing movement in Spain. Thousands of young people around the metropolitan area of Valencia would pop pills, snort cocaine, love, dance, and party their faces off every weekend.

Like the revealing cinema of Pedro Almodóvar, Vicente Aranda, Pedro Costa, Alejandro Amenábar, and Fernando Trueba, La Ruta del Bakalao was a response against the spiritual, sexual, and intellectual suppression Spanish people faced during the Francoist era.

Spanish legislation, particularly regarding nightlife, was still very immature due to the legacy of Francoism and was full of legal loopholes, which entrepreneurs of these nightclubs took advantage of. This was compounded by the lesser concern and information about drugs that existed in the country.

However, partying doesn’t always need to be a drug-and-electronic-music-ridden response to fascism. Sometimes, all you need is alcohol and a terrace—something people from any part of the political spectrum can enjoy.

Although Valencians love to party, they know how to pace themselves, unlike us belligerent savages up north. Many people come to Valencia (and the rest of Spain) thinking that wine is the go-to drink. Although they ferment Tempranillo (a grape with a fine balance between earth and fruit) by the tons, beer is the most popular. However, that’s not specific to Valencia.

The most Valencian drinks are Agua de Valencia, El Barrejat, and El Cremaet.

Agua de Valencia: This cocktail was created in 1959 by Constante Gil at Café Madrid in Valencia, but it became popular in Valencia. In addition to Valencian oranges, it includes cava, gin, vodka, ice, and sugar.

El Barrejat: My personal favourite. It’s a mixture of cazalla (a clear anís liquor) y mistela (sweet wine liquor).

El Cremaet: Alright, this is the most important one because I’ve seen people drink it daily in most places, whereas the other ones are a bit harder to find. There are different variations for making a Cremaet, but they all agree on one thing: "Only Valencians can make a real one." It's coffee with rum (or brandy) burned with honey (or sugar) and other additives like coffee beans, cinnamon sticks, and citrus peel.

And yes, this drink is totally acceptable in the morning. Which brings me to brunch and bread.

Bocadillos

There’s nothing like a €6 almuerzo (breakfast-brunch), including a bocadillo (sub), drink (which is usually beer), and coffee. In this case, from Nou Cafe in Bennicasim.

Many Valencians are known as paneros or paneras, which mean people who eat a lot of bread. That’s why you’ll find bocadillos everywhere (€4 - €7.50 is the usual price). And where is most of this bread baked?

In a ‘forn,’ which is Valenciano for ‘bakery.’ Here, you’ll also find:

Traditional Valencian Sweets

Panquemao: A brioche that is especially popular during Pascua (Easter).

Coca de llanda: A light sponge cake made with flour, sugar, eggs, oil, milk and lemon zest.

Pastelitos de boniato: Mini pasties filled with sweet potato paste.

Fartons, and to make it even more Valencian, Fartons with Horchata: A puffy elongated sweet bread with tiger nut milk.

Buñuelos de calabaza: Pumpkin donuts.

Frutas de Sant Donís: Colourful marzipans shaped like fruits.

Marzipan is not the only thing Valencians like to shape and mould…

Health and Vanity.

Valencia (the city, not the autonomous region) has the highest rate of aesthetic and reconstructive surgery operations per capita in Spain. Spain is the European country where the most surgeries are performed and is second in the world behind Brazil and the United States. In other words, Valencians are the Europeans most addicted to cosmetic surgery.

Okay, not really. We guiris (white-ass foreigners in Spain) definitely up those numbers because the quality-price ratio is one of the best in Europe.

Valencia is also one of the fittest cities in Spain. The city has one of the highest concentrations of gyms per capita in Spain, and I have never been to another region in Spain (or the world) with more outdoor calisthenic gyms.

Want to learn how to stay fit on the road? Message me for online coaching.

Mascletàs, Petardos, Noise, and Family.

Valencians love noise. You’ll find bars with three different channels (one of which is usually football) and music (mostly reggaeton-like s**t) playing at the same time. And if that isn’t enough, kids (especially if they’re male) are free to scream as loud as they want, adults think a conversation is a competition for who can speak over you the loudest and cut you off the most, and it’s completely normal to play your YouTube video or voice message aloud while eating a meal.

But no, it doesn’t stop there. Fireworks during the day? Why not? That’s what Valencianos call a Mascaletà. These earth-shaking explosions of sound and slightly colourful smoke burst eardrums during events like Fallas, Magdalena, and other festivals during which entire cities turn into festival grounds for over a week.

Although the noise gives me migraines if I don’t drink several Barrejats, these festivals are why I respect Valencian culture. No matter the time of night, amount of drinks, topic of conversation, or whatever else pulls families apart in some cultures, brings them together in Valencia. You might see a four-year-old girl building a chain of petardos (firecrackers) around a dry bush while her grandfather passes her a match and her teenage brother is off dancing with his parents.

When those families invite me into their lives, I feel honoured. Sure, I don’t always understand them because, under family, they speak Valenciano, not Spanish, but that makes me feel all the more at home. By age three, I had already lived on three continents. Whenever family comes first, novelty and not knowing what the hell people are saying make me feel right at home.

This is why I can call comunidad Valencia a home… for now.

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Where am I going now?

For the next three to four months, I’m leaving this home behind while I explore the therapeutic benefits of slow travel on my quest through Europe to the North of Sweden. What will I find there? No clue. All I know is the calling to live this story as I write it down.

Along the way, I’ll write about the places and people I meet and dive into all aspects of travel therapy. But it all comes down to the quest. Like any relationship or good story, my journey can be a mirror to discover something new in yourself.

You might also like:

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I’ve struggled with occasional depression, but nothing outside of the cultural norm in Canada. I’d simply call those episodes “The Winter Blues” or “SAD (Seasonal affective disorder). Russians might say зимняя хандра (winter melancholy), which is seen as a more subtle or nuanced experience compared to clinical terms like Norweigen’s Vinterdepresjon (Winter Depression). The Japanese might say 冬のブルース (Winter blues). And some friends might say, “Dude, it’s just time to start snowboarding again.”

That’s because the way we define, experience, and heal from mental illness is culture-bound—something I’m exploring during my quest through Europe to the North of Sweden on Born Without Borders.

Part of 2022 was a different story. Waking up with suicidal thoughts became normal. Only two friends knew because I didn’t want to worry my family. Plus, I always had ice baths if the thoughts grew too loud. They woke me up in the morning, boosted my testosterone before workouts (according to Huberman, the bro science dude), and helped me handle stress.

Ice baths helped me, but they didn’t fix me.

The only times I was consistently fulfilled and tackled any challenge was when I travelled alone. On a pragmatic level, it was because I could save money and exercise as much as I wanted. I didn’t feel pressured to spend money on taxis instead of tipsy twenty-kilometre jogs back to Airbnbs from bars. I could devote time to art and sports instead of comfort and ease. And, of course, I was free to change plans at a whim.

Call it egotistical, but the ability to travel in a constant state of flux connected me to something outside of myself. The contradiction here is that the second I found someone equally willing to say “yes” to whatever the universe offered, I forgot all about travelling alone. I forgot about the calling.

As I often say, my sense of home is not rooted in geography but in people.

My mother and I.

Not to get all Freudian on you, but when I met el espejo de mi alma, it was like returning home to that feeling only a mother can give. She gave me a reflection my soul was craving, but behind the mirror were demons we hadn’t overcome.

As I described in “A Planster’s Healing Journey,” the pain of our story caused the cosmic strings of a quest through Europe to the North of Sweden to snap me back like an elastic.

When someone reflects your light, you see how to grow, but when someone reflects your darkness, you learn why to grow. And ‘the how’ always falls apart without ‘the why.’

How am I going on this quest?

With trains, buses, ride shares, bikes, horses, mules, and whatever it takes to travel sustainably. For tips on how to do that in Europe, check out “To Train or Bus Through Europe.”

I’ll also use Home Exchange and Couchsurfer to make this trip financially possible.

Why am I going on this quest?

I love where I live, and my income is only stable enough if I stay. So why?

I could tell you it’s because I want to find a stable sense of home I can take with me, to understand my lack of boundaries, masochistic tendencies, and so on. But deep down, I know a quest might not answer any of that.

The quest is calling every fibre in my body. I know that this quest is the beginning of something new. What exactly? Who the hell knows? What I do know is that I’m here to write.

Writing, like all art and relationships, should serve as a reflection to find something in ourselves. Through everything I research and experience, I’ll help you find ways to start your own quest and break free from any borders that impose your mind. Yes, I want to explore and show you more places, culture-bound mental illnesses, fitness-on-the-road tips, and ways to travel therapeutically, but the core of travel therapy always comes down to the quest.

The Quest Route

The North of Sweden is calling me. Maybe it’s because I’ve been called a Viking throughout my life. No, it’s definitely not because of my patchy-ass beard. Nor are raping or pillaging necessarily my forte. However, I was meant for physically and mentally demanding journeys to distant lands. Somewhere in there is why I’m here.

Whether you’re travelling or just moved to a new country, there’s always mental health support. BetterHelp and The Calm Zone both have lists for emergencies.

Looking for personalized travel therapy, fitness on the road, or journey writing help? Email me at nolanyumawriter@gmail.com.

Who is Nolan Yuma?

I’m Nolan, a man of no land. A writer, educator, guiri, actor, older brother, ocean lover, irritable cabron, hot sauce enthusiast, third culture kid fascinated by cultural psychology—but mostly, I'm inescapably foreign. I was born in Santiago de Chile, took my first steps in Antwerp, Belgium, and grew up in British Columbia, Canada. And the moment I felt a deep sense of home in Vancouver, Canada, I ended up in Spain.

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I’m a planster.

If you’re a writer, you’ve probably heard the terms panster, plotter, and planster before. A pantser is someone who “flies by the seat of their pants,” meaning they don’t plan out anything in their story or plan very little. A plotter is someone who plans out their novel before they write it. And a planster is like an agnostic, a wishy-washy mother f****r who dips his toes in where he likes—me.

That’s not just how I craft my writing but how I live my life. Aside from my workout routine, my plans are just guidelines. If people, life, the universe (god?), an airline, governments (the Chinese, Canadian, and Spanish ones in my case), o lo que sea throw me a curveball… well, I don’t always get a home run, but I roll with it anyway.

Right now, I’m in the planning stage for a 3-4 month journey through Europe to promote the therapeutic effects of slow travel.

I’ve almost finished writing my outline with the main reveals and turning points I want to hit, but the characters I meet along the way can still bring my story in a whole new direction.

Just like , , , , y El Espejo de mi Alma did to the piece you’re reading right now.

Before Mike Sowden recommended Happiness of Pursuit by Chris Guillebeau, I realized I live my life like I craft my writing. This realization came at the same time my sense of home was ripped away, and the cosmic strings of a quest through Europe to the North of Sweden pulled at me like an elastic.

If you’ve ever felt a strange sense of sadness or alienation, there’s a potential way out of the confusion—just shift this feeling to a sense of purpose. It’s not all about happiness, although happiness often results from doing something you love. Instead, it’s about challenge and fulfillment, finding the perfect combination of striving and achievement that comes from reaching a big goal. Metaphorically, discontent is the match, and inspiration is the kindling.

—

El Espejo de mi Alma, the woman I was going to marry this summer, was the match. Within a week, my body and soul knew she was the one. But the one for what? That was for my mind to interpret... or misinterpret.

How our wedding plans fell through is a prologue full of love, betrayal, trauma, and surprise flights across the world. However, my quest is not a chronological three-act structure but a fractured narrative with a beginning I’m not ready to reveal.

The important part for now is that I realized you can forgive and love those who hurt you when you find growth in the pain.

I was denying that growth—those cosmic strings. Then I met Brent and Michael in person, bringing our relationship behind screens into the real world where eyes bonded, glasses clinked, and Valencian diabetes-threatening drinks entered our stomachs—my empty stomach.

Just like with their writing, they filled me with advice and wanderlust, but seeing them in person brought back the elastic. Throughout the week, it pulled harder and harder until I discovered a lie that snapped me back to my quest.

I revised “Coping With Failure” to include my journey plans across Europe. This was when Mike Sowden recommended Happiness of Pursuit, and became the mentor of this story.

Elin Petronella has been coaching me on how to find direction and make my writing business sustainable. Like me and some of you, her birthplace does not define her sense of home. That’s how I knew she saw me.

Do you long for something more? Is something blocking you from starting your quest? Can you sense that unhappiness can lead to new beginnings? Then I see you. Like any relationship or good story, my journey can be a mirror to discover something new in yourself.

Is it a hero’s journey? Or is it an artsy-slice-of-life-questionable-character-arc journey? I don’t know where I’ll end up, but I do know I’ll share everything I learn and experience along the way. And this, I hope, will help you.

Too often, I have seen complacency and comfort cause depression. We must step outside our comfort zone to grow and connect to the greatest truth—change. That growth often starts with acknowledging our dark side instead of hiding from it. It begins with connecting that pain to a greater purpose.

That’s why my stories and articles won’t just include travel tips like in “To Bus or Train Through Europe” but expand on travel therapy.

I’ve written and interviewed psychologists about culture-bound mental illnesses in the past:

I’ll dive deeper into culture-bound mental illnesses over the next few months, but thanks to ’s Happiness of Pursuit and ’s guidance, I know the most significant part of travel therapy is the quest.

Every quest requires a sacrifice and goal of some kind. I’ll reveal those in next week’s piece—the last article before I cross the first threshold and leave Castellon, Spain, to make my way through Eastern Europe and to the North of Sweden.

Born Without Borders is a reader-supported publication. Paid subscriptions give me the time to research, write, and deliver value to those who feel inexplicably foreign or are searching for ways to step outside their comfort zone.

You can also support this trip by doing what I’m doing to afford this trip—Home Exchange.

If you want to use Home Exchange and support this journey simultaneously, you can use this link.

Born Without Borders will never be ridden with affiliates. I’m only including companies that I need for this journey, with or without a referral link.

Who is Nolan Yuma?

I'm a writer, educator, guiri, actor, older brother, ocean lover, irritable cabron, hot sauce enthusiast, third culture kid fascinated by cultural psychology—but mostly, I'm inescapably foreign. I was born in Santiago de Chile, took my first steps in Antwerp, Belgium, and grew up in British Columbia, Canada. And the moment I felt a deep sense of home in Vancouver, Canada, I ended up in Spain.

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As some of you know, I’m planning a journey through Europe to promote sustainable slow travel and its therapeutic effects.

… or maybe I’ll go insane (more insane?) and take a gas-guzzling flight back to Castellon, Spain.

No, I won’t. I’m too stubborn for that. Plus, feeling connected to our earth has gotten me through a lot lately. This is a quest to heal, not destroy.

Flying unnecessarily would be like blowing cigarette smoke into my yoga instructor’s face. Driving would be blowing vape clouds into her face. Busing would be exhaling morning-after-drinking breath, and using the train would be like a Listerine-scented puff.

By the way, if you own some mouthwash company, I’ll gladly replace Listerine with your brand. Affiliates would help with this trip. Don’t like affiliates? Well…

Flying is tempting, though. It’s often cheaper than trains in Europe. Especially when you’re like me and fly to the south of Spain in the middle of summer wearing a snowboarding jacket stuffed with socks and underwear so you don’t have to pay Ryan Air’s ridiculous fees for a carry-on bag.

I would never affiliate with Ryan Air.

Yet, if you mix coaches, trains, Blablacar (a ride-sharing service), and electric moped/Vespa rentals (I found monthly rentals for as low as 114 €/month), semi-sustainable travel can be more affordable than flying.

If you’re a European resident, you can get an Interrail pass.

If you live outside of Europe, you can get a Eurail pass.

However, keep in mind that this is not all you’ll pay. You’ll also need to pay reservation fees up to € 50, although it’s often cheaper and not always necessary.

Plus, ferries aren’t included.

Here are some ferry prices I looked up for my trip.

Tallinn to Stockholm: Starting from 219 € with the 20% from Interrail.

Tallinn to Helsinki: 22-44 €

Gdnask to Nynashamn: 106 €

Gdnask to Karlskrona: 72-92 €

It’s also important to note that Interrail and Eurail don’t advertise certain deals in specific countries. For instance, in the past year, I have paid NOTHING for Renfe trains (not including the high-speed ones) in Spain. I pay for an Abono, which costs 10 €, and with that, I get unlimited train rides for four months. Plus, if I use it more than sixteen times, I get the €10 BACK!

Knowing all that, I also started looking at Flix Bus, which has connections all over Europe and even shows up on Google Maps when the train options are slower or non-existent.

Here are some of the Flix Bus prices I looked up for my trip.

Mont Pellier to Venice: 88 € - 160 €

Zagreb to Prague: 46 € - 89 €

Prague to Krakow: 10 € - 45 €

The prices varied quite a bit, just like with trains. If I were to do the opposite of slow travel and hop from destination to destination to take an Instagram pic and do a city instead of experience a city, the continuous Interrail pass would be the best. But that’s not my goal.

Although I like to plan as a guideline and make things as inexpensive as possible, the benefits of slow travel come from tapping into the constant flux of the universe. Sure, I’ll have to rush and overnight in a few cities, but the idea is to spend time, work, and live—this isn’t a holiday.

It’s about experiencing the people, not checking places off a list. To do that, I need to be open to changing my plans, whether hopping on a train, bus, Blablacar, Vespa, bicycle, horse, donkey, or hitching a ride in what would hopefully be a full car.

That’s why I’m a planster, which I’ll explain in my next post.

Thank you for being here. Together, we can grow a community for the inescapably foreign.

You can also support this trip by doing what I’m doing to afford this trip—Home Exchange.

If you want to use Home Exchange and support this journey simultaneously, you can use this link.

Born Without Borders will never be ridden with affiliates. I’m only including companies that I need for this journey, with or without a referral link.

Stick around.

What’s your favourite mode of transport?

Which countries do you want me to visit?

And here’s the big question—Can I stay with you? I bring food, beer, nomadic workout equipment, and love.

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One measure of humanity’s progress is more leisure time. Unfortunately, many use it to consume or ‘be productive’ instead of play.

Throughout my adult life, I devoted most of my free time to my creative goals, whether acting, writing, or, dare I say it, ‘creating content.’ The time spent writing what poured out of me, puzzling together plots, filming skits, brainstorming with friends y los voces en mi cabeza, researching what I loved, and networking (the genuine kind) felt like play.

The time I spent on social media and doing what I was told sold felt like work. I said to myself if I didn’t put in this work, then doing what I loved would never pay the bills.

I goggined my life before David Goggins became a verb. This was a time before bro-science professor Andrew Huberman said doing st we don’t like builds the anterior midcingulate cortex for willpower, and Goggins told us that the thing you feel is missing in your life is found “in the suck,” not some “catch-phrase b****t.”

True. You find yourself in times of hardship, not comfort. But after twelve years of pushing through “the suck,” the wolves smelled my desperation and capitalized on my passion.

Instead of giving up, I decided to go all out with Substack. Rather than spending most of my time on paid work (teaching, personal training, promoting products, and whatever gig economy stint came my way), I treated Substack like a job.

I needed to put 40+ hours a week into Born Without Borders, or I’d fire myself (I haven’t quite figured out what that means either.) I churned out two articles a week, read, networked, and implemented all the strategies that seemed authentic to my project.

I believed that ‘plan a’ works better when there’s no ‘plan b.’ Now I’m broke and must find stable work. Es lo que hay—this isn't me complaining about working more. Voy a trabajar less.

Work has caused me to spend more money than I made, burn out, and limit my growth. Sure, pushing through “the suck” helped me find who I am and what I want. Ironically, that’s a scholar who wants to play.

“Scholar” comes from the Latin “schola,” meaning leisure devoted to learning. I fell for the idea that I needed to grind it out so people would pay for what I created.

I’ve learned a lot about how to succeed on Substack from by, , by , and of course, , , and , who have gone the extra mile to share what they know with me.

I also wouldn’t have made it this far without Switter’s World, Chen Rafaeli, Justin S. Bailey, Harvey Hamer, Mmerikani (Swahili, English), JD Goulet, Paul Moxness, Bowen Dwelle, Kat River, Jonny Bates, Ali Manoogian, Renée Eli, Ph.D, Lloyd Miner, Noha Beshir, Logan Thorneloe, Sam Colt, Michael Edward, Laura Lin, Alex Dobrenko`, Ranjit K Sharma, Junot Díaz, Dean Foster, Lisa Rogers, Danu, M.M. McGuire, James Don BlueWolf, Summer Suleiman, Joseph Lim, Ian Coulls, Expat in Portugal, Lorraine Tilbury, Samuel Lopez-Barrantes, neena maiya, M. E. Rothwell, Nishant Jain, Andy Adams, Priya Iyer, Samantha Childress, Alexander M Crow, Amrita Roy, , Alison Acheson, Monica Nastase, Ann Wolter, Bruce Joffe, Sam Briggs from , Michie O'Day, Kimberly Anne, ,Louise Haynes, Aimee Liu, Frank Janssens, family members who prefer to remain nameless, and all of you who subscribe to my newsletter.

But right now, I’m lost.

I started for nomads, immigrants, third-culture kids, and everyone else who feels inescapably foreign. Es para todos quien quieren salir de las fronteras que impone su mente.

Like my art, my life is a constant journey where I say yes to everything and then roll with the punches. But after twelve years of failure, the vision that my unrealistic narrative will one day materialize is starting to dwindle.

When I started the Forever Foreign series, crafting my parents’ life stories into the written word felt like my last resort—the book that would finally propel my career.

My parents got married after six dates, wandered amid CIA shadows and sticky red tape, celebrated with the Sandanistas, dwelled on a monkey-ridden island with a beat-loving recluse, rose to the top of Tenerife’s tourist sector, dodged the draft, smuggled—

The adventures were endless, but it took cancer for my father to commit to the stories I’ve begged him to pen throughout my life. The time we spent talking and writing while an ocean apart meant more than any career or financial-related goal I had, but the lack of success took its toll on us.

Sometimes, trying to capitalize on stories kills their soul.

My next post, “Sperm on the Rocks,” will be the final chapter, so those who have followed the stories from the beginning will experience the cyclical narrative I planned. Initially, this story was supposed to come in three months (and three countries) later, but pushing through was destroying what I love.

Maybe I’ll return to my parents' stories but through my voice and experience. In a time of AI, I believe art must be more personal than ever. ChatGPT can imitate and edit my words but can’t play with my imperfections and contradictions as you and I can.

I will keep writing from this sense of play because it’s the only way I know to live with meaning in this world. But until becomes more sustainable, I can’t guarantee two articles a week anymore. If you want to support this, paid subscriptions give me the time to write my best words. They allow me to write outside our borders.

I’ve created a few polls to help me find direction, but art can’t always be categorized into a few questions, so please let me know what you think in the comments.

I appreciate todo tu ayuda.

Here’s the big question.

Are you interested in reading about a cross-continent (Europe) fitness challenge trip that supports sustainable slow travel and a more borderless world?

In the past months, I’ve put my job and writing aside to support the person I thought I’d marry. Turns out, I was cheated on and manipulated throughout the relationship. Was it trauma, mental health, pure selfishness, our culture’s push for individualism, religious background, influencer love gurus, or a combination of them all?

Why did I forgive so much? How come I couldn’t set boundaries? Why am I still madly in love? Am I a masochist? Did I enmesh the relationship? I will investigate and process this by interviewing people I meet along the way.

The only way to keep hate out of my heart is to turn the pain into something creative I can grow from and help others with.

I’m now selling most of my belongings and renting out my apartment so I can heal through travel, writing, and the only measure I’ve ever had control over, fitness.

I guess I haven’t let go of goggining my life.

So, I plan to either a.) hike and transit from Spain to Sweden while completing various fitness challenges and interviewing people about mental health or b.) Bike from Spain to Sweden while completing various fitness challenges and interviewing people about mental health.

The style, structure, and content of my writing will largely depend on how you answered the other questions.

Most importantly, let’s collaborate!

Now that I’m not tied down to a schedule, I have time for many more collaborations. So please reach out to me if you want to write, podcast, film, act and create together.

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Why live without borders?

For this episode, the season one finale, that’s what I’m exploring.

If this is your first time tuning into the show, my name is Nolan Yuma Janssens. I was born in Chile, took my first steps in Belgium, and the second I felt a deep sense of home in Canada, I ended up in Spain.

I am

inescapably foreign.

Over the past eight months, I have interviewed people from all over the world. People with clashing ideologies that have resulted in culture wars and actual wars. Christians, Muslims, capitalists, communists, gays, straights, beliebers, receivers, anarchists, and masochists. Black, brown, yellow, white.

Labels.

Whereas they help us categorise and describe, all they really do is conquer and divide.

Like ecosystems, the more diverse our society and people, the more resistant we are to disease and whatever the universe throws at us… except maybe bureaucracy: where the simple becomes complicated and where common sense goes to die… slowly.

Anyway. Unity, not uniformity.

Some of my guests had very different opinions and ideas than my own. Some don’t support gay marriage, think communism works, like guns, and some don’t even like beer. How the hell did I get along with these people?

I focused on what makes us human.

Curiosity. And travel is curiosity manifested through movement.

Our bipedalism, large brains, dextrous hands, and speech help to explain our ability to travel to more places than any other animal on earth. We are designed to be curious travellers. It all started with our ability to stand up straight, scan the horizons, and seek more food, shelter, people, and information.

By focusing on what unifies us — curiosity, travel, and our love of culture — I learned something from every one of my guests.

I listened. But listening does nothing without reflection, just like travel does nothing without stillness. And a bureaucrat does nothing… does nothing.

So why live a life without borders?

I started this podcast hoping to break down borders. Not all borders. I know they play a role in preserving linguistic heritage, culture, and providing jobs for people who work from 9 to 5, but get home by 2.

I think you know who I’m referring to by now.

Anyway. What I mean by a world without borders is a world without the walls of anger, hatred, and ignorance that separates us. That’s what I mean by “Without Borders.”

At first, I thought that meant being a “global citizen” because problems like climate change, poverty, inequality, famine, war, and the popularity of Reggaeton are global problems that take a global mindset to solve.

But upon further reflection, I realised the term “global citizen” has become an ideology in itself. Many who — and here comes that ugly word — ‘label’ themselves as global citizens believe their way of thinking is good for others, and as Alan Watts pointed out, believing you’re doing good for others is full of conceit.

A world full of virtuous global citizens running around?

That doesn’t sound diverse. That sounds like uniformity, not unity. It sounds like the road to hell paved with good intentions.

So I’m not trying to galvanise a movement of travellers or “Global Citizens.” I’m just trying to be part of a balance of stories. Stories that don’t push one ideology over another. Stories that show we’re a diverse species of primates just trying to figure ourselves out.

As I mentioned at the beginning, this is the season one finale, but it might be the end of the Without Borders podcast. If you enjoyed this podcast, please share your favourite episodes and spread the word. I’m here to listen to your feedback, collaborate, and support projects, but I can’t sustain the hours I put into creating and marketing this podcast if people don’t support the show at bornwithoutborders.substack.com.

I do this because I know we need a balance of stories. I believe that when diverse voices reach a broader public, we can begin to increase rational compassion.

Thanks to everyone who came on the show and took the time out of their day to listen.

And if you happen to be a bureaucrat. I’m sorry for all the jokes and I hope you enjoyed listening to this during your work hours.

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Nolan speaks with Chantal Patton from @GrowingUpWithoutBorders Chantal reveals what’s it’s like trying to travel to every country in the world while homeschooling three kids. Nolan and Chantal also discuss school systems around the world, cultural variations, why Home Exchange kicks ass, and of course, why both their projects have the words “Without Borders.”

Support the show

Growing Up Without Borders Website and Courses

Transcript available for English learners.

00:00 Introduction

01:33 - Visiting every country with 3 kids

09:31 - Generalising vs learning about cultures

20:28 - Homeschooling & School systems around the world

38:39 - Cultural variations within Canada, the USA, and New Zealand

41:22 - Airbnb & hotels vs Home Exchange

47:04 - Growing Up Without Borders Courses & digital nomad tips

53:49 - Why “Without Borders?”

56:18 - Check your “Geographical privilege.”

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In this episode, we explore the role of educators in a world with artificial intelligence. Discover how teachers adapt and navigate an AI revolution. Katie and Nolan also share tips about how to learn languages and adapt motivation techniques depending on the culture and learning style.

Watch the video here.

Support the show, read the transcript, and learn more at:

You can also learn more about Abridge Academy.

00:00 - Learning Chinese & Acculturating to China

17:23 - A reacher’s role in a world of AI

25:00 - Culture-bound motivation styles

33:45 - Acculturating to Japan

40:15 - How language shapes our perception

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Nolan speaks with Paul Dermody, an online personal trainer, podcaster, and part-time professional writer passionate about travel and languages. Paul shares his tips on achieving your fitness and health goals with a holistic approach that can apply to all aspects of life. You can check out the specific topics below and select which segment of the podcast you want to listen to.

Want Paul as a personal trainer or to get more health tips and motivation?

Website

Instagram

Support the show

Watch the episode on YouTube.

00:00 - Intro

01:56 - Why Paul Dermody chose to make Spain home.

05:30 - How travel affects your identity

11:51 - The problem with travel (and life) no one talks about

16:45 - Benefits of travel

20:19 - How culture affects health, diets, and fitness

24:38 - How to change your mindset for better health

33:19 - Culture-bound eating disorders

40:49 - Diet culture & woke culture

51:25 - Paul’s personal training

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Nolan Yuma speaks with Dr. Benjamin Cheung, a leading expert in the fields of genetic essentialism, culture and sleep, and acculturation. Benjamin shares his cultural experience as a 1.5 generation Chinese Canadian and how parents of immigrant children can ease the acculturation process. Nolan and Ben also talk about how culture affects the outcomes of drug use, psychedelics, the 4-hour work week, and even how much sleep you need.

You can also watch the video recording on YouTube.

Learn more about Dr. Benjamin Cheung research at UBC.

Episode Transcript

00:00 Intro

01:34 - Generation 1.5 & Third culture kid experiences & parenting advice

17:35 - Cultural adjustment and acculturation strategies

18:37 - Identify & the authentic self

22:14 - Ego death & psychedelics

26:13 - Microdosing, drugs, and how culture & criminalisation affect their positive outcomes

33:24 - Genetic essentialism & how society influences depression

42:03 - How culture influences the 4-hour work week

44:33 - How culture influences how much sleep you need

58: 11 - Conclusion

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Also available on YouTube.

Nolan speaks with César, @SpanishLanguageCoach , about his immigration and acculturation experiences. They discuss the cultural characteristics of England and Spain with a focus on the differences in how people approach political correctness and cancel culture. They also share language learning tips and how the recent social media trends have affected language learning content.

Support the show

Links to César's course and podcast

spanishlanguagecoach.com

Podcast

00:00 - Intro

01:50 - César’s acculturation story (Comparing Spain to England)

07:16 - The Petardos (Firecrackers) & Fallas tradition and its consequences

12:19 - Objectivity, identify politics, and César’s Spanish learning podcast objectives.

17:21 - Political correctness in Spanish vs England 33:57 - Language learning tips

45:08 - Social media trends & how it affects language learning

52:23 - Switching to Substack

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Nolan speaks with Daniel Thompson, the CEO of Noma Collective, a business and community that specializes in creating experiences for remote workers. They discuss cultural and individual differences in time perception, life in Merida, negotiation styles, home births, becoming a digital nomad that helps the local culture rather than destroying it, and slowing the hell down.

Support the show

Join a Noma Experience

Noma Experience Instagram

0:00 - Intro

01:41 - Growing up in the UK, New Zealand, and the USA

05:43 - A nomadic home birth

08:18 - Life in Merida

12:41 - Living a nomadic life with Noma Collective

20:27 - Perception of time, both in cultures and individuals

28:30 - Task-based vs relationship-based cultures.

31:17 - Music industry & rave culture

35:09 - How to become a digital nomad (even with a family)

42:24 - Noma’s social impact & slow travel

52:00 - Slow travel & returning to the human pace

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Coco Hofs uses her business experience and cultural consulting expertise to discuss Erin Meyer's 8 Scales from The Culture Map with Nolan Yuma. They analyze and critique the research from Edward Hall, Geert Hofstede, and Richard E. Nisbett while bringing in some of their personal experiences and stories –– In Nolan's case, that includes why getting drunk can create stronger bonds, which in some cases, relates to what the Japanese call Nomikai 飲み会.

Support the show

Need cultural consulting for your business?

Website: ⁠www.cocohofs.com⁠

Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/crossculturalsolutions_by_coco/⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/coco-hofs/⁠

Coco is of Dutch origin and has lived outside The Netherlands since 2016.

She lives in Peru and runs her own business, 'Cross-cultural Solutions'. With Cross-Cultural Solutions, she helps organizations overcome cultural differences in the international workplace. She helps professionals operating in a global economy understand the impact that our cultural background has when doing business internationally and across cultures.

In her opinion, organizations tend to forget that cultural differences have a significant impact on how smoothly the business goes and how well teams of different cultural backgrounds work together.

She is a cross-cultural trainer, executive coach, and keynote speaker who works with companies from all over the world.

English learners can access transcripts of all the episodes.

00:00 - Introduction & Coco Huff's experience that led to cultural consulting

05:04 - Dutch negative feedback & Critique on Erin Meyer's The Culture Map

12:49 - Communication style (high-context to low-context scale)

13:47 - Evaluation (direct to indirect negative feedback scale)

14:50 - Leading styles (egalitarian to hierarchical scale)

15:11 - Deciding (Consensual to top-down scale)

19:17 - Trusting (Task-based to relationship-based scale) & possible anecdotal mistakes

27:56 - Nomunication (Nomikai 飲み会)/drinking to build trust

31:16 - Disagreeing (Confrontational to avoid confrontation scale)

34:38 - Scheduling (Linear time to flexible time scale)

41:08 - Persuading (Application-first to principle first/deductive reasoning to inductive reasoning)

48:08 - Relating Hofstede's indulgence scale to incremental or entity theory

52:52 - Persuasion difference between analytic and holistic thinkers

56: 14 - Coco's immigration story & Conclusion

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@ProfessorWolters from @woltersworld shares his experience and knowledge as a marketing professor and travel enthusiast who obtained YouTube fame. Professor Wolters could quit his job, but he loves teaching and "also loves insurance." His passion and humour come through when he gives Nolan and the listeners advice on becoming successful YouTubers and online creators.

Nolan and Professor Wolters also discuss food culture, distance culture, and their thoughts on "America has no culture."

Transcript for English learners

Support the show

Learn more about Professor Mark Wolters:

Wolter's World Website

Wolter’s World Youtube Channel

All episodes are available on my YouTube Channel.

00:00 - Intro (Mark Wolter & his work)

06:09 - Sobre mesa and service culture around the world

10:22 - Response to "America has no culture."

16:26 - Distance culture

20:55 - Canadian vs American culture

26:50 - How to approach confrontation and discussion around the world 30:01 - Professor Wolter's business channel & marketing advice

36:46 - Becoming successful on YouTube & social media

54:00 - The do's and don'ts of travel

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"Developing nation? Bro. Let's get to the point. We're a poor country," says Aeron.In this conversation, Aeron DEllosa from @animmigrantslifepodcast and Nolan Yuma don't hide the truth with political correctness. Instead, they get right to the point when discussing immigrating to Canada, Filipino culture and psychology, Tagalog, decolonization, and racism.

Without Borders is a free podcast. If you enjoy this podcast and want to access the transcript, please consider becoming a paid subscriber at withoutborders.fyi. Your support makes the project possible. You can also find my travel series on Youtube.00:00 - Intro01:46 - Montreal vs Vancouver06:07 - Becoming Canadian and staying Filipino. Individualism vs Collectivism11:09 - Utang na loob & Corruption16:19 - Pakikisama & Hiya & cultural differences in confrontation styles in Canada, the Netherlands, and the Philippines26:12 - Political correctness isn't helping marginalized people33:54 - Acculturating to Canada & types of racism 41:38 - Is the Philippines a matriarchal society?52:47 - Decolonisation in Filipino culture58:41 - How dangerous social media is for understanding culture1:02:03 - Wrap up

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Two close friends from different backgrounds discuss PC language, racism, growing up in a small town, returning to the Muslim faith, spirituality, and marriage.

Without Bordersis a free podcast. If you enjoy this podcast and want to access the transcript, please consider becoming apaid subscriberat withoutborders.fyi. Your support makes the project possible. You can also find my travel series onYoutube.

00:00 Intro02:30 - Brown versus white parenting & family dynamics & hierarchies. 13:27 - Testosterone, weight lifting and martial arts.17:49 - PC Language & Curry Hill 23:36 - Growing up Muslim around Sikh people & Ramadan 29:43 - Culture & Mental Illness 34:21 - Returning to the Muslim faith & spirituality & Lying 47:54 - Arranged vs Love Marriages

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Vida shares the differences between living as an asylum-seeker and a refugee in Belgium. She also talks about becoming Bahai, the Green movement (Persian Spring), and how everything she experienced led to self-actualization. Nolan reveals that Maslow saw self-transcendence as the top of the pyramid, not self-actualization.

Without Borders is a free podcast. If you enjoy this podcast, please consider becoming a paid subscriber at withoutborders.fyi. Your support makes the project possible. You can also find my travel series on Youtube.

00:00 - Introduction

00:42 - Life as refugee vs asylum seeker

13:09 - Bahai religion & beliefs

22:03 - The Green Movement (Persian Spring) & Revolution

27:58 - Self-actualisation & self-transcendence

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Nolan Yuma and Vida Razavi talk about life in Iran, Eastern Africa, volunteering (and all the corruption involved), intersectionality, growing up in a hierarchical society, how to adjust to high-power and low-power distance cultures, and immigration.

Vida Razavi has lived in 6 different countries and three continents as a refugee, student, volunteer, freelancer, and researcher. Vida studied physics as her undergrad and has master's degrees in sociology and developmental studies. Her passion for social justice and participatory democracy led to various career moves and eventually brought Vida to her current work in an umbrella organization for gender equality.

00:00 - Introduction

03:20 - Life in Mashhad, Iran

08:40 - Albert Schweitzer influence & Moving to Africa

18:38 - White & “yellow” privilege in Africa

24:16 - Growing up in a hierarchical society * Low and high power distances

34:50 - Gender roles in Eastern Africa & Intersectionality

38:48 - High-context vs. low-context cultures & Theory-first vs. principal-first cultures.

43:18 - ICT4D, Elon Musk’s Starlink, Mark Zuckerberg Free Internet

47:36 - Charities, the development sector, and their corruption

51:32 - Vida’s experience with immigration bureaucracy

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"You have to give them the opportunity to express themselves," says Michael Bren, and that's what I hope to have accomplished in this interview. Michael Bren is referring to his interviews with people who have experienced the paranormal. Michael discusses his books and opinions about travel as Nolan asks questions about cultural competence, how religion affects psychology, and what Michael's experience with the Peace Corps was like.

This is a great conversation for intermediate English learners as we speak much slower than usual. The transcript is available on www.withoutborders.fyi/michael-bren-the-travel-psychologist-and-ufologist.

00:00 Intro

02:20 What is travel psychology?

05:18 - Experience with the Peace Corps & learning languages

10:19 - Culture shock

16:11 - Intercultural Communication and the Adjustment of a Sojourner.

31:13 - Culture and psychology of religion.

34:41 - Intercultural competence.

40:30 - Idiots Abroad

46:46 - Road to the strange, UFOs & paradigm shifts

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This is not an episode from the WithoutBorders podcast. I was interviewed by Linus Lu at Interintellect to talk about The Without Borders Salon Series. I would love for you to join the monthly discussion.

After living in Chile, Belgium, Canada, and now Spain, Nolan spends his days studying cultural psychology, interviewing people from around the world, traveling, and writing stories to break down borders. His project, Without Borders, is a collective of new articles, stories, videos, and podcasts each week, bringing insight and perspective to these experiences.

This series is for nomads, expats, third-culture kids, immigrants, or anyone who feels inescapably foreign. In this space hosted by Nolan Yuma Janssens every Sunday at 18:00 CET, we will discuss ways to break down borders through cultural psychology research, immigration advice, and travel stories. After hosting the Without Borders miniseries in February, Nolan realized the discussions can’t be contained in one series and needed to be ongoing. He is constantly updating the material to build upon each previous salon.

The themes of the monthly discussion revolve around:

Abating polarization
Advancing the bureaucratic system and immigration process
Exploring universal truths about morality
Improving cultural competence
Increasing productivity for international organizations
Limiting xenophobia
Storytelling techniques for “The Inescapably Foreign.”

Every Sunday at 18:00 CET

Note: You can purchase each salon ticket for $15 or a series ticket for $90 (save 50%), valid throughout 2023.

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Nolan Yuma and Tola Alade, the CEO of Marmalade venture, talk about the misconceptions people have about Africa and how Marmalade fixes them through branding and raising awareness about African entrepreneurs and artists.

Nolan and Tola share their opinions about critical theory, Jordan Peterson, the rhetoric around slavery, and how to unify instead of divide.

Subscribe and support Marmalade: https://www.marmaladecollective.com/

00:00 - Introduction

03:33 - Fixing misconceptions about Lagos, Nigeria & Africa

08:39 - Marmalade Collective & Africa's most valuable asset — Culture

16:49 - LGBTQ rights in Africa concerning branding

21:10 - Using Jordan Peterson, Nathan Nunn, and Magatte Wade to talk about African Economy.

25:04 - Slavery, Individualism, entrepreneurialism, and moving forward.

31:11 - Critical theory and intersectionality does not unify.

39:10 - Racism in North America vs. Africa

49:40 - Breaking African Stereotypes & Discussing Stereotype threats.

56:29 - Wrapping it all up.

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As a child born in Italy during World War I, Dr. Salvatore Forcina's early years were spent poverty-stricken and without proper shelter. Like many Italians at the time, his parents followed a migration to Argentina. Shortly after arriving in Argentina, he was indoctrinated and abused in a Catholic boarding school for seven years, as they offered the only available avenue for "educating" the boy.

His indefatigable determination eventually compelled him to enter and graduate from medical school, emigrate to America and become the chief of surgery at two major hospitals.

Preorder Dr. Forcina's book: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-american-doctor-salvatore-j-forcina/1141643151

Follow Dr. Forcina on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drsalvatoreforcinamd/

00:00 - Intro with The American Doctor

01:48 - Life in Italy during

WW2 03:54 - Immigrating to Argentina

10:35 - Catholic boarding school in Argentina

21:35 - Role models, importance of family, and studying medicine

29:24 - Acculturating to Argentina and the United States as an Italian

33:40 - How to overcome adversity & Victor Frankl’s Man’s Pursuit of Meaning.

49:30 - Opinions about American healthcare.

01:00:07 - The importance of immigrants.

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Chat GPT researcher, Monica Albina, shares her insight on how Chat GPT impacts the educational industry and its ethical implication. Monica also shares her experiences as an Italian and Czech person living in Switzerland and Spain.

00:00 Intro

01:08 - Chat GPT (With a focus on morality and language learning)

20:51 - How writers and artists can use Chat GPT and Dall-E

27:23 - AI & The 4 Hour Work Week & Universal Base Pay

00:32:35 - How does Chat GPT affect language diversity and Western propaganda?

00:41:46 - Monica’s multicultural personality & immigration story (Comparing Spain, Italy, and Czech Republic)

01:03:33 - Comparing humour around the world

01:08: 49 - Language and Personality

01:11: 34 - Wrapping it all up

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Nolan talks to his friend and former colleague Eva Briatkova about her acculturation and immigration experiences in Canada. They discuss what it was like for her to find work as a nurse and paramedic, cultural comparisons in drug use and open-mindedness, why nurses love to party, the experiential marketing world, acculturation techniques, and more. You'll also get some tips about travelling in Slovakia.

00:00 - Introduction

01:51 - Immigration to Canada from Slovakia as a Nurse

05:28 - Quality of life as nurse in Canada vs Slovakia

08:07 - Comparing work culture and social safety nets in Canada, Slovakia, and Spain

16:35 - What is experiential marketing? And how to advertise tobacco in Canada

27:37 - Drinking culture in Canada vs Slovakia + How nurses party

32:52 - Becoming more Canadian. Discussing open-mindedness, mental health, recreational drug use, and acceptance

44:58 - Identity & language

59:58 - Why to visit Slovakia and Slovak etiquette

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Nolan Yuma meets one of his intellectual heroes, Dr. Steven Heine. They discuss culture, how crops affect political views and culture, self-esteem variations around the world, morality, and Steve's latest book, DNA is Not Destiny.

00:00 - Intro

01:26 - Defining Culture

04:30 - What is universally true for humans, and what is culturally bound?

12:33 - The WEIRD (Wester, educated, rich, and democratic) problem.

20:37 - Reasons for individualistic and collectivistic countries

24:06 - How crops effect political and egalitarian views.

27:37 - How self esteem and motivation varies around the world

40:11 - Can we morally accuse a cultural tradition?

48:34 - DNA is Not Destiny

55:14 - Conclusion

DNA Is Not Destiny: The Remarkable, Completely Misunderstood Relationship between You and Your Genes

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Don't confuse Belgians and the Dutch. Rosie Van Den Broek (Principal Customer Success Manager at HubSpot) and Nolan Yuma discuss cultural and psychological differences and how they affect business and travel. Rosie also talks about her experience moving to Ireland and why she had to change her name. Nolan and Yuma also touch on identity, politics, the king of Belgium, blackface, and why beer keeps people from becoming separatists.

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Dr. Matthew Niblett and Dr. Kris Beuret talk about their book Why Travel. Matthew and Kris share some personal stories about their gap years and travel experiences only available in this episode. Together with the host, Nolan Yuma, they explore new insights and questions that will lead to future research in the fields of travel and transportation.

Join the conversation and support the show at withoutborders.fyi. You can also learn more about the Why Travel project at whytravel.org.

Purchase the book.

Why travel? What motivations underpin the journeys we make? And how can we make decisions that improve our travel experiences?

Arguing that the desire to move is a purpose in itself, this book brings together leading experts to provide insights from multiple viewpoints across the sciences, arts and humanities. Together, they examine key travel motivations, including the importance of travel for human wellbeing, and how these can be reconciled with challenges such as reducing our carbon footprint, adapting new mobility technologies, and improving the quality of our journeys.

The book shows how our travel choices are shaped by a wide range of social, physical, psychological and cultural factors, which have profound implications for the design of future transport policies.

Offering thought-provoking and practical new perspectives, this fascinating book will be essential for all those who have ever wondered why we travel and how it relates to our fundamental needs.

More about the authors

Matthew is the director of the Independent Transport Commission, which is Britain’s foremost independent transport and land use think tank. Matthew holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford and was a Senior Research Associate at the University's Transport Studies Unit.

Kristine Beuret is the Director of Social Research Associates and a social scientist specialised in transport and urban policy. Kris has advised the House of Commons Transport Committee, TfL, the DfT and overseas governments on disability and diversity issues.

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Nick Synnott shares his experience partying in an ISIS recruitment centre. Nolan and Nick then discuss rave culture and how it varies around the world.

Follow Nick Synnott on Instagram.

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Silvio Ivicic, a cameraman for the VRT (vlaamse radio en televisie or the national public-service broadcaster), talks about immigrating to Belgium from Croatia. Nolan and Silvio discuss various regional and national identities and how it has affected their lives.

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Dexter Docherty, an oxford graduate now working in public policy, shares his insight on creating a fairer, borderless world and why every great city smells like piss. Keaton Jackson shares his experiences in France and Canada as Nolan guides the conversation from nudist spas, freezing your SS Johnson off, immigration, protests, and how to create a more just world.

There were a few sound issues with this episode. You can the transcript at withoutborders.fyi or you can listen to the episode with captions on youtube.

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Keaton Jackson shares his experience as a landscaper in Vancouver, Canada and Paris, France. He shares his insight on what it's like to be a union worker vs. a private employee and the difference between working in Canada vs. France. Nolan and Keaton also discuss certain misconceptions some people have about France's safety nets and working culture. They finish the conversation by discussing shit sandwiches, prejudice against Europeans in small North American towns, and why cities embrace people from diverse backgrounds.

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Nolan and Tima expand on last week's episode and dive into the different ways people can become part of the Borderless NGO. They discuss feminism, gender essentialism, and how Tima empowers Arabic women around the world. Tima Deryan became the 1st Lebanese woman and youngest Arab to summit Mount Everest at 26 years old, but you can learn about that on CNN, BBC, Aljazeera, and every major news channel.

You can access the transcript, discuss language, and join the community at withoutborders.fyi. You can also find highlights of the conversation and comedic videos on the Without Borders Youtube channel.

Without Borders is a free podcast. If you enjoy this podcast, please consider becoming a paid subscriber at withoutborders.fyi. Your support makes the project possible.

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Tima Deryan became the 1st Lebanese woman and youngest Arab to summit Mount Everest, but you can learn about that on CNN, BBC, Aljazeera, and every major news channel. In today's episode, we focus on the Borderless NGO. Borderless is an independent Lebanese non-profit organization with a mission to create a life-changing impact on the lives of vulnerable families. Tima and Nolan discuss how to volunteer, intern, and work for Borderless while focusing on the mental health aspect of the organization.

Make sure to tune in next week as Nolan and Tima hone in on cultural superstitions and ways to empower women in the middle east and around the world. You can stay updated and join the community at withoutborders.fyi. English language learners can access transcripts and ask questions about what they heard on the podcast. You can also find highlights of the conversation and comedic videos on the Without Borders Youtube channel.

You can also find a link to Tima's book, Curly Adventures.

Without Borders is a free podcast. If you enjoy this podcast, please consider becoming a paid subscriber at withoutborders.fyi. Your support makes the project possible.

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"Opinions shouldn't define who you are; if they do, you'll never change them."

Walden Hudson describes people's stereotypes about him as an American and how he works to break them. Nolan and Walden differ in their views about gun control but discover they have more in common than they think.

Join our borderless community (withoutborders.fyi) for more travel stories and insight into cultural psychology. You can also access the transcripts and language notes.

Check out "The Men Who Swallow" if you're interested in learning more about culture and why opinions shouldn't define us. The Without Borders community is always open for discussion.

More videos and content are available on the Without Border's Youtube channel.

Follow IG @waldon.hudson

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Nolan Yuma and Walden Hudson expand on their previous conversation about work culture in the United States versus New Zealand. Waldon Hudson (IG @Walden.Hudson) opens up about his family and friends that passed away during the COVID Pandemic and one of the hardest choices he ever had to make–go back to the United States to assist his family or stay in New Zealand to keep his job and everything he has worked for over the past several years.

Transcripts and more cultural insight are available at withoutborders.fyi

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Nolan Yuma and Walden Husdon relive their first encounter and reveal how Nolan ended up naked in Times Square and in Walden's manager's basement. Walden then tells the story of how he went from being a model and actor in New York to a Leadership Development Coach in New Zealand. They also explore the differences between New Zealand bogans and Georgian rednecks. Their discussion comparing various work cultures around the world continues on in the second part of the episode.

New episodes come out every Tuesday.

Walden's LinkedIn.

Walden's Instagram.

If you want to access transcripts or join the community, please visit withoutborders.fyi

You can also find Nolan's book, Living with the In-Laws, for more about his experience with Walden in New York.

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Ikue Ueno and Nolan Yuma continue talking about mental health. They also dive into Ikue's personal acculturation story and the struggles of adapting to an "imperfect" Canada from a "perfect" Japan.

Ikue explains what she does at Human Garage Project. You can contact her via Link Tree or Instagram.

As always, if you are an English learner, you can access the transcripts and language notes on Without Borders. You will also find written stories, sociopolitical musings, cultural psychology notes, and more. Please subscribe to Without Borders to join our community.

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Nolan Yuma and Ikue Ueno discuss the different ways Japan and Canada address mental health issues. They also discuss how culture shapes work ethic and self-esteem. Ikue draws from her immigration and acculturation experience to explain what it feels like to be Japanese and Canadian.

Visit Ikue's LinkTree to learn more about Ikue's professional dance life and the Human Garage Project.

Most of the information Nolan Yuma used was from the textbook Cultural Psychology by Steven J. Heine.

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Two brothers, Nolan Yuma Janssens and Yano Peter Janssens, compare and contrast their childhood experiences. They discuss their identity crisis as third-culture children trying to find a sense of home. Yano also talks about what it's like to sail across the Atlantic on a tall ship, and Nolan opens up about his depression.

For transcripts, language notes, written stories, and cultural psychology visit withoutborders.fyi

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Ruben de Libano is a Spanish content creator who fell in love with the UK. He talks about what it's like to be a vegetarian and reducitarian in Spain. We also go over some of the cultural differences between the UK and Spain.

To learn more about minimalistic photography and content creation, check out IG @captura.tu.negocio

To access language notes, transcripts and more, visit withoutborders.fyi

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Nick Synnott has written for Lonely Planet and worked in various businesses around the world. He's lived a nomadic lifestyle throughout his adult life, and now he's doing it with his newborn child. Check out the episode to learn how Nick pulls it off. He also has some incredible travel stories from during the COVID pandemic.

Follow him at IG @Nicksynnotttravel

For transcripts, language notes, written stories, and cultural psychology information visit withoutborders.fyi

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Renuke Samarsignhe went from telling servants to pour him a cup of tea to being told to return to the jungle. Instead of returning home to Sri Lanka, he learned to fend for himself and deal with racism in the UK. Now he's a consultant successfully travelling the world. Check out the episode to learn more about his immigration process and how he pulls off his nomadic lifestyle.

Subscribe to withoutborders.fyi for transcripts, language notes, essays, stories, and much more.

IG @Renukes

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Without Borders: Stories by the inescapably foreign. A podcast for nomads, expats, immigrants, refugees, third-culture children and anyone else that feels foreign as f***. The host, Nolan Yuma, provides transcripts and language notes for English learners at withoutborders.fyi. You can also access essays about cultural psychology, sociopolitical musings, and travel stories. Nolan Yuma's unmistakable voice and brutal self-honesty leave you laughing and wanting more.

Subscribe to withoutborders.fyi to join the community.

Without Borders: Stories by the Inescapably Foreign.: Recent Episodes

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