It has always been fascinating to me the idea of having multiple homes. How often times a traveling mind never settles in one place, but instead creates a map of tiny homes that come together in a beautiful adventure called life. During one of my lectures on Documentary filmmaking at a new flourishing documentary course at Dublin City University, we were tasked to make a short film on each other. Randomly assigned someone’s history, secrets and dreams to do as we please, it was a vulnerable moment for all.
“Would you read a book about your life?,” someone asked to spark our imagination.
It was funny because my motto in life has always been to live my life so that I could write a book about it at the end, with all the pictures, romances, travel and people remembered in it.
My friend once told me, our mind is like a house. Each owner of a house arranges his abode in his own way. Someone glues wallpaper; someone fills the library only with the books he has read; some only scrub the kitchen or only have time to make the bed; I also know people who are exclusively engaged in decorating the facade and the yard.
Nevertheless, in the course of life we constantly meet potential guests. It is at the discretion of the owner to let them in or not.
“Creating a home in a new place”
But you, I will let in a little closer. I bought carpets to make my room cozy, flowers on the window so their smell fills up the flat. A gorgeous park nearby, right by my window, with sunlight shining through and dogs running around with their owners rushing by. DCU is like a small town that functions on its own – on the left there is pharmacy with friendly Irish staff, walk a little further and you see a big gym with 50 clubs, cycling and swimming pool. Walk a little more and you have tents with organizations inviting students to join (I tried out karting for the first time, and that was a thrill!) Right on campus we have a huge concert hall, and I went to see an a capella group of 4 men singing Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody and Frank Sinatra’s songs. You already know that was spectacular!
“And always homemade food!”
I immediately fell in love with my school. A bus ride away from the Dublin city center, DCU feels like a cozy countryside, charming and peaceful. Recently I was chosen to be one of the Post-Grad Ambassadors for the school – a job so familiar to me from the University of Oklahoma- and we are already at task, giving tours and filming promotional videos for my Documentary Practice program.
Last week I went to Dubrovnik, Croatia for reading week with my American friends, and right after to Oxford to film a documentary on Syrian refugees an their relationship with music. For my class I am filming a short film on a Nepalese colleague, who sings and acts and explores his own idea of home. Next week the Mitchells and I are flying to Vienna for Christmas Markets and a concert at Musikverein Golden Hall. I have gone to Irish pubs with live music and singers, and it seems like every corner of Ireland hides brilliant souls, with charismatic personalities, sarcastic nature and welcoming presence. How do you not feel at home in such a beautiful country?
Signing off for now…