"Travel everywhere but home remains here." ~Nicholas Longo, friend, activist, inspiration

With this 6-word farewell, the Longo family wished me well for my journey before I departed Providence on July 18th, 2014. Since then, the idea of home has been recurrent in my thoughts. The summer was filled with home tales -reconnecting with familiar landscapes and loved ones, as well as experiencing promising new encounters.

I can sense though that the warmth I experience in small, but massively touching, gestures of Russian folks in my surroundings are starting to foster a sense of belonging… my neighbors, who without speaking English do not disregard my desperate attempt to connect, and show their care beyond words.

What is home? What does it mean to belong? In my late teens I used to think that being uprooted would set me free, that not developing ties to a particular geography would make me more independent, that not relying on love would make me self-sustaining… How naïve! I resisted the idea of belonging for too long; after living in several countries the past twenty years, crossing paths with real people, beautiful in their own beauty, I learned that we need community, we are community, and in order to be truly free one needs to experience a sense of community. It is my belief today that individuals are defined by their belonging to the community, and community values are universal -caring for each other, sharing and dealing with each other’s struggles, celebrating dreams and achievements; and everywhere I go in the world now, I am in search of community. Community is the mirror of your soul, el hogar lo crea la gente. To me, Mieres is home, Madrid is home, Providence is home, El Manzano, Nicaragua is home… the hearts of the people we love are home, and you are home to me or to someone else… Before I go, allow me to share my six-word autobiography, crafted in conversations with my friend and radical teacher tom king: “Left home to find home, everywhere.”

Lesnoy Prospekt 67, apartment 142, Sankt-Peterburg 194100 is where I am now, send me a postcard that speaks of home…your home.

"I'm not a teacher: only a fellow traveler of whom you asked the way. I pointed ahead - ahead of myself as well as you.” ~George Bernard Shaw

I walked through campus for a while before my first class, breathing the university air –even in another language, with different matices, it felt familiar. It was time. I timidly entered the room and felt observed with curiosity, certainly did not perceive a sign of reservation, and I went on: ‘hello, my name is Nuria, we will be working together this semester exploring matters of intercultural literacy, language identity and storytelling. It is an honor to be here with you, and look forward to learning from your perspectives and creating together a space where all views and opinions are welcome and respected. I want to heartily thank you for this opportunity. Now, please, tell me about yourselves…”

and with this prelude, SPbPU students began to share insights about their lives and their dreams, some with more confidence than others, but all with an elegant cadence in the way they uttered the English sentences. I was captivated. They are linguists and study several languages, they have a deep appreciation for language diversity and understand that the world does not end at the Russian borders. They are willing to examine their own cultural beliefs in light of new perspectives, they are courageous. I feel fortunate to have such inspiring teachers!